Page 23 of A Song for the Dead

Swallowing hard, Jenna nodded. She had no need to risk contaminating the crime scene, to see a pool of blood on a bathroom floor. “Yeah, she mentioned getting messages from Daisy last night. So, we should have a timeline.” She glanced back along the passageway to the other bedroom. “Close the door on the crime scene. Ms. Farrell won’t be able to stay here tonight. Once Wolfe has done a forensic sweep, I’ll ask her to pack her bags and find out if she has a place to stay.”

“Okay.” Kane frowned. “I didn’t see a phone. I’ll check around in the bedroom and then take a look in her purse. I noticed it on the kitchen counter. I assume it’s the one Ms. Farrell mentioned.” He turned back inside the bedroom and paused to look at her. “Watch your back. This guy is an animal and there’s a stack of places he could be hiding out there.”

TWENTY-NINE

Aware of the danger, Jenna hurried outside, glad to be in the fresh air. After scanning the wooded area all around the house, she went to the Beast to collect a legal pad before making her way to the SUV parked in the driveway. Tara Farrell was sheet-white and trembling. “Daisy isn’t there. So, we’re treating her disappearance as a missing person. We’ll need to call out the medical examiner to process the scene. He’ll be able to determine what happened here. Do you have someone you can stay with for about a week?”

“I’m never living there again, that’s for sure.” Tara wiped her eyes on a tissue, rolled it into a ball, and pushed it up her sleeve. “My mom lives in Louan. I’ve already called her and she told me to go home. The problem is all my stuff is in there. I need clothes to go to work.”

Nodding sympathetically, Jenna sat beside her. “You can collect the things from your room, soon. I’m happy to help you, but we have to wait until the forensic team has been through it.”

“Okay.” Tara’s bottom lip trembled.

Needing to get as much information as possible, Jenna went down her missing persons checklist in her mind. “Okay, I’ll need all the information about Daisy you can give me: her full name, date of birth, where she works, any relatives you know about.”

She wrote as Tara gave her the information. “Okay, do you have a photograph of her?”

“Yes, we took a few last weekend.” Tara picked up her phone and scrolled through the images. “This is Daisy.”

Nodding, Jenna glanced at the image. “Can you forward them to my phone and those messages she sent you last night. What did they say?”

“The thing is, they didn’t make any sense.” Tara shrugged. “I didn’t clean the house or make her bed. I figure it was some kind of a joke.”

When Tara showed her the messages, the hairs on Jenna’s neck stood to attention. The killer had visited the house to plan the murder and frighten Daisy by cleaning and moving things around. It was part of his game. She kept her expression emotionless, but inside, her heart pounded. “From what she said, she sounded surprised that you’d been inside her room.”

“Well, unless we’re invited inside, we give each other privacy.” Tara shook her head. “We’ve known each other since grade school. It’s an unspoken law. We didn’t need to lock our doors. We trusted each other.”

Thinking through her conclusions, Jenna frowned. “Did you notice anything out of place in your room? Was it just as you’d left it?”

“Yeah. My room isn’t in a mess and I don’t have clutter. I’d see if someone had been in there moving stuff. I did notice how clean the kitchen was this morning and it was in a mess when I left. Garbage piled up, pizza boxes everywhere. That’s our staple diet. I didn’t get the chance to turn on the coffee machine, but it was filled. When I saw her purse and keys, I figured she’d overslept.” Tara sighed.

The information told Jenna the killer was already inside the house when Daisy arrived home. Hiding in Tara’s room. He would have been way too smart to risk leaving any evidence behind, but she’d take Tara’s prints to exclude them and make sure Wolfe checked the room. Not wanting to alarm Tara, she moved through her mental list. “So, what’s your normal routine when you arrive home? Let’s start with the time.”

“Around midnight and I’m so exhausted I just shower and go straight to bed. I try to be as quiet as possible so I don’t wake Daisy, but as our bedrooms are at opposite ends of the house, she doesn’t disturb me in the morning when she leaves for work either.” She blinked away tears. “She wouldn’t go anywhere without telling me. Something has happened to her. I saw blood on the carpet, like she was dragged bleeding across it to the bed. She’s not just missing; somebody hurt her bad and kidnapped her.”

Keeping her voice calm and soothing, Jenna kept any conclusions from her expression. “We’ll be able to find out what happened, but I need information. Do you know what time she usually gets home?”

“Around six, unless she stops for pizza.” Tara made an effort to pull herself together. “There’s one in the refrigerator, but that was from the day before.”

Clearing her throat, Jenna pushed on. “Can you give me a family contact for her?” She made notes as Tara spoke. “Also, her phone number. Thanks.” She glanced up. “Any boyfriends, anyone new she’d met recently?” She handed Tara her notebook and pen. “Can you give me a list of her friends?”

“We have friends but no one special.” Tara bent over the notebook and made a short list. “Like I said, we really only have three friends, and we haven’t seen them for months.” She frowned. “It’s the same every day: work, sleep, work, sleep. Sundays sometimes, we have a day where we go out, sometimes Saturday nights. The most excitement we have is waiting for pizza to cook in town. It’s better than having it delivered. There are always people in the line ready to hang out. We often spend Saturday night there just chatting.” She handed back the notebook.

Mind reeling, Jenna recalled another witness who mentioned seeing Frank Stark watching Freya Richardson and following her when she left the beauty parlor the night she died. The pizzeria might be the killer’s hunting ground. “Okay, are there any other names you can recall? Casual people you might see at the pizzeria. It would be very helpful.” She made the list and looked up as Kane walked from the house. “Wait here. The medical examiner will be here soon and we’ll go inside and collect your things.”

She headed toward Kane and brought him up to date. “Did you find a phone?”

“Nope.” Kane stood hands on hips and feet apart. “It’s the same MO. If you’re going into Tara’s room, I suggest you suit up. If the killer was hiding in there, Wolfe might find trace evidence. He’ll be here in five.”

Nodding, Jenna glanced back at Tara and then back to him. “Call Rio and Rowley. I want them to escort the witness back to her mom’s house. Just to let anyone know who might be watching that we have her under our protection. Tell them to drop by the Louan sheriff’s office and make them aware of the situation.” She pushed a hand through her hair. “I’ll wait for Wolfe to do his forensic sweep and then take her through to grab her stuff. She’s a mess. I’ll give her water and energy bars. I doubt she’s eaten since last night.” She headed for the Beast and then turned to look at him. “I’ll let Duke out. He might be able to follow her scent. Did she leave dirty clothes in the bedroom?”

“Yeah.” Kane turned on his heel and headed back into the house. He paused at the door and turned to look at her. “I’ll grab something. Keep him with you for now. When I’ve found something for him to scent, I’ll take him around the outside of the house and check the back door and windows for forced entry.”

After letting Duke jump down from the back seat of the Beast, Jenna collected a bottle of water and energy bars from their stash and went back to Tara’s SUV. She instructed Duke to guard her and climbed into the vehicle. “Here, you should try to eat something. It’s been a terrible shock for you. You can rest assured that we’ll do everything in our power to find Daisy.”

“She’s the second woman to go missing this week, isn’t she?” Tara turned sad eyes toward her. “We have a radio on at work and I heard the news. Have you found her?”

Jenna shook her head. “Not yet. Did you or Daisy know Freya, the girl who’s missing?”

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