Truth in the Bones Page 8

  “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Don’t be. I’m not carrying a torch for her if that’s what you think. Lena and I have a lot more in common than Chenoa and I ever did.”

  “Even though Lena isn’t Native?”

  An amused look crossed Travis’s face. “Even though. Imagine that. Makes me feel small for objecting to Josh when you first brought him around.”

  “Objecting?” Josh chuckled. “If you’d had a bow and arrow handy, you’d have aimed it at my heart and not blinked twice. That’s more than objecting, more like considering cold-blooded murder.”

  Travis jostled Sierra in his arms. “Ouch. I wouldn’t have gone that far. But I did consider staking you to an ant hill and providing the honey.”

  Skye let out a sigh at what was now teasing banter. “Knowing how you felt about my mother—who was white—I never understood the hostility toward Josh.”

  Travis noticed Sierra wanted down to explore the room and set the toddler on her feet. “Josh got it right away. I wasn’t thrilled about you dating any man. The guy could’ve been purple and it wouldn’t have mattered.”

  Skye wrapped an arm around her dad’s waist. “Well, as long as you and Lena are working things out, I’ll gladly butt out.”

  She pivoted to stare at Josh. “Happy now?”

  “You, butting out, will last exactly five minutes. That’s my prediction.”

  She waved off that likelihood and turned back to her dad. “You seem happy. That’s what counts.”

  “Zoe still has two years of school left. For now, the status quo works. Lena and I are just fine. Not to change the subject but do you need me to stick around and help with dinner?”

  “You go spend some time with your granddaughter. I’ll go check on the roast and start the fry bread.” She turned to Josh. “Why not ask Francine to stay for dinner?”

  “Don’t forget Winston. Lena says he’s chomping at the bit to tell you what he discovered.”

  Francine turned out to be a young woman of twenty-two just out of UW design school. She had copper hair she wore in a long, sleek bob and a fair complexion that showed off the cutest freckles across the bridge of her nose.

  The young woman had overdressed, wearing a green shimmering gown more fit for an evening out at a Hollywood premiere than for sitting around on a horse ranch showing off her artistic talent. The outfit had such a plunging neckline it made Skye wonder if the girl needed a jacket to stay warm, or maybe a nice wool blanket to cover up her pale white skin.

  The moment Francine had stepped through the door and into the living room, Atka had taken an immediate dislike to her. But then it seemed like the feeling was mutual. Francine wasn’t exactly a dog-lover. She’d pushed the friendly dog’s snout away from her legs until finally Skye had to hold the dog in check to keep the pooch from taking a bite out of her gaudy dress.

  “Sorry about that. Atka’s usually a sweetheart. I’m not sure what’s gotten into her.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t really like animals all that much.”

  Another reason Skye couldn’t blame the dog. She looked at Atka with sympathy.

  As awkward as those first few moments with Francine were, it only got worse, especially after listening to all the nosy questions that came out of the woman’s mouth, stuff that centered around Josh.

  Skye soon discovered talking to Francine was more like responding to queries at a press conference.

  “So…where’s Josh’s home office? Is he waiting for me in there? When do we get to work?”

  “His office? It’s…at home…back on Bainbridge Island,” Skye replied. “Why do you ask?”

  “I brought him a book he mentioned he wanted to read. Several times as a matter of fact. So this isn’t his house or his ranch?”

  “Um, no. It belongs to my father. I thought you knew that.”

  Francine’s face fell. “Does that mean I won’t be working with Josh this afternoon after all?”

  “No, he’s here. Since he’s the one who arranged for you to be here and do the sketch, you’ll have him all to yourself. But right now he’s putting Sierra down for her nap. You know Sierra, our daughter. Josh will be along soon. Would you like something to drink while you wait?”

  “Sure. Do you have coffee? I know Josh loves coffee.”

  Amused, Skye escorted her into the den. “I just brewed a fresh pot. You make yourself at home. How do you take it?”

  “Cream and sugar would be great.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m curious. Did Josh like the cinnamon rolls I baked last month and brought to work?”

  “No idea. You’ll have to ask him.”

  Skye’s suspicion that Francine had a huge crush on Josh proved valid when she brought in the coffee and set it down on the serving table. “Here you go.”

  “Will Josh be done soon?”

  “Should be. I’m sorry he’s kept you waiting this long. Do you need to get back home? If so, I’m sure we could locate another sketch artist through the police department.”

  Francine leaned over to fix her coffee, the dress revealing more than a glimpse of her ample cleavage. “No, no, it’s okay. I don’t mind waiting for him.”

  Less amused now than before, Skye watched Francine’s face light up the minute Josh walked into the room. The young woman practically swooned.

  “Hi, Francie.” Josh took one look at the dress and his eyes bugged out. “Wow, you should’ve told me you had plans for the evening. I could’ve made arrangements for another artist.”

  “No plans. I’m glad I could help out.”

  “But you’re wearing…”

  Skye cleared her throat. “Did you get Sierra down okay?”

  “Oh yeah. She went right to sleep after we read a story.” Josh turned his attention back to Francie. “Thanks for coming all this way on such short notice. We really appreciate it. We should get started. And since you aren’t busy tonight, Skye wants you to stay for dinner.”

  Skye gritted her teeth, but forced a smile, wanting desperately to yank back the invitation. But it was already out there and she did have to admit that Francine was using her talents to advance the case in a huge way. She let out a loud sigh and headed for the kitchen. “If we’re going to eat then I need to get busy.”

  “I don’t eat meat,” Francine announced from across the room.

  Skye stopped in her tracks and pivoted, giving Francine another fake smile. “Good to know. Although you should be aware that we’re pretty much carnivores around here, especially Josh.”

  Francine gave her boss a horrified look. A chunk of her adulation fell away. “You eat meat?”

  But Skye answered for him, her tone light and teasing. “Are you kidding? This guy’s like a wolf, chowing down enough meat for the three of us put together. Isn’t that a fair description, honey?”

  Josh chuckled, suddenly picking up on the reason for his wife’s sarcastic tone. “Oh, it is, the rarer the better.”

  Francine made a face.

  Skye patted her guest’s arm. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to fix plenty of vegetables for you and seat you as far away from the disgusting meat-lover as I can.”

  When the doorbell sounded, Skye changed direction, shooing them into Travis’s office. “I’ll get it. You two should get to work on that sketch. Don’t want to be here all night smelling roasted cow.”

  Skye answered the door to see Winston standing on the porch.

  “I think I found another family of victims.”

  “That’s what I like, an eager sleuth willing to dish on what he’s found. Tell me all about it while I throw dinner together.”

  She led the way into the kitchen while Winston chatted her up. “You and Lena had the right idea to look for more.”

  “Just covering all the bases. I had no idea you’d actually find others.”

  “I’m not one hundred percent certain that I have. But it begs digging into further. The murders took place in Henderson, Nevada, a subu
rb of Las Vegas, in November of 2014. A doctor and his family by the name of Ebert. The police believed Ebert killed his entire family, his wife and three kids. Afterward, the doctor apparently took off, or that’s the theory the cops are going on.”

  “Hmm, an MD. By any chance, do you know if he’d been having any recent mental problems?”

  “The article I came across didn’t mention any. But the story did say that he’d recently mustered out of the Air Force.”

  Skye turned from the counter, her brow raised in interest. “That’s new. How recent are we talking about? Find out. These are the first victims that might have a link to the military. Maybe our guy already knew this Ebert before that night…personally.”

  “Which would validate your theory that the Cross-country Killer has a service background.”

  “See if you can find out where the doctor served and for how long. Did we check to see if the other victims had anyone with a military service in their past?”

  “No, but I’m on it now. Lead me to a spot where I can set up my laptop and I’ll see what I can find out.”

  “Josh and Francine are in the room Travis uses for his office. How about a corner of the kitchen? I promise to keep my mouth shut and let you concentrate.”

  “No problem.” He sniffed the air. “But smelling all this food is making me hungry.”

  She tossed him a bag of pretzels. “Don’t spoil your appetite. We’ll eat in thirty.”

  With that, she began to work on the side dishes, veggies that would surely make Francine drool over something other than Josh. She drizzled olive oil over little fingerling potatoes and diced red and yellow peppers to go with them. She stripped the stems of several fresh rosemary sprigs and added it to the mix. On the counter, she went to work on the green beans Travis had picked that morning from his garden.

  “Are you making that cheesy bread tonight?”

  “Something else. Something better,” Skye assured him. “Fry bread is versatile, so versatile you can eat it as a meal or a dessert.”

  “Do I get to sample one?”

  Skye chuckled. “What’s the point of having a front row seat if you don’t get to nibble here and there.”

  “That’s what I like about you. You’re always generous with the food and willing to share with so many people.”

  “You guys are like extended family. Besides, I like food. I like big gatherings. Not only that, we’re grateful for all the things you guys do to help us solve the worst of the worst.”

  “I like being part of a team.”

  “Yeah? So do I.”

  Five

  Sunday evening

  “What smells so good?” Josh asked when he and Francine finally emerged from Travis’s study.

  Travis cracked a grin. “Brisket and lots of it.”

  “My kind of meal.” Josh held up a rendition of the Cross-country Killer. “Here’s the guy I saw at the Maldonado house that night. I sent an email with the sketch attached to Harry and Emmett. Emmett will get his people to make copies and get them distributed throughout the country.”

  Travis nodded in approval. “You should show this to your pal Reggie, who just showed up with Judy. They’re in the living room with Lena and Zoe. They’re going over a list of things Winston uncovered.”

  Skye was finishing up setting the table and overheard the exchange. She wandered over to where Josh stood to study the likeness of the man they were after. “Nice job, Francine. Now picture that guy wearing all black and sneaking into neighborhoods under the cover of darkness. Winston thinks he’s found another set of victims outside Las Vegas.”

  Winston trailed after Skye and repeated what he’d told her earlier. The young hacker showed Josh the bio of Dr. Gerald Ebert. “Skye wanted me to find out what Ebert did in the Air Force. So I looked up his service record. The doctor was at Balad field hospital back in 2007, about sixty miles north of Baghdad. It was a trauma center for injured soldiers. He came back stateside in 2010 and worked at the hospital on Nellis Air Force Base. In January of 2014 he left the service and went to work for a Henderson hospital. By November, he’d supposedly killed his entire family and disappeared.”

  Josh rubbed the side of his jaw. “We were thinking our killer has some sort of connection via an insurance company. Did Ebert have some type of mental problem from his time spent in Iraq?”

  “Skye asked the same question. No way to tell that,” Winston told him. “But I did learn that Jason Strom’s father served two tours in Iraq near that same field hospital as a medic.”

  Skye traded glances with Josh. “The family from De Kalb, Texas? Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “That’s not all. Edgar Maldonado was there, too.”

  “Christy’s father? Oh boy, I think we’re onto something. Keep digging into the rest of our victim list. Maybe they all had some sort of connection to the military. We need to get our hands on those crime scene photos from Henderson. I wonder if Harry could make that happen?”

  Francine had been listening to the conversation and didn’t approve of what she heard. “Why are you guys so concerned about this? You guys aren’t cops. Why bother disrupting your lives like this just to apprehend a…?”

  “A serial killer?” Skye finished, sending Francine an annoyed look. Not letting the woman continue, she went on, “We do this because…oh, I don’t know, maybe because people are dying from Rhode Island to Washington State. That’s a lot of jurisdictions in between and a lot of different law enforcement agencies. We’ve pretty much concluded that this guy is a one-man killing machine on a mission. Someone needs to stop him. If we have the resources, why shouldn’t it be us?”

  “But it’s not up to you or Josh to catch him,” Francine persisted. She leveled a finger toward Reggie and Winston. “And these guys are your programmers. What possible help could they be when all they do is string code for a living?”

  Just as Reggie was about to open his mouth to respond, Skye waved him off. “I have to finish putting dinner on the table.” She handed the sketch back to Josh. “You explain it to her. You’re the reason she’s here.”

  Josh walked Francine into the dining room. “Think of it this way. Most people want to do what they can to catch a bad guy, right? Let’s say your neighborhood has been plagued by a string of home invasions.”

  “I don’t live in those kinds of places,” Francine countered.

  Josh bit back his sarcastic reply to that and went on, “Anyone’s home could be a target, whether it’s in a poor section of town, or an upscale neighborhood. That’s a fact. If bad guys are kicking the door in and taking what they want, you’d try to do your part to stop them, correct? Think of it as being a good neighbor, part of a neighborhood watch program.”

  But Francine had her own ideas of what it meant to be a good citizen. “I’d just call the police and let them handle the situation. That’s what all of you should do as well.”

  Beginning to lose his patience, Josh tried again. “Some people don’t get the opportunity to pick up a phone. The bad guys are just…there…attacking people before they can react to the assault. Sometimes it’s not as simple as calling the cops to get the bad guys to leave you alone.”

  Skye came back out with a tray of food. “Here, Reggie, make yourself useful. Set the roast down at the far end of the table away from Francine. Dad, could you get Sierra settled in her high chair for me? Francine, why don’t you sit next to Winston?”

  They passed around the food while Francine jabbered on about her low opinion of private investigators versus real cops. “They’re just plain inept. All they do is take people’s money and the crimes never get solved.”

  Skye set down the platter of meat, beginning to catch on. “By any chance do you have a cop in the family? Is a relative a member of Seattle PD?”

  “As a matter of fact my father is a member of the Tacoma Police Department.”

  “Ah. And he doesn’t like any outside interference at all, even if the cases are piling up, going cold
, the evidence boxed up, and sitting in a storage room collecting dust? Is that it?”

  “Private detectives are amateurs.”

  Skye fought that notion. “Believe it or not, private consultants may know a helluva lot more about the crime because they have sources that the cops just don’t have.”

  Josh looked around the table, his eyes searing into Francine’s. “With all due respect, you really have no idea what you’re talking about. You probably weren’t aware that a private detective in Texas just recently was the reason the police were able to arrest a serial killer and get him off the streets? Look it up if you think it isn’t true.”

  Winston cleared his throat before biting into his savory beef taco. “Have you guys ever noticed how we always manage to discuss murder over a good meal?”

  “It never bothered any of us eating and discussing murder before,” Travis returned easily as he helped Sierra handle her spoon and her mac ’n cheese.

  “I guess it still doesn’t. We’re always chasing down a really bad guy. And in doing so, we have to eat. It makes sense we’d do both at the same time.”

  Reggie shifted in his chair to look over at Lena in adoring fashion. “Lena, this fry bread is fantastic.”

  “It is, but I didn’t make it.”

  “Really?” Reggie looked around the dining table until his eyes landed on Travis. “How about you? It has a tasty crust from spending just the right amount of time in the fry pan, but it’s not dripping with grease like some I’ve had at the county fair.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Travis noted. “I was playing stuffed zoo animals with Sierra after she took her nap.”

  “I merely arrived in time to indulge like everyone else did,” Lena stated, picking up her glass of wine. “But I recognize Skye’s culinary skills when I see them. I used to go into the Country Kitchen when she was just a kid manning the grill. I’ve always found it interesting the way she tries to hide the fact that she’s a really good cook. Why is that?”