Ashes to ashes, p.8
Ashes to Ashes, page 8
He sat in the car and watched the waves against the rocks for a few minutes more, then started the engine and drove away. He had time, so he headed south along the Interstate. The weather would be a little warmer in the south and he’d still be able to find flowers for his precious treasures.
A few taps of the screen in the car and the playlist he’d selected started to blast through the speakers. The B-52s “Roam” made his fingers tap on the steering wheel and his heart felt happy. Hopeful. Maybe he’d return with the perfect girl and not have to hunt anymore. Maybe, at last, his prayers would be answered.
A man could dream.
Chapter eleven
Thanksgiving week rolled around and Evan had let the twins take her car to the store to do the shopping. Now she paced from the office, out to the main living area, over to the large window by the couch, and back again as she listened to the recordings of interviews from the murder books. Yes, she was worried about the girls being out and about without her or another adult, but they were together, it was the middle of the day, and they were going to the grocery store and then home, not to a party in the woods. She had no logical reason to be worried, but she was.
It didn’t help calm her nerves, knowing that they hadn’t had a body show up in over two weeks. There were still new missing persons reports, but none that seemed to fit the parameters of the previous abductions.
Derek had spent nearly two weeks in and around Bridgeport, Connecticut, then the last three days in a mid-sized coastal town called Rock Beach, just outside of the city limits. He’d returned to Quantico and spent the time since taking his notes and writing up a case file. He was scheduled to present it to the team in a video conference that evening, and Evan hoped there would be something in the data that opened up a new avenue of research for them to take.
The girls pulled in to the driveway, so Evan shut off the recording and stuffed her earbuds in her pocket. She opened the door for them and went out to help bring the bags in.
“Find everything okay?” Evan asked Harper as she carried the first load past her.
“Yeah, but Hayden almost kneecapped a guy for trying to take the canned pumpkin out of our cart,” Harper said with a laugh.
“It was stealing,” Hayden called out. “It was in our cart, so we’d claimed it. He could walk over two aisles and get his own damn pumpkin in a can.”
Evan gave a snort of amused laughter and loaded up with bags. “You’re awesome, Hayden. Just sayin’.”
Hayden gave a playful bow and held the door so Evan could get her bags inside. Harper had already started to put things away, so Evan and Hayden grabbed the last few things and locked up the car.
Evan’s eyes widened at the sheer amount of food they’d bought. “Are we expecting an army to feed?”
Hayden started to count on her fingers. “The three of us, Max, Mr. Ainsley who lives down the street, Mrs. Macomber, and the three or four kids we invited from school that might show up. The moms always called it “Friendsgiving” instead of “Thanksgiving” because we support Native American cultures and their right to their history – and we like to share what we have with people that might not otherwise have a good meal.”
“Oh, that’s kinda cool. I like that idea. Wait, Mrs. Macomber – the lady that lives across the street in that blue house? She always glares at me like I’m some kind of intruder,” Evan said.
“That’s because she can’t see well, even with her glasses on. She’s really sweet and makes the best appetizer platter. She’s been sharing Friendsgiving with us for five years now, since her husband died,” Harper said.
“And Mr. Ainsley is a wood carver. His wife died a long time ago, but he lost his son in Afghanistan a few years back and his daughter-in-law and grandkids live in California, so he’s often alone for the holidays. He’s got a great sense of humor, Auntie V. You’ll like him,” Hayden said.
“Did you girls let them know they were still invited this year?” Evan asked, voice soft.
“I did,” Hayden replied, her gaze lowered. “I walked over to each house and told them last week that we were still doing dinner and expected them to be here as always. Mr. Ainsley stopped driving recently, so if it’s okay, I’ll take the car and go pick them up before dinner.”
Evan reached out and squeezed Hayden’s shoulder. “That’s more than okay. Thank you for thinking of that.” Her phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket and sighed. “Help your sister, Denny. I’ve got to take this.”
A few steps away and she was in the office, the phone pressed to her ear. “Agent Wylder speaking.”
“Agent Wylder, this is Captain Olsen from the Rock Beach PD. I got your number from Agent Derek Gardner. I think I might have found something,” the man said.
“Okay, I’m listening,” Evan said.
“I tried calling Agent Gardner but his voicemail was full, so I decided to try your number. I didn’t think this should wait.”
“Captain, what did you find?” Evan’s patience was starting to wear thin.
“Well, Agent Gardner had picked out two names of young men that fit the criteria he had in mind. One of them left town years ago and we haven’t seen him around here since. The other one would come back to town every few months to get money from his father, but we’ve not seen him in about three years. Matteus Chase is the guy’s name. Well, there was a fire at his father’s house yesterday morning, and when the investigators went in, they found a body in a freezer in the basement. It was Matteus’ mother, Agnes.”
“I still don’t see how this applies to our case, Captain.”
“When the investigators found the body, they reported it and our homicide detective was sent in. He had the techs go over the whole house and grounds, and we found six more graves along the edge of the woods at the back of the property. We think one of the bodies is Matteus but won’t know until the coroner lets us know. Elijah Chase died from his injuries earlier today, so we can’t ask him.”
Evan let out a soft breath. “I want you to secure the scene and keep all of your people away from it. I’m sending a team from Quantico down there to go over everything. They’ll be there tonight.”
“You want us to leave the bodies where they are?”
“If you’ve already moved some of them, then just leave them bagged up and don’t do anything else. I want my team to handle all of it. Thank you for calling, Captain. We’ll be in touch,” Evan said and disconnected the call. She called Rachel and explained the situation.
“We need a team there, like yesterday. This guy has one homicide detective. I don’t want this case to blow up due to incompetence,” Evan said.
“I’ll have a team there tonight. Give me his number again, and I’ll call him with instructions. Good work, Evan. Talk to you soon,” Rachel said and disconnected the call.
Evan sank down into the chair at the desk and made another call, this time a video chat with Derek.
“We’re not supposed to start yet,” Derek said, tone grumpy as he answered her request.
“I know, but your voicemail is full and I got a call you’ll want to know about,” Evan replied.
“Oh? A call from who?”
“Captain Olsen,” Evan replied. “They think your Matteus Chase is one of the bodies they found in Elijah Chase’s back yard. Someone tried to burn the Chase home down yesterday morning and killed Elijah. Arson investigators found Agnes Chase’s body in a freezer in the basement – then six more graves at the back of the property. I called Rachel and she’s sending a team down there tonight.”
“Sonofa…well, that at least fits with my theory,” Derek said. “I suspected Matteus was a co-conspirator with my main suspect, Glen Lyle Rollins.”
“Can we do the briefing in fifteen minutes instead of waiting two hours? With this new information, I don’t think we should wait,” Evan said.
“Yeah, I’ll send out a notice and get things set up. Talk to you in a few minutes,” Derek replied and the screen went black.
Evan stood and went into the kitchen where the girls were still putting things away. “I need a cup of coffee, ladies. May I please interrupt and get to the machine?”
Harper pulled down a clean mug and Hayden handed her a coffee pod, then pulled out a blueberry turnover and handed it to Evan. “Here, have this with your coffee. We got each of us one so we could have a treat after dealing with all of the groceries.”
“But I didn’t help much. Work got in the way,” Evan said as she took the turnover from Hayden.
“Yeah, it’s cool. You’re going to be working while we chill, so you get yours now,” Harper said as she handed her the mug of coffee. “I’m going to make naan pizzas for dinner, so don’t worry about food. I’ll have yours set aside if you take a while.”
“You girls are awesome,” Evan said and took her coffee and pastry into the office.
Evan took her time enjoying the pastry and coffee and made notes on the call she’d had with Captain Olsen. She documented everything because one never knew when the smallest detail might be just the key to blowing a case wide open.
A chirp from the computer told her the call was ready, so she clicked to join the conversation.
“Thank you, everyone, for joining the call early. As some of you know, there’s been a development, so we wanted to get all of the information out there now instead of waiting,” Derek said.
Rachel clicked in a little late. “Sorry, folks. I was sending the team down to Rock Beach. They should be there in a few hours, Evan. I’ve also called the Rock Beach PD and reiterated our request that they don’t touch anything else and leave the bodies to be shipped to Quantico.”
“Thanks, Rachel. Max was out on a call, so I’ll update him if he can’t join this conversation,” Evan said.
“Got it. Okay, where are we, then?” Rachel asked.
“I updated Derek on the call from Rock Beach, so I think we can let him give us the rest of what he learned in Connecticut?” Evan said.
“Thanks, people. Rudy, I’ve sent you the files to distribute after we’re done talking,” Derek said.
“I got them. No problem,” Rudy replied.
“So I spent a good portion of my time trying to track down the families of the victims in Bridgeport, and of the five we knew about in the area, only two were still local. The rest had moved away. Of the locals, one was the Chase family. Matteus Chase had a sister, Malea, a year younger than him. She disappeared when she was seventeen years old, and the local PD chalked it up to a runaway.”
“How long ago was this?” Evan asked.
“Matteus was eighteen when she disappeared, and he’d be thirty-one or thirty-two now. Unless one of those bodies is his. Anyway, Matteus and Glen were best friends and from all accounts, Matteus was the alpha of the group.”
“What about the other local family?” Rachel asked.
“The Sherman’s. Steven, Jessica, and their twin girls, Deirdre and Daphne. The twins were reported missing after a high-school pep rally twelve years ago, when they were eighteen. That means Matteus and Glen were twenty. The bodies of the girls were found three weeks later, and those reports will be sent to you. They’d been laid out on the beach, on beds of seaweed, up above the high tide mark. On their foreheads had been drawn a cross in palm ash, just as if they had been blessed on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday had been three days before they were found, so if they had been to a church, the ash would’ve been long gone. This was the first time we can find a note about the ashes on the bodies.”
“Of the cases you’ve all pulled together, do they all have ashes on the forehead?” Rachel asked.
“There was ‘unidentified trace substances’ on two victims, but those victims had also been left out in a rainstorm, so ash could have been present and washed away. One of the victims was cremated before burial, and the other one has been buried for seven years, so the chance of getting any further information from those bodies is slim to none. We’re assuming they had ash on their foreheads for this stage of the investigation, but without a confession or some additional information, we can’t say for sure those two bodies fit our unsub,” Evan said.
“Which bodies are those?”
Evan pulled up her notes and answered Rachel. “One of the ones in New Hampshire, and one of the Rhode Island bodies.”
“I need a timeline, people,” Rachel said. “Get me one.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Evan and Derek both said.
“I have a BOLO out for Glen Lyle Rollins as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation. Nothing specific that might tip anyone off,” Derek said. “If we can get this guy into an interrogation room and ask him some questions, it might help blow this case wide open.”
“Or it might be enough that he stonewalls us and then disappears,” Evan replied. “We need more evidence. Let’s hope the team down at the Chase house in Rock Beach can get us some.”
“DNA doesn’t lie. If the bodies are from their first kills, then here’s hoping they were sloppy and made mistakes,” Derek said.
Evan gave a nod and a sigh. “Here’s hoping.”
“The team will be reporting their findings to you, Evan. Be ready. I’ve already lit a fire under the head lab tech’s rear so we get results as soon as humanly possible. We need to stop the killings and fast,” Rachel said. “Get to work, people. Stay safe out there.”
The chat was closed and Evan sat back to stare at the blank screen. So much was riding on the results of the Rock Beach discovery, and who knew how badly the scene had been contaminated by the local PD. Times like this? It was hard to stay put and not go running down to Connecticut to oversee it all herself. Trust in others was not one of Evan’s strong points, but this time, she didn’t have a choice.
Chapter twelve
Friendsgiving had been a rousing success. The food had been delicious and the company had been exactly what they’d all needed. Laughter and conversation had flowed around the table from both young and old guests.
Hayden had just left to drive Mr. Ainsley, Mrs. Macomber, and three of the kids home. Keisha and Poe were in the kitchen with Harper, helping to do dishes and put the leftovers away. Max and Evan had taken their slices of pie and their coffee into the office to get out of the way and talk about the case where they couldn’t be overheard.
“Have any of the DNA results come back yet?” Max asked.
“It’s only been a few days since the autopsies were finished. We should hear any time now, but when they found eleven bodies instead of the six the Rock Beach PD said were buried on the Chase family’s property, it pushed things out a bit more,” Evan replied.
“I’m guessing they’ll worry about identifying the bodies before they try and determine what DNA might belong to the killer or killers – if any, right?”
“It’s actually all done at the same time. The investigators and medical examiner will work on the identifications and the swabs of any DNA would go to a forensic biologist to test and match in the system. If there are no matches, they have a report that we can later match samples to. Last I heard, they were pleased that the killer used plastic sheeting. That holds DNA and fingerprints and can be a gold mine for trace information. If they’re lucky, that is. Stuff degrades over time and from what we can tell, the most recent body in that yard is from around six years ago.”
Evan sat at her desk and Max pulled the wing chair around so he could face her and sit. While Evan idly checked email between bites of pie, Max picked at his piece until he’d peeled the crust off and then started eating the pumpkin filling. They could hear the girls laughing in the kitchen and Max smiled at the sound.
“Thanks for inviting me. I couldn’t take the time to go down to Florida this year and I wasn’t looking forward to spending the day alone,” Max said.
“Wasn’t my idea, it was the twins,” Evan said as she clicked the mouse.
“You didn’t want me here?” Max asked.
“That’s not what I said,” Evan replied and turned to look at him. “I said it was their idea to invite you. I haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving in so long, I didn’t even think about it. Why are you so fucking sensitive about everything lately? You keep taking things I say out of context or assigning a different intensity to my words than was ever intended.”
“Maybe because what you say, matters?” Max retorted.
“Maybe you need to relax, huh? Because I shouldn’t matter that much to you. I’m just a friend, remember?” Evan said before she shoved a large bite of pie into her mouth. If her mouth was full, she couldn’t tear him a new one, right?
“Right. Got it. I should probably be going then. Friends don’t hang around when their friends are trying to get work done. Only co-workers do that, and I might have a hard-on so I obviously can’t think clearly and would only distract you from your tasks,” Max said as he got to his feet.
Evan didn’t think about it, she just picked up the half-slice that remained of her pumpkin pie with one hand and stood so she could clear the monitors as she threw it at Max. He’d already turned to leave, so it hit him at the nape of his neck and splattered. Pie went into his hair, down his shirt, and onto the floor. “Quit being such an asshole!” she yelled at him.
Max froze, then one hand reached up to scoop pie from the back of his neck and he scraped it off on his own plate. He turned towards Evan, set the plate down with exaggerated care, then stalked her until she was half-seated on the cabinet behind the desk. His hands landed on either side of her hips and he leaned in, stared into her eyes for a moment, then kissed her with all of the fury and hunger he’d been burying for the past few days.
Evan whimpered once, then met his fury as she pulled his shirt open, the sound of popped buttons pinging off of the cabinet as she shoved it down his arms. She wanted skin under her hands, not cloth.
Max shrugged out of the ruined shirt and pulled hers up over her head before he buried his face between her breasts.
“The…door,” Evan gasped.
“It’s locked. I didn’t want them to see the murder board,” Max replied and lifted her so Evan’s legs wound around his waist. He carried her a few steps to the loveseat before they both removed enough clothing so he could bury himself inside of her. “My gods, Evan. I need you,” he whispered against her neck, then thrust again.
