Count Catula (Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery Book 9) (7 page)

“That makes sense. Toby admitted he’d looked for her when she wasn’t with the group. He most likely would have tried calling her.”

“Who was the second-to-the-last-call from?” Cody asked.

Siobhan picked up a stack of papers. It looked as if Finn must have emailed everything to her and she’d printed it out. “It looks like that was from her mother.”

“So her mother calls Ruby, after which she leaves the group she’d been hanging out with and is never seen again,” I summarized. “Toby said her friends didn’t know how she left or even when she left. I find that hard to believe. If a group of kids are all hanging out together and one of them decides to split, they usually announce their intention to do so, and even if they don’t, it seems unlikely someone would simply walk away and no one would notice. Does Tripp’s report deal with that issue or list the kids who were with Ruby?”

Siobhan sorted through the paperwork. “There are seven names in addition to Ruby’s on Tripp’s list. It looks like all but four of them left before Ruby did; Vince Long, Connie Brown, and Billy Simpson were still with Ruby when she left.” Siobhan looked up from the report she’d been reading. “Vince Long left the island before we graduated and I haven’t heard from Connie Brown in years, but Billy Simpson still lives here. He works at the hardware store. I can pop in and have a chat with him tomorrow.”

Siobhan added Vince, Connie, and Billy’s names to the murder board. She put a notation next to Vince and Connie’s that they no longer lived on the island and then her name next to Billy’s.

“When I spoke to Toby today he said Bronwyn left the party alone because she had a fight with Lisa.” I turned to Tara. “Did she come in to the store today? Did you speak to her?”

“Yes to both questions. Lisa told me Bronwyn was in a strange mood that night. Sort of angsty. Things got worse after Toby left. Bronwyn knew he’d gone to see Ruby and seemed jealous, so she attributed her mood to that at the time, but looking back, Lisa thinks it seemed like something else was going on. Something more. For one thing, Bronwyn could have any guy she wanted, so it was very unlike her to care that much about any one guy. For another, it was very unlike Bronwyn to just take off on foot.”

“Did Lisa see her go?”

“Yes. Lisa was trying to get her to loosen up and stop putting a damper on the party, and Bronwyn said she had no idea what she was going through and told her to back off. They argued for a couple of minutes, then Bronwyn said she was out of there and left. Lisa told me she’s beaten herself up every day of her life for not going after her, but at the time she was mad and figured she could take care of herself, so she stayed at the party and had a good time.”

“I spoke to Victoria at choir tonight and she mentioned that Bronwyn was wearing Christopher Blackwell’s letter jacket when she left. Did Lisa mention that?”

“It didn’t come up.”

“Here’s the interesting part as far as I’m concerned: Victoria said Christopher was wearing his jacket at school the next day.”

“Christopher must have met up with Bronwyn at some point after she left the party,” Siobhan said.

“So it would seem.”

“Okay; here’s what we know,” Siobhan began. “Bronwyn was at a party with Toby. They fought and he left to meet up with Ruby. Eventually, Bronwyn left on foot. She called Toby, who went to pick her up, but she wasn’t there. In the meantime, he’d been having a good time with Ruby. When he returned from trying to pick up Bronwyn she was gone. Friends say she got a call, and it looks like that was from her mother. No one knew if she was picked up or left on foot.” Siobhan looked at me. “Did Victoria say anything else other than that Bronwyn left wearing Christopher’s jacket?”

“She said she was at the party with Matt Morrison. I’m not sure if that’s important or not.”

“Both Matt Morrison and Christopher Blackwell are on Tripp’s list,” Siobhan informed us as she added them to the board.

“How many names are on that list?” I asked.

“A bunch. Most of these people are long gone, but I remember seeing both Matt and Christopher’s names and they’re both still living on the island, so we may as well speak to them.”

Just then Siobhan’s phone rang. It was Finn. Siobhan put him on speakerphone and quickly caught him up. Poor Finn; he sounded exhausted.

“As long as we’re talking about the names on Tripp’s list, other than Matt and Christopher do you have any others we should add to the people to speak to?” Siobhan asked Finn.

“Off the top of my head, just Patricia Davenport and Kevin Spalding. I spoke to Tripp earlier and he said Patricia and Kevin were together that night, and when he interviewed them they both gave statements he felt were rehearsed. They were minors and he didn’t have anything more than a gut reaction to hold them on, though some of the things they said didn’t fit the timeline and he was sure they were lying.”

Siobhan put both names on the board. Siobhan looked at Danny. “The party that night was at Eric White’s house. Did you have a chance to speak to him?”

“Yes. He said there were kids coming and going all night. He remembered seeing Bronwyn there, but he’d been trying to hook up with the cousin of one of the girls who was there, so he wasn’t sure he’d even spoken to her.”

“Which girl?” I asked. “The cousin of which girl?”

“Sissy Bell. I stopped by the pet shop and spoke to her, and she said her cousin was only in town for the night and Eric passed out from all the beer he drank long before he was able to hook up with her. Sissy said she and her cousin left early and both Bronwyn and Toby where still there.”

Siobhan put Sissy’s name on the murder board and then crossed it off. We had no reason to believe she’d lied or had been involved, but we’d decided long ago to list every name that came up just in case it proved relevant later on.

Siobhan looked at Cody. “The only name we have left on the list from last night is Conrad Quarterman. Did you manage to speak to him?”

“He’s in Seattle until tomorrow night. I’ll track him down on Friday.”

Siobhan wrote
Cody Friday
next to Conrad’s name.

“I have some information on Conrad,” I reminded myself. “I called Rayleen Colby again this morning and she actually answered. She told me Amanda Lowman had asked her to investigate Conrad in relation to killings that were similar to the ones that occurred on the island two years earlier in a small town in Kansas. Conrad had lived there and had just recently moved to Madrona Island to live with an uncle.”

Finn paused. “That seems like a major clue. You said Conrad will be back on the island on Friday?”

“That’s what I was told,” Cody confirmed.

“I’ll make a point of being at the ferry to meet him. By my calculations, he would have been only fourteen when the murders in Kansas occurred.”

“He could have had an accomplice,” I provided. “Rayleen mentioned that the locals felt a man who went by the name of Masterson was behind the murders. It was her opinion that Conrad was some sort of an accomplice.

“This could be just the lead we need to make sense of this whole thing,” Finn stated. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring it up earlier.”

“It didn’t come up until now,” I defended myself. “Although as long we’re on the subject, I have more. Renfield suggested I check out the obituaries of each of the murdered girls—here and in Kansas—and it turns out Amanda Lowman was the half sister of Loretta O’Malley, one of the two girls who were murdered in a ritualistic killing in Kansas.”

“What? Are you sure?” Finn asked.

“Pretty sure, unless Loretta’s sister was a different Amanda Lowman.”

“That seems unlikely,” Finn said.

“Did you ever get around to doing a background search on Amanda?” I asked Cody.

“No. I tried a few queries but didn’t come up with anything we don’t already know. I’ll try to find time to work on it again tomorrow.”

Siobhan made a new column on the whiteboard entitled
Things to Do
. She added under it:
background search Amanda; speak to Billy, Conrad, Patricia, Kevin, Matt, and Christopher.

“Okay, so was anyone else interviewed?” Finn asked.

No one spoke.

“Then that does it for the interviews we all plan to do.” Siobhan smiled. “Now for the really interesting news.”

Everyone in the room looked at her, waiting for her to go on.

“The crime lab managed to pull a good print off the fork we believed was the weapon used to kill Bronwyn and Ruby.”

“And…?” I asked.

“And it didn’t belong to Dracon Moon.”

There was a general gasp in the room.

“Do we know who it does belong to?” Finn asked.

“No, we don’t. The guys are still working on it, but so far no match has been found.”

“So if Dracon didn’t kill Bronwyn and Ruby maybe Conrad really is the killer,” Tara commented.

“If we can get a print from Conrad we’d have something to match it to,” Finn pointed out.

“Are you still coming home tomorrow?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it’ll be late and I’ll miss the last ferry. I’m going to try to get an earlier flight, and if I can’t I’ll hire a water taxi. I’ll let Siobhan know exactly when I’ll be home once I figure it out.”

Renfield came across the room and jumped into my lap. He suddenly had become a big help and I hoped he would continue to be in the future.

We all chatted for a few more minutes before Siobhan left the room to speak to Finn in private.

“I guess we should meet again tomorrow unless you all have plans,” I said to the others.

Danny had a date, but Tara and Cody agreed to come by after work, and I was sure Siobhan would want to be there as well.

We discussed who would try to speak to whom the following day and who would look into which missing piece of information. I felt certain we had a plan; if whoever had killed Amanda Lowman two nights before was still on the island, I felt certain we’d catch them before too much more time went by.

As for my own part in this little mystery, I’d decided to focus my attention on Amanda. I was going to try to have another chat with her assistant and also ask around to see exactly when the writer had arrived on the island and who she’d spoken to during her short stay. I had to agree with the others that Amanda Lowman’s murder was most likely linked to the ones fifteen years ago, but I also felt someone should be looking into the possibility that they weren’t, and I decided that someone should be me.

Cody hadn’t stayed over the night before, so when Renfield woke me up at first light I was wide awake and ready to take on the challenges of the day. I’d been thinking a lot about what my next move should be in this confusing murder mystery and decided that what I wanted to concentrate on immediately were Amanda Lowman’s movements during her time on the island.

I made a pot of coffee and poured myself a cup, then headed upstairs to shower and dress. I had a feeling deep in my gut that this was going to be a long and emotional day. By the time I got back downstairs the sun was just beginning its ascent into the sky, so I pulled a heavy sweatshirt over my head and went out onto the deck to watch the seagulls gather on the beach in search of a morning meal while I sipped my coffee and looked through the notebook the writer had left at the bookstore.

The names on the first page must coordinate to the initial people she wanted to speak to. It made sense that one of the first ones she would contact would be Tripp Brimmer, the deputy in charge during the Vampire Murder investigation. Tripp had indicated to me that he hadn’t shared much with her, so it likewise made sense that she would want to speak to Orson Cobalter, the owner of the newspaper at the time. When she found out he was dead and that Cody had bought the paper she must have started the second list of names, with him at the top. I wasn’t sure what sort of information she’d hoped Father Kilian could provide, but he’d admitted to knowing both girls, probably better than most people currently living on the island. Toby Willis had been with both girls on the evening they died and Lisa had been Bronwyn ’s best friend and was at the party with her, so both made sense as primary people to interview. After I spoke with Rayleen again, Conrad seemed an obvious first-page interview as well.

I turned to the second page. Under Cody’s name were Victoria and Eric. I had a feeling they’d been added after Amanda Lowman spoke to Toby and found out more about the party. The third page in the notebook had the name Masterson, which I now knew corresponded to the man she believed could be responsible for the murders in Kansas, as well as Dracon Moon and Conrad. Under those names were a series of numbers and letters that made no sense, so I suspected they were written in some kind of a code. On the pages that followed were scribbles that had looked like gibberish when I’d first looked at it but could actually, I suddenly realized, be in a foreign language. I wondered if she knew a second language. If the gibberish turned out to be German or Italian, for example, deciphering it would be a lot easier than I’d initially thought. I’d stop by the paper later to ask Cody to take a look at it. He had a software program that translated entire sections of text.

In the meantime, I decided to make some breakfast, then maybe take another look at the property where Renfield and I had found the metal box with the photos, hair, and blood. We’d decided Siobhan would keep the box until Finn returned rather than turning it over to the temporary deputy, but ever since I’d found it I’d had an overwhelming urge to take another look around.

By the time I’d driven all the way out to the property and back into town it would be time to head to Coffee Cat Books. I had a list of people I wanted to follow up with and hoped I’d be able to work phone calls or quick visits into my day.

I’d decided to bring Max and Renfield with me on my early morning outing. For one thing, I felt safer having Max with me, and for another, I hoped Renfield would uncover another important piece of clueage. I’d called Siobhan before I left and asked her if either she or Finn could find out if Conrad Quarterman’s prints were on file. If they were and they matched the print on the fork we’d determined was most likely the murder weapon, case closed.

Although I’d left my box of evidence in Siobhan’s possession, when I’d called her to ask about Conrad’s prints I’d asked if she could forward a copy of the photos, which I’d printed out. The photos had been taken after dark and the background was close to impossible to make out, but I still hoped there would be something in them that would help prove whether the sacrifice had taken place on Dracon’s land. Ever since my conversation with Rayleen, I’d been asking myself if Dracon and Masterson could in fact be the same person.

As I had the previous day, I parked at the entrance to the overgrown drive and walked to the clearing where a house had once stood. It was another beautiful day and the sea in the distance was the deepest, darkest blue I had seen in quite some time. I took a minute to appreciate the beauty all around me and then took out the photos and began to look around.

It seemed as if there was an incline behind the spot where the girls had been tied to the crosses. The glare from the fire made the photo even more difficult to make out, but there was a fairly clear outline of the backdrop just behind the girls that would eliminate them having their back to either the sea or the rocky outcropping that bordered the water to the left.

I turned around with my back to the sea and looked at the landscape. It was flat, with a dense forest. I stood in the clearing where the house once had stood and turned slowly around in a circle. I didn’t see a hill in any direction. Could the ritual have taken place elsewhere? If so, why hide the evidence on Dracon’s property? Maybe the hillside I could make out in the background of the photos was nearby.

The forest was so dense on this part of the island that it was difficult to see very far into the distance. I supposed I could take a walk around, but I didn’t have much time before I had to head back into town for work.

I looked at the photos again, trying to find any sort of a landmark that would definitively point to where they were taken, but nothing was standing out, so I took one last look around before heading back to town. I called to Max, who came running immediately, but I didn’t see Renfield.

“Renfield,” I called. Maybe bringing the cat had been a bad idea after all.

Max barked once and then headed toward a wooded area just beyond the house. At the edge of it was a trail that led down to the beach. The tide was out, but based on my calculations this particular part of the beach would be underwater for most of the day, possibly even much of the month.

I doubted the cat had gone down there, but Max took off down the trail, so I decided to follow. If Renfield had gone down to the beach I’d need to find him and return to higher ground before the tide came in and covered it.

By the time I got to the bottom of the trail I could see the tide was beginning to start back in. I called Renfield and was heartened to hear his cry from a hole in the cliff face that looked as if it might lead to a small cave.

“Renfield. Here, kitty. We need to go if we don’t want to get wet.”

Max thought this game of find the kitty was the best thing that had happened to him that day. He bounced around the beach, panting and barking, as I tried to locate the cat I could hear but not see.

The hole in the cliff face was large enough for me to squeeze through, although I didn’t have a flashlight, so if this was a cave, and Renfield had traveled too deeply inside it, we were both in trouble.

“Renfield?” I said to the cat, who I saw was sitting maybe ten yards inside the opening. Max had followed behind me, but I told him to stay as I carefully made my way toward the cat. I could see there was something just behind him, although it was dark. When I got close enough to make out the features of the object in the dim light I could see it was a skeleton. A human skeleton.

By the time I got back to my car and to the phone I had left in my backpack, the tide had returned and the opening was all but underwater. The deputy had made it sound as if I was a suspect in the death of the man I thought was probably Dracon Moon, which irritated me quite a lot. Of course my explanation of how I was able to find a body after so many years was that a cat had led me to it, and that seemed lame even to me. After I reminded Deputy Holden that if the skeleton did end up being Dracon Moon I’d only been eleven when he died, he agreed to let me go with a warning not to leave the island. Finn couldn’t get home too fast for me. I mean really, being treated like a common criminal wasn’t a pleasant experience at all.

The very highlight of my morning turned out to be a message from Siobhan, letting me know that Finn had managed to catch an earlier flight and would be home by dinnertime that evening.

I went back to my cabin to take yet another shower and change into clean, dry clothes. Cody was waiting in my kitchen when I came downstairs.

“I heard you had an exciting morning.”

“Finding the body was somewhat exciting, sparring with that deputy, not so much. I’m glad you’re here, though. It’s nice to see a friendly face after doing battle with Deputy Holden. The man seriously acted like I’d killed the guy. He even had the nerve to point out that he’s had two bodies to deal with since he’d been on the island and I happened to call them both in. Like I’d call them in if I’d offed either Amanda Lowman or Dracon Moon.”

“I’m sure he was just trying to see how you’d react to a little interrogation.”

“Not well.”

“Were they able to recover the skeleton?” Cody asked.

“The tide had come in, making it difficult, but they were working on it when I left. Hopefully by the time we all meet tonight Finn will be able to confirm the skeleton’s identity.” I sighed. “It’s not even noon and it’s already been a long and eventful day.”

“Are you still planning to go in to the bookstore?”

“No. Tara said she had it covered, and when I spoke to her I was so outraged I don’t think she wanted me coming in and scaring all the customers. We’re going to meet here at six to work on the murder board, so I thought I’d follow up on a few things in the meantime.”

Cody pulled me into his arms. He held me close to his chest and gave me a minute to wind down before he asked how he could help. I explained about the notebook and my suspicion that much of it had been written in a foreign language and he agreed to help me try to do a translation right after I allowed him to feed me lunch.

The Driftwood Café was busy for a Thursday in the off-season, but Cody and I found a booth in the corner where we could talk without being overheard. I ordered a hamburger and fries, Cody a roast beef sandwich with potato salad. We chitchatted about the upcoming Halloween Festival, which would begin the following day while we waited for our food to be served.

“I was out at the high school early this morning to take some photos of the hay bale maze and pumpkin patch they set up in the football field. They’re going to have a kiddie carnival in the multipurpose room and a haunted house in the cafeteria. It looked like fun. We should try to check it out this weekend.”

“It sounds like fun,” I agreed with little enthusiasm.

“I hear they plan to sell caramel apples,” Cody bribed. He knew they were my favorite.

I smiled at his attempt to engage my interest. “It really does sound like fun. Let’s just get this murder investigation wrapped up first.”

“I spoke to Harland Jones this morning.” Cody clearly didn’t want to discuss the investigation over lunch.

“Did you ask him about staying at Mr. Parsons’s?”

“Yes. He was reluctant at first. Made the point that he didn’t want charity. I think I managed to convince him that Mr. Parsons could use the company and that he really didn’t have a lot of choices if he wanted to keep his dog. He agreed to a trial over the weekend. I know we have the murder board meeting tonight, but I thought you and I could make dinner for Harland and Mr. Parsons tomorrow.”

“I’d like that. Do you have dinner for them tonight covered?”

“Francine is coming by to make her famous spaghetti.” Francine Rivers was the third large landowner on the peninsula, along with my Aunt Maggie and Mr. Parsons. She lived alone and spent quite a bit of time helping out and keeping Mr. Parsons company.

“If Mr. Jones isn’t convinced to stay with Mr. Parsons yet, Francine’s cooking should do the trick. The last time I was over at Mr. Parsons’s she made pot roast that was to die for.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I hope Finn can help us wrap things up when he gets back. I really would love to just relax and enjoy the weekend. Halloween is usually my favorite holiday, but I’ve barely given it a second thought with all the murder and mayhem.”

Cody placed his hand over mine. “I admire the fact that you’re so driven to figure this out, but I hate to see you so tense.”

I rubbed my neck. “I have been tense. I feel so wound up. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy murder to solve and could actually take quite a lot of time. I don’t know why I’m being so manic about the whole thing.”

“Maybe once Finn gets back and you can turn things over to him you won’t feel such a huge urgency to find the answer. In the meantime, I’ll help you as much as I can.”

I squeezed Cody’s hand. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

It turned out that the pages in the notebook had been written in an ancient form of Gaelic. We weren’t able to translate all the words, just enough to get the gist of what Amanda Lowman had written. It turned out we’d figured out quite a lot already. She’d noted that she’d been worried about her sister Loretta long before she ended up a victim of what looked to be a ritual sacrifice. She’d always been an independent and rebellious sort, but her behavior problems had gotten worse when she became involved with a certain group of friends when she was thirteen. Loretta and Amanda’s mother was devastated when her daughter was murdered. She couldn’t live with the daily reminder of what had happened, so she’d retreated into a state of depression that lasted until the day she died. Based on Amanda’s notes, it looked as if their mother had died about a year earlier. It made sense that she had waited to investigate her sister’s death until after her mother died so as not to upset her.