She opened the next box of files and dug into the work. It wasn’t personal to her, and that distance helped her perspective-she didn’t have assumptions about the victims or others around them clouding her view.
She no longer apologized for liking her job, even though she was careful about saying aloud something of that sort. This family was missing and likely dead. That reality fueled her motivation to solve what happened, why, and who did it. But she couldn’t help but enjoy the hunt, the puzzle of it, the search to locate the key to solving the disappearance. She wanted to find a thread before the day was over, something that might lead to another “something.”
She poured her first cup of coffee and started reading, making notes.
Gabriel Thane
Gabriel slowed as he drove by the post office, seeing the lights, Evie’s rental parked at the curb. He glanced at the time. Early even for a dedicated cop. He doubted it was inability to sleep that got her up before dawn. She was in Carin to work, to solve these cases before her vacation leave was over.
Once Evie finished with the two cold cases, he reminded himself, she would be on to the next assignment. And back to what’s-his-name, he thought a bit ruefully. She’d give a friendly wave and smile, a how’re you doing? if she crossed paths with him at a conference, but she’d likely not be back in this county for a few years or more. He’d do well to remember that reality.
He had work waiting for him, deep enough to swallow his Monday morning-and the reason he also was rolling into work so early. If he wanted to help Evie this afternoon, he had to move a whole day’s worth of work this morning.
He glanced one last time at the lights in the windows and had to smile. He appreciated that she was focused on the job. He’d noticed the same thing about Ann on their first meeting. That friendship had become something rich and deep over the years, but it had begun because the way Ann focused on her work was not to be missed. Evie was showing him the first hints of something similar. Maybe a good friendship is something I can look forward to.
Several hours into his morning, Gabriel looked up at a tap on his office door. The woman who had lingered in the background of his thoughts while he worked was standing there. She wore dress slacks and a blue- and white-striped shirt, a jacket over her arm.
“Hey, Evie.” He noted the fresh bandage over the stitches showed the fading edges of bruising. Other than that, she looked fit, alert.
“Mind if I look through the archives?” she asked.
“Sure.” He dug out keys from his desk drawer and motioned toward the hallway. “Third door on the left marked Records. You want the side room labeled Archives.” He handed over the two keys she’d need.
“Thanks.”
He gave it an hour, then wandered back with some coffee. She’d made herself comfortable at a worktable in the middle of the filing cabinets. “What are you hoping to find?”
“I’ll know it when I see it. Anything interesting, helpful…”
He noticed the files spread out on the table, saw she was reading reports from the animal-control officer.
“No dead deer were picked up on the days in question, to my disappointment,” she said, shaking her head. “Two dead skunks, a dead fox, too many smashed squirrels for him to bother counting, just a check on many species-the daily reports are like that. He’d been on the job for six years at this point, liked his work, liked keeping tallies. He even sketched on the back of the report the roadways he cleared that day, where he found remains.”
“He was probably aggregating that data to find animal trails most in use,” Gabriel explained, “so he could follow them back through the woods during hunting season, have a leg up on his fellow hunters.”
“Okay… that’s helpful. I wouldn’t have thought of that answer, as I don’t hunt.”
He read the tabs on the files she hadn’t yet opened. “You’re looking at murders in Carin County?”
“As many as I can. Even solved ones, before or after the family disappeared, could be useful to me. Would you be able to get someone to generate a list? Murders in the county over, say, the last thirty years? Maybe another of particularly violent crimes, assaults?”
“What are you looking for?”
“You don’t start killing with a family of three. You start with one, and it’s probably an accident or due to temper. You don’t start on a deputy who has his family right there to protect. So if the person we’re looking for is from around here, where are his first kills?”
“That sounds depressing, Evie. And you can say it so calmly.”
“But do you think I’m right?”
“I think I’ll get you the lists. You’re going to need a bigger wall for your timeline.”
“I’m thinking the same thing. I don’t know what’s relevant. But once I see it, the timeline is likely going to be the key to understanding this case.” She looked over a file she was holding. “How’s that other list, the violent ones, coming?”
“With some deputies’ input, we’ve got the names. I’ll get you a copy. I’m heading out to talk to some on the list, see if I can find out who else should be on it.”
“You sound kind of doubtful.”
He shook his head. “No, I think it’s a solid way to approach the problem. But I’m thinking we won’t see the right name without something else to point us there.”
Evie nodded to her notes. “That’s where my side of this comes in. I have to find you a motive, something that would pull a name on your list to the top. We still need a trigger, a reason to carry out the crime. The one thing I’m confident of is the motive isn’t going to be something trivial. If this doesn’t turn out to be a random crime, the motive of the person who went after Deputy Florist and his wife and son is going to be huge. If motive is there, I’ll find it.”
Gabriel smiled at her confidence. “I’ll send you in some lunch. Anything you don’t like?”
She shrugged. “Raw onions. Sushi.”
“I’ll come up with something without getting near those. Don’t read too long without a break or your headache is going to return.”
“How do you know it’s gone?”
He reached over and lightly touched her forehead. “You’ve got a tell when it’s there-the headache’s gone, but you’ve still got the ache around the stitches.”
“It feels like I’ve got fishing line knit through my skin,” she complained.
He chuckled. “It’s probably close to the truth. I’ll see you later. Call if you need anything.”
“Sure.”
Evie Blackwell
Evie watched Gabriel leave, looked at what he’d left behind on the table. Another roll of sweet-tarts. A bit of magician on his part, she thought, since she hadn’t seen him put it there.
She slipped one out and with new determination turned her attention back to the files. Gabriel had the list of names. She needed to find that why. She liked Gabriel’s smile-find something useful and she’d get another of them. Not that she was working the case for his smiles, but still, it was a nice side benefit.
So far, nothing in the files included the names of Florist’s wife or son. Was that a simple courtesy to the deputy if his son had been in on something that caught an officer’s attention, maybe vandalism at the school or petty thefts involving kids in Joe’s circle of friends? She’d begun compiling a list of names to investigate further. It would be hard to find a motive directly involving an eleven-year-old who, from everything she’d seen up until now, seemed to be a good boy.