His Garden of Bones (Skye Cree Book 4) (20 page)

W
ednesday morning after the latest MRI, Skye checked Josh out of the hospital. Even though he limped wherever he went, Josh refused to head home to Bainbridge to take it easy.

“It’s a mistake not to go home and rest.”

“Do you want to get this guy off the streets as soon as possible or not?”

“Of course I do but that’s beside the point. I need you at a hundred percent.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Today let’s focus on talking to Ashley and getting everything we can out of Stockman.”

“Then explore the possibility that we’re dealing with a woman as our killer.”

“There you go. A full agenda. I feel better already.”

Skye swerved to the curb in front of the Kendrows’ colonial brick with something else on her mind. “Remember when Emmett mentioned this unsub might have several different personalities? I’m wondering if we need to slant the questions to Ashley with that in mind.”

“What you’re really saying is that you think this guy has at least one personality inside him that’s female.”

Skye raised a brow. “Not that I’m actually buying into the whole split personality thing but let’s float that on the water long enough to see what Ashley remembers. At the very least we might be dealing with a cross-dresser.”

“It’s weird how we’re so often on the same page.”

“Yeah, I know.” Skye stared at her husband trying to determine the amount of pain he was in. “Do you need help getting out of the car?”

He shook his head, eased himself out of the passenger seat leaning on the car door for support. His ribs might be hurting and bruised but he could do this. He tried to breathe air in deeply, but got considerable pain for his effort. “I’m already feeling much better.”

Skye sent him an amused look. “Good to see the bump on the head didn’t crack the stubbornness out of you.”

Minutes later, they were ushered into the living room by a grateful George and Marion.

“How can we ever thank the two of you for bringing us our girls back?” George gushed. He aimed a gaze at Josh, tapped him on the back with care. “And you got yourself run over in the process. I’m sorry for that.”

“But I’m bouncing back,” Josh said with a grin.

“We got lucky,” Skye deemed, eyeing what looked like a check in Marion’s hand. “I can’t accept that unless it’s made out to the foundation.”

Marion placed her hand on Skye’s arm. “George said you’d say that so that’s exactly what we did. It’s drawn on George’s plumbing company account. You ever need help again, all you have to do is let us know. You hear about this kind of thing happening to other people, but we never thought it would ever hit this close to home.”

“Now we know it happens to ordinary people,” George finished. “Ashley’s still a bit dazed by it all.”

“How about something to drink?” Marion asked.

“We’re fine, thanks,” Skye said, looking past Marion over at Ashley sitting on the sofa while Kiki played nearby with a set of blocks.

Skye stepped closer to the couch, lowered her voice. “I’m sorry we have to be here right now. I know you’re still reeling from what happened to you. We know you’ve talked to the police in depth but Josh and I need to jog your memory for anything else you might remember, anything at all.”

Skye looked back at Ashley’s parents. “Is it okay if we talk to your daughter alone without a lot of distractions? Is there any way you could take the baby in the other room for a few minutes?”

“Sure thing,” George said scooping up his granddaughter. “Marion and I will fix Kiki some mac and cheese for lunch. How’s that?”

“That would be great. Thanks. We’ll let you know as soon as we’re done.” Skye went over and sat down next to Ashley on the sofa and clasped the girl’s hand in hers. Ashley still hadn’t said a word or looked up at them. Gentling her voice even more than before, she suggested, “Let’s step back for a minute and try to go back to that Saturday night. Do you think you could do that for me?”

Ashley covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know how helpful I’ll be because I was drugged. I don’t remember all that much.”

Skye nodded knowing she’d have to prod Ashley along. “You’d be surprised what the subconscious picks up. Just relax, close your eyes if you have to. It’s critical to go over everything you heard, anything you saw, to the point of recalling smells and then how you felt at the time you caught the aroma.”

Ashley bit her lip while tears filled her eyes. “If you guys hadn’t gone looking for me when you did and busted in when you did, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

Skye wrapped her arms around the girl. “Josh and I know exactly how you feel. But we aren’t here for thanks. One thing that’s been bothering us… You’re absolutely certain it was a female who followed you up the stairs that night? You’re positive it was a female who followed you from where you parked your car in the lot to your building? Was it a female who came through the door behind you? You actually heard heels on the pavement as this person followed you inside?”

Ashley considered that. “Heels?”

“Heels, like a woman would have on if she were coming in from a Saturday night out.”

“Ah, let me think.” The teen mom closed her eyes, but then shook her head. “Honestly? No. I’m not sure of anything. The entire thing is so fuzzy. I’m sorry.”

“Rohypnol tends to do that to a person. It’s known on the street as ‘the forget me pill’ for that reason,” Josh said as he slid into the chair across from Ashley.

“Is that what was in the shot she gave me?”

Skye sat up straighter. “Now see, right there you used ‘she’ instead of using the word ‘he’ to describe the person. That tells me your first impression, your gut reaction, was that it was indeed a woman.”

Ashley thought about that. “That makes sense. Now that I think about it, she did have long brunette hair with a red band running across the top. You know, like the kind that tries to hide the fact that you’re wearing a wig or extensions but you know it anyway.”

“That’s excellent detail,” Skye told her. “You’re doing great. What about her hands? Were her nails painted, manicured? Did she have on rings, jewelry of any kind?”

Again, Ashley thought back. “Ah, I remember her long, sparkly red earrings because they dangled down from her ears at about neck level.”

Josh waited a beat. “Do you think you could relay that description to a sketch artist?”

“Detective Drummond asked me that at the hospital. My mind was too cluttered to be of much help. But now that I’ve had a couple days to recoup and get back home, I’m thinking, yes.”

“Great,” Josh said in optimistic fashion before prompting Ashley for more. “Anything else? What about the woman’s skin tone? Was it light or dark or something in between?”

“Well, she’d done a decent job on her makeup. She had good skin. But I guess if I had to say, her skin leaned to something in between light and olive. So what was it, Rohypnol in the shot?”

Now that the teen mom was beginning to open up and felt more comfortable doing so, Josh filled in this part. “We think the Rohypnol came first. It was in the needle that night, although the hospital did find a cocktail of drugs in your system. One of them was Rohypnol, traces of etorphine were also discovered. But for the long haul, it looks like what she used to keep you out of it most of the time was sevoflurane, a type of ether.” He held his hand in front of his nose. “Do you remember having a cloth mask on your face at any time?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure. I did have trouble breathing at some point. At times, it felt like I was drowning.”

“Interesting. Okay, do you remember if this couple—assuming there was a male waiting somewhere around the apartment building for the female to grab you and bring you out to the car—did they appear to have medical training? Like a nurse, a doctor, or a paramedic might have? After all, she plunged a syringe into your neck with the effectiveness of a pro.”

Ashley’s brow crinkled in concentration. “Couple? Come to think of it, I only saw the woman that one time. Then the few times I woke up, a man was right there hovering over me. He seemed agitated a lot and a little socially awkward.” 

That detail nagged at Skye. “I see. So you’re saying during your ordeal at the houseboat the only person you saw was the man? What did
he
look like? Different colored skin from the woman? How tall was he?”

“Now that I think of the blurry images I have in my head, he was very similar looking to the woman. I remember lifting my head to see if I could get a look at Kiki, and he had the same skin tone as the woman had, and he was about as tall, the same mannerisms.”

Josh and Skye traded glances.

“What do you suppose happened to the woman?” Ashley wanted to know. “That has to be important.”

“If there was a woman,” Skye muttered.

Josh decided not to go down that road in front of Ashley so he picked up the slack. “Okay, is there anything else you remember at all?”

“Well, the only thing I know for certain is that Kiki wouldn’t stop crying. She seemed to aggravate the man constantly. Even when the guy did his best to do something for Kiki, like trying to get her to eat, his effort came off mostly clumsy. Kiki wouldn’t have anything to do with him at all. He got angry with her. That’s what I remember the most—Kiki crying and crying, and me, wanting desperately to get to my baby.”

Josh put forth an idea to Skye. “Maybe he grew frustrated with his inability to take care of Kiki. That’s why he kept Ashley around for twenty plus hours. Even drugged, she might come in handy if he needed her at some point to help him with Kiki.”

The teen mom swallowed hard, visibly shaken. “Are you saying that eventually he planned to kill me?”

Skye sucked in a deep breath, let it out to gain a measure of control. In situations like this she’d found honesty was the best path. “Sorry. We didn’t mean to let that slip. But you deserve the ugly truth. We feel pretty sure that was the goal.”

“It’s okay. Somewhere in the back of my mind I already knew. I’m not going back to the apartment. I’ve decided that Kiki and I are moving in with my parents. At least, until you catch this guy.”

“I’m sorry,” Skye reiterated. “Monsters have a way of causing us to alter our lives in a way we never intended.”

“It isn’t your fault. You guys saved us. If you hadn’t showed up when you did…” Ashley’s voice broke.

“Group hug,” Josh suggested with a laugh. “Just not too tight my ribs still hurt.”

The three came together, arms wrapped around each other until Ashley felt like letting go.

Ashley turned to Josh. “When I asked the nurses at the medical center, they told me you were really sick, in a coma. How did you recover so fast? I mean, you look like you’re in pain but you’re out walking around.”

“Head injuries are a mystery of science,” Josh said with a grin.

“But after you saved me, when the raindrops woke me up, you looked sick like you had the flu or something. That was before the van hit you.”

“I must’ve had a mild case and then my flu shot finally kicked in,” he joked.

For the first time in days, Ashley burst out in a laugh. “You guys are so cool.”

After that, they left Ashley recovering in Capitol Hill and rode back to downtown tossing ideas back and forth.

“Let’s go over what we know,” Skye managed. “Ashley never saw the man and woman together. So it’s possible they are one and the same like Emmett suggested.”

Josh nodded, went on to another question. “Why hold Ashley and Kiki at the houseboat in a place where the neighbors are within a walk to the next dock? Are we supposed to believe our kidnapper just happens to pick Stockman’s houseboat to hole up? Coincidence? Planned? Did he know who lived there beforehand? Had he been there before and knew the place on sight?”

“That’s bothered me since I walked inside the boat. Let’s say for a minute we believe Stockman’s story and he knows nothing about the kidnapping, that he’s simply an innocent man caught up in something he had no part in. That could mean our guy must’ve encountered some obstacle or problem the night he grabbed Ashley and Kiki, something unexpected, something that convinced him he had to hide out at that spot, at that particular time. After all, the location is less than a mile from Ashley’s apartment.”

“There’s just one major problem with connecting Stockman to our serial. Harry said he checked out.”

“Then maybe we get the team to dig deeper. While they’re at it, do a sweep of the neighborhood around Lake Union.”

“Sounds like a plan. If we have to, we’ll get everyone together and go door to door canvassing the area.” 

“Something else to consider. If this guy is in the habit of holding multiple victims at the same time, like Cannavale alluded to, then he’d need space for that. A houseboat wouldn’t cut it. It’s far too small for that sort of confinement especially with neighbors next door who’d no doubt hear every loud noise or scream.”

“That means we’re talking about a larger primary location, the main place where he keeps his victims, those trophies he likes to revisit. And that takes money.”

“It bothers me that we can’t figure out what connection Stockman has to our killer. Because there has to be one.”