that their son was working in Portland.
Zimmer Scrap and Iron was an ugly stretch of chain-link fence, piles of twisted and rusting chunks of iron and herds of monster cranes that spread along the shores of the Willamette River. Just after four-thirty Amanda parked her car in front of the corporate headquarters, a three-story brick building surrounded by chaos and ruin. Amanda asked the receptionist if Jeff Findlay was in. Moments later a tall, square-jawed man with sandy hair walked into the waiting area. His pale blue eyes fixed on Amanda, and he flashed her a confused smile.
What did you want to see me about, Miss Jaffe?
Two murders you helped investigate at Ghost Lake fourteen years ago. You were a deputy with the county sheriff's office at the time.
Findlay stopped smiling. What's your interest in those cases?
They may be connected to a larger series of murders that were committed over the past four years.
Let's go inside.
Amanda followed Findlay to a small, unoccupied office.
I can see you remember the case. Amanda said.
That was the worst thing I've ever seen. Two months after the girls were dug up I quit law enforcement for good. I enrolled in an accounting program at a community college, then finished up at Portland State. I think I was trying to find a profession that would keep me as far away from dead bodies as I could get.
If Betty Francis and Nancy Hamada looked anything like the victims I've seen, I don't blame you.
Amanda told Findlay about the Cardoni and Castle cases.
We've always thought that the killings in Milton and Multnomah Counties weren't Cardoni's first, Amanda concluded. We were hoping to find an earlier murder that we could connect to him.
And you think this is it?
It might be.
Cardoni's name never came up in our investigation, Findlay said.
Where were the bodies found? Amanda asked.
In separate graves in the forest that borders the ski resort.
Who owned that land?
Ghost Lake Resort.
Cardoni's practice has been to buy property in a remote area and bury the bodies near the house where he tortures his victims. Was there private property near the burial site?
Findlay shook his head. No, there ... Oh, wait. There was a cabin a couple of miles away. Funny thing is, there was a double murder at the cabin a year before we found the bodies. We looked hard for a connection, but the only one we could find was that all four murders were during winter break.
Did the double murder at the cabin involve torture?
Not that we could tell. The cabin was torched and the bodies were badly burned. If I remember, the medical examiner concluded that the man had been bludgeoned.
Amanda frowned. There was something very familiar about this case.
Who were the victims? she asked.
One was a young woman. She' d gone up to the ski resort with her boyfriend and disappeared. Or at least that's what the boyfriend said. They were having problems. We interviewed several witnesses who heard loud arguments on the evening the woman disappeared.
The popular theory was that she' d been upset with her boyfriend, met the guy who owned the cabin and gone off with him. The boyfriend finds out, goes to the cabin, kills them and burns the place down. Trouble was, we never had any evidence to support the theory, so no one was ever arrested.
A thought flickered through Amanda's mind, but she could not hold on to it.
Do you remember the names of the victims?
No, but I seem to remember that the man was a lot older than the woman. I think he was an attorney with a Portland firm.
The blood drained from Amanda's face.
Are you okay? Findlay asked, concerned by Amanda's ash gray coloring.
Amanda did not answer. It dawned on her suddenly that she knew the name of the attorney who died at Ghost Lake, and, just as quickly, she understood the significance of her dream about the blood-filled coffee mug.
The meeting with Jeff Findlay had taken half an hour, and it took another hour before Amanda was sufficiently composed to return to the office. Frank was still working at six o' clock when she knocked on his doorjamb.
Hey, princess.
What're you working on? Amanda asked, to see if she was in control of her voice.
Frank leaned back and folded his hands across his stomach.
You know that drug bust in Union County?
Amanda nodded.
We've picked up one of the defendants.
Amanda forced a smile and sat down across from her father. Outside, the lights of downtown Portland shone bright, but storm clouds covered the moon.
Thank God for the rising crime rate, huh?
It does help pay the rent, Frank said. How come you're here after quitting time?
I wanted to ask you something.
Shoot.
Remember the night I picked you up at the airport? The day after I found Cardoni's hand?
Frank laughed How could I forget? It's not every day a father gets a call from his daughter informing him that she's discovered the amputated limb of a psychopath.
I guess it was a memorable occasion. Anyway, on the ride back I told you about finding Tony with Justine Castle and you said that Tony might not be the best person to get serious with. What made you say that?
Why do you want to know?
Tony and I, we've gotten pretty close since he returned from New York.
Frank's eyebrows went up.
When you said that about Tony, four years ago, he was leaving Oregon and I didn't see any reason to press you. But now ... I mean, is there some reason you don't like him?
No, I guess I just didn't like him hurting my little girl. Frank smiled ruefully. You know, it doesn't matter whether that little girl is five or twenty-five when you're her father. Frank paused. So, how serious is this?
Amanda forced a smile and shrugged. I don't know, Dad. But there was nothing specific, right?
Frank hesitated. Then he sat up straight.
You know that Dominic, Tony's father, was one of my original law partners?
Amanda nodded.
Dom was in my study group in law school. So was Ernie Katz. We called ourselves the Three Musketeers because we were all young guys with families who were working our way through night school.
Dom was the life of the party, the hardest drinker, the one who always wanted to go for a beer. I never understood how he could always be on the go without collapsing, but you do that sort of thing when you're young and never think about it. Nowadays they have names for Dom's problem: bipolar disorder, manic-depression. We just thought of Dom as an iron man, and we rarely saw him when he was down.
Once we formed our partnership it became obvious that Dom had problems. His wife left him and Tony when Tony was in high school. There were rumors that he was abusive to both of them. Tony was pretty wild by then. I helped him out of two scrapes in high school, and I was able to keep his record clean. When he went to Colgate I hoped that being away from Dom would help him get his life together.
Dom was very smart and he was a good lawyer when his motor was going, but he was arrogant and lazy. He was also a heavy drinker and a womanizer. He cost us two good secretaries before we caught on. You were a sophomore in high school when Ernie and I asked Dom to leave the firm. It was a bad scene.
Two days later a detective came to the office. It was winter break and we were supposed to go skiing, but I had to call off the trip, remember?
