“Okay,” said Cate. “Who’s next?”
Tessa clicked her keys. “Tianna DeLeon. Age thirty-two, from Everett.”
“That’s quite a bit closer to us than Wenatchee.”
“Her car was found at Sea-Tac six days after she disappeared. She went missing on March fifth of the same year.”
“How?” asked Mike.
“Not sure. Her husband came home from work and found their twins crying in their cribs. Dirty diapers. Hungry.”
“Security-system cameras? Neighbors?” asked Cate.
“No cameras. Neighbors’ cameras caught nothing.”
“Vanished into thin air,” said Cate. “Theories?”
“Nothing with any meat to it. Someone could have knocked on the door or grabbed her when she was outside. They’d speculated for a long time that she’d left. She had postpartum depression, and the twins were hard for her.”
“Husband cleared, of course,” said Mike.
“Yes. At work all day among a dozen other people. His work computer shows he was actively on it for a good portion of every hour.”
“Big brother is watching,” Cate commented. “What about cell phones for both women?”
“Left behind,” answered Tessa. “Again this woman seemed to vanish into the mist. Few leads. No suspects.”
Cate thought about the mist that often hovered in Bishop State Park.
She did end up in the mist.
“And the dental records?” she asked.
“Tianna’s x-rays were five years old,” said Tessa as she opened new images. “Look here.” She pointed at a tooth that was practically lying on its side in the rear of the mouth. “It’s a wisdom tooth, and it matches the position of this one from the medical examiner films.”
“But there’s a filling here that doesn’t match the old films,” Cate said, eyeing a white blob on an upper tooth.
“That’s a crown. The odontologist explained that it likely replaced this silver filling on the old x-rays.”
“But he’s not certain?” asked Mike.
“Correct. But he is certain that these three other fillings are identical, and he specifically pointed out the shape of this premolar. He says it’s very unusual. I’m sure there are other things, but these were the clinchers for him.”
“Do you have the medical examiner films for the unidentified vic?” asked Cate, not sure why she’d asked, since she was no tooth expert.
“I do.” A new image appeared.
“Is she missing teeth?” Mike asked. “Is that what all the gaps are?”
“Yes. The odontologist said she would be easy to match up to her dental records, and he wonders if she rarely got dental care . . . hence the missing teeth.”
“Is she older?” Cate asked.
“No. He’s estimating twenty to thirty-five at the most.”
“Okay,” said Mike. “We’ve got something to work with here. Time to find some commonalities between the women. Do you have photos of them?”
Tessa pulled up several photos. “Nayla on the left, and Tianna on the right.”
“Both blonde and attractive,” said Tessa. “I wonder if the hair color is important. Jeff Lamb liked blondes too.”
“Is Kurt searching specifically for missing blondes?” Mike asked Tessa. “It could steer us toward the third victim.”
“He knows about it, but he also knows it’s not conclusive.”
“Did the investigators from the different cities connect these two women’s disappearances?” questioned Cate.
“They didn’t,” said Tessa. “Yes, they both show up on a list of missing women in Washington, but no one looked closely at the two cases side by side.”
“I guess I know what we’re doing the rest of the day,” Mike said. He held Cate’s gaze. “I could use another pair of eyes. You’re still cleared for temporary duty.”
It’s just computer work.
“Yes, I’ll help.”
Five hours later, Cate’s eyes hurt. And they were no closer to finding a link between the two women than when they’d started. Her back room looked like a command headquarters—of a very small command. Papers were in stacks on the table and on the floor. Her printer had been going nonstop.
Three laptops and several yellow pads took up the rest of the space. “Should we have set up at your county sheriff’s office instead?” Mike asked.
Cate grinned. “This room is bigger than the office. They’ve got a holding cell and a desk. That’s about it.”
“A few chairs,” Tessa added. “And a TV. It’s too crowded if all three of us are there.”
Mike raised his brows but didn’t comment; instead he made a notation on a whiteboard Cate had hung on the wall.
Tessa had dashed to the hardware store and bought the four small whiteboards the place had in stock, causing people to stare as she’d emptied the shelf. “I’m curious to hear what the gossip says I’m doing with all these boards.”
“It’s office supplies. Four whiteboards,” said Mike. “That’s gossip worthy?”
“Yes,” Tessa and Cate replied in unison.
“Your gossips are hard up,” he said. “What do they have to say when crime actually happens?”
“Oh, that makes the gossip mill too,” said Tessa. “I post all our arrests on our Facebook page—it’s easier to maintain than a website. We can’t afford a web developer anyway, and people love to read about who got in trouble that week. It’s in the weekly paper too.”
“What kind of crime do you have on an island?” Mike asked. “Besides this case.”
“We have a lot of domestics,” Tessa told him. “Fights. Burglaries. There’s a drug problem here, which feeds all three of those.”
“Tourist season is different, though,” added Cate.
“Yes, that’s when we get the complaints about tourists clogging the streets and blocking traffic. A lot of trespassing calls, because tourists will cross private property trying to get the best view and selfie. The most interesting call last week was that someone stole a Slip ’N Slide.”
Mike stared at Tessa. “Didn’t you use to work for the Seattle PD? How did you handle the change of pace? You’ve got to be bored.”
“Priorities change.” Tessa pressed her lips together, and Cate knew she didn’t want to discuss her mother’s Alzheimer’s.
“I didn’t hear about the Slip ’N Slide,” Cate said quickly to change the topic. “Who took it?”
“The next-door neighbor. She was tired of hearing the kids screaming nonstop as they used it.”
“I thought you small-town islanders all get along, like in Mayberry,”
