The single-room cabin lit up, all its secrets illuminated. Including the woman’s corpse sprawled face up on the floor, blood covering her body, her mouth and eyes open in a silent scream.
Thirty-Nine
Luka curbed his anger and mobilized what resources he could to search for Tassi and Larry. “Want to tell me how they got past you?” he asked Ray.
“Not us—they were gone when we went to bring them in. But don’t blame the uniforms. This place is huge—you’ve seen it. Apparently, there’s a service road around the back that isn’t marked on the maps.”
Damn. “Any sign of Foster Dean?”
“No. But Larry drove her back from Good Sam and both of their cars are still here. So, either they called a cab or someone picked them up. Could be another neighbor? Friend from the club? You know these rich people, they all stick together.”
Luka’s phone rang with another call. It was Leah. “Work the scene, find me a traffic camera, something, anything—”
“Rich people also like their privacy; there won’t be any traffic cameras. And their houses are all too far back from the road for security cameras to help.”
Ray was sharing facts Luka already knew and it wasn’t helping his growing frustration. “We’re monitoring Tassi’s financial accounts; tell Krichek to find a judge and get us up on Larry’s as well. Plus, phone pings and GPS records. I’ve got to go, Leah’s calling.”
“Hope that means they found the kid and he’s all right. I’ll let you know if anything breaks here.” Ray hung up.
Luka switched calls. “Leah, sorry, I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“I found the cabin where Beth was staying.” Her words were rushed but her tone was steady—the same voice he’d heard her use during emergencies. “It’s in Craven Peak. Luka, she’s dead. Murdered. I found her body.”
“Beth? Is the baby okay?”
“Not Beth. Tassi. It’s—” Her voice dropped. “Tassi’s dead. Murdered.”
Tassi? Killed where Beth had been staying? The implications were staggering, but his first priority was Leah’s safety. “Get out. Now. Don’t touch anything. We need to get you to safety in case—”
“I’m in my car driving to the ranger’s station,” she interrupted him. “I didn’t want to risk it if anyone was still hanging around.”
“Good, good.” Of course, she knew the first rule of any initial scene response was ensuring that the scene was safe. “What did you see?”
“I think she was tortured.” For the first time her voice sounded shaky. As if, now that the emergency was over, she’d allowed her emotions to finally creep in. “I could barely recognize her. Luka, what they did to that poor woman—”
“Ray isn’t far, he’s at Tassi’s house. I’m sending him to meet you at the ranger’s station and I’m on my way as well.” Why torture Tassi? What did the killer want from her? The missing money? And then there was Beth; he couldn’t forget Beth. She’d told Leah someone was after her, but the only intersection between the two cases that Luka could see was Matthew Harper’s involvement with both women. Given his role as a pastoral counselor, there might be a straightforward explanation—if they could get the man to talk.
“I found Beth’s phone,” Leah interrupted his rampaging thoughts. “It’s dead, though. But maybe once it’s charged—”
“No. Hold on to it, the forensics guys will take care of it. We can’t risk losing any data.”
“Okay.” Her breath was ragged. “Okay.”
“Hang tight, we’re on our way. I need to call Ray, get things rolling.”
“Right. See you soon.” She hung up.
He alerted Ray and Krichek and had patrol contact the state police—technically, the forest was outside of Luka’s jurisdiction, but the staties were even farther away and they often cooperated on cases—as well as the forest ranger on duty. Even as he grabbed his coat, keys, and the damn crutches, and started out to his car, Luka couldn’t help but feel as if somehow he’d lost control of this case. Things were spiraling in random, unexpected directions.
How did Tassi know about Beth’s cabin? Why was she there? Was the killer looking for Beth and tortured Tassi to learn where she was? Or was Tassi the main target, taken there?
Tassi was last seen with Larry Hansen. Which immediately sent the tennis-loving chiropractor to the top of Luka’s suspect list. Maybe he’d been the one faking all along—convincing Luka that he was a harmless fool, pretending to be in love with Tassi so he could stick close to her. All to get his hands on Spencer’s money.
And then there was Foster Dean—if the former DEA agent really was working for the Zapata family, then torture would not be beyond the realm of imagination.
Luka made another call from the car: an attempt-to-locate alert for Foster Dean and his rented Tahoe. And he added a court order to the car rental agency for GPS tracking of Dean’s Tahoe to Krichek’s list of assignments. Odds were a judge would want more probable cause before granting it, but it was worth a shot.
If this was about Spencer’s stolen money, the missing gold, then Tassi as a victim made sense. That kind of money was enough to motivate either Hansen or Dean into forcing her to talk. But why at Beth’s cabin? And what did Beth and her baby have to do with any of it?
Too many questions with no damned answers. Time was running out for Beth’s baby—he needed treatment quickly. Public service announcements and news stories were already filling the airwaves, asking the public for their help in locating mother and child. All featuring photos of Beth, broadcasting her image to the world.
But if a killer was also hunting for her, then had Luka just placed a bright flashing neon target on Beth and her baby?
Forty
Harper jogged up the steps to her parents’ front door, but not even her fury and sense of betrayal could break habits ingrained by years of scolding. She paused to wipe her feet, then paused again to slide her
