there.”
“You sound like Dillon.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should. I think he’s the smartest guy on the planet. Next to my dad, of course.”
She pulled into the Shack parking lot and said, “So he kills Becca. Watches the webcam to see when Jodi drinks the Coke. Sees it, dumps Becca’s body on his way to kidnap Jodi. Brazen, arrogant.”
“He’s ultraconfident right now. He’s gotten away with two murders. He thinks he’s invincible.”
“Becca lived and worked across town,” Carina said. “There doesn’t appear to be any connection between her and Angie or Jodi.”
“There is a connection between her and the killer, though. He didn’t pick her randomly. He knew her schedule, when she would be leaving the library. He was waiting for her.”
“Yes, but she didn’t regularly work on Wednesdays. She came in because they were short-handed.” Carina frowned.
“But Midge said the young man Becca spoke to looked familiar, that he’d been in before,” Nick reminded her. “Maybe Becca had told him she’d be working Wednesday night. For all we know, she’d made arrangements to meet with him.”
“So we’re looking for someone who knew Angie-knew her well enough to identify her from information on her journal. And who knew Becca, most likely through the library.”
“Steve said he used the library on campus,” Nick said. “That makes sense. If the killer goes to the university, why would he go to a public library? Why not the campus library?”
“He could live near there,” Carina said. “It’s convenient for him.”
“Or he doesn’t go to that college.”
“Then how would he be connected to Angie?”
“This place.” He motioned to the Shack. “Her work. Which connects to her feeling that someone who commented on her journal knew where she worked.”
The lunch crowd filled the tables in the Sand Shack. Carina saw Kyle behind the back counter. She waited until he was done with a customer before approaching him.
“Mr. Burns, you had a private party here last night, correct?”
“Yes, after Angie’s memorial service.”
“What time did you close up?”
“What’s this about?”
“Jodi Carmichael is missing. She was a friend of Angie’s. We’re hoping you know what time she left the Shack, who she left with, if anyone was watching her or asking about her.”
He looked confused at first. “Jodi? Um, the one with the short light-brown hair?”
“Yes.”
“She was here last night with her friends, after the memorial service. I don’t know when they left. But she wasn’t here when we closed up, which was about eleven.”
“Do you have a guest list?”
“Mrs. Vance asked people to sign in at the door. I don’t know that everyone did, but the hostess-Maggie last night-was greeting people.”
“Where’s the book now?”
“Mrs. Vance took it with her.”
Carina made a note.
Burns added, “Masterson showed up. Late. He didn’t go to the memorial service, at least I didn’t see him. I left early to set up the restaurant. But he showed up around ten-thirty and Steve Thomas had it out with him. I told them to take it outside. Thomas came back in fifteen minutes later.”
“And Steve Thomas was here the whole night?” Carina asked.
“Yes, he helped clean up. I know he drove Mrs. Vance and her mother home. He and some girl I didn’t recognize.”
“But you didn’t see Jodi leave.”
He shook his head. “By eleven almost everyone was gone and I know I didn’t have to ask her to leave like I did a couple other people.”
“Have you seen a solitary man hanging out over the past few weeks? Perhaps using the computers here?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “We have a lot of people who come in here alone. To eat, surf the Internet. Can you be more specific?”
“Around twenty, possibly a student, blond or light brown hair, six feet tall, slender.”
“That describes about twenty percent of my clientele,” Burns said. “I want to help, but you’re going to have to give me a little more.”
“Would you object to a detective from e-crimes coming down and checking the histories and hard drives of your public computers?”
Burns frowned. “I’ll have to clear it with the owner, but I don’t think it’s a problem. Can we do it after hours?”
Carina handed him Patrick’s card and wrote his direct number on it. “Call the detective and set it up.”
“Will it help?”
“At this point, we need to cover every base.” Carina turned to leave, then looked back at Burns. “By the way, have you ever been to the La Jolla Public Library?”
“Never. I always go to the library on campus. Anything else? I really need to get back to work.”
“We’d like to talk to your employees again. We can come by when it’s quieter, later this afternoon?”
“Fine. Anytime after two.”
They left and Nick asked her, “You suspect Burns?”
“I don’t know, I just thought it was a shot with the library.”
“He’s a little older than twenty, but Midge at the library wasn’t certain about the age. He has light brown hair and is about six feet tall.”
Carina said, “We ran all Shack employees, and other than one who was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession a year ago, they were all clean, including Burns. But I’ll put someone on it. Pull his DMV photo and show it to Midge.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Nick said.
He didn’t have a lot of time, just enough time to bathe her and finish her. He’d been dreaming about it all day. Still on the high from Becca, he expected to maintain it with Jodi.
The first thing he noticed was the smell. Putrid. She’d shit in the bed, just like that whore Angie. He’d punish her for that before killing her.
She was asleep, in the same position he’d left her in.
“Wake up, I need to clean you up.” He looked at her carefully. She appeared…odd. “Come on, don’t be that way.” He sat on the edge of the bed. She didn’t move.
He slapped her hard and she didn’t wake up. Then he noticed something different about Jodi. Her skin was a strange color. Sort of blue. He slapped her again. Her flesh felt thick, pasty, cold.
What was wrong? What had happened?
He pulled back her eyelids. Her eyes had a weird glassy look to them. And he knew.
She was dead.
“No!
He shook her, but her body felt hard, unreal. He punched her in the chest with both fists. “Stupid slut! How dare you die on me! It’s my choice, not yours! You bitch!”
He punched her again, and again, an unfamiliar rage building. He tried to control himself, but it was like he was watching from the outside, from high above, seeing himself hitting Jodi’s lifeless body.
Her eyes were half-open, looking at him through slit lashes. Did the dead see? No, that was his imagination, his mind playing tricks.
He’d come home, risked everything, to finish it. He only needed an hour. And she ruined it. How could she
