Chapter 51

One look around room 12 and Josie could not imagine Seth Lee keeping anyone there. It just wasn't big enough. A neatly made bed took up eighty percent of the space. Standing near the window that overlooked the driveway, she could hear the residents from both adjacent rooms complaining to officers about the intrusion. Every resident of the building was being questioned to see if any of them had seen Seth Lee here recently—or Mira, Rosie, and even April Carlson in the past year. Even if someone had seen something, Josie doubted they'd admit it. This was definitely the kind of place where people minded their own business.

"Closet's empty." Turner brushed by her and rounded the bed. He used a gloved hand to open the top dresser drawer. "We got some shirts. Flannel. Must be his favorite. Coupla pairs of jeans, socks and underwear. I don't see any shoes anywhere."

Josie sighed. "Maybe he uses it as a place to keep a few extra things? Every person we talked to said he doesn't like to stay indoors. I think he just used this place to dump the truck. He abandoned it out back where no one except other residents would see it. None of them would report it. At least not right away. Maybe the landlord would have called to have it towed if it sat too long. If Rebecca hadn't found Jon's cash withdrawals, we wouldn't even know about this place."

Turner opened the next drawer and stared at its contents. "Store a few extra things, huh?"

Josie walked over as Turner pulled out the remaining drawers. They were packed with food. Prepackaged food. Granola bars. Protein bars. Pouches of oatmeal. Cups of microwaveable macaroni and cheese. Cans of soup. Chocolate bars. Peanut butter cookies. Several different types of crackers.

"What in the hell is up with this guy?" Turner said. "I thought he had a thing about food being tampered with. Isn't that why he's eating from his brother's produce stand? But he's stocking food here? You think he comes here and eats it and then goes back to whatever hole he's got his kid living in and makes her eat mud?"

The thought was deeply disturbing. "Maybe his brother left it here for him?" she suggested. "I can call Jon Lee and find out."

Turner slowly closed the drawers and peeled his gloves off. "Back to square one. Let's get the hell out of here."

Turner left the boardinghouse before anyone else. Apparently a more pressing matter had come up. Josie and Noah stayed until all the residents had been interviewed and then they returned to the stationhouse. The press had caught wind of what they were now calling the "raid" on the boardinghouse in Bellewood. Several reporters crowded the municipal entrance at the back of the station, shouting questions as Josie and Noah pushed past them and into the building.

"How did you track Lee to that boardinghouse?"

"How long was he staying there?"

"Did he know you were going to try to arrest him there? Did someone at the house tip him off?"

"Where do you go from here?"

Josie was relieved when the door closed behind them, cutting off the voices. Even after spending an hour at her desk in the great room, that last question haunted her. Where did they go from here? Before she worked on her reports, she had called the Lees to find out from Jon whether he stocked food and clothes in the room he rented for Seth. He claimed that he had never actually been inside the room, nor did he have a key, but Josie wasn't sure whether to trust him or not. The one thing Jon Lee had proven consistently was that he was willing to lie on behalf of his brother.

While Noah made phone calls, Josie stood up and went back to the corkboard. It had grown in scope. Things were starting to overlap. There was the aerial view of Tranquil Trails with pins to mark the produce stand, the place on Prout Road where Mira had stopped for twenty-two minutes after the stabbing, and now the approximate location of Shane Foster's body. By now, most of the map was covered with printouts of other things related to the investigation. There were photos of the four people who comprised the drama they had all been swept up in: Seth Lee, Rosie Summers, Mira Summers, and April Carlson. There was the Post-it note that April had given Mira, telling her where to find the body of Shane Foster. Someone had hung up a page with all the information pertaining to the truck that Seth had been driving, including a copy of the registration that Deirdre Velis had provided. There was also now a copy of a crime scene photo that showed the strange fibers found on April Carlson's body. Whoever hung it up had drawn a thick black question mark next to it. Then there was the drawing that Rosie had made, the supposed map, and her message on the back, pleading for help.

The stairwell door opened, sending a blast of air through the room. The pages on the board fluttered. Turner sauntered in. His vest had been replaced with his suit jacket. An energy drink peeked from one of the pockets. As always, he held his phone in one hand, thumb scrolling endlessly. He glanced at Josie.

"You still obsessed with that stupid drawing?"

"You have anything better for us to follow up on?" she asked pointedly.

Turner sank into his chair, trading his phone for his foam basketball. "Where's Parker?"

"Palmer," Josie said, turning her back to the corkboard.

Noah hung up his desk phone. "She's off today. That was Anya—Dr. Feist—with apologies for taking so long to get us her full report on the body Blue found on the Tranquil Trails property."

Turner tossed his ball at the net and, predictably, missed. "She matched the dental records days ago. We know it was that Hillcrest officer, Foster."

Noah's cell phone buzzed with a message. While he checked it, he spoke. "Right. Hummel took what was left of the clothing and shoes found with his remains into evidence and sent them out to the state lab to see if any DNA can be pulled that might link Seth Lee or anyone else to the body. She also cleaned up the challenge coin and the bracelet. The coin was from Hillcrest PD, as expected. The bracelet was a scarab bracelet. She was able to send Teresa Carlson photos. As far as she can tell, it's a match to April's, but she's going to gather as many photos of it as she can so they can do a more detailed and comprehensive comparison."

Which would tell them what Josie already knew. It was definitely April's bracelet. "What about cause of death?"

"Undetermined," Noah said.

"He was in the dirt too long," Turner said. "He could have been stabbed, smothered, beaten to death, but soft tissue and organ injuries don't show up on a skeleton."

"What about blunt force injuries?" Josie asked. "Broken bones? Skull fracture?"

Noah looked up from his cell phone. "Both of his femurs were broken, as was his pelvic bone. Several rib fractures as well. Anya thinks the injuries might be consistent with a long fall or being struck by something, like a car, though she can't say for sure. The fractures wouldn't have caused his death but if he'd sustained injuries severe enough to do that much damage, then he likely had internal injuries that did lead to his death."

Josie's money was on some sort of injury by motor vehicle. Possibly accidental. It supported her theory that April hadn't been a willing or enthusiastic participant in Shane Foster's demise.

Turner popped the tab on his energy drink. "Assured mutual destruction. What else do you have, LT? 'Cause we're running low on leads, and your little wifey over there is about to go cross-eyed staring at that drawing."

"Turner!" Noah and Josie snapped at the same time.

Unfazed, he sucked down the entire can of Turbo Powr, crumpled the can, and belched. He tossed the can at his trash bin and missed.

Noah waited until he picked it up and threw it away before answering his question. "The botanist I told you about is downstairs. Sergeant Lamay is bringing him up. Dr. Hensley Brooks from Denton University. He says he can shed some light on the fibers found on April Carlson's clothes."

"That's what you've got?" Turner said incredulously. "A botanist? Come on, LT. This guy is running circles around us and all we've got to show for it is another dead body and enough overtime to give the Chief a damn heart attack. By the way, I can't get the smell of horseshit off my shoes."

Josie folded her arms across her chest. Turner wasn't entirely wrong, but they had to work with the evidence they had and right now, that evidence was plant-based. "If you've got a better suggestion, let's hear it."

Noah stood up as the stairwell door swished open again. Sergeant Lamay shuffled in, followed by a tall, distinguished black man in a navy suit. Glasses perched on his nose, and tucked under his arm was a manila envelope. He greeted them with an infectious smile, moving around the room to shake each of their hands and introduce himself. For a college professor, he was unexpectedly relaxed and informal, insisting that they call him Hensley. Noticing the photo of the fibers in question on the corkboard, he walked right over, standing at an angle as if he were in front of a lecture hall. "I brought my own photos and such." He pulled the envelope from under his arm and handed it to Josie since she was closest. "But this is a good start."

Josie walked over to where Noah stood near his desk. Turner joined them, watching as she pulled out a sheaf of papers. It was a report, complete with color photos and diagrams. She flipped through a few pages. Turner said, "Hey, Doc? I'm a slow reader. You think you could give me the bullet points?"

Hensley laughed and pointed to the photo on the corkboard. "I just want to start by reminding you that I wasn't able to examine the physical specimen since it is in the custody of your lab. However, I'm ninety-nine percent sure that this is from a plant called American burnweed. It's sometimes called fireweed, among other things. It's part of the daisy family."

Josie flipped back to the front page where the words Erechtites hieraciifolius were emblazoned over the top of a photo of a plant that looked very similar to a dandelion except much taller, fuller, and leafier. From the main stem, smaller networks of stems and leaves spread, each one heavy with multiple buds.

Turner said, "It's a giant weed."

Hensley laughed again. "It is technically an herb, but I can see why you would say that. It's extremely fast-growing. Some people will tell you it appears overnight. It will grow as tall as eight to ten feet at times and can spread quite rapidly. Most people don't find it attractive. It's an annual but in some places, it has a short life and can be a perennial. Its flower is not really what people typically think of as a flower at all but a collection of what you have right here in your, uh, crime scene photo. If you look on page four, you'll see several photos of the plant when it's flowering."

Josie flipped to page four. Here the photos of the plant—or herb—showed them in full bloom, except instead of petals, the flowers were made of thick white fluff. Dozens and dozens of them.

"I won't bore you with the scientific terminology but basically those clusters of white hairs held together by seeds? The flowers? They take flight, much the same way that dandelion seeds behave. They get everywhere."

Turner's fingers beat out an impatient rhythm against the edge of Noah's desk. "Doc, this is fascinating, but you might have noticed that we're trying to find a killer. He's got his girlfriend and kid with him. It's a pretty dangerous situation. How does any of this help us with that?"

To his credit, Hensley's enthusiasm was not dulled in the least. He clapped his hands together. "Lieutenant Fraley told me that these flowers were found on the body of a victim—the teacher would be my guess from having watched the news—and that before her murder she was being held somewhere. You don't know where, is that correct?"

"Yes," Josie said.

"I can't tell you if she picked up the flowers where she was being held or in transport or both, but what I can tell you is that American burnweed usually grows in open areas that have recently been disturbed. Roadsides, pastures, meadows. Land recently devastated by fire or where a great deal of trees have been cut down. It blooms in the summer but with how hot the weather has been this month, I wouldn't be surprised to see these flowering now."

Noah said, "You're saying that we should be looking at these kinds of areas if we want to find the place where April Carlson was kept?"

Hensley nodded. "Yes, that would be my recommendation."

Turner said, "No disrespect, but that could be anywhere."

Josie tried to remember if she'd seen any of these plants during her treks around the Tranquil Trails property. Even if she had, that didn't mean that Seth had been keeping April there. Surely one of the Lees' clients would have found them.

Noah and Josie thanked Hensley. Turner remained stone-faced and unimpressed. Once the botanist was gone, he said, "That narrows it down to almost the entire city. What else do we have?"

Josie said, "Even though April Carlson had these on her clothes and mud and grass in her stomach, for the majority of the year that Seth Lee had her, she was kept in the dark. She didn't get sunlight. She didn't have ligature marks, so he hadn't tied her up. She had to have been indoors. Locked away. If he had kept her outside, surely at some point she would have tried to escape or at least drawn the attention of other people."

"The truck," Turner said. "He kept her in the back of the truck."

"Too risky," Noah said. "Someone somewhere could have heard her. I think Josie's right. She was indoors for most of her captivity. He transported her in the truck to the produce stand. Wherever he was keeping her, that's where Mira and Rosie are now."

He didn't say it but he didn't have to—they all heard the unspoken part of that statement: if they're still alive.

Turner let out a long, frustrated sigh. "So this botanist is full of shit, then."

"No," said Noah. "There is one place, out of the way, on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by forest, that Seth has regular access to whether he chooses to sleep under the roof or not."

Josie said, "Furnished Finds. Turner, when you drove out there, did you notice any areas where there'd been fires? Building sites where the land was disturbed? Recent tree work?"

The fingers of both hands thrummed against his thighs. "I don't think so, unless you count the gravel pit around the back of the place where that Deirdre broad was clearly burning furniture. But we can't get a search warrant for her place. The flowers from some weed, a bonfire in the back of the store…even with her admitting that Seth had her truck, it's not enough. Assuming she lied about, well, everything, we can't prove that to a judge."

Noah picked up his car keys. "But we can talk to her. We can swing by to let her know that her truck was just impounded and what she needs to do to get it back."

Turner grinned. "I see where you're going with this, LT. Maybe we get her to admit to something that gives us enough probable cause for a search warrant."

Josie tossed Hensley's report onto Noah's desk. "Let's go."