Chapter 30

I woke the next morning feeling more refreshed than I had in a long time. The talk I’d had the night before with Giovanni had ended with a decision to choose a wedding date and start making plans as soon as the investigation was over.

I dressed and was out the door by nine o’clock, motivated to make today one that would end with my questions being answered. First on the agenda was a visit to the medical examiner’s office to see Silas.

I found him sitting at the table, bobbing his head up and down as he hovered over a breakfast platter that looked like it came from a fast-food joint. His usual big-hair-band music wasn’t playing in the background, which I found odd until I saw the earbuds in his ears.

I waved a hand in front of him. He didn’t see me, so I bent down until my face was a few inches in front of his. He jumped back, and we both started laughing.

He removed the earbuds and said, “Hi’ya stranger. I’ve been wondering when you’d show up.”

“I wanted to stop by yesterday, but the day got away from me. Ever since this investigation started, I’ve been going nonstop.”

“I know the feeling. This case is different than the others. It may be a cold case, but you know how I am when something falls into my lap. I’m as determined as you are to get to the bottom of it, no matter how many hours I have to put in. Guessin’ you’re here for an update.”

“I am.”

“Cool. You have any specific questions for me?”

“I do. During the original investigation, scrapings were taken from under Aidan’s fingernails. Have you looked over those test results?”

“I have, and I’ve tested them again. Sorry to say, they’re not a match to anyone in the system.”

Too bad.

I was hoping for better news.

“What about the note left on Cora’s windshield?” I asked.

“I used a ninhydrin treatment to check for any latent fingerprints that may have been left on the note. There weren’t any. He may have been wearing gloves.”

“Have you been out to the cabin yet?”

“I have. Not much luck there either. I mean, there were fingerprints all over the place, but the amount of time it would take to process them all … well, it would take a while. Wish I had better news for ya.”

“Yeah, me too.”

I was hoping for something more, a clue to point me in the right direction. Looked like I wouldn’t find any here.

“You have any suspects yet?” he asked.

“A few.”

“Anyone stand out more than the others?”

“You know how it is with these cases. I always seem to stumble before I get to the truth.”

“You always get there in the end. Hey, I’m not sure how much help it would be to you, but Foley dropped off a box of evidence from the old investigation. Wanna look through it while you’re here?”

I nodded and walked with Silas to his office.

He pointed to a box sitting on top of a chair next to the printer and said, “There you go.”

I slid some gloves on, approached the box, and lifted the lid. Reaching inside, I pulled out several evidence bags. As I looked at the labels, I came across samples of the clothes the teens had been wearing that day, along with other things like soil, fibers, and hair. I set them to the side, and something caught my eye—a small baggie at the bottom of the box. I grabbed it out and held it in front of me.

“They filled out information on the location, but there’s no description on that one,” Silas said.

The location information indicated the bag’s contents were found in the soil next to Owen’s body.

“They may not have known what it was when they bagged it, but I do,” I said.

“You do?”

The bag contained two tiny gold fragments, which at first glance would be hard to identify. But given what I’d recently learned, I knew what I was looking at.

“They’re pieces off of a gold chain,” I said.

“How do you know?”

I told him about the gold chains the boys had been given, and my theory about them being removed from their necks after they were murdered.

If I was right, and I believed I was, the killer had taken Owen’s chain, and he may have taken the others too.

But why?