Chapter 22

After a delicious lunch of decadent macaroni and cheese, Laurel walked into the conference room and set down her sparkling water. Upon concluding his interview with Tim Kohnex, Agent Norrs had left to liaise with the local police sheriff, and she surprised herself by wishing he'd stayed. The office was too quiet with her entire team gone. She shivered, feeling alone. "Sherry, I'd like an update on that warrant for Abbott's diaries in about an hour," she called out. They encountered difficulty securing a judge's signature.

"You've got it," Sherry called back. "That appointment with Ms. Carrington is in a few minutes."

Meeting Zeke Caine's new lover should be interesting. "Thank you. Please also call Nester and see if he's found a trace of Saul Bearing or his sons."

"Sure."

Laurel stared at the boards and at Jason Abbott's mugshot for several minutes.

Movement sounded down the hallway, and Sherry escorted a young woman in. "Special Agent in Charge Laurel Snow, this is Ms. Uma Carrington."

"Hi, Ms. Carrington," Laurel said, flipping the board over to reveal the unadorned side. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

"Hi." The woman walked into the conference room.

Laurel motioned to one of the chairs. "Take a seat."

"Thank you." Ms. Carrington pulled out a chair and sat. She had angled bone structure, dark brown eyes, and long brown hair with very obvious and lovely blond streaks. Did Zeke like blondes? Like to kill them?

"Would you like a glass of water, Ms. Carrington?" Laurel asked.

She shook her head. "Call me Uma."

Laurel studied her. "Uma is one of the names of the goddess Parvati, a principal deity of Hinduism. I think the word means light or tranquility."

"Or fame," Uma said, smiling fully now. "In Hindu mythology, she is also known as the goddess of love and devotion." She lifted one dark eyebrow. "You've done your research."

"I like to read," Laurel noted. "I read that somewhere years ago."

"Ah," Uma said, settling back in the chair. She appeared comfortable in a long green skirt with a white-and-green sweater. Her earrings dangled in colorful beads of red, white, and green. "Pastor Caine said you needed to speak with me?"

That was an interesting way to speak about her boyfriend. "Yes. He alleges that the two of you are in a relationship?"

"Yes," Uma said, her high cheekbones accentuated perfectly with shadow and blush. "We have been dating for a couple of months now, I suppose."

Laurel leaned forward. "If you don't mind my asking, how old are you?"

Uma laughed. "I don't mind at all. I'm twenty-four." She brushed her hair back from her face. "I know there's an age gap, but I find Zeke to be knowledgeable and, frankly, a lot of fun. He has a zest for life you don't see in people my age sometimes."

"I see," Laurel said. The woman appeared intelligent and yet apparently had no idea that Zeke Caine was a predator. She supposed he could be charming when necessary and wondered if she should warn the young woman. "Could you please tell me where you were last Wednesday into Thursday morning?"

"Of course," Uma said. "I made dinner, a chicken cacciatore, on Wednesday night for Zeke and myself. Then we stayed in and watched a movie."

Laurel couldn't see Zeke as being the domestic type. "What movie?"

Uma waved a hand in the air. "There was an old movie marathon on one of the channels. So we caught the end of Shawshank Redemption and then watched Back to the Future . It was a lovely and perfectly mellow evening."

"And then?"

She shrugged. "After the movies, we went to bed."

"All night?" Laurel asked.

Uma met her gaze, her brown eyes wide. "Yes. The pastor stayed all night. In the morning, he cooked banana pancakes for me and then left once he received a phone call about the body found at the church who turned out to be poor Mrs. Bearing. He did not leave all night."

Laurel tapped her fingers on the table. "Can you be sure that Zeke didn't leave all night?"

"Of course I am certain, or I wouldn't say so. I'm a very light sleeper, Agent Snow. If Zeke had left, I would've heard him. He was with me all night." The woman showed no obvious signs of falsehood. Her brow remained clear, her body relaxed, and her voice level.

"Are you familiar with Teri Bearing?" Laurel asked.

Uma placed her hands on the table and clasped them together. Her nails were cut short with white tips. "Of course, I know Teri. We attend the same church. I'm very sorry to hear that she was the victim found by the river. She's always been very nice to me."

Laurel couldn't detect a lie in the words. "Do you know of anybody who would want to kill her?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. I suppose her husband wasn't too happy with her, considering she was sleeping with Pastor John." Uma shook her head sadly. "I could not believe it when Zeke told me that last week."

Laurel leaned forward. "Zeke told you that last week?"

"Yes." Uma winced. "It's not a huge secret, to be honest. They haven't hidden it very well. I'm surprised her husband didn't know. Perhaps he did."

Laurel needed to see Saul Bearing sooner rather than later. "What do you do for a living, Uma?"

"I just finished college and received my nursing degree after years of studying," Uma said, her face lighting up. "I start work next week at the hospital and can't wait."

"Congratulations." Laurel reached for her glass. "Have you ever met or heard of a woman named Delta Rivers?"

Uma pursed her lips, as if thinking. "No, I haven't. Why? Is that the name of the first victim?"

Laurel took a sip of her sparkling water. "I can't reveal that information at this time. Are you sure you've never heard that name?"

"I'm positive."

Laurel pulled a picture of Delta out of her file folder. It had been taken during the autopsy. "This isn't an ideal picture, but would you please double-check?"

Uma pulled the photograph toward her and cocked her head. "No, I'm sorry. She doesn't look familiar at all." Then she peered closer. "Maybe. It's difficult to tell from this. There was a woman at the church who met with Zeke a week or so ago. She had blond hair, and I didn't recognize her. But I just can't tell from this picture."

Laurel's instincts started to hum. "There was a woman you didn't recognize?"

"Yes, but you have to realize that is not uncommon. People come from Seattle all the time to meet with both Pastor Zeke and Pastor John regarding our outreach programs. I just figured she was one of those folks, maybe from the food bank."

Laurel nodded. "That's more than likely." Yet she needed to follow up on this. "The church doesn't have security cameras, does it?"

"Oh, no. Not at the church," Uma said, as if shocked by the very idea.

How unfortunate. They really could use some CCTV. Laurel couldn't think of any more questions. Unfortunately, the woman seemed like a good alibi for Zeke Caine. "I appreciate your coming in today," Laurel said.

Uma leaned forward. "I was hoping I could also talk to you about your father."

"We can't get into personal matters here, Ms. Carrington. I'm sorry."

Uma focused fully on Laurel. "No, really. He cares about you deeply and wants a relationship with you. He doesn't understand why you won't see the good in him."

Laurel pushed back her chair and stood. "That's because there isn't good in him, Uma. He's a predator and he harms women. He's a narcissist and probably a sociopath."

Uma stood and wrung her hands together. "You're wrong."

Laurel stared at her dispassionately. "Do what you will with the information I've given to you. But if you're as smart as you appear, you'll run fast and hard in the other direction." She showed the woman to the door and then returned to her office, her mind clicking travel arrangements into place. She called her mom's warehouse and spoke to the employees before phoning her local travel agent.

"What's going on?" Agent Norrs asked, walking inside and dropping into a chair. "Did I hear you making plans to head to Asia?"

Laurel rolled her shoulders, unsure of how much to reveal. Norrs seemed to be a good agent with poor taste in women, and he didn't have her trust. She missed her team, flashing back to being a child prodigy—all alone amongst her peers. "I'm rearranging a planned buying trip for my mother so she leaves tomorrow."

Agent Norrs kicked out his legs. "Sounds like a good idea. Is it because the killer is murdering blondes?"

"That might be a coincidence since we only have two victims." Hopefully they wouldn't get any more. "I'm more concerned that Zeke Caine wants to speak with my mother. With both of us rejecting his overtures, he could become even more dangerous than he obviously is right now. A malignant narcissist or sociopath with his kind of ego can't take such disrespect, and I'm concerned he'll strike out at her."

Norrs rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "You think he'd actually hurt your mom because she doesn't want to talk to him?"

"Without question," Laurel said. "He has no moral compass, and I want her safe while I track his movements of the last few years. There's a reason he won't share where he's been, and I have no doubt he's victimized more people. I also need to figure out a way to talk to the female members of his congregation without being shut out. We haven't hit on a method for doing that yet."

Norrs whistled. "I spoke to your sister, and she truly doesn't like your father. At all. She'd really like to meet us for dinner tonight."

"I am unavailable this evening," Laurel said.

He sighed. "I'm going to keep trying. For now, that was quite the scene outside with Haylee Johnson. The news keeps streaming it."

Laurel pressed the palm of her hand into her eyebrow and gently rubbed it, hoping the increased supply of blood to the area would ward off her oncoming headache. "Yes, Haylee Johnson needs help. Make sure we have somebody on her at all times."

"Fish and Wildlife is trailing her, but their resources are limited," Agent Norrs said. "Do you think she's in danger?"

"We all are, Agent Norrs."

* * *

Nester called in early that afternoon with news that he had tracked down the mayor in Montana and was working with the Montana field office to get the man on a plane back home. "There's a storm preventing the small plane from flying right now, but the mayor said he'd head out tomorrow morning and meet you at his house late afternoon."

"Make sure agents escort him to his plane, and also be clear that if he doesn't fly right here, I'll have him arrested for hindering an investigation," she said.

"No problem, boss."

Finally. She had a few choice words for the mayor. She and Huck could practice breaking ice on the rivers in the morning, and then she would interview the Bearings. She believed his son, the attorney, would also be present. "Have you found anything else about Mrs. Bearing's movements?" She placed her phone on speaker.

"No, and I can't find any spa where she had a reservation," Nester said. "I'm thinking she just lied to her husband and never made reservations since she planned to stay with Pastor John for a couple of days and go on that snowmobile trip. They certainly weren't hiding their affair."

Laurel sipped her herbal tea. "Have we found anybody to corroborate Pastor John's alibi that night?"

"No," Nester said. "So far, we haven't found anybody who saw him that night, and we don't have any CCTV that far out. I'm still working on it, though. He said he was home alone, so tracing his path to and from the church isn't going to be easy."

The pastor seemed to blur the lines between his professional and personal lives too often. Of course, Laurel was dating Huck. But an FBI agent and a Fish and Wildlife officer had a different relationship than a pastor and his parishioner. "What else have you discovered?"

"I've just started a background check on Tim Kohnex. Everything he told you so far checks out. He was a basketball coach after he played for Alabama. The guy was pretty good, then blew out his knee. During his time in Arizona, he notified police about crimes several times, but it was all kind of floofy."

"I need clarification on the word ‘floofy.'"

Nester sneezed. "Floofy—meaning it's like he knew stuff afterwards. You know, like when he came in and told you that another blonde would be murdered by the river. Anybody who's watched a show about a serial killer pretty much knows if two blondes have been found killed in a ritualistic manner, a third will be found soon. That kind of thing. Where he could claim he had a vision, but also where most people could have guessed at it."

"That was my insight when I spoke with him." Even though his apparent intensity had given her pause. She wasn't an imaginative person, but anybody could get caught up once in a while. "Keep researching him. I'd like to know his movements around both murders. See if we can tie him to Delta Rivers or at least to the crime scene by the Iceberg River."

"You've got it," Nester said. "Also, the toxicology reports came back on both victims."

Laurel rubbed a knot in her neck. "Were drugs discovered in their systems?"

"No drugs. They were both clean of drugs other than the alcohol in Mrs. Bearing's system. She was over the limit to drive safely but not to the point where she would've lost consciousness."

Laurel relived the scenes in her mind. "So the killer either had the ice already prepared or subdued the victims and cut a hole in it without allowing them to escape."

"My guess is he scoped the places out in advance."

"Agreed," Laurel said. "Which gives us another chance to place the perpetrator at the scenes. He would've had to have been there at least once before. No doubt he scouted the areas several times."

Nester hummed softly. "The church is an odd choice, isn't it? People come and go from there a lot. Do you think this guy has a problem with religion?"

"I don't know," Laurel said. "The only tie we have between the two crime scenes is that we had earlier crime scenes in the same vicinities."

"That's creepy as hell," Nester muttered.

He wasn't wrong.

She sighed. "Maybe we need to speak to the public again. What have you discovered about Delta Rivers?"

"Fascinating woman. I traced her most recent location to a commune in Santa Fe. It's a place called Trust the Land, and according to the woman I spoke with, Delta Rivers lived there for the last fifteen years."

How intriguing. "That's a long time. It's a commune?"

"Yes. The commune is a cohousing community that exists on the precepts of sustainability, cooperative living, and family creation. I think by that they mean you choose your family. There's a common house, kitchen, all that stuff, and they grow their own food. It sounds like they're a bunch of artists as well, and Delta was one of them."

Laurel rearranged her schedule in her mind. "How well did this woman with whom you spoke know Delta?"

"Extremely well. Her name is Opal Garcia, and she's the current president of the commune. I'm running a background check on her now. It should be completed in about an hour."

"Excellent," Laurel said. "Did she say she'd meet with me?"

Nester chuckled. "I figured you'd ask, and she said she would be happy to see you on Saturday. They have some ritual deal going on this week that has something to do with Delta River's death, and the co-op is closed to the public, so she won't see you till then."

Finally they'd found a lead Laurel could pursue. "Would you make flight arrangements for me?"

"I already did," Nester said.

Huck would want to accompany her, and he absolutely could not.

She dreaded that fight.