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“The stuff looks like it’s been moved around since this afternoon.” Jessica ran her tongue around her dry mouth.
“How can you tell?” Finn marched toward the memorial, pulling his phone from his pocket.
She followed him, dragging her feet. As she crouched next to the mound of memorial items left with the best of intentions, she reached for the cards she’d stacked earlier.
She glimpsed a black button eye from the depths of the pile, and her hands froze. With trembling fingers, she nudged aside the stuffed animals and candles to reveal the doll, staring at her from the center of the heap with its single eye.
Falling back in the dirt, she let out a piercing cry.
“What’s wrong?” Finn swung around.
“That doll.” She pointed a finger at the dirty rag doll with yellow braids and a red-checked blouse.
“Kind of odd, but what’s the problem? Maybe Morgan had a thing for rag dolls.” He cocked his head and dropped to his knees beside her. “You’re really spooked.”
She dragged her gaze away from the horrifying sight and clutched Finn’s arm. “You don’t understand. That’smydoll. My childhood doll.”
Chapter Three
“Wait.” Finn jabbed his finger in the direction of the rag doll. “You’re saying that’s a doll you had when you were a kid? Like, that was the actual doll you owned?”
Jessica’s grip on his arm tightened, and her fingernails dug into his skin through his shirt. “I-I don’t know. I don’t understand.”
“Maybe it just looks like the same doll.” Using a stick, Finn nudged the other items out of the way and slid the doll’s clothing to lift it from the pile. As it swung in the air, pigtails flying, Jessica pressed a hand over her mouth.
He dropped the doll at their feet, and Jessica shifted away from it as if it would bite her with its smiling red mouth. “Is it the sametypeof doll you had as a child?”
His mind refused to entertain the thought that this was Jessica’s doll. This place had her all rattled—not that he could blame her.
She sniffed. “It’s not the same doll. Mine was dirty. This one is brand-new, but look.”
He peered over her shoulder as she pointed a shaky finger at the missing button on the doll’s face.
He said, “Yeah, not brand-new.”
“It’s the button, Finn. My doll was missing the samebutton eye. Somebody placed this doll, a replica of the only doll I had as a child, on Morgan’s memorial. Why? How?”
Squeezing his eyes closed and pinching the bridge of his nose, Finn asked, “Who would even know about this doll?”
“Tiffany…and maybe a few of her friends.” Jessica clasped a hand around the long column of her throat, one tear sparkling on the ends of her lashes. “When I went away to college in Oregon and Tiffany got the job here, I gave her my doll. I didn’t want to leave her once she got her life on track, but she insisted I take the scholarship. So maybe it is the same doll…the doll I gave to Tiffany.”
“Okay, okay. That makes some sense.” Finn released a noisy breath. “Maybe Morgan’s murder, because of the location so close to Tiffany’s, triggered one of Tiffany’s friends and she put the doll here, thinking it was Tiffany’s doll. Maybe this same person left the card.”
Jessica pulled her plump lower lip between her teeth. “I suppose that could’ve happened. But…”
“But what?” Finn held his breath, preparing himself for Jessica’s next outlandish proposal.
“What if Tiffany’s killer took the doll at the time of her murder and planted it here?” Using the stick, Jessica picked up the doll.
“There was never any evidence that Tiffany’s killer had been inside her place—no fingerprints there, no DNA, no signs of a struggle or break-in. He ambushed her by the side of the creek and used a garrote to strangle her, one we never found.”
“Morgan was strangled, too.”
“Just like every other victim of the Creekside Killer. Maybe what we have with Morgan is a copycat.” He prodded the doll with his fingertip. “Are you taking this withyou? You know, even though you’re bagging this stuff, you’ve ruined the chain of custody. An attorney would destroy this evidence in court.”
“Thanks for telling me my job. I’m still taking it in, along with that card. This is personal.” She scooped up the doll by its midsection, squeezing the soft material with her hand. “I’m going to look up Ashley and Denny, Tiffany’s friends, and find out what they know about this doll.”
“Did you look for it when—” Finn coughed “—when you came to collect Tiffany’s property?”