Page 18 of Crime Lab Cold Case (Pacific Northwest Forensics #2)

“You’re going to make me the bad guy?” She jerked open the door and almost ran into Lou Gray, who was charging down the hallway. “Oops, sorry.”

Lou ignored her and tipped his chin at Michael. “Heard you were looking for me.”

“It can wait. Find anything in the drug dealer’s vehicle yet?”

“Oh, yeah.” Lou rubbed his hands together. Then his gaze darted from Michael to Natalie. “We’ll catch up later.”

Lou saluted as he ambled toward the lunchroom.

As they went downstairs, Natalie asked in a low voice, “You called Lou? What for?”

“About your rental-car brakes.”

She tripped on the last step, and Michael caught her arm. “You don’t suspect him, do you?”

“I’m not going to come at him like that, but I wanted to judge his response.”

“He’ll see right through you.” Natalie waved to Sam as they breezed out the front door. “Your car or mine?”

“No offense, but I’d rather drive.”

She punched him in the arm. “Not my fault.”

They drove to Penny Nguyen’s house, situated in a neat tract of homes, settled near the town. No two-lane roads, no tunnel of towering trees, no animals darting into the street.

Michael parked on the street in front of a tidy, white picket fence with a wooden sign on the gate. Blue lettering on the sign advertised CPA/Taxes.

Natalie lifted the latch on the gate. “If she has a client, you’re out of luck.”

“I’ll take my chances. We’re nowhere near tax season, although the end of the year always puts me in a panic, looking for receipts and looking for investments to lower my taxes.” Michael followed her through the gate, their footsteps crunching the dry leaves, and up to the front door.

When she reached the porch, she stood to the side, allowing Michael access to the front door and the doorbell, which was connected to a camera. She murmured, “She might not let you in once she sees you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He pressed the doorbell with his thumb.

Whether or not Mrs. Nguyen checked the camera, she opened the door almost immediately and smiled, the lines crinkling at the corners of her eyes making her look a lot jollier than she had a reason to look.

The gray streaks in her hair gleamed beneath the light from the house. “Hello. Can I help you?”

Michael took an audible breath. “Mrs. Nguyen, I’m Dr. Michael Wilder. I work for the Washington State Patrol at the forensics lab here in town.”

She dipped her head. “I know who you are, Dr. Wilder. I followed your wife’s case, and I’m very sorry for your…troubles.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Nguyen, and you can call me Michael.”

“I’m Penny.” She tilted her head, birdlike, her face tightening over her delicate bone structure. “Something tells me you’re not here for tax advice. You’d better come in.”

She widened her door, and Michael waved Natalie in first. “I’m sorry. This is FBI Special Agent Natalie Brunetti.”

Penny closed the door and locked the dead bolt. “Now, I know you’re not here for financial advice. I’d actually heard about Agent Brunetti’s presence in town and her accident last night.”

Natalie whistled. “The rumor mill in Marysville is alive and well, and I’m Natalie.”

She stuck out her hand, and Penny took it in a surprisingly firm grip for such a petite woman. “Tea, anyone? I always find it helps for tough conversations.”

Natalie exchanged a glance with Michael. This woman was prescient. “Yes, please.”

Penny invited them to sit down and went into the kitchen to prepare their tea.

Seated on the couch next to Michael, Natalie leaned over, bumped his shoulder and whispered, “You’d abandoned the tax story as soon as you saw her, didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t lie to her, not after seeing the pain in her face. It’s still there, isn’t it? Her clients probably don’t see it, but you and I know the look. We’ve had the look.”

Natalie gave his hand a surreptitious squeeze before bounding up from the couch to help Penny with an elaborate tea tray.

Once they were settled, Penny held her cup to her lips, her pinkie finger raised. “Now, what do you want to know about Alma’s death?”

Natalie almost choked on her first sip of tea.

Did Penny still have hope that they’d find her daughter’s killer?

This woman made Natalie even more determined to dig in and see this through.

She had no intention of leaving Marysville until she got to the bottom of these homicides.

She didn’t believe she could solve them on her own, or even with Michael’s help, but just maybe she could get another investigation started—one that would look at these three cases together.

Natalie daintily dabbed her lips with a napkin. “I’m here to look into evidence for several cold cases. Alma’s isn’t one of them, but I’ve seen some similarities between hers and some others.”

“Sierra Conchas and that poor girl Katie Fellows, who disappeared.”

This time Natalie almost dropped her cup in her lap. She put it down in the saucer with a clink. “How do you know that, Penny?”

Penny smiled sadly. “Call it mother’s intuition. I tried telling Detective Morse, who was on my daughter’s case, and that Deputy Reynolds, but they wrote me off as a grief-stricken parent, which I was.”

Michael glanced around the room. “Is Mr. Nguyen still with you?”

“He’s still with someone, but it isn’t me.

” Penny gripped the arms of her chair. “After Alma’s murder, my husband, my ex, he went off the rails.

I redirected my grief by conducting my own investigation.

He redirected his into the bottle. I’d finally had enough of his drinking and kicked him out.

He moved to Hawaii. Still drinking, I think. ”

“I’m sorry, Penny.” Michael hunched forward, his elbows on his knees. “A homicide is hell on everyone left behind.”

“It is.” Her dark eyes bright with unshed tears, Penny asked, “How’s your little girl?”

“She’s fine.”

Michael seemed to handle accusations better than sympathy, so he rose from the couch and studied some photos of Alma on a bookshelf. “Pretty girl. Was she good at the piano?”

“Alma was good at everything…except self-preservation. She trusted everyone.” Penny dropped her gaze to her hands folded in her lap.

Natalie gave Michael a glance from the corner of her eye, and he nodded. She took a deep breath through her nose. “Penny, in your interview with the police, you mentioned that Alma was wearing a piece of jewelry at the time of her death, something you’d never seen her with before. What was it?”

Penny’s head shot up and she encircled her wrist with her fingers. “A bracelet, one of those circles without a catch. A bangle, you’d call it. Alma never wore those kinds of bracelets. Her wrists were too small, and the bangles wouldn’t stay on.

Natalie slipped her phone from her purse and tapped the picture of Sierra’s bracelets. Licking her dry lips, she crouched beside Penny’s chair and held out the phone. “Did it look like any of these?”

Penny gasped and grabbed the phone, tugging it from Natalie’s hand. She held it close to her face, staring at the display from behind her glasses. “Just like this one.”