Page 12 of The Creekside Murder (Pacific Northwest Forensics #1)

Finn dug the heels of his tennis shoes into the dirt and eyed the pile of stuffed animals, candles and flowers, balloons floating above it all. From his position, he did a three-sixty but didn’t see any sign of Jessica.

The location of her car on the road indicated she’d come to Morgan’s memorial, as they’d parked there when they were here together. Why would she go anywhere else? Unless someone took her against her will.

Crouching down, he used the flashlight from his phone to scan the ground, looking for a disturbance or signs of a struggle. But he was no professional tracker, and the sticks, leaves, pebbles and other detritus from the forest littered the ground in the haphazard pattern he’d expect.

He glanced up, taking in the trail that led through the trees to the edge of the creek. She didn’t get it in her head to take a stroll past her sister’s murder site, did she? What would possess her to do that? Unless it wasn’t her idea.

His heart thumped as he pushed to his feet and strode toward the path to the creek. Before he even got there, a woman’s scream ripped through the night air.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and his feet started moving in the direction of the sound. The shriek had set the whole forest in motion. Creatures scurried around him under cover of the darkness and underbrush, and birds took flight, twittering and flapping.

Once he swallowed his shock and got his breath back, he shouted. “Jessica! Jessica!”

The critters responded to his intrusion with more chirping and rustling, but humans had other ways of communicating. Without missing a step, Finn pulled out his phone and called Jessica.

His chest heaved and his vision blurred as her phone rang. When he finally heard her voice on the other end, he staggered to a stop. “Jessica?”

Her reply, breathless and hoarse, almost took him to his knees in relief. “Oh my God. Finn, there’s another one. There’s another dead woman.”

Goose bumps marched across his flesh as he clutched the phone, trying to keep Jessica close. “I’m here in the forest. I heard your scream. I’m by the creek, just past the crime scene.”

“Keep following the waterline. Go past Tiffany’s murder site for several more yards. I-I’m here. There’s a body by the water.”

He started jogging, phone plastered to his ear. “Stay on the line with me. I’m almost there. We’ll call 911 when I reach you. Are you safe?”

“The killer’s gone, if that’s what you mean, and I have my Sig Sauer by my side.”

“Thatta girl. Keep it handy, but I’m coming at you in about a minute. Don’t shoot me.”

When he came around the last bend in the creek, he ended the call with Jessica and shone his flashlight on her standing beside a crumpled form at the water’s edge, her weapon in her hand at her side.

His gut twisted in knots. He’d been so focused on getting to Jessica, he hadn’t let the news of another body sink in—until now.

His stride ate up the final feet between them, and he pulled her against his chest with one arm. Her body trembled against him. “God, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I am—” she sniffled and pointed her gun at the body “—but she’s not.”

“Have you touched the body? Done any kind of observation?”

“Just checked her pulse to make sure she didn’t have any life left to save. Sh-she was still warm. I didn’t want to touch anything else.” She wriggled from his grasp and tapped her phone. “I’m calling it in.”

He didn’t want to touch anything, either, but he crouched beside the young woman, her eyes staring, her black hair spread out in a fan behind her head, and ran his light around her face and neck.

The redness around her throat indicated another strangling.

Small scratches marred her skin, and he directed his light to her hand resting across her chest. One broken fingernail and a few drops of blood indicated this poor girl had fought to breathe, fought to remove the object around her neck, strangling the life out of her.

Finished with her call to 911, Jessica nudged him in the back with her toe. “Careful.”

He rose beside her. “Strangled, probably with a tie or scarf. Most likely not a rope or wire.”

“Just like Morgan—” Jessica rubbed her upper arms “—and Tiffany, but not like the other Creekside victims.”

“Well, we know where Avery Plank is, so it’s definitely not him.” Finn stepped away from the body, pulling Jessica with him. “What were you doing out here? How’d you find this body?”

“What were you doing out here?”

“I followed you.” He shrugged, not ashamed of his actions. “After you got that text at dinner, you seemed off. I figured you were up to something and if you didn’t want to tell me, it was probably something you knew you shouldn’t be doing.”

“What are you, the hall monitor?” She narrowed her eyes, but he didn’t flinch.

“You’re welcome. I may have saved your life.”

“It’s not my life that needed saving.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened or make me find out when you talk to the police because I know you’re not lying to them.

” He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest, even though he really wanted her back in his embrace.

For all her tough talk, her eyes looked glassy in the darkness, and that scream still echoed in his brain.

“I got a text from someone who told me to meet him at Morgan’s memorial site if I wanted to find out what happened to Tiffany.”

Anger fizzed in his veins, and he wanted to berate her for her carelessness—but that wasn’t the way to get Jessica Eller to talk. “Unknown number, I presume.”

“You presume correctly, and we can further presume that any tracing of the number is going to come back to a burner phone, but I’m still going to run a trace.”

“Okay.” He curled his fingers into his biceps. “Morgan’s memorial site. I was there. You weren’t. What happened from there?”

“I stopped there for a few minutes waiting, and then I began to hear noises in the woods—human noises. Footsteps.”

“Someone out there just stomping around after committing a murder.”

“No stealthy creeping. He definitely wanted me to hear him…and follow him.” She rubbed her hands together in front of her, as if trying to get warm even though she still wore the jacket from dinner.

“Follow him?”

“His footsteps were quite clear. Every time I stopped to listen, he’d respond by leading me on with his footsteps. Once I started along the path, it became clear that he was leading me to Tiffany’s crime scene.” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“You got to…that location and then what happened?”

Her eyes widened as she reached out and grabbed his arm. “He laughed.”

“Laughed? What kind of laugh?” Finn clenched his jaw. What kind of evil laughed after committing a murder? Avery Plank for one, and there were many others.

“A horrible, high-pitched laugh.” Jessica covered her ears as if she could still hear it. She probably could.

“I think it came from across the creek. He must’ve come from the other side. The deputies need to check that access road for tire tracks. I know they did for Morgan’s murder, too, but this time they might be able to discern fresh tracks. I never did hear a car. Did you?”

“I didn’t hear a car. Didn’t hear a laugh, either.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “After you screamed, did you hear me calling your name?”

“No. I just got your call, which stunned me for a few seconds. Of course, I didn’t have any idea when I saw the call come through that you were actually in the forest with me.” She gave him a sideways glance. “I’m glad you were here.”

“Me, too, but that means the killer probably didn’t hear me yelling, either. So he didn’t know I was here.”

“I think he left after I screamed. He left once he made sure I’d found his handiwork.” She pointed down the path that led to another entrance to the trail. “Sirens.”

“If he didn’t hear me, didn’t know I was out here, I probably didn’t save your life.”

“You sound disappointed.” She shoved her hands in the front pockets of her jeans and screwed up one side of her mouth.

“No, no. I’m relieved you weren’t in physical danger.” He stepped toward the water, making a wide berth around the dead woman, and stared at the other side of the creek. “I’m just wondering why. What does he want with you? Why lead you to another dead body?”

“It’s clear to me.” She raised her arms in the air, cell phone flashlight clasped in one hand, and waved at the deputies charging up the trail. “He either killed Tiffany or knows who did. He’s playing a game with me…and I’m all in.”

* * *

A BOUT TWO HOURS later at the stroke of midnight, Jessica kicked her feet in the chilly water and took another sip of beer from the bottle she and Finn had bought at the little market inside her hotel.

Her shoulder bumped his as they sat side by side at the edge of a small mooring area outside the hotel.

After the deputies had grilled them—or rather grilled her , Finn’s buddies on the force had questioned him—they’d been too pumped up to go their separate ways and call it a night. What a night.

Tapping her knee, he said, “Your toes are going to freeze in that water.”

“Then they’ll match the rest of me. I’m not over the shock of finding Missy Park. Why weren’t the deputies patrolling that trail after Morgan’s murder? And what was Missy doing there by herself?

Finn tipped back his bottle, took a long swallow and slammed it down on the wooden slats of the dock. “I could ask you the same question.”

She caught her breath. She knew Finn would be angry about it. Knew he’d try to talk her out of it. That’s why she’d hidden it from him. She said, lightly, “Asked and answered.”

“If a stranger texted you to go jump off the Space Needle, would you do that, too?” He collapsed on his back, folding his arms beneath his head.

“I would do a lot to solve my sister’s murder. I owe it to her.” She glanced at his bunching biceps, his T-shirt stretched across the hard planes of his chest. The boy had become a man—a harder, less forgiving one, a less malleable one.