Page 29 of The Lost Bones

“Do you know where she is?” Noor’s lower lip quivered.

“Not yet,” Nick said.

Tears streamed down her face. She covered her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Did you or Debbie notice anything strange? Someone watching you?” Nick asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Did she mention anything out of the ordinary?” Mackenzie asked.

Noor’s blazing eyes turned to her. “You.”

“Sorry?”

“Why are you working this case?” Noor bit out. “Debbie exposed your true colors to this town. How you’re just an attention-seeking cop playing the woman card to get ahead in life.”

Mackenzie’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly, unable to form a coherent sentence.

“Ms. Khan.” Nick tried to placate her, but Mackenzie could hear the edge in his voice. “We’re just doing our job. And I can vouch for Detective Price. We’re professionals.”

“Why would she want to find Debbie?” Noor crossed her arms. “I bet she hates her. I bet she’s glad that Debbie is missing. I don’t trust her.”

Mackenzie clamped her jaw tight and spoke in a measured voice, “I’m extremely sorry for the emotional distress you’re experiencing right now. I sympathize. But firstly, I’m standing right here, so please don’t refer to me in the third person. And secondly, you’ll find that I have one of the best records in this department for closing cases.”

Noor licked her lips and nodded curtly. After answering more routine questions, she left, sniffling and sobbing.

“That was intense,” Nick said. “You okay?”

Mackenzie nodded, stifling a growing uneasiness. Fortunately, at that moment their phones rang with another notification. It was the analysis of the particulates found on Courtney’s body.

“Microscopic traces of calcium carbonate.” Nick frowned. “What’s calcium carbonate?”

“Chalk,” Mackenzie replied. “Why was there chalk on her?”

“There wasn’t any in that barn,” he confirmed after checking. “There was also some glitter in her hair.” He pulled up a picture showing red and blue glittering specks tangled in Courtney’s hair and sticking to her scalp.

“That’s odd.” Mackenzie checked the statements from Courtney’s co-workers. “There was no party at her workplace. Why else would she have glitter in her hair?”

“There’s something else too.” Nick showed her the page. “Strands of yarn made of cotton and polyester.”

She took the picture from him. It showed a zoomed-in snapshot of Courtney’s scalp with the strands circled with red. “Yarn?”

“Yarn. Glitter. Chalk,” he listed, squeezing a stress ball. “They weren’t found at the barn, or at her work or the lawyer’s office.”

“Could she have been in contact with them before that? At home?”

He shook his head. “According to the husband, she took a shower and left for work early that day, and he was in charge of breakfast and packing the kids’ lunch. It has to come from wherever she was killed.”

“But there was nothing like this in the barn. So she was killed elsewhere? Why was she moved then?”

“Obviously the killer wanted her to be found with that message to you.” Nick tossed the stress ball between his hands. “Maybe they took her to their house and killed her there. The scene of the murder might implicate them.”

“Why not just kill her at the barn then?” Mackenzie echoed her doubts.

“They hadn’t decided where to leave her for us?” Nick clicked his tongue. “Never mind. If they can look into your life enough to find out about your grade-school bully, they should have planned enough ahead.”

“My grade school bully…” She repeated his words, her random thoughts assembling into a coherent picture. “Blue and red are the colors of my school. Lakemore Elementary. The chalk, the glitter… I think I know where Courtney was killed.”