Page 44 of Vanish From Sight (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #2)

H ome was a welcome reprieve from the madness of the investigation.

Surrounded by the scent of fresh paint and the hum of the TV playing in the background, Callie took out a cold bottle of Chardonnay from the fridge and pulled the cork.

She poured a quarter of a glass. Not too much.

Not too little. Just enough to take the edge off.

She didn’t want to awake the next day with a heavy head.

She saved those humdingers for her days off.

She glanced at the TV as she put the bottle back.

Local news was running the story of Katherine Evans and Laura Summers now that the media had managed to obtain names.

So far, they had little information to go on regarding the deaths as local PD, County and State were tight-lipped.

However, that didn’t stop theories swirling of a serial killer on the loose since the discovery of Lena .

She leaned back against the kitchen island, taking a sip and listening as the reporter interviewed several neighbors, folks who had met, known or lived near the women.

The comments were mostly the same — shock, disbelief and fear.

Some mentioned buying a gun for the first time, others were scared to go out.

Comments were as varied as the rumors.

With a third death potentially being linked to the other two, and occurring so close in time to the others, High Peaks had now become the mecca for weirdos and oddballs.

Callie shook her head as a reporter thirsty for even a smidgen of titillating information interviewed the head of a paranormal group.

“Don’t you feel this is a little disrespectful to the families? ”

“We’re just trying to help. We understand people don’t believe in the spirit world but they will when we reveal the name of who’s behind this.”

Callie shook her head as she set the wine glass down and went back to applying the neutral-colored paint to the wall with the roller. She’d thrown down tarps to prevent damage to the hardwood floors. It was therapeutic to her as she found herself lost in the repetitive motion of painting.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. As she stepped down off the ladder, a large dollop of paint landed on her face. She smeared it with the back of her forearm trying to wipe it away, but only made it worse. “Ugh,” she groaned. “I’m coming,” she said at the sound of another loud knock.

Peering through the peephole, she was greeted by the sight of Noah on the other side. She pulled the door wide. He looked apologetic.

“Sorry. I should have called first.”

“No. It’s okay, I was just… painting.”

“I see.” He pointed to her face.

She wiped it again which apparently only made it worse, as Noah smirked. Callie shifted awkwardly from one foot to the next. “Come on in,” she said, moving to one side. As he passed, she noticed flowers at his side.

“Who’s the lucky girl?”

“Oh, uh. A housewarming gift,” he said, handing them to her. They were beautiful, familiar, but very odd.

“Strange. I always thought florists wrapped them.” She was noting the soil dangling from the ends.

“That’s exactly what I said.”

Callie set them down, smiling. “They look familiar.”

“I would hope so. Getting them out of that hanging basket was a bitch, but Simon, your neighbor, eventually gave me a hand.”

She smiled as Noah wiped mud from his hands on a rag.

“Hope he didn’t screw you over.”

“Forty bucks, but what can you do at this hour with all the stores closed?”

Callie laughed as she sifted through a cupboard for a vase. Noah’s gaze roamed the room. “You eaten?” he asked.

“Not yet,” she said, setting the flowers in the vase.

“You up for going out?”

“Uh. Not exactly in the mood for dashing around, after today.”

“I hear you. Just I know a good Chinese place.”

She nodded. “We can order in.”

“Okay.”

Forty minutes later, with the Chinese food laid out on the table, Callie poured a little more wine. “You don’t drink, right?”

“As of a day ago, I would have said no. I’ll have some.”

“You sure? ”

He nodded and she poured a glass. “So, this is the new place you were talking about. For some reason I thought you were referring to the housing development over in Fawn Valley.”

“Not on my wages. No, this place does the job.”

“It’s nice. Though I thought it was a new build.”

“It is,” she said, serving up some of the Chinese onto a plate.

“So, why paint it?”

She sat down, a smile forming, then shrugged. “You’re going to think it’s odd.”

“Fire away.”

“It’s a habit I picked up from my mother.

Every few months she would get bored of the layout and color of the walls and felt she needed to change things up.

So, she would drag me and my sister down to the paint shop to pick out new colors.

Drove our father nuts but it kept life interesting or at least our house. ”

“You said your mother was a…” he reached for the word.

“Psychologist. One of the best. At least if her accolades are anything to go by.”

“So even psychologists are a little weird.”

She laughed.

It didn’t take long for them to segue into a discussion about the case after another segment rolled out on the TV. He twisted in his seat to view some of the shots from earlier that day of media outside the Evans home.

“Everyone’s got their theories,” he said.

“To be expected.”

“What’s yours?”

“You’re asking me?”

He nodded; his mouth full of rice.

Callie picked at her food. “I think that I’m every bit as confused as the rest of the town. Theories get us nowhere. Facts. That I can work with.”

Noah leaned back, wiping his lips with a napkin. “I went back to the sites this evening after having a visit with the medical examiner. You know — the Evans home, and the tree.”

“Wait. You went to see the medical examiner?”

“It was fentanyl. The cause of Lena’s death.”

Callie gave an incredulous expression.

Noah dug a fork into his food, picking at it. “I don’t buy drug use for one minute. I also don’t think her death is connected to the others.”

“Why not?”

“When I talked with Maggie, she said Lena didn’t know Nate Sawyer.

It was long before her time, and although she wrote the first article about the woman pulled from the lake, her name wasn’t on it.

Carl McNeal took it over, edited her work and attached his name.

So, if the one who murdered Katherine and Laura took offense to the media, it would have been with Carl or Nate.

Nate was flying solo with his journalism business and was the one threatening to expose High Peaks Academy. ”

“And yet Nate is still alive. In fact, you would have thought that if it was related to what was covered up by the faculty, he would have been targeted first. It almost seems like a missed opportunity. I mean, there was more chance of him getting the word out to the public than Katherine.”

“Unless the killer wanted it pinned on him. Sawyer was already dealing with an allegation of his own. Killing him might have only bolstered whatever he had written already.”

“So then if Nicholas is innocent, why take him out?”

“I’m not sure right now. A fall guy, perhaps. He’s the only other person that in the eyes of the law might have a motive to kill both women.”

Callie took a sip of wine. “So you don’t think it ends there?”

“What?”

“Well, you said to Rivera that someone might kill again.”

“Might. ”

“No. You seemed pretty sure that if we focused too much on Nicholas, that someone else could be targeted. That would imply whoever did this isn’t done. Sawyer is inside. Nicholas is at the hospital. So, who else?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think they’re finished.”

“You must have a theory.”

He shrugged, glancing back at the TV. “Like you said, theories lead us nowhere. Only facts do.”

“Then where are the facts leading us?”

Noah took his glass and wandered over to the French doors that led out to the balcony.

Callie’s fourth floor apartment didn’t have a clear view of the town or anything but trees for that matter, as it was nestled in Adirondack State Park.

“We have an assault that was confirmed by one of the boys alleged to have been there. So, I’ve been thinking a lot about gain and loss.

You know — who had the most to gain from the murders of Katherine and Laura.

And with both of them alive, what would the perpetrator stand to lose? ”

Callie chimed in. “Both women had knowledge of the assault on Isabella and the alleged hazing. If Isabella was telling the truth, someone from the Academy would have every reason to want to keep that quiet. That’s why there is no police report of her assault.

If it got out that they never reported the assault to police, the backlash from that alone would be the end of the school’s reputation.

No one would trust them, let alone send their kids there. ”

“But is that enough to murder two people?” Noah asked, looking back at her. “Countless private boarding schools over the years have been exposed for sexual misconduct.”

Callie mused. “Yes, but not until decades later when the statute of limitations was past.”

“So why wait? If they felt that Katherine and Laura were a threat, they could have acted sooner,” Noah said. “No, I don’t buy it.”

Callie took a sip of her drink before saying, “The Academy felt the matter was handled. It was only when Charlie Delaney started seeing Katherine that she would have brought it up for a second time, and this time it wouldn’t have just been the alleged assault on Isabella but what happened to him too. ”

Noah shifted his weight from one foot to the next. “So, Hawthorne gives Katherine an option.”

Callie nodded. “It might have been career suicide taking a private school that has been around for decades to court, especially when accusations were leveled at her. So she exited. Then two months pass.”