The Dollmaker(The Forgotten Files #2)(52)

“Dakota. As in Dakota Sharp.” She shook her head. “I’ll be sure to double back to that prickly topic.”

Tessa knew Holly didn’t approve of Dakota any more than Rebecca did. “What do you remember about the time Kara was found dead?”

“She was missing for five days. Found on the side of a country road. Drug overdose. She was wearing a red dress and lots of makeup, but she’d been last seen at a Halloween party.”

“You said she was wearing makeup? I don’t remember much from that time.”

“Head injury and heavy-duty pain meds will do that.”

“But how would you know about the makeup?”

Holly shrugged. “Elena mentioned it at her funeral. Elena and her sister found Kara’s body.”

Tessa searched through the scrambled memories of the funeral. Her aunt had not wanted her to attend, but she’d insisted on leaving the hospital to be there. Tessa picked up the pressed daisy.

“I remember you had a fight with Kara the night she vanished. You called Mom while you were walking home from the party, and you complained to her about the argument. Mom said you were pretty upset.”

“Kara and I had a fight?”

“You barely ended that call with Mom when you were hit by the car.”

“How do you know that?”

“Mom put the timing together when she was talking to the responding deputy who followed your ambulance to the hospital.”

“Why was I fighting with Kara?”

“You were crushing on a boy who was only being nice to you so you’d introduce him to Kara. Wounded pride.”

She flipped through the pictures but found none that were taken the night of the Halloween party.

“Kids get upset over stupid things,” Holly said.

“Yeah. Maybe if we hadn’t fought, she wouldn’t be dead.”

“You can’t play that game.”

“I suppose.”

Tessa turned the page, staring at a picture of herself with Stanford. His thick dark hair skimmed his shoulders, and he looked wild and dangerous. He’d been the boy she’d had a crush on. It was a lifetime ago. The past.

“You’re staring pretty hard at Stanford,” Holly said.

“I guess. I wonder what I ever saw in him.”

“He’s nothing like Sharp,” Holly said.

“That’s a good thing.”

“Is it?” Holly asked. “He’s a different person now. We both know Dakota’s a little crazy when he’s got a murder case, and that’s almost all the time.”

“It’s what he does for a living. He’ll always have a murder case on his desk. And after seeing Diane’s body and this other kid I autopsied the other day, I can see why he does get a little obsessed.”

The pages creaked as they turned. A packet of photos fell out. They were still in the drugstore envelope. “I don’t remember these,” Tessa said.

“They might have been the ones Mom found after you were hit. She was so scared you wouldn’t wake up that first night. She couldn’t sleep, and when she found the camera and film in your backpack, she drove them straight to the drugstore just to keep busy. When she came back to the hospital, you were awake. She tried to give them to you later, but you didn’t want to see them,” Holly said.

Tessa folded back the flap and pulled out the pictures. For a moment, she didn’t speak.

It was an image of Kara, Diane, Elena, and herself, taken by a girl from their dorm hall as they left for the Halloween party. Three of them were dressed as dolls. Kara was wearing her red dress.

“Kara’s not wearing makeup,” Tessa said, more to herself.

“Elena said she was wearing a lot when they found her. Find her. Ask her. I bet that is something she never forgot.”

She looked at Diane’s face and outfit. Her cheeks were stained with a bright blush. Painted freckles dotted her face. And her lips were painted in a bright red.

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the image. Dear God. She looked the same as she had days ago in the park.




When Sharp arrived back at his apartment, jazz music echoed from inside.

He glanced into the kitchen and saw the back door was propped open; McLean was standing by a grill. He crossed the room and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Twisting the top off, he took a long pull. “McLean.”

“Heard you pull up,” he said as he drank from his beer and flipped the second of two steaks. “Tossed one on the grill for you. Figured with the case, you aren’t eating.”

The air was cool and the sky so clear, the stars shone bright and crisp.

McLean swigged his beer as he flipped a steak. “You like your steak rare, as I remember.”

“Good memory.” He swirled his bottle as a cold breeze cut across the small fenced-in backyard. “How’d the job interview go today at Shield Security?”

“I bet I have a job offer in a day or two.”

“Always confident.”

“Of course.” McLean turned the steaks again. “Any luck with your tattooed victim?”

“Spoke to the victim’s parents and her ex-boyfriend. Everyone is shocked. No one really picked up on the fact she was missing for weeks.”

“What about friends? Or coworkers?”