The Killing Game(102)

“You want to tell her, Nine? Be my guest.” George wouldn’t look away from his screen.

September tamped down the smart response that sprang to her lips with an effort. The cutbacks and threatened job security had ruined all their attitudes. Instead she succinctly told Gretchen about the death of Trinidad Finch, which appeared to be from anaphylactic shock from eating an energy bar made out of cricket flour.

“Cricket flour?” The disgusted look on Gretchen’s face was comical.

September added, “Crickets are part of the shellfish family and she was apparently highly allergic to shellfish.”

“Evidence isn’t conclusive that it was a homicide,” George put in.

“Well, what do you think?” Gretchen asked September.

It was rare that her bullheaded partner took the time to really pick her brain, so September considered her answer carefully. “Do you know Luke Denton? Detective Ray Bolchoy’s ex-partner?”

“I’ve heard the name. Saw him interviewed by Pauline Kirby once.”

“Nine’s our media darling,” George said. “A few times on television and now Kirby asks for her. They’re BFFs.”

“You got a problem, George, just spit it the hell out,” September said.

He jerked as if surprised and finally dragged his eyes away from the computer. “Somebody’s damn touchy today,” he muttered

Gretchen groaned. “Somebody just tell me what’s going on.”

“When the ME says the Finch case is a homicide, it’s a homicide,” George declared, drawing his line in the sand.

September turned her shoulder to George and said to Gretchen, “Denton was on scene at the victim’s apartment: Trinidad Finch. He’s the one who reported her death to nine-one-one. He’s working for the Wrens of Wren Development . . . have I got that right, George?”

“So far.”

“Anyway, one of the Wrens was a friend of the victim.”

“Andrea Wren,” George put in helpfully.

“She tried to reach Finch and failed,” September continued, “so she went to her apartment and found her. George can tell you more.”

“There isn’t any more until forensics come back,” George said.

“What are you doing now?” Gretchen asked September, who’d started writing on her computer’s word-processing program.

“Transcribing notes.” She glanced down at her open notebook. “I’m working up a time line for Lance Patten. He disappeared right after his senior year of high school.”

“The druggie?” she clarified.

“I asked his parents about his drug use and they didn’t want to classify him as an addict, but they’re his parents, so they may be putting a positive spin on it. He used marijuana and occasionally harder drugs. He was friends with Tommy Burkey, who called him Laser. Still don’t know why exactly, but I’m pretty sure Laser and Lance are the same person. Maury Patten said Lance hung with a group of friends who may have used that nickname. Lance sometimes rode their horse over to Schultz Lake and had friends over there. I also asked about Davinia Singleton, but both parents played deaf, dumb, and blind.” September shrugged. “They don’t want to hear anything bad about their son.”

“You should have taken me with you,” Gretchen said.

September nodded rather than argue that Gretchen would have tried to talk her out of the trip because the case didn’t interest her. “There’s something else,” September added.

“What?”

“The family that left in the RV were the Kirkendalls. They rented Mamet’s house directly before the Pattens. They had a daughter, Wendy, who was strangled and dumped in Schultz Lake. That crime’s never been solved.”

Gretchen frowned. “Something familiar about that.”

“I thought so, too, so I looked it up. Wendy Kirkendall was strangled with a willow branch.”

“That’s right! That’s what it was.” Gretchen narrowed her sharp blue eyes. “Is there some connection between Lance and Wendy?”

“I don’t think they knew each other. She was gone before the Pattens moved in. But I do think the bones are Lance’s, and if that’s the case, then there are two crimes connected to Aurora Lane within a short period of time. And that’s not counting Nathan Singleton’s accident, which is on the books as a murder/suicide.”

“Lance must’ve been the one screwing Davinia Singleton. The parents just don’t want to say so.”

September nodded but just said, “Maybe.”

“You don’t think she was satisfying her cougar’s itch?”

“The affair seems real, but Anna Liu referred to the boy involved as flirtatious, cheeky, entitled.... That just doesn’t sound like my picture of Lance. He used drugs. He befriended Tommy Burkey, who was much younger and on the mentally slow side. I’ve never heard he had a car. He rode a family horse in the fields behind their house. It doesn’t seem to add up to the same guy.”

Gretchen thought that over. “The real estate woman mentioned that the druggie hung around with other scruffy boys.”

“Kitsy.”

“Yeah, Kitsy. She said one of ’em supposedly had money, but that they all dressed alike in baggy jeans and hoodies.”