The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1)(83)

As she heads to her car, there’s another call on the radio I can hear clearly. “Dispatch, this is Finley. I’m at 848 Harris and have a 10-54.”

Graham turns around and stares at me for a moment from the side of her police car, her hand hesitating on the door handle.

I force myself to give her a nod. “I’ll be at Darcy’s Hotcakes & Coffee if you need me,” I say.

“All right. Stay close,” she says, then climbs into her cruiser and drives off.

I wait until she’s around the corner to fall to my heels and take a deep breath. I’m amazed I lasted this long. The last radio call sent me into a panic it took all I had to suppress.

A 10-54 is police code for a possible dead body.

The killer not only tried to make the cars difficult to investigate, he murdered Mrs. Lane, the woman who raised him and the one person who might be able to connect him to his past.





CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN


FOUNDLING

I walk to my Explorer expecting Graham to come tearing back down the street, siren blazing, ready to jump out of the cruiser with her gun drawn and tell me to go face-first into the pavement.

It’s not until I’m on the highway, heading in the opposite direction, that I feel a modicum of relief.

I try to process what happened after I left Lane’s house. The killer must have been concerned that I would go to the authorities, so he attempted to cover up a long-forgotten connection.

He probably assumed that the cars were safer back in the woods than trying to move them. And they probably were. Even if someone else had stumbled on them, abandoned cars aren’t exactly out of the norm around here. When I do searches on Google Maps, I spot old cars all the time, sitting in yards on blocks or just half-buried in the weeds with rotten tires.

The cars at the Lane property would be no big thing—unless you knew whom they previously belonged to. That’s what spooked the killer.

Torching the woods would only delay identifying them, even if he put some thermite on the engine blocks.

His real motive was to kill Julie Lane. Doing that would not only silence her but attract attention to me and misdirect the authorities. The killer wasn’t just getting rid of a loose end, he might be trying to frame me.

I’m the last person to see Lane. I’m also the one with a bizarre story involving the Cougar Creek Monster and the recent murders . . . and I left a trail of blood from the woods to the road.

If the killer strangled her and dipped one of her kitchen knives in my blood to make it look like she was trying to defend herself, I’ll have a hell of a time proving my innocence.

I take the exit leading to Helena instead of going back to Gus’s place. I have to get to those foster parent records and find out who I’m dealing with. Then I need to get a lawyer.

I also need to warn Gus and Jillian. I call her first.

“Hey! What’s up? How did the research go?” she says as soon as she picks up.

My words come out in a rush. “Jillian, I think I found out who he is, or least where he’s from. I think he just killed his foster parent to cover his tracks.”

“In Red Hook?”

“Yes. I was there yesterday talking to her. I found the cars in the woods that belonged to the missing hikers. There were ten of them.”

“Oh, my god!”

“That’s not all. He knows about me. He knows my name. That means he might know about you and Gus.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you into this.”

“You didn’t. Stop blaming yourself.”

“He might come for you.”

“Why?”

“Why does he do anything?”

“Where are you? Come here so we can talk about this.”

“I have to do something first. I need to get his name.”

“Then you’ll come straight here?”

“Yes. But call Gus and warn him. Also, call Hudson Creek PD. Tell them whatever you have to. Hell, tell them you’re afraid of me.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You need to do something.”

I hope I’m overreacting. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to Jillian.



I spend the rest of the drive to Helena worrying about two things. What if he’s using the fire and the murder as a distraction to get away? He could be long gone by the time the authorities realize they should be pursuing him.

The other concern is what if he’s not using this as a cover to run away? What if he’s staying put and killing anyone that could connect him?

Sarah Eaves’s son was convinced his mom was murdered. What if that was the killer eliminating one more witness?

When I get to the Child & Family Services office, my stomach is a knot of agitation. I don’t know which way is up. Making my anxiety worse, I have to go inside the building and lie.

I pull in to a parking spot in front of the blocky building and spend a moment calming myself down. His name is inside there. All of this could be over very quickly. I just have to go in there and get the paperwork Graham requested.

Yeah, that’s probably a felony. But that’s the least of my worries right now.

I step out of my Explorer, make sure I’m wearing a clean shirt without any bloodstains, and enter the lobby.