Don't Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks #1)(40)

“You’re fucking kidding me?”

“I’m not.”

“Harper is not going to like this one bit. Can’t they send somebody else to do the story?”

“Harper is not my guardian. And no, they can’t send anyone else. I know this town inside and out, and that alone makes me the right person for the job.”

A long pause. “You know I—we—only want the best for you.”

“I get it,” Sawyer said. She wanted to tell Aria everything . . . that Aria and Harper had been right and she never should have come to River Rock in the first place. Gramma was gone forever, and coming here wouldn’t bring her back. She wanted to tell Aria how seeing Uncle Theo had been a jolt to her system. But she also wanted to stay in River Rock and prove to herself and to Sean Palmer that she had what it took to be a damn good reporter. “I’m fine,” Sawyer said, as if to convince herself more than her sister.

“So how old was the victim this time?” Aria asked.

“Sixteen.”

Aria said nothing. She didn’t need to. She was thinking of the other girls—the unsolved murders.

“Did you know the other victims?” Sawyer asked. “Peggy and Avery?”

“Not the first girl . . . but when Avery James was killed, I was freaked out. Avery was in the class ahead of mine. We were all scared,” Aria said. “The teachers watched us like hawks. Every day they reminded us to walk home in pairs. I was fourteen at the time, and I can still remember everyone in River Rock looking at each other as if they were a possible suspect.” She paused. “Of course, Mom and Dad never seemed too affected by it all. With all the tourists coming in to pan for gold at the time, it was easy to blame the murder on some nebulous stranger. But it never made sense to me.”

“What didn’t make sense?” Sawyer asked.

“If it was a stranger, you know, an out-of-towner, why would the killer return to the same place to kill again? Wouldn’t he go to Shasta or Yreka or some other town close by?”

Sawyer said nothing.

Aria asked, “Do you know if the newest victim had a chunk of her hair cut off?”

Sawyer already knew the answer, but she pulled up the digital pictures she’d taken yesterday, zoomed in to look at the missing clump of hair above Isabella’s right brow. “Yes. She did.”

“Don’t you think there’s a good chance it’s the same killer?”

“It could be a copycat.”

“The first girl was found in 1996. If this is the same guy, why would he come back to River Rock to kill again after all this time?”

“That’s what I need to find out.”

“It’s not your job to solve the crime, Sawyer. If you go around asking too many questions, you could put yourself in danger.”

“I’ll be fine. I promise.”

“You can’t make promises like that. Besides, I thought you were working on a murder case in Sacramento.”

“I am—I was. They have a whole team of people working that case. In fact, the police already have their eyes on someone they think might have killed the girl.”

“That was fast.”

“Yeah,” Sawyer said wistfully. “I do wish I could talk to the guy.”

“The killer?”

“Innocent until proven guilty,” Sawyer reminded her.

“Why would you want to talk to him?”

“I don’t know. It’s the weirdest thing. The morning after the murder, I was called in to take pictures of the crime scene, and I saw him sitting in his truck, crying. It didn’t look like remorse to me. It looked like a man who had lost someone he loved.”

“Maybe he killed her in the heat of the moment and regretted what he did,” Aria said. “If you could have talked to him, though, what would you have talked to him about?”

“Are you kidding me? Everything. Why was he sitting in the parking lot, crying? What the hell happened? Where was he when Kylie was strangled to death? The list goes on.”

“You are passionate about what you do, aren’t you?”

“I guess I am.”

There was another pause before Aria said, “You need to call me.”

“I’m talking to you right now.”

“No. I mean every day to check in. Otherwise I’m going to worry, and Harper will go nuts. You know she will.”

“Don’t tell her. She’s way too sensitive. Maybe if she didn’t keep everything so bottled up inside, she wouldn’t have to spend every minute cleaning.”

Aria exhaled. “Are you still angry with Harper after all she’s done for both of us?”

“What did she do for me?” Sawyer asked. “Besides leave me here to rot?”

“We’ve been over this before.”

“I know. I know.” Sawyer rubbed a hand over her face. “Harper is all screwed up in the head. But think about it all from my perspective. Harper knew what Uncle Theo was capable of, and yet she left town without me. How is she any better than Mom or Dad?”

“Harper turned eighteen a few days before she dragged me to the truck in the middle of the night,” Aria said half-heartedly. “She was too young to be burdened with taking care of either one of us.”