The Last Sister (Columbia River)(54)

Zander didn’t disagree.

“What’s your name? I’m Ava. This is Zander.”

“Alice. I know who you are.”

Ava tilted her head to one side. “You were at the meeting last night, weren’t you?”

Zander searched the instant image of the people at the meeting that popped up in his memory. It was mostly the backs of heads.

“I was. I know you’re with the FBI. You’re trying to help that young couple.”

“The Fitches, yes.” Ava paused. “Do you know what happened to them?”

“Everyone knows what happened to them.”

Zander started. Everyone knows?

“I mean, do you know who hurt them?” Ava clarified.

Disappointment rocked through him. Alice had taken Ava’s question literally. The woman’s eyes seemed very alert, intelligence in their depths, but clearly something wasn’t quite right about her.

Alice shoved her hands in her pockets, and Zander tensed, hyperaware of his weapon at his ribs.

“Can you keep your hands out of your pockets?” Ava asked. “I’m more comfortable when I can see them.”

Confusion flashed on Alice’s face, but she did as asked, and Zander’s spine relaxed. “I didn’t hurt Sean or Lindsay.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Do you know who did?”

“No.”

It was worth a try.

“Do you live nearby?” Zander asked. Alice focused on him and blinked several times.

“No. I’m just visiting a friend.”

“Where does your friend live?”

She frowned, turning her head a bit as if she hadn’t heard him quite right. “I don’t know.”

He repeated the question in a louder voice.

That earned him a scowl. “I said I didn’t know.”

“Can we take you home?” Ava asked, her voice infused with kindness. Zander’s lips twitched. Ava’s fiancé claimed no one could refuse Ava when she used her smoky voice.

“I haven’t visited my friend yet.”

Apparently Alice could refuse.

“How about we go with you to make sure you get there all right,” Ava suggested. “This wind is getting worse.”

Zander agreed. The wind had penetrated their work space below the trees, making his jacket flap. Alice had demonstrated some confusion, and they couldn’t abandon her in the woods.

“Fine.” Alice turned and headed south.

Ava raised a brow at Zander, who raised his hands. Might as well.

Zander took a mental picture of where they had stopped their grid search and followed in Alice’s wake. She was slow, her steps shuffling on the forest floor.

After a few minutes, he leaned close to Ava’s ear. “I’m concerned she doesn’t know where she’s going.”

Alice humphed. “I know where I’m going.”

Mirth shone in Ava’s eyes, and she pressed her lips together. Zander decided to keep his mouth shut. Several yards later they came across a fallen tree. Ava was right. The roots were a ball, disproportionate to the grandeur and length of the trunk.

Their guide stepped over a few of the fallen tree’s roots, grabbing another for balance. Zander lunged forward and took her arm, helping her navigate the rough ground. She thanked him politely. They rounded the roots and started to walk along the toppled tree.

Alice stopped. “Here we go.”

Zander glanced around. “Where—”

“Right here.” Alice pulled her arm from Zander’s hand and squatted, gazing under the trunk. She brushed aside a heavy layer of pine needles, stirring up the scent of damp musty dirt. “She’s safe here, you know.”

The empty eye sockets of a skull gaped at him.





22

Zander and Ava were rattled by the discovery of the skull and several other bones of Alice’s “friend.”

“I don’t like how close the remains are to the Fitch scene,” he quietly told her.

“But they’re completely skeletal—this body has been here a long time. It can’t have anything to do with the Fitches.”

“I know.” But he couldn’t shake the feeling that it did. “I want the best person out here to remove them. Not some county deputy or local crime scene tech.”

“Dr. Victoria Peres is your person,” Ava immediately replied. “I’ll call Seth to see if she’s available.”

The medical examiner agreed to send the state’s forensic anthropologist—his wife.

Zander called Sheriff Greer to report the remains and then waited for him in the cold woods with Alice and Ava.

Alice turned out to be quite chatty. Her side of the conversation had a tendency to ramble in odd directions, and her eyes had moments of clarity that ebbed and flowed.

“What’s her name?” Ava asked with a gesture toward the skull.

The older woman leaned her weight against the fallen trunk, willing to wait now that Zander had explained they were getting help for her friend. “I don’t know,” Alice said thoughtfully. “But I call her Cindy.”

“Do you know how long she’s been here?” asked Zander.

Alice frowned. “A very long time, I believe.”