Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,38
a napkin as a snack for Cisco.
“Well, somebody is going to owe me twenty bucks,” said McGaven looking at his watch. “It’s been about an hour.”
“It’s been forty-one minutes,” Katie corrected.
“Okay. We’ll wait another nineteen minutes.”
Katie opened the driver’s door and fed a very thankful German shepherd his treats. “Good boy. I didn’t forget about you.”
Katie’s cell phone rang. “Scott,” she answered.
McGaven stepped forward, waiting to hear who was calling.
“Is this Detective Scott?” the woman’s voice asked.
“Yes.” Katie looked up and down the street, trying to see if she could see Tanis Jones.
“I heard that you wanted to talk to me.”
“Is this Tanis?”
There was a hesitation. “Yes.”
“I have a few questions about Elm Hill Mansion and Candace Harlan. And the other girls if you feel up to it.”
Tanis didn’t answer.
“Ms. Jones?”
“I know that you have questions, but…”
“I can promise you that it will be discreet.”
“I don’t want to end up in court.”
Katie looked at McGaven, biting her lip. “I don’t see that happening. We’re trying to get some background information. Please, Ms. Jones, it would be very helpful in our homicide investigations.”
“Investigations? There’s more than one?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so. We’re still identifying the second body—but we believe it was one of the girls at Elm Hill.”
“No…” she said, her voice weak and fading.
“Where can we meet you?”
“If you go up the street past the real estate office, there’s an alley. Take it and there will be stairs at the end. My studio is up there.”
“We’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”
The call ended.
“Damn, I’m out twenty bucks,” he said.
Cisco barked and suddenly darted from the car.
“Cisco!” Katie yelled after him.
The black dog trotted up the street and took an immediate right to the alley.
“Where the hell is he going?” said McGaven.
“I think to Tanis Jones’s house.”
The partners jogged up the street and turned up the alley, following the dog’s trail. There were two dumpsters and the intense aroma of the back kitchen of a bakery.
“He better not be tracking a doughnut,” McGaven chuckled.
“Cisco,” Katie said again, ignoring McGaven’s comment.
A painfully thin woman peeked out over the railing as the dog zoomed up to greet her. Cisco nudged her hand and she bent down to meet him, petting him constantly. “You are beautiful,” she said.
Katie recognized the woman as Tanis, older than her twenty-three years, thinner than expected, and her hair had been dyed with red and brown streaks. She was about to say something but stopped. Cisco seemed to have a calming effect on her as she spoke to him quietly.
“Is it okay if we come up?” Katie asked.
Tanis nodded.
Katie and McGaven slowly ascended the stairs. “I’m Detective Katie Scott and this is Deputy Sean McGaven.”
She shyly invited them into her home.
“That’s Cisco. He’s a retired military dog,” Katie said.
“A war dog?”
“Yes.”
Tanis said, “You were in the military?” She sounded surprised as she studied Katie.
“Two tours in the army with Cisco here. We were an explosives K9 team.” She smiled and sensed that it meant something special to Tanis, but she didn’t push to find out more.
“Please come in,” she said.
The studio apartment had been decorated in a similar style to the gift shop with bright colors and plenty of knickknacks. Katie figured that the owner was letting Tanis stay there.
A folded futon took up one corner of the room and there were two mismatched fabric chairs on the other side. At the other end was a small kitchen with a microwave and hot plate and then a closed door which she assumed to be the bathroom.
Instead of standing awkwardly at the threshold, Katie took a seat in one of the chairs. She eyed McGaven and he took the other. They patiently waited.
Tanis quietly petted Cisco and then sat on the makeshift couch with the dog nearby. She pulled her bare feet under her to get comfortable. “What did you want to know, Detective?”
Katie had all sorts of questions she wanted to ask, but as she watched the frail young woman petting Cisco, she hesitated. “Well…” she began. “You lived at Elm Hill Mansion?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you live there?”
“Since I was thirteen,” she said.
Katie assumed that to mean about five years. “What was it like there?”
Never looking up from Cisco, she said, matter of fact, “It was like living in a jail waiting for the she-beast to attack.”
Katie carefully worded her questions, realizing that not only was Tanis physically frail, she was emotionally frail too. “The she-beast—are you referring to Shelly McDonald?”