Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,26

of town for the missing car. Obviously we didn’t find it. We plan on doing the south side today.”

Tom nodded and looked at Seth. “When you called me last night Tamara had remembered eating at the café. Has she remembered anything else?”

“No, but I’ve been thinking about the timeline on her particular case. We know she ate dinner at the café and then was found the next afternoon in the dunes. What we need to find out is if she was seen anywhere else in town by anyone during those hours.”

He glanced toward the sandy-haired deputy who’d reported earlier. “We know now that she didn’t register at any of the motels and we can assume that she meant to leave town after dinner. But if she was taken by somebody immediately after she ate at the café, that means somebody kept her someplace alive until he took her to the dunes the next afternoon.” Seth didn’t even want to think about what might have happened in those missing hours.

“So we need to check around and see if anyone saw Tamara after the café,” Raymond said. “Can’t we get her driver’s license photo copied to pass around?”

Atkins nodded. “Already done. I have photos up here for all of you to carry throughout this investigation.”

Seth’s admiration for Tom grew a notch. Initially when he’d met Tom on the dunes Seth had feared Tom was an ineffectual small-town putz who didn’t know his butt from his elbow, but Tom was proving Seth wrong. So far, Seth was impressed with both the sheriff and his team of deputies.

Seth listened as Tom gave his men their duties for the day and then the room cleared, leaving only Tom and Seth. The lawman moved from the head of the table to sit across from Seth.

“Surely you knew that you couldn’t keep two murders and another attempted one out of the public eye forever,” Seth said.

Tom raked a hand through his thinning hair. “Nah, I knew it would eventually all become public. But it ticks me off that it’s possible one of my men talked. The article had too much inside information for me to think anything else. It even mentions the amnesia thing.”

Seth looked down at the newspaper. “That information could have been leaked by somebody at the hospital. The photo looks like it was probably taken with a cell phone. Have you talked to the three guys who were there when she was found?”

“I did an initial interview with all of them, but I’ve got them all scheduled to come in today to talk to you. I figured you’d want to interview each of them so Ernie Simpson is going to be here at nine. Jerome Walker is coming in at noon and Sam Clemmons is scheduled for three. I’ll set up more interviews with some of my other potential suspects for tomorrow.”

Seth leaned back in his chair and frowned. “The Sandman. I hate it when the media gives the killer a moniker. Usually makes the perp feel more powerful, more important.”

“I hate everything about this case,” Tom replied.

“According to the reports I’ve read on the other cases, Rebecca Cook had only been dead four to six hours before her body was found early afternoon on the day after the party. We don’t know for sure when she went missing from the party.”

Tom nodded. “She lived with two roommates who said it wasn’t unusual for Rebecca to hook up with somebody and not come home for a night, so they didn’t think anything about it when she didn’t come home after the party.”

“And we don’t know how long Vicki Smith was missing before she was found in the dunes.” It was more a statement than a question.

Once again Tom nodded. “True. She lived by herself. She worked her shift on a Saturday night and Sunday was her day off. Nobody saw her on Sunday and her body was found Monday in the early morning. The coroner set her time of death sometime Sunday night.”

“So, it’s possible our perp kept her someplace for a while before he took her out to the dunes,” Seth said thoughtfully. “Tamara had to have been kept someplace, too, before she wound up in the dunes. We need to figure out a place where a person could keep another without anyone knowing about it. Tamara remembers hearing the scrape of a shovel in the sand. She remembers the sound of being buried alive.” Seth’s heart twisted as he thought of what