She shakes her head. “I thought the call was a little strange. We talked all the time up until about a month ago. Then she called and said she was getting crank calls. I thought maybe it had something to do with her work. Maybe someone was harassing her.” She stops talking and looks to be sure Ronnie isn’t nearby and lowers her voice. “Do you think it was him? Michael?”
I don’t know. Ronnie comes back inside before I can answer. “I couldn’t reach Mindy. Can you give me your mother’s new phone number?”
Gabrielle gives it to Ronnie, who gets busy on her cell phone. She also gives Ronnie her own burner phone number.
“I didn’t know you could get phone records that easy,” she says. “I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, if you can get them I wonder about…”
She doesn’t have to finish the sentence. She knows that Michael Rader has police connections.
Sixteen
Gabrielle sees me checking out her game system and television.
“That’s mine,” she says. “It gives me a distraction when I need a break from working. I work from home. Medical billing. I should have become a nurse, but I have an aversion to blood. I spend a lot of time on my own. I don’t even like the games but with my son gone…”
She’s chattering about insignificant things, trying to be brave. She went through something similar when her sister, Leanne, was killed. She probably had to hold it together to keep her mother and father from falling apart.
“Where is your son?”
“He graduated high school and got a job with Starbucks as a programmer. He’s a very bright boy. He lives in Maine now and is a bigshot IT guy.” She tries to smile.
“Sebastian, right?”
“That’s right. He’s been gone for a year now. He likes the East Coast. Of course, his girlfriend might have something to do with that. She works for Starbucks too. Did you know they send their employees through college? He got his degree online from Arizona State University and is thinking of going for a Masters in computer science to become a software developer. It’s basically what he does now.”
I feel dread at what I’m about to say. “Gabrielle, can you go visit Sebastian for a while? Stay somewhere that no one can find you?”
“You think Michael will come after me and my son?”
“He used you to get to your mother.”
And to me.
“If Sebastian is in danger, I’ll do whatever I have to.”
“Do you know if he’s been getting these crank calls?”
“He hasn’t said anything, but I haven’t told him about me and his grandma getting them. I didn’t want to worry him, but I’ll call him now and tell him I’m coming for a visit.”
Gabrielle goes into the kitchen and I hear her on the phone. She comes back. “He’s glad to have me visit. I don’t know how he’ll be when I tell him about his grandmother. I don’t know how to tell him.”
She seems to be holding it together fairly well for everything we’ve thrown at her in the last thirty minutes.
“You should tell your son exactly what he needs to know to be safe. He doesn’t need to know everything. I’ll take care of keeping your mother’s business in Port Townsend out of the news. I’ll call her landlord and make sure that’s cleared up. The coroner might want to talk to you on the phone. Do you have keys to your mother’s house in Tacoma?”
She goes into the kitchen and is gone a while. When she returns with a key I can tell she’s been crying.
“I don’t know how to say this,” I start. I know that sometimes it’s best just to spit it out. “I couldn’t positively identify your mother’s body.”
“Oh,” she says, and looks at her hands.
“That’s why I need to go to her house. I have to find something of hers that I can use for DNA testing.”
Tears well up again. I don’t know what to say, even if I could get the words out.
“We’re so sorry,” Ronnie says. “Is there anyone we can call to be with you until you make arrangements for wherever you’re going?”
Ronnie looks at me, no doubt wondering if it’s safe to leave her.
“We’ll need a DNA sample from you,” I say to Gabrielle. “For a positive identification.”
Ronnie takes a DNA collection tube with a swab from her pocket. She always seems to have the right thing at