big, shameful thing for his grandparents. They say he’s been making it up to them since—and the girl involved has forgiven him. Apparently, he even helped pay for her wedding.
Tom hadn’t had a single brush with the law since then, so maybe the shock of what he’d done, accompanied by witnessing his grandparents’ shame, had put him on the straight and narrow. Or maybe Tom Taufa had become a plumber because no one noticed plumbers or thought it strange if they saw a trade van parked on the street.
Tom had also been a poor kid with dysfunctional parents to Vincent’s rich boy cocooned in the heart of a successful family.
Not the kind of boy who’d be gifted a puppy by his father.
Will’s hands flexed on the steering wheel as he drove through the eerily silent town. Even Josie’s café was cold and dark—he was used to seeing a light in there in the early morning hours, as Josie and Miriama got to work on the day’s baking. Julia Lee provided the cakes, but the breads, pies, and other products were all made in-house. Every so often, when he had an extremely early start, he’d knock on the door and the women would open up to make him a coffee to take on the road.
The weather didn’t help the sense of gloom that clung to Golden Cove.
The clouds had returned with a vengeance; they hung black and heavy, just waiting to thunder down with rain. He always had a couple of tarps in the back of the SUV, along with some tent poles, in case he had to protect a crime scene from rain, but even as he turned into the road that led to the dump, he was hoping there was nothing to protect, nothing to see.
The idea of Miriama forever gone, all that light, all that talent snuffed out, it seemed hellishly wrong. But hellishly wrong things did happen. Sometimes, they happened to small boys, and sometimes, they happened to beautiful young women just about to spread their wings.
Parking his vehicle in the same spot he had when he’d come out here with Anahera, he grabbed a flashlight, then ran across the dump to the spot where the informant had told him he’d be waiting. “Shane!” he called out from a short distance away, after spotting the writer sitting on what looked to be an upturned plastic crate.
The other man jerked up his head, the dark curls of his hair tumbling across his forehead. “You actually came,” he said, getting to his feet and thrusting that hair back with a shaking hand. “I’d almost convinced myself I’d hallucinated the entire nightmare.”
Taking in the other man’s stark white features and dilated irises, Will said, “You don’t have to come with me. Just tell me where you found it.”
Shuddering, Shane sank back down on his makeshift seat. “That way”—he pointed—“about fifty feet in. Follow the path.”
Will had a lot of questions for Shane, chief among them, what the hell he was doing here at this time of the morning—it wasn’t even five thirty—but first, he had to see what the other man had found.
Heading in the direction Shane had indicated, he followed the pathway of beaten-down grass that looked to have seen several pairs of booted feet relatively recently.
Shane’s find was impossible to miss.
Bones, bleached so white they glowed under the beam of the flashlight.
A full skeleton.
Nothing appeared to be missing. Not the smallest finger or toe bone. And while Will was no forensic anthropologist, he had eyes. The leg bones weren’t anywhere near long enough for a woman of Miriama’s height.
48
Will had kept his promise to Anahera. He’d called.
Just long enough to say, “It’s not Miriama.”
The full horror of his words had only penetrated after he hung up. Because Will hadn’t said there was no body. Just that it wasn’t Miriama’s. Which meant someone else was dead.
The first thing Anahera did was call Josie.
Please answer. Please answer.
Her relief when her friend said a cheery, “Hello, Ana. Are you keeping baker’s hours now?” threatened to crumple her to her knees.
Wrenching it together, she somehow managed to sound normal in her reply. “You prepping for the café at home?”
“Yes, Tom doesn’t want me in there alone right now.” A pause. “I don’t want to go anyway. It feels awful knowing Miri won’t walk in the door yawning and demanding a coffee before we get to work.”