the names of a few people at the store who will act as spies for me. If you do that, I’ll keep you from being banned from the Saloon.”
Dione loses her weepy-eyed expression and allows a little smile. I don’t know if she’s relieved to be spared punishment or she’s looking to make nice with a supercool chick like me. Or, perhaps, she’s proud to do her civic duty and end the life of a man who’s ended so many others.
I can’t be sure why Dione spends the next forty-five minutes working through details with me. All I know is I feel one step closer to stopping the Shasta Slasher.
THE GOLIATH
Dione’s information helps Shelby narrow down her suspect list to twenty-five. She searches information on them to find out who has wives and daughters. She uses Lineke’s gossip knowledge from The Barnyard to figure out the single middle-aged men’s dating habits. By the end of the day, Shelby reveals her five main suspects.
“I’m confused about why this guy having a secret girlfriend matters?” Hugh says, sitting in the basement with Shelby, River, Shane, Taylor, Maverick, and me.
“The envelope had DNA from a female along with a fingerprint.”
“I still don’t get it.”
Shelby’s nearly bouncing in place as she looks to Taylor, who says, “The fingerprint matched the ones on file for Violet Navarro.”
“Do you think she helped him send the letter?” Hugh asks while studying the whiteboards from his chair.
“Maybe he’s taunting us,” Shelby says.
“But he never kept the other women.”
“They were prostitutes. He hurt them and threw them away like trash. That’s how he saw them. Violet was young. According to the police report, she had no boyfriend. The Slasher might have wanted her for a different reason. Now all these years later, a bitch is hunting him that happens to live in the same house as Violet did. He’s toying with us.”
“Fucking hell if he’s had her all these years,” Shane mutters, staring horrified at the pictures on the board. “How old would she be now?”
“Almost twenty.”
“The working theory, then,” River says and crosses his arms, “is that this guy was killing prostitutes on a semi-regular business. He dumped their bodies on the same road but killed them different enough to throw off the idiot local cops. Then he grabs Violet, and his killing slows down.”
“We also arrived,” Shane says. “Our guys started showing up at the trailer park. That was his hunting ground, but it wasn’t as safe. That’s why no one’s died since we switched Utah as the main guy there. He schedules our guys to ride through several times a day. Randomly too, so the killer can’t plan his abductions so easily.”
“How did he grab Violet?” Maverick asks. “Taking a girl from the Boulders isn’t like grabbing a girl in a trailer park.”
“Here’s my theory,” Shelby says, running her fingers over the girl’s picture. “Her parents were gone for the weekend. The killer isn’t a redneck out in the sticks of Shasta. He’s somewhere close by. That’s how he knew she was alone. The fucker might have even been a friend of her parents. He shows up at the house, and she knows him. Maybe not well, but she isn’t afraid. He pulls a weapon and has her take some of her things from her room. Then he moves her to his house. Somewhere nearby.”
“Which of your suspects live in the Boulders,” Shane asks.
“Three of them,” Shelby says and points to the men. “I recognize two of them from my walks with the dogs. I’ve spoken to one. He babbled about his yard and then asked about my yard’s weeds. Either he was feeling me up for info, or he’s one of the most boring fucking people I’ve ever spoken with.”
“I don’t think we should assume Violet’s alive,” River says, and Shelby’s face drops into a frown. “I’m not saying he didn’t take her, but he could be fucking with us. Who knows when she touched or licked that envelope?”
“He might be killing her right now,” Shelby says, tearing up. “We’re losers. We’re letting this happen!”
I jump up to console her at the same time Taylor and Shane do. River’s ass also looks ready to leave his chair, and Maverick might be considering it. Still, I’m the one who gets to her first. Shelby launches herself against me and cries.
“He took her, and her parents died, and she’s in that house with that man. Or maybe she’s dead. We took too long. I should have tried