Page 25 of The Lost Bones
“There’s a trick to this,” Nick said, and banged his fist on top of it. A stream of hot coffee gushed into Andrew’s cup.
“Thanks.” He smiled and nodded at Mackenzie.
“Where are you staying?” Nick asked.
“I got a cabin here.”
“Oh?” Mackenzie arched an eyebrow. “In Lakemore? That’s weird.”
“It’s so cheap here. Like I said before, I’ve been hoping to work with your department,” Andrew said with a giddiness in his voice. “I bought the cabin a few months ago. My way of manifesting that, I suppose.”
Lakemore’s failures and instability had attracted voyeurs from all over the place. Mackenzie didn’t know whether to be upset by the spectacle the town was becoming or flattered by the curiosity. She had always been wary of attention; the intentions behind it were generally dubious.
“How’s your son?” she asked.
“Adjusting well. He still goes to school in Olympia, so there hasn’t been a significant change for him. Thank you for asking. I’m supposed to head to the Miller Lodge motel in about an hour. Do you know how far that is?”
“Miller Lodge?” Nick asked. “For what?”
“Sergeant Sully told me about a female victim you discovered a few days ago?” Andrew’s voice was slightly high-pitched and uneven, like his vocal cords were getting scrubbed against sandpaper when he talked. “I was told she’s unresponsive.”
“Yeah, I found her at the carnival,” Mackenzie said. “I visited her yesterday at the hospital. She hasn’t said a word to me.”
“It’s a coping mechanism following serious trauma. I’ll get a better understanding when I meet her.”
Jane Doe was not in the system. Her prints and DNA were not on any database. Her dental scans revealed nothing of her identity. Even her age was unknown. Based on her appearance, she was perhaps in her mid-twenties.
Austin came around the corner, thumbing his phone furiously. Mackenzie’s back snapped straight and she looked at Nick. He nodded in understanding.
“Austin!” he called out. “We need to talk.”
Austin eyed the three of them like he was being cornered. “What is it? Did you find anything?” he asked with a clenched jaw and fists in his pockets.
“Have you heard of a woman named Ethel Gedrick?” Nick asked.
“No.” His eyebrows stitched together. “Who is she?”
“She was an old family friend of Sophie’s,” Mackenzie said. “Didn’t Sophie ever mention her?”
“No. Why?”
Mackenzie sighed, glancing at Nick, who nodded. “Did Sophie ever tell you about her twin sister?”
“What?” Austin’s face twisted in disbelief.
“She had a twin called Aria, who disappeared when they were only eleven years old,” Nick said. “A year later, the family moved from Colorado to Washington.”
But Austin wasn’t listening. He was stumped, fidgeting and blinking vehemently, like he was still stuck at that first revelation. “You must be mistaken.”
“Well, we’ve contacted the authorities in Colorado and requested student information from the school they attended,” Nick said. “Are you sure she never mentioned this?”
“No! I knew she lived in Colorado, but she didn’t give me any particular reason for why they moved.” Austin dragged his hands down his face. Mackenzie noticed the subtle changes in him since Sophie’s body had been discovered. The perpetual lines on his forehead. The scruff of hair on his usually clean-shaven jaw. The sunken cheeks.
“If I may,” Andrew interjected politely. “Did you ever feel that Sophie was hiding something from you? Acting cagey? Dismissive?”
Austin was about to deny it when something flashed in his eyes. “She rarely talked about her childhood. But I always thought it was because it was painful for her to remember her parents.”
When the three of them continued staring at him distrustfully, he cried with eyes ablaze, “What are you getting at?”
