Page 61 of The Lost Bones
“When?” Rathbone put out his cigar, his hand almost trembling. “This was supposed to be peacetime in Lakemore. Until you catch Debbie’s killer, this town will continue to plummet into chaos—and I guess we knowwhy.” His eyes found Mackenzie and narrowed, like he was trying to decipher her. “You’re the reason. If only I’d known featuring you in that documentary would make things worse… Talk about a publicity strategy going wrong.”
Mackenzie’s ears burned. But Rivera brought the conversation back on track.
“Mayor Rathbone, as I informed you earlier, we found a mass grave in the Tombstone neighborhood.”
Rathbone’s lips pursed in discomfort. “Yes. Yes. A mass grave. Just what I need.”
“Dr. Angela Weiss has been kind enough to consult on this,” Rivera went on. Weiss was Washington state’s forensic anthropologist, whom Mackenzie had seen correctly estimate a victim’s favorite sport within five minutes of a visual examination. “She will be flying to Lakemore from a convention in DC, but she has already confirmed over Skype that based on the pubic arch, all nine sets of remains belong to women. Looking at the pubic symphyses and sternal rib ends, she’s also been able to tell us that at least three of the victims were under the age of twenty. For the rest, she’ll need to access the remains.”
Rathbone stroked his jaw. “Could this be related to a story Debbie was working on?”
“We checked her computer and phone, and no,” Nick said.
“And you have no leads.” The mayor sat back, shaking his head. “How is it that you have multiple victims and no leads?”
“We do have leads, except our warrant was rejected, and then a shutdown wiped out some of our stored evidence,” Mackenzie said. The IT department was still trying to access the deleted files. Meanwhile Mackenzie and Nick had requested another copy of the CCTV from the school, but they deleted all files older than five days. That video was effectively erased for good.
“You lost evidence?” He was appalled.
“Could be avoided if we had funding for solid backup systems,” Sully said.
“And why was the warrant rejected?” Rathbone ignored Sully’s jibe.
Mackenzie told him about Judge Hamilton’s house, which coincidentally wasn’t far from the mass grave.
“I can’t interfere in the judicial process.” Rathbone flicked his hand dismissively. “And there are a lot of places around there. You don’t have enough to force people to open their books.”
“I guessed you’d say that. Your chief of staff is part of that gentlemen’s club.” Mackenzie crossed her arms.
Rivera shot her a warning glare. Sully groaned. Nick stiffened next to her.
Rathbone’s face hardened. “This entire police force is taking flak from the media to protectyou. Have you thought about giving a statement to the public?”
“What?” Nick was pissed off. “Absolutely not. She’ll put herself in danger. Mob mentality will take over and they’ll come after her.”
“Based on what Dr. Turner told me this morning, this killer has a strange reverence for you,” Rathbone continued, ignoring Nick. “Why don’t you just make an appeal to them to stop the madness?”
“That is the dumbest thing to do.” Nick scowled. “I’m sure Dr. Turner has also told you that the killer is deranged. They’re not reasonable, so they can’t be negotiated with.”
“Becausethey’re deranged, maybe they’ll listen,” Rathbone countered. “Besides, the risk is worth the reward. We can provide protection for you, Detective Price. I believe you should do everything you can to stop the killings.”
“I will do everything I can to catch this killer. Iwillcatch this killer.” Mackenzie tried to keep her voice steady. “But I refuse to be a scapegoat for your problems.”
“Scapegoat?” Rathbone sneered, rubbing his lips. “You’re not a scapegoat, sweetheart. You’re the cause of all of this. But if you choose to hide—”
“I’m not hiding.” She stepped forward, fists clenched. “I’m the one who has cleaned up the messyourfriends caused in this town in the first place. And I will fix this too. Even if your friends are making things harder than they need to be.”
Everyone in the room was motionless. Tension swelled, like they were all gauging Rathbone’s reaction. He drummed his fingers on the table, his eyes pinned on Mackenzie.
“I’m not the enemy, Detective Price. While your last few years have been rough, trying to lock up myfriends, as you call them, I’ve had to take care of this town through unemployment, corruption investigations, debt, protests, and re-elections. All the while trying to be there for my son, who has leukemia.” His voice cracked on the last sentence. “It’s easy to be low on the totem pole and believe those who are higher have it easy and don’t do anything. We’re all doing the best we can.”
“Then we’re on the same team,” Mackenzie replied calmly, despite her tongue feeling like iron inside her mouth.
He swallowed hard and made an approving grunt in the back of his throat.
After Rivera assured him that they were redoubling their efforts, Rathbone left and the meeting ended.
Andrew was waiting outside. “I need to talk to you both.”
