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The officer on duty is happy to discuss it, and that’s not because Casey is a very attractive woman. Yeah, sometimes that helps, but here, it’s because she’s polite and professional, and she’s bringing information that might help solve a cold case.
The officer is in his forties, and he wasn’t at this detachment when the bodies were found, but he knows all about it, as I figured.
“We don’t get a lot of bodies in the woods,” he says. “Thankfully.”
Casey and I exchange a look, and her lips twitch.
“Thankfully, indeed,” she says.
Casey explains about the message in a bottle and shows him the letter. He reads it, and she tells him that we’ve tentatively identified the writer as Joni Mayfair, who went missing thirty years ago.
“Mayfair?” His brow creases. “Isn’t that the woman from the lodge? Ran away from a husband who used her as his personal punching bag?”
“Good memory.”
“Only because it had a happy ending, and we don’t get nearly enough of that when it comes to domestic violence.” He picks up the letter. “Except you’re worried maybe itwasn’tsuch a happy ending.” He pulls over a laptop. “Let me refresh my memory on our unidentified couple.”
We wait patiently as he reads through the files. Then he looks over the top at us. “Joni Mayfair disappeared when?”
“1991.”
“And she was how old?”
“Twenty-four.”
He shakes his head and pushes aside the laptop. “Not our couple then. These two were teens, and the doc figured they’d only been dead a couple of years. I’m glad this wasn’t the answer, or it’d have been averyunhappy ending to the story—our pair was a murder-suicide. He shot her and then himself. We think we might know who they are, too. Couple of kids backpacking from Europe. The boy’s family reported him missing back in ninety-eight, but the parents thought they were down in Oregon. One of our officers found the missing person report maybe ten years back, but when he contacted the family—and they found out what happened—they declined to cooperate with further identification.”
I snort. “They’d rather have their son stay missing than die as a guy who killed his girlfriend.”
“Yep.”
“And being international, you can’t demand they cooperate,” Casey says. “So it’s tentatively resolved, and either way, it’s not Joni Mayfair.”
“No, but presuming you’re still interested in whatdidhappen to Ms. Mayfair, would you like me to pull upthatfile?”
“Please.”
* * *
The officer doesn’t havemuch to add to what the Georges said, except that the police had investigated the missing person angle more than the Georges realized. Casey expected that. While cops can have a reputation for blowing off missing person reports, no decent cop wants to discover years later that the woman they presumed took off had actually been in danger.
At the time, there’d been a search of the area—though no missing person posters, for Joni’s protection. If she’d truly escaped an abusive husband, they didn’t want anyone telling that husband they’d spotted her in a nearby town.
The case was shelved—though not closed—when they got the call from the woman who’d picked up a hitchhiker. According to the reports, the woman described Joni Mayfair right down to a scar on her chin. The only reason the casewasn’tclosed was that the call was anonymous. The woman feared her own husband discovering she’d picked up a hitchhiker. “She was so young and obviously distraught that I couldn’t leave her there for some pervert.” So she didn’t give her name when she called.
Back at the lodge, we update the others. They’re glad that the details don’t match the dead couple, but it doesn’t solve the case. We’re discussing that over a late lunch when Casey gets a text that has her furrowing her brow.
“More skeletons in the forest?” Kenny asks, and April shoots him a disapproving look.
“No, nothing like that.” Casey rises from the table. “I need to make a call.” She looks at me. “Can you take Storm for her walk?”
“Sure.”
* * *
Nicole and Jacobjoin me for the walk, and I try not to rush through it. Whatever that call is about, Casey will tell me when she can. If it’s not related to Joni Mayfair, I don’t know what it could be. Any issues with the new town would come to both of us.
When we return, Casey meets me in the front hall.
