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Just fine. It’s going to be a busy night, that’s all.
We on for Saturday? Saturdays were Akiko’s busiest day, with fishing charters scheduled for morning and afternoon. This time of year, her guest roster was always packed. Kit gave her a hand whenever she could. It was a win-win. Akiko got the help and Kit got a day on the water to unwind, catching fish instead of murderers.
And Snickerdoodle got head scritches from the guests. Everyone was happy.
Yes for now. May change. Will let you know.
A thumbs-up emoji was Akiko’s answer.
Baz headed out of the park, nodding to the officers who’d cordoned off the crime scene. “Snickerdoodle taken care of?”
“Yep. Akiko’s got her. Snick gets spoiled at her place, so she’ll be happy.”
Baz snorted. “She gets spoiled at your place, too. Don’t front.”
“I spoil her with attention. Akiko spoils her with cheese.”
Baz frowned. “I thought Akiko was vegan. Is she giving her vegan cheese?”
Kit chuckled. “Akiko is not vegan, just a pescatarian who’s lactose intolerant. She buys cheese especially for Snickerdoodle.” She looked into her side mirror, watching the crime scene disappear from view. “She was young.”
Baz nodded, rolling with the subject change. “I hope someone reported her missing.”
Kit hoped so. While it would have been hell on the girl’s family to lose her, Kit hoped someone had genuinely loved the girl before she’d been killed. “Her T-shirt was from an Ariana Grande concert, three or four years ago. If we can’t ID her from either her fingerprints or from the ring around her neck, we can search missing-person reports for what she was last wearing.”
“He didn’t take her jewelry.”
“No.” Which was kind of unusual. “Were the other victims found with jewelry?”
“At least two of them were,” Baz said. “One of them—the third one—was even ID’d through a necklace with her name on it. That was Ricki Emerson. The first victim was wearing a cross on a chain.”
“She was never identified.”
Baz sighed. “No. We canvassed the area where she was found for miles, but no one remembered seeing her.”
“She’d also been dead a good while longer.”
“True. At least two years, the ME said. Maybe as many as five. The neighborhood where she was found had a number of Coronado families.”
“High turnover,” Kit murmured. The naval base on Coronado Island housed more than thirty thousand personnel and their families. Transient by definition.
“Yep. Most of the residents we talked to hadn’t lived there two years before.”
“Maybe we’ll be lucky with this girl and somebody will remember seeing her and who she was with before she disappeared. And if we are supremely lucky, we can trace that call and work the case from both ends.”
Baz held up crossed fingers. “Which ID do you want? The vic or the caller?”
“Since he specifically asked for me, I’ll take the caller.”
And when she found him, he’d better have some very good answers to a lot of very hard questions.
Shelter Island Marina, San Diego, California
Monday, April 4, 11:45 p.m.
Kit pulled into her parking place, exhausted. It had been a very long day and all she wanted was to curl up with a cup of tea and snuggle her dog. Unfortunately, Snickerdoodle was with her sister on the other side of town. Akiko would be asleep by now, and Kit wouldn’t wake her. Her sister had a full fishing charter tomorrow and needed her rest.
The IT guys had given Kit bad news. The call had come in on a burner phone and there was no way to trace it. So that was a dead end.
