AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dammit, Doc. What have you done?
“Should we do the notification now?” she asked when Navarro didn’t answer. “Or wait until we get the body fully uncovered?”
“I just sent you the missing-person report along with the photo the parents included. Do a visual ID for now.”
Her phone dinged again with the young woman’s photo and her knees wobbled. It was her.
Skyler Carville, twenty-one. According to the report she was a student at UC San Diego and worked at a bar. And walked dogs part time.
Kit remembered the conversation with Dr.Reeves in the interrogation room, right before she’d told him that they’d found a body. He’d said he had a dog walker, but she wouldn’t be awake yet. Because she worked late in a bar and slept in on Saturdays.
Skyler Carville was Sam Reeves’s dog walker.
“Well?” Navarro snapped. “Is it her?”
“Yes.” But the word came out raspy. Kit cleared her throat. “Yes,” she repeated. “It’s her. She walked Dr.Reeves’s dog.”
“Where is he?” Navarro growled.
“He went to stay with his parents in Scottsdale. They left on Tuesday. He texted that he’d be back tonight because he couldn’t take off any more work.”
“Then wait at his apartment and bring him in as soon as he arrives.”
“This...” Feels wrong. But she couldn’t make herself say the words. “Okay.”
Navarro made an impatient noise. “Speak, McKittrick.”
“It’s... convenient. It feels wrong. Another metal detector? A day after she goes missing?”
He sighed. “I agree. But we follow the evidence. If he can prove where he was every minute of this weekend... Well, we’ll see when you get him in here.”
“Driscoll’s killer put brand-new Top-Siders on his feet.”
“I know, Kit,” Navarro said, more gently than he’d spoken before. “It feels like someone is manipulating us. Let’s follow the evidence, okay?”
“Okay, sir. We’ll do the notification and wait for Dr.Reeves. But I won’t tell the girl’s parents that we plan to talk to him.”
“That’s wise. Tell Baz I said not to do so, either.”
“Baz just got to the point where he doesn’t hiss every time he says Reeves’s name.”
Navarro sighed again. “I know. Tell him to call me.”
Baz hadn’t moved. Not one inch. He looked like he was in shock. “I’m a little worried about him, boss. He’s really not okay right now.”
“Neither am I.”
“No. I mean he’s pale and sweating. He isn’t speaking, isn’t moving. He just keeps staring at the body.”
“He’ll be okay. Get him into a car and feed him. Let him rant and rage for a little while. He’ll be okay.”
“All right.” Kit ended the call, hoping that Navarro was right as she turned back to look at her partner.
But he’s not okay.
The thought barely registered through a fog of instant panic as her body began to move, running frantically toward Baz, whose knees were buckling, his body collapsing to the ground. His face was gray, his eyes terrified.
Kit? He mouthed the word, unable to even whisper.
