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“My grandmother would roll over in her grave,” Rita shot back.
Smiling, the chief tipped back her coffee cup and drank. I silently wondered whether Rita’s grandmother was magical; I doubted a garden-variety human could conjure a recipe this exquisite.
“Would you really make this yourself if you had the recipe?” I asked. “I think food tastes better when someone else makes it.”
“You sound like my ex-girlfriend. That was her excuse for never cooking dinner.”
“When you live alone, it’s either cook or get takeout.”
“Your house is big enough for a live-in chef. You might want to consider it.”
“My bank account won’t let me.”
“Mine barely lets me enjoy the bounty in front of me, such is life in the public sector,” the chief countered. “So, what’s your update? Since there’s been no sign of Ashley, I’m guessing she’s still missing.”
“Afraid so. She hasn’t contacted Steven, and I’ve spoken to people in town, but no leads have panned out so far.” I kept my promise to Lyra and didn’t mention her unfortunate encounter with an animal. In light of recent developments, it was possible Lyra had, in fact, been attacked by an actual bear and Theo was just a jerk who ghosted her. Her marks hadn’t been made by a gwiber, and she would’ve been able to identify a giant snake.
Chief Garcia stared into her coffee cup as though in a trance. “I was worried you were going to say that,” she finally said. Her voice dropped to a murmur. “We found a body.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Were you able to identify them?”
“Sorry, it wasn’t Ashley. I should’ve made that clear.” Her gaze darted left to right to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “Her name was Anya Swanson.”
Anya.
Why did I know that name?
Why is it that women named Anya are always whores?
Shit. Otto’s ex. “What happened?”
“Looks like another animal attack, but at least we have a body this time. It was covered in tiny marks, like she’d been stabbed by a thousand tiny knives. The coroner is going to have his hands full trying to identify the animal that did that to her.”
My stomach turned. “Where did you find her?”
“Wild Acres. A hiker called it in right near the Knob.” She paused. “He found her head first. Her body was about twenty feet away.”
“Any idea when she was killed?”
“Not exactly, but her body was still warm when she was found.”
“When was that?”
“Around sunrise this morning.”
I nearly spat out my coffee. The gwiber had been defanged. There was no way Anya’s body would’ve been warm and covered in fang wounds if she’d been killed by the gwiber.
“Did she lose a lot of blood?” I asked.
The chief wore a rueful smile. “That tends to happen when someone’s been decapitated.”
A severed head and a body full of tiny holes. Anya Swanson had been treated like a human pinata.
“Now I really wish I’d made progress finding Ashley.”
“You and me both.” She took a troubled sip of her coffee.
“I have a more general question,” I began. “Does Fairhaven have a history of missing people?”
