“Nate, please,” Nate said, reaching his hand out for the man to shake.
“Captain Mills,” he replied, not offering a first name. He was in his late forties, Laura guessed, with close-cropped hair that was such a pale blond it would have been hard to pick out any white. He was of average height and an average build, perhaps gaining a little weight since making Captain. That was common enough, given the added paperwork and reduced legwork that came with the job. “This is Sergeant Thornton.”
Laura smiled and leaned over to shake both of their hands. Sergeant Thornton was much younger – in her late twenties, Laura would have estimated. She was Black and pretty, slim and slight, with sleek hair tied into a ponytail under her hat. Laura’s eyes drifted, without her permission, over to Nate. He smiled just the same way she had done, shaking Thornton’s hand.
Why was it that Laura felt a spike of jealousy as she wondered whether Nate found Thornton attractive? And why was that spike followed up by a flare of worry: that somehow, this woman would lead Nate to his death?
Well, the last part wasn’t exactly unusual. She was thinking that about every person and everything that came their way, lately. Which was why she also still felt extremely guilty about forcing him to come out on yet another case with her, right after the last one had wrapped up.
“We’re happy to hit the ground running, if that’s alright with you,” Laura said. “We had a chance for a bit of rest on the plane, and we can check into whatever motel we have booked later.”
“Good thinking,” Captain Mills said, straightening up slightly. Laura got the idea that she’d impressed him. “We can take you directly to the latest crime scene, if that suits you. Actually, that’s why we’re a little late – we just came from there. We’re wrapping up our forensics tests in situ, and should be able to remove the car later today.”
Laura nodded and gestured for him to lead them back towards the car as they spoke. Nate’s bag scraped across the sidewalk, the wheels raising a cacophony, as they walked. “This is the car in the parking lot of the community center?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Captain Mills nodded. He had a rapid walk, but the pace was certainly calmer than when he had been rushing to greet them. “The victim was found in the driver’s seat. We don’t know much about her yet – the crime was discovered last night, and we’ve been sending out detectives to interview the people who were at the community center yesterday throughout this morning.”
Laura nodded as she listened. They reached a squad car which was parked in a temporary waiting spot, with an irate-looking taxi driver stopped right behind it and clearly waiting for the place. He said nothing, though Laura guessed he was biting his tongue hard because of the uniforms. “Have you discovered anything about the victim? All we had was the name – Suzanna Brice – and that she was a thirty-two-year-old acting coach.”
“Nothing much more than that,” Captain Mills confirmed. “We did as much admin work as we could overnight while any potential witnesses or interviewees were asleep, aside from her family. As far as we can tell from public records, she never acted with the first victim or taught in the same area.”
Nate hefted his bag into the back of the car before taking Laura’s from her hands and putting it inside as well. She wanted to protest that she was strong enough to lift her own bag, but it wasn’t as though Nate had done any harm. In fact, he’d been helpful. She closed her mouth and got into the back of the car, which was always an odd feeling: an FBI agent in the back of a police car as though she’d been arrested.
Given recent events, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable thought.
“What has her family told you?” Nate asked, settling himself in the seat and doing up his seatbelt.
“Not much,” Captain Mills said from the front passenger seat, bending around to look at them as Thornton drove. “She was unmarried, and her parents have both passed away. She does have an older sister, however. We’ve spoken to her last night, but she was understandably inconsolable.”
“Then we go to her next,” Laura said.
“Agreed,” Nate said. “We’ll get onto the first victim afterwards, but I take it from the briefing notes that you don’t have much to go on with her yet, either?”
“No, sadly,” Mills sighed. “She did have a boyfriend, but we’ve spoken to him and he does have an alibi, which we’ve been able to check out. Her family all live in different states, but we’ve had liaison officers from different police forces talking to them and there doesn’t seem to be much light they can shed. They didn’t spend too much time together over recent years.”
“Got it,” Laura nodded. “Not a lot of clues to go on at all. Which is why you need us.”
Captain Mills looked just a tiny bit affronted at the suggestion, but he had to nod. “We’re obviously quite concerned that we’re now looking at a pattern. Two female acting coaches – it could be that they just so happened to make the wrong person very angry, and now it’s over. But it could be the start of something bigger, and we want to nip that in the bud.”
Laura exchanged a glance with Nate. It was exactly what they had said.
They had been driving along a highway, making good speed, but now Sergeant Thornton steered them off at an exit and out into a more residential area. Laura looked around quickly, trying to get her bearings: the buildings were low and long, separated by long stretches of empty space between familiar fast-food chains, auto repair shops, and car dealerships. They were still far from central Seattle, but when the community center came into view, Laura realized they were already at their first scene.
They got out of the car without a word when Thornton pulled up; they didn’t need to discuss where to go. The place where Suzanna Brice had been killed was obvious enough. White-suited forensics specialists were still swarming all over it, and the whole car park had been fenced off to preserve any potential evidence the killer might have left. Laura approved of that, at least. The worst thing, sometimes, was turning up in some rural area and finding that the local police had no idea how to deal with a crime on this scale. In Seattle, she guessed they were more used to murder.
“The body has been removed already?” Laura asked, getting a glimpse of the car between passing people.
“Yes, in the early hours of the night,” Mills replied. There were temporary floodlights set up in a square around the car; Laura figured they must have been able to create enough light for a full examination before moving Suzanna. “She’s with the coroner now. The cause of death was pretty obvious, though. The knife wounds to the heart were very deep – no chance she could have survived that, and the initial report was that there was enough blood on the body to suggest this was the fatal wound.”
Laura stepped close enough to look inside the car and then stopped, peering forward instead of trying to get inside. Even though the forensics team was apparently almost done, she didn’t want to be the one to disturb or contaminate any evidence. From the sound of things, there wasn’t much of it in the first place.
The car was innocuous enough, which was somehow jarring. It was a modern model, somewhat new but not very expensive. The exterior was a bright grass green, an unusual but cheerful color. Contrasted against the dark red blood that had soaked into the driver’s seat and sprayed across both the windshield and the windows in arcs following the knife, it was a grim juxtaposition.
“No hair or fibers found in the back seat?” Laura asked.
“Nothing yet,” Mills replied. “We’re having the seats and footwells removed and brought in for closer examination in the lab, once we can move the whole thing to the forensics garage.”
Laura nodded at this. They clearly knew what they were doing. Which was almost a shame, because it was so much easier to clean up the investigation and get a result when the cops on the ground were floundering.