“We’d better head to interview the families,” Laura said. She was already thinking that they were probably going to discover no interviews had been done at all, or that they had been done badly and the families were suffering.
The quicker they crossed all the Ts on their own investigation into this case, the better.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Laura tried to suppress a grimace as each member of the family insisted on reaching out to shake first Nate’s hand, then hers. She’d had a bad enough experience with a handshake already this morning.
The first to reach out was Tobias Makks, the eldest son of Elias. He was in his early to mid-twenties, fresh-faced and blue-eyed. His brother was the same: Jens Makks must have been only a few years younger, with the same looks and the same blond hair. They both stood tall, towering over their poor mother. Ellen Makks was the last to shake, and the one with the most haunted eyes.
“Please,” she said. “Take a seat. I’ll make you some coffee.”
“No, please,” Laura said, holding up a hand. She could sense a devastated exhaustion around the woman. “It’s not necessary. Just take a seat. You don’t need to exert yourself on our part.”
“I could make everyone coffee, if you wanted,” Nate suggested, picking up on the approach that Laura was going for.
There were nods all around. Nate disappeared into the kitchen with a significant glance at Laura, telling her to do her thing. He would no doubt be listening as much as he could from the other room, but it was up to her to see what she could get out of them.
It was important to tread carefully. Their father and husband had been dead for days. Enough time for them to turn it all over and over in their heads, to come up with new thoughts and to twist and turn the truths they knew into signs of something deeper. They needed to get to the truth itself, not to the Makks family interpretation of it.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Laura said as an opener as they all sat on various fish-patterned sofas and chairs. “I’m sure it’s been a very difficult few days for you all here.”
“Yes,” Ellen said, nodding her head with a kind of jerky, bobbing movement, like she wanted to just put her head down and make it all stop. The two boys remained stoic, as if to admit their grief would make them weak.
“We want to get to the bottom of all of this,” Laura said. “With the second body being found this morning, the Sheriff has handed the case over to us with our expertise in multiple murders.”
“Second body?” Tobias echoed. All three members of the family were wide-eyed.
Crap. The Sheriff must not have notified the Makks of the new development. This case was just getting better and better.
“I’m sorry, I thought you had been informed,” Laura said, backing up rapidly. “I’m very sorry you had to hear it this way. The local Sheriff was alerted to another body this morning. The victim in this case was treated in a similar way to Mr. Makks, attached to the figurehead of a ship.”
They were looking at her with shock, with horror. Even with anger. Laura could accept that. They should have been told. Not by her, but they should have been told hours ago.
“Who was it?” Ellen Makks asked.
Laura bit her lip for a moment. What was she supposed to do here? There was a chance, she was realizing, that the Sheriff hadn’t even spoken to the family of Dina Grey to let them know that she had been identified. On the other hand, if there was a connection between the victims, they needed to know.
She would have to take a chance.
“I need to ask you to keep this information confidential for now,” she said, looking into all of their faces in turn. “This is very sensitive, and we don’t want to let the press know until we’re ready. You mustn’t speak to anyone outside of this room or the Sheriff and his deputies.”
“We understand,” Tobias nodded eagerly.
Laura took a breath. “Her name was Dina Grey. I’ve been told she was a lifeguard at the south beach.”
Jens’s eyes widened. “I’ve seen her,” he said.
“Did you know her?” Laura asked.
He nodded, then shook his head. “Kind of. Not really. She was two years above me at school.”
“Has she ever been here? Or had any connection with your father? Did they ever meet?”
Everyone shook their heads slowly, in that kind of wondering, puzzled way of people who don’t have the answers. “I don’t think they did,” Ellen said. “They may have met in passing, I suppose. It’s a small town. But I don’t remember him ever talking about a lifeguard or mentioning her name.”
Laura nodded, then glanced up to see Nate coming through the kitchen door with several mugs of coffee balanced in his hands. He handed them out, and the family gave him honest nods of thanks. Laura wondered how much help and care they had had from the Sheriff’s people, and how much they had been just left to fend for themselves.
“Can you tell me everything you remember about the morning Mr. Makks was found—or the night before when he left home?” Laura asked.