He tipped his head, still scratching Pebbles by her ears. “That fits.”
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Coffeeshop owner. Now the owner of a potentially haunted former antique store.” He shrugged. “People like that own cats, don’t they?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess so. Never thought about it, really. But thank you for planting the idea there’s now a ghost in my building.” The paranormal wasn’t really my “thing,” but I didn’t discount the idea there could be an astral plane lurking between here and the afterlife. I just hoped that if that person’s spirit was indeed loitering in the store, it was friendly.
“Sorry.” Luke offered me a sheepish smile.
“It’s fine.” Needing to regain my equilibrium, and to put some space between us because he smelled delectable, I took a step back and set the dogs on the floor. “Let’s get down to business, shall we? So I know what to call this ghost when he or she makes their presence known.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “You’re so melodramatic.”
“And you aren’t?”
She chuckled, glancing over her shoulder as she led us to the dining area. “Touché.”
“So, has Detective Quartermaine shared any information with you since this morning?” Luke pulled out a chair but didn’t sit, instead, waiting on Claire and me to get settled.
Cute, and a gentleman?
Another tally mark went on the “Pros” side of the scorecard in my mind. Before long, that side would outweigh the two “Cons” I had: his age and our professional relationship.
“No.” Claire’s expression soured. “He was rather tight-lipped.” She picked up Pebbles and settled her on her lap. Betty, not to be outdone, put her feet up on Luke’s thigh and barked.
Grinning, he picked her up, only to have her put her gigantic paws on his chest and attack his face with puppy kisses. He didn’t seem to mind, though, as he gently pushed her down.
“Do we have anything to go on?” I asked, doing my best to keep my gaze on Claire. Watching Luke with Betty did funny things to my insides.
“Well, I did overhear one of the forensic techs say they think it’s a woman.” Claire opened her laptop. “So, I guess we can start there with missing persons.”
“What about a time of death? Did you overhear anything about how long the woman’s been there?” Luke asked.
“No. I don’t know how old they think she was, either.” She held up a finger. “I do know they’re sending her body off to a forensic anthropologist for analysis. Hopefully, they’ll get something from that, but it’ll probably take some time.”
His mouth pulled. “A lot of time. Those people don’t work too fast, do they?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea.” A devilish smile crossed her face. “But we’re going to move things along with the help of our friend, the internet.” Stretching her fingers, she opened her web browser.
“What are you searching first?” I leaned to the side so I could see the screen better.
“Missing persons in Alaska.” She talked as she typed and quickly had a page of results. “This looks good.” She clicked on a link for the Alaska Department of Public Safety. When she scrolled down, a list of names appeared alongside columns for their sex, race, case number, the date they went missing, and the investigating agency.
“Click that.” Luke pointed at the screen. “Let’s see how far back the list goes.”
Claire clicked on the date tab, reversing the order of names.
He let out a low whistle. “Nineteen fifty-two. That’s a lot of names.”
“Yeah.” I blew out a breath, my shoulders deflating as a bit of hopelessness set in. “Without more to go on, I don’t know how we’ll narrow it down. I mean, there’s also the possibility the woman isn’t even from Alaska. What if she was reported missing in the lower forty-eight? Or in Canada?” I slumped back in my chair and crossed my arms. So much for helping the search along.
“Let’s at least narrow it down to women and see how many people we get.” Claire’s hands moved over the keyboard again.
Since there was no way to search by gender alone, she set the number of results to one hundred, then clicked on the tab to sort by male and female.
“Looks like just shy of two hundred.” She glanced up.
“That’s still a lot.”
