“Am I free to go now?” I asked.
“Yes. But I don’t want to see a post from you before the press briefing later today. And I want a guarantee you’ll leave out specific details. No mention of the Catholic reference in the call. No mention of the bag—or I should saybags. And needless to say, no more interference in any police operations while covering the story.”
I didn’t love the fact that I had to hold back in my post, but of course Killian needed to control the situation as much as he could. And at least he wasn’t holding me on suspicion of being a fancy pants.
“You have my word.”
As I rose to leave, the state policewoman lifted a palm off the table.
“There’s something I’m not grasping,” she said. “What made you so interested in Shannon Blaine’s religion?”
“I was simply trying to learn more about her, and after I heard she’d started going to church again recently, I wondered if something had been eating at her enough to make her take off—or whether someone in the congregation had targeted her.”
“And did you learn anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing—except that she seems to have made the decision in July.”
As soon as I was out of the building, I phoned Alice, and she promised to pick me up in twenty minutes. I was famished by this point and was close to eating my purse. But the extra wait turned out to be worth it. While I paced in front of the municipal center, a state trooper I didn’t recognize emerged from the front door, his cell phone to his ear.
“There were three in total,” I heard him say gruffly. He clearly had no clue who I was. “All 187. We’ve got a major situation on our hands.”
The number 187 was code for the crime of murder. So there were definitely three bodies.
A horn beeped lightly, and I glanced over to see the red MINI pulling up to the curb. Alice, hatless now, waved.
“You survive?” she asked as I slid into the passenger seat.
“My ass is a little chewed up, but I’m alive. Needless to say, he never offered me a thank-you for my efforts.”
“If it’s any consolation, I didn’t get one, either.”
“Was he tough on you?”
“Not especially, though he warned me to stop doing his job for him. He seemed mostly interested in whether I thought you knew more than you were letting on earlier.”
“Are youserious? He thought I knew what we’d find there?”
“Not sure what he was getting at, though I assured him you seemed completely taken aback by the discovery. I think he was mainly wondering why the guy pickedyouto blab to, and whether there was more to that story than you indicated.”
“There isn’t. And hopefully Killian understands that now that we’ve talked more.... Did you learn anything during the interview? Like whether it was definitely Shannon in the first bag?”
“They didn’t give anything away. Though I put in a call to a law enforcement source of mine, and I may hear something later.”
“It has to be her. And it looks like the other bags had bodies in them, too.” I relayed what I’d overheard the trooper say. I felt I owed Alice one, not only for leading me to the retreat center but also for my having put her in the hot seat.
“Three, wow. So we’re definitely talking serial killer, aren’t we? And one who obviously wanted the bodies found.”
“It looks that way.... I can’t believe I’m suddenly feeling sorry for Cody Blaine.” And I was. Earlier in the week I’d considered how much the kids were suffering, but this would be wrenching for him, too.
I also experienced a twinge of guilt. I’d never come out and suggested in my posts that he was behind his wife’s disappearance, but I’d hinted at the possibility with comments like, “A woman is statistically more likely to be killed by a male partner than anyone else.”
“Okay, I’m merely spitballing here,” Alice said, “but couldn’thebe a serial killer, one who decided to make his wife his latest victim?”
“Of course, anything’s possible, but serial killers generally don’t target women they’re close to. They may even have wives or girlfriends who have no clue what they’re actually capable of.”
“I love a girl who’s got her serial killer facts down pat,” she said. “So I guess the next question is who’s in the other two bags?”
“Exactly. Any more thoughts on that subject?”
