“Why would he have been a suspect in his own mother’s death?” Mia whispered.
Pete scratched his chin. “According to the police report, Seth was the one who found her and called it in. He was with a friend named Tyler Bankston, and they were out in the woods after several hours of partying.”
“So?” Mia asked.
Pete kept reading. “Seth was a troubled teen. Lots of drinking, some vandalism, plenty of fights. He had a public argument with his mother the day before when she tried to get him to leave a party. He refused. Reading this, I think the sheriff just didn’t like the kid.”
“But he was cleared for the night of the murder?” Mia asked.
“Yes.” Pete grimaced. “Melissa Redbird came forward and gave him an alibi for the time of death, which happened several hours before Seth and Tyler found Seth’s mother.”
Mia’s eyebrows shot up. “Melissa Redbird? What’s the relation to Ruby?”
“Her mother. Ruby would’ve been about five years old at the time, and apparently Melissa was a single mom. She was a teacher at the school who lost her job after giving Seth the alibi, considering she had a relationship with him.”
Mia blinked. “A relationship with Seth? As in sexual?”
Pete kept reading. “Yeah. Very much so. At that time, he was seventeen, which was the legal age of consent.”
“Even so, a teacher sleeping with a student had to be illegal, right?” If not, it should be. “So Seth had a relationship with Melissa Redbird and must’ve known Ruby as a young child. Now, Ruby ends up dead, the same as Seth’s mother.” Mia’s stomach rolled over. “What happened to Melissa after the school fired her?”
Pete shook his head. “She found a new job quickly.”
“Don’t tell me, she found a job at the Volk mine.” There were circles around circles in this case.
Pete nodded soberly. “Yep. She gave Seth the alibi, he was cleared, and then she started working as a secretary at the mine for at least double, if not triple her teaching salary.”
Now that didn’t sound suspicious. Mia rubbed dust off her hands. “Small towns, man.”
“No kidding.” Pete flipped over pages and read some more. He stiffened. “About a week after the alibi, two more women were murdered—same way.”
Mia jolted. “Two additional women were shackled with silver to the ground and staked through the throat? Seriously?” Why was this such a secret?
“Yeah,” Pete said. “I haven’t heard a hint of this in town, even after Ruby was found. Why wouldn’t somebody at least draw the connections between the murders thirteen years ago? It wasn’t that long ago.”
“It’s like nobody wants this case to be solved,” Mia muttered. “Why? Who would the entire town protect?”
“The Volks,” Pete said grimly. “They own the mine, so they own the town. Erik was too young to have killed the three women thirteen years ago, but Benjamin and Seth could’ve done it.”
Mia nodded. “If Benjamin had killed his wife more than a decade ago, why would he have killed two more women after that?” She turned her head and sneezed again. Darn dust. “More recently, what if he’d found out about Ruby’s baby? What if he didn’t want Erik to have a child with Ruby Redbird.”
Pete dug into his pocket and handed over a small plastic bag of tissues. “Benjamin Volk is an ass, and I have no doubt he could kill a woman. We need more than our dislike to bring him in for questioning.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Mia took a tissue and wiped her eyes. It was way too dusty in the basement. “For now, tell me about the other two dead women found thirteen years ago.”
Pete shook his head. “According to a quick notation from the sheriff in Seth’s file, both women had rap sheets for prostitution and drugs from Seattle. There’s no record of how or why they ended up in Lost Lake, and no next of kin was ever found.”
“I wonder if the authorities even looked?” Mia frowned. None of this made sense. “The cases just went cold?”
“No.” Pete kept reading. “A man named Eddy Johnson was arrested and sent away for all three murders.” He scratched his chin. “I was in DC at the time but still coming out here for summer fishing, and not once did I hear about any of this. That’s weird, right?”
“Very weird. You’d think the Seattle newspapers would’ve covered the murders, at the very least.”
“Not if the murders weren’t reported beyond this little town.” Pete read more. “Not even the trial made the Seattle news. While Eddy Johnson was arrested, and there was a local trial, he was found incompetent and sent to a psychiatric hospital. There’s no mention of any of this in the local newspaper records. I already looked back just to make sure, right after Ruby Redbird’s body was found.”
Mia glanced over at the old records. “Why was Eddy arrested?”
“He was seen in town bothering Ashlynn Volk and was also found to be nuttier than a fruitcake. Though he proclaimed his innocence to the very end. He was convicted and sent to the Lost Asylum.”
