The restaurant was one of those taco chain spots found in every major Texas city. Loud music was playing when they entered and, unlike everyone else, she didn’t love tacos. They were okay. Edible.
Summer pointed toward the booth in the corner where she and Dawson could continue talking about the case. The images of Cheryl Tanning would haunt Summer for a very long time. Erasing those wouldn’t be easy.
And her mind drew the parallels to her own sister’s case. Obviously, the bastard had killed Autumn in a similar way. It was impossible not to imagine Autumn’s face instead of Cheryl’s.
She’d tucked the notebook and pen under her arm before leaving the hotel room, just in case they wanted to jot down more notes. She placed the items on the table and scooted them toward the wall in case a server brought their order.
One word jumped out at her. Suspects. Below the word, there were three names. Dawson had explained that law enforcement officers had interviewed everyone they could find. Cheryl Tanning might not have had a family to stand up for her but she’d had a voice in the detective who had taken the case.
“Drake Yarnell, what do you think of him?” she quietly asked Dawson.
“He was an ex-boyfriend who was in a biker club. He had a jealous streak and I didn’t like that at first. But the timeline of their relationship ending? They’d broken up almost a year prior. I doubt he still had the kind of feelings or possessiveness required to circle back and murder his ex-girlfriend.”
“Even though their neighbors overheard him threaten to kill her if she walked out the door when they lived together?” she asked.
“He was a hothead. I can’t see him waiting almost a year to act on his threat. It was idle, said in the heat of the moment. I still want to talk to him but he isn’t sending up any red flags to me so far.”
“Okay. How about Sean Menendez?”
“He was the creepy maintenance worker in her apartment complex.” Dawson tilted his head toward her and then looked down at the pad of paper.
“Right.”
“It’s possible he had a thing for her and even more possible he was stalking her. Going down that path, she rebuffed him and that’s the reason the detective thought he was a good suspect.” Dawson made a face.
“You don’t think so.”
“Not really. Why would anyone cover the body with the leaves? And what’s the connection to the violin strings?” he asked.
“This detective believed he might’ve found the strings in one of the trash bins,” she stated.
“Which makes sense and would be possible. But then, what about your sister? How is she connected to the apartments and this guy? Did she live there? He’s a creep, don’t get me wrong. If I was a beat cop, I’d be keeping an eye on him. But, I can’t connect him to Autumn and we’re banking everything on these two cases being connected.” His lips formed a thin line.
The waiter brought their taco baskets, so they tabled the discussion for the moment. The minute he left, they started up again.
“So, Jasper Holden? What are your thoughts about him?” she asked.
“He was a server at the coffee shop and that meant he would know both of the victims. He might not know them but he was acquainted with them both. Or at least, we think he was. He would’ve seen both of them coming and going, except that they might not have been there at the same time,” he said. “He was a biochemistry major, which meant he was smart.”
“Did he graduate by now?” she asked. It might be harder to track him down if he’d moved on. People came from all over Texas and beyond to attend UT in Austin. It wasn’t an easy school to get into and a major like biochemistry would be even harder. Jasper would’ve had to have been pretty brilliant to pull that off. She wondered if he’d played in his high school band.
“I can’t remember off the top of my head if he was a junior or senior at the time of Cheryl’s murder. Could rule him out if he’d graduated and moved away at the time of Autumn’s murder.”
“There’s another thing that’s been bothering me about my sister. How did she have money for things like coffee? As far as we know she didn’t have a job. And she didn’t touch the money you put in the account for her.” The fact he’d done that despite how her sister had treated him was above and beyond honorable.
“It’s possible she had a job. The coroner’s office had very few of her personal belongings. No purse, no wallet and no cell phone. It’s a big part of the reason he was having trouble identifying her.”
“And also unheard of not to carry those items around everywhere. I can’t live without my cell.” She nodded toward her purse.
“We could talk to the detective in the Tanning case. She might be able to give us insight into Jasper’s current whereabouts.”
“That seems like a good idea,” she agreed.
“She also seemed especially thorough in Cheryl’s investigation. It signals to me that she didn’t want to give up on the case.”
“What do you think happened?” Summer must’ve been hungrier than she realized because she finished off the beans and rice that came on her plate alongside her pair of tacos.
“Austin’s a fairly large city with higher crime rates than what we see in smaller towns. These things generally come down to available resources. Detective Libby was most likely pulled from the case when she stopped making progress. She might’ve worked it on her lunch breaks or after hours but eventually leads dry up.”
Summer shivered. An icy chill ran down her spine. The thought that Cheryl Tanning had died alone nearly broke Summer’s heart. Their lives were not so different now. It wasn’t like there was anyone at home waiting for Summer. No life that extended much beyond a small group of coworkers at the diner who she spent hours on end with but barely knew on a personal level.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. She knew about Marta’s boyfriend who revved his motorcycle engine out front to signal he was ready to pick her up after her shift was over. She knew that Dane, one of the cooks, had tattoos running up both arms. He used to joke that he’d gotten them so no one would try to chat him up in line to get his morning coffee. He was the biggest teddy bear once she got to know him.
Summer, on the other hand, shared very little about her private life with her coworkers. She’d always seen the diner as a temporary stop, a place she shouldn’t get too comfortable. She’d always played her cards close to her chest, sitting quietly in the breakroom while the others talked about weekend plans or bills due.
She’d gotten so good at keeping everyone at a distance, not unlike Cheryl or Autumn. Cheryl probably had goals. She was probably working toward something when her life had been cut short. Everyone had a dream. Didn’t they? Everyone deserved to live out their potential.
Seeing two lives cut so drastically short sent a hot, angry fireball through her veins. Her eyes were too dried up to cry. She let those tears flow earlier in sweet release.
The anger motivated her to find answers. If Sean Menendez wasn’t the killer, or Jasper Holden, or Drake Yarnell, Summer wouldn’t stop until she figured out who was. The small amount of money she’d socked away for the business would be enough to get by. She’d been afraid to turn up at the bank after the jerks had chased her.
An idea struck.
“I could draw him out, Dawson.”
“We talked about this before. This bastard isn’t getting within five feet of you.”
“Think about it. I could hang out at the coffee shop. My sister used to go there and so did Cheryl. That means this jerk might go there, too,” she countered.
“Yeah? What if that’s true. Do you really want to walk right into his hands?”
“I could dress up like my sister—”
“I think the words you’re looking for are a sting operation and it would be way too risky. No responsible law enforcement officer would use you as bait to bring out a deranged killer and I might not be able to cover you from every angle. He knows what you look like, which puts us at a huge disadvantage.”
“You’re right.” She needed to do something. Sitting here, doing nothing, would drive her insane.
“We have to be patient.”
IMPATIENCE ROLLED OFF Summer in waves. Dawson understood. They were still studying the facts of the case and it wouldn’t feel like they were making any progress to her. The way she was twisting her fingers together, picking up her food just to put it down before eventually taking a bite told him that her nerves were on edge.
It was easy to feel like they were spinning their wheels at this stage of the investigation. They were making progress, though. Slow, steady progress. Inch by inch but he’d take it. They had a similar and linked case to work with. It was a lot more to work with than what they’d had twelve hours ago.
Getting a strong lead with no real break was frustrating. Dawson had been involved in enough investigations over the years to know not every case was solved. As sad and frustrating as it was, there were times when the trail went so cold there was nothing left to follow.
And yet, he couldn’t let himself think they wouldn’t find the truth. Besides, they had a secret weapon. They had Colton and Gert back in Katy Gulch. Once Gert latched on to a case, her nickname quickly became Pit Bull.
The name responsible for Cheryl’s and Autumn’s murders were not in that file. Dawson was almost one hundred percent positive, which didn’t mean he wouldn’t retrace Detective Libby’s tracks. He had every intention of interviewing Jasper Holden, Drake Yarnelle and Sean Menendez. Dawson never knew when a seemingly insignificant piece of evidence or interview might blow the case wide-open.
When he glanced over at Summer and realized she’d cleaned her plate and was studying the paper that contained their notes like it was the night before a final exam, he knew it was time to go. Her finger tapped double time on the wood table, a sign her stress levels were hitting the roof again.
The waiter stopped by the table and asked if they needed anything else.
“Just the bill,” Dawson said, noticing how much the good-looking waiter kept staring at Summer.
She was beautiful, and he’d noticed most men checked her out when she walked into a room. Not exactly easy to keep her on the down low. Dawson tried to convince himself that was the reason their stares burned him up and not because a piece of him—a growing piece at that—wanted them to stake a claim on each other.
The waiter disappeared, returning a minute later with the bill. Dawson always carried cash. He never knew when he would need it on the road or in a small town, so he’d learned to keep a small stash with him at all times. This was one of the times he was grateful for the habit because he was ready to get her back to the hotel and out of plain view.
He wrapped his arm around her as they headed out the door, again noticing how right she felt in his arms. Again, ignoring the part of him that wanted this to be permanent.
It was dark outside and would be easier to move around at night without risking her. Most of the time, his witnesses were moved under the cover of night. Of course, it all depended on where he was going. Night in a big city still bustled with activity and no one really paid much attention to each other after a quick, primal is-this-person-a-threat-to-my-safety check.
Clean-cut couples barely hit the radar. That was always a good thing in Dawson’s line of work and generally the goal. Colton had been in touch with Detective Liddy to let her know about the connection to Autumn and what they were now investigating. Dawson had to follow the right channels.
“I want to make a pit stop before heading back to the hotel.” He’d scratched down Drake Yarnell’s address on the notepad.
“Oh, yeah?” Summer’s face lit up and he wondered if she realized how much danger she was in, still in, despite being with a US marshal.
“Yarnell lives in downtown, on the southwest side of Austin. I’d like to swing by his last known address. Detective Libby wrote down that he’d taken over the family home once his mother passed away five years ago. I’m thinking it’s a safe bet he still lives there if the house is paid for. Holden and Menendez could be more mobile, especially Holden.” They already knew one was a college student and the other worked at the apartment complex where Cheryl lived. A few years after the fact, he might’ve moved on. It was a safe bet he would stay in the same line of work but that didn’t mean he would be at the same place of employment.
She nodded quietly and he wondered what was going through her mind. It took him a second to register that she would be wondering if she was about to come face-to-face with her sister’s killer.
He walked her to the passenger side of the truck, and opened the door. Not because he didn’t think she was capable of doing it for herself, but it was part of that cowboy code that required putting others first. It was a tradition well rooted in a Texan and one he hoped would never die.
Aside from being ingrained in him, it was protection for Summer. The less she was visible, the better.
He ignored the fact that he liked being in constant physical contact with her.