Erin heard Ethan creep down the stairs after Carla left, his sneakers squeaking against the wooden floor. He had a habit of making himself scarce when Erin had visitors, which was fine by her but, given how little they saw of each other, left her feeling she was letting him down in some way. Mom guilt.
‘Who was that?’ he asked, twisting the lid off another bottle of soda.
‘Can you give the caffeine a miss tonight? You’ll be buzzing on that stuff.’
He ignored her, pouring a stream of liquid into a tall glass.
‘Her name’s Carla James. She works at the college and I’m her mentor.’
Ethan did a mock choke into his glass.
‘Very funny, wise guy. She’s a Brit, so I guess it’s all a little overwhelming for her at the moment.’
‘I heard her talking about witches.’
‘Did you, elephant ears? I thought the house rules were no earwigging when we’re talking work. You know what I do for a living.’
‘It wasn’t you doing the talking, was it?’
True, thought Erin, but Carla had needed to let off steam and Erin had been happy to let her ramble on.
‘You should send her to your friend Jenny.’
‘Who?’ Erin’s circle of friends was small and she couldn’t immediately think of any Jenny.
‘You know. Goth, black hair, pierced tongue?’
‘Jenny?! She’s not my friend; she’s a colleague. She assists me in the medical room. We’re not pals.’
Erin recalled Jenny and Ethan meeting when she’d had to drag him along to a work Christmas party. Her ex-husband, who lived nearby, had been on a business trip and no one had wanted to babysit Christmastime. Jenny, she recalled, had chatted to Ethan for a while and Erin had been grateful that at least one of her colleagues was willing to spend some time with her son. She’d never asked Ethan what the conversation was about.
‘Are you telling me that Jenny is a witch?’
‘Mom.’ Ethan scowled at her. ‘Did I say that? She’s a pagan.’
‘Oh. I. See.’ Erin made a mock emphasis on each word. ‘So that’s completely different from a witch.’
‘It is. It’s… actually I don’t remember how it’s different. It just is.’
Erin frowned. ‘I’m not sure Jenny’s the right person to ask and I don’t want her to think I’m intruding in her personal life. Whatever she gets up to outside work is her own business.’
She remembered she’d fought against appointing Jenny to the position of Mortuary Assistant. She hadn’t liked the girl’s gothic make-up and distrusted her motives for wanting to work in the facility. She didn’t want any members of staff with a morbid interest in death. She’d been overruled, which was nothing new, but Jenny had proved a model assistant with a calm matter-of-fact attitude towards the cases brought in for autopsy.
‘How’s your dad?’ she asked Ethan to change the subject.
‘Fine. He’s going away next week on business, so I can’t go over.’
‘Nice of him to tell me.’
‘Mom. I said I’d tell you and I’m doing that now. It doesn’t make any difference, does it? I’m fifteen. I don’t need a babysitter any more.’
‘All right.’ She raised her hands in submission.
‘You were talking about murders in Jericho, weren’t you?’
‘Hey! That is work and I’m not answering any questions.’
He ignored her. ‘You were talking about murdered women, and you missed someone out from your list.’
‘What do you mean, missed someone?’ Erin was feeling touchy after receiving that damn letter. Now who had she forgotten?
‘You talked about women who had died recently, but you never mentioned Iris Chan.’
‘Iris Cha—’ Erin stopped. ‘Shit. You’re right, I’d completely forgotten about her.’
‘It had you pacing up and down your bedroom at the time. How could you forget her?’
Erin sighed and folded her arms. ‘Because I had other cases to give me sleepless nights since. Shit. How could I forget Iris Chan?’
Iris had graduated from Jericho College, majoring in veterinary medicine, and taken a job in a bookstore over the summer. The retail industry was not the usual destination of graduates of the illustrious college and detectives later wondered if there was a man behind Iris’s decision to stay in Jericho. Her family were from Maine; they owned a chain of restaurants dotted up and down the coast, but there was no expectation Iris would work there. Instead, her mother had approached family friends who owned a practice and it had been agreed that Iris would join the business in October as a junior veterinarian. By September, Iris’s mother had become concerned that she wasn’t making any concrete plans to leave Jericho and an argument had ensued. Again, there had been the shadow of a man in the background, but that had been the extent of it.
Iris’s body was found in Shining Cliff Wood on a September evening. She had entered the wood and used her belt to hang herself from a tree near to the path used by dog walkers and tourists. It was initially ruled a suicide. A bookstore colleague said Iris had confided in her that she definitely didn’t want to return to Maine. She’d also confirmed that Iris had a boyfriend but was very coy about him. Married, she’d decided, and asked no more questions.
Erin had completed the autopsy and had initially agreed with the police assessment. Woods are a common choice of setting for suicides. From the Aokigahara of Japan to the conifers of New England, the desperate are drawn to the primaeval comfort given by forest landscapes. Then the witness came forward. Iris was striking. She had long dark hair that she plaited and wrapped around her head. Old fashioned but chic. The witness had seen a woman matching Iris’s description entering the woods with a male dressed in black jeans and a dark coat with a beanie hat. The witness was sure it was a male, but his description had ended with that.
Footprints had been useless near the site – Iris’s body had attracted wild animals who had scuffed up the area, but Viv Kantz had widened the search area and discovered the presence of two sets of prints. Suddenly, it was a murder investigation, although the working theory was that it was a joint suicide plan where the male had decided to bail. That, at least, was the assumption. Erin had done her bit. Iris’s cadaver showed no sign of physical abuse and her colleagues said she seemed happy if reticent about her boyfriend. So, it was to all intents and purposes a consensual partnership. But, thought Erin, who knows really what goes on in people’s relationships? The man had never come forward.
A year later, however, a local man had confessed to the crime. That’s why she hadn’t thought about Iris Chan. It was case solved.