A Mew Beginning Page 3

  “So, how did your interview go?” I asked Cody, deciding that we’d hashed out the “who broke into the newspaper” question to the extent we could at this point.

  “It went okay, but I’m not sure if what I’ve learned will help Finn,” Cody answered as he looked toward Finn. “I spoke to the bartender at the Yellow Feather as you suggested, and he eventually admitted that a man had been in the bar a few weeks ago who was bragging about having information relating to another man he knew who supposedly picked women up in Seattle and brought them to the islands. It took a bit of persuasion, but I was ultimately able to convince the bartender to steer me toward the man, who, as it turns out, works in the marina at Friday Harbor. I went to the marina to speak to the man the bartender steered me toward. Initially, he was reluctant to share any information, so I offered to buy him a drink, and after a few shots, I was finally able to ascertain that the man, whose name was Pete, had overheard another patron sitting nearby bragging that he had picked up women on the mainland and brought them to the islands for some unconventional fun. I asked Pete if he knew what the guy meant by unconventional fun, and he just grinned but didn’t elaborate. To be honest, I’m not even sure he knows what the guy meant, but I did learn that the name of the man who’d been bragging about picking up women was Jack. I also got a general description of the man going by the name Jack, although I doubt six feet tall, brown hair, brown eyes, and average build will be particularly helpful. I asked Pete about meeting with a sketch artist, but he refused, saying he really didn’t remember what the guy looked like beyond a general description.”

  “Anything else?” Finn asked.

  “While I was at the bar, I’d asked the bartender if there had been a cocktail waitress working that night, and he said there had been and gave me her name. I went back to the bar to talk to the woman who told me her name was Veronica. I described the man with dark hair Pete had referred to, and she said that she remembered the guy. I asked her for a description, which was very similar to the description Pete gave, but she added that the guy had scratch marks on his face, which she asked about. He simply winked and told her that things had gotten a little rough with his date the previous weekend. She also noticed that he had an injury on the palm of his right hand. She thought it looked like a rope burn. When she asked about it, he told her that he’d been careless while sailing. I suppose it could have happened that way.”

  “Or he might have received the rope burn while strangling his date,” Tara added.

  “I suppose that explanation works as well,” Cody admitted. “Veronica also directed me to another regular bar patron named David, who also works at a marina, although David works at Roche Harbor, whereas Pete works at Friday Harbor. David initially seemed unwilling to talk to me, so, like I had with Pete, I offered to buy him a drink and somewhere around his third shot of whiskey, he admitted that he’d also seen this man, who he confirmed goes by the name Jack, at the Yellow Feather. He also added that he’d seen the same man in other bars in the area, including a bar on Orcas Island and a bar here on Madrona Island.”

  “Our bar?” Danny asked.

  “No. A bar on the north shore. Anyway, according to David, Jack is the sort to brag about all the women he’s bagged in recent months, but David suspected he was lying since, while he’d run into him four or five times in the past several months, he’d always been alone. I’m not sure how this information is going to help us track down the man or the missing women, but I suppose it’s a start.”

  “Maybe this Jack wasn’t lying about the sailing,” I said. “Maybe he did burn his hand while he was out on his boat. I guess we can check with marinas in the area. Maybe someone knows a customer named Jack who fits the general description of the man.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” Finn said. “Anything else?”

  “No, not really,” Cody answered. “The bartender I spoke to did say that he’d never seen the guy before that night and hadn’t seen him since. David said he had seen him in the bar a few times, but I suppose the place has more than one bartender. Either that or the bartender was lying for some reason. If David had indeed seen this guy on Orcas Island and Madrona Island as well as San Juan Island, it seems he’s moving between the islands rather than staying in one place. If he’s bringing women to the islands to kill them, maybe he moves around so he won’t draw attention to himself. He may even have a home on one of the small private islands in the area.”

  “So, what exactly is the theory here?” Siobhan asked. “Are we saying that some guy picks up women in Seattle and brings them to the islands for a weekend of sexcapades before he kills them and dumps their bodies?”

  “That’s the theory at this point,” Finn said. “The theory is based purely on the fact that three women went missing from Seattle bars who called and spoke to a friend or family member, letting them know they’d met a guy who was bringing them to the islands, and they were never seen again. We don’t know if there were others. There very well might be. The three missing women linked to the islands are only linked because they called someone before they left and specifically mentioned coming to the islands. For all we know, this guy might have been picking up women every weekend for months and months.”

  “It’s also possible that the guy who picked up these women in Seattle bars and promised them a trip to the islands never left Seattle with them,” I added.

  “Cait’s right,” Finn said. “At this point, I’m just trying to dig up some sort of proof to support the theory that there actually is a serial killer out there using Seattle bars as his hunting ground and the San Juan Islands as his killing place. I’m afraid all I really have is a theory, and unless I can find more, a theory may be all we ever have.”

  “Has the FBI been notified?” Danny asked.

  “The Seattle PD has been in contact with someone from the FBI. I’m not sure if they’ve been able to make enough of a case to get their attention, but they do know what we suspect.”

  “Can we help?” I asked Finn.

  “No. At this point, I’m just trying to find anyone who might know anything that will support the theory I’ve been working off since I was made aware of the most recent missing woman.”

  “Is the Seattle PD going back through their missing persons cases to look for other possible matches?” I asked.

  “They have someone on it. The three women we know of who called and told a friend or family member they’d met a man and were coming to the islands all called on a Friday and indicated they met the man at a bar, but the three women had been at different bars. All the women were in their twenties with a propensity to do things such as taking off with men they just met. I think the Seattle PD is looking for other missing women who fit that general profile even if they hadn’t called anyone before leaving with the guy who’d picked them up.”

  “What about questioning the bartenders and cocktail waitresses working in the bars the women went missing from?” Tara asked.

  “That’s being taken care of by the Seattle PD as well. We’ve been sharing information, so I assume they’ll let me know if they come up with anything. I’ll call and talk to my contact tomorrow about Cody’s conversation with the bartender and cocktail waitress from the Yellow Feather. All we can really do at this point is to keep digging and see where it takes us.”

  Chapter 4

  Thursday, April 2

  Cody and I went through all the back issues of the newspaper Thursday morning to verify that none were missing. I was happy that we still had all the back issues since most were probably irreplaceable, but we still had no idea why someone had broken in. We’d gone through everything again and had determined that not a single thing, as far as we could tell, was missing. Cody did say that it looked as if someone had gone through the files in his file cabinet, so I supposed I might have interrupted the intruder before he’d had a chance to do whatever it was that he had planned to do. If that was the case, would he try again? Neither Cody nor Finn had a feel for what the intr
uder who’d tied me up would do next, but both men had decided that we needed to beef up our security system with an alarm and sturdier locks for the windows and doors.

  Mystique still hadn’t shown up, which had me somewhat worried. I’d stopped by Herbalities to speak to Tansy on my way to the newspaper this morning, and she’d simply said that the cat would appear when she was needed. I knew she was right. That was how it had worked in the past. I wasn’t certain why I had so much anxiety this time around, but maybe the problem was simply my general feeling of anxiety getting all mixed up with my concern about the missing cat.

  There are those who would say that I was anxious because of what happened to me, but truth be told, I’d been anxious before I’d been knocked out and tied up. Of course, being assaulted hadn’t helped. In fact, at this point, my anxiety was bordering on paranoia, which was not a feeling I welcomed. A part of me seemed to know that something bad was going to happen, but since I couldn’t give words to that premonition, I experienced this dread as undefined anxiety. This may sound strange, but I honestly felt that I’d feel safer once the cat appeared, and I knew that help was close at hand.

  “Tara called me this morning,” I said to Cody as we took a break to have lunch. “She’s meeting with a representative of the insurance company at one-thirty and asked if I could attend.”

  “I take it the meeting is here on the island?”

  I nodded. “The meeting is on the wharf in front of Coffee Cat Books. The guy wants to take some additional photos and says he has more questions for us.”

  “Haven’t they already done that more than once?” Cody asked.

  “They have, but I guess they are doing it again. Personally, I think they’re stalling, but what can we do other than comply with their wishes and hope that eventually this all gets figured out.”

  Cody took a bite of his sandwich. “The thing that seems the strangest to me is that Coffee Cat Books not only carried property insurance but a loss of income policy as well. You’d think the insurance company would be as anxious to get the store open as you are so they can close the claim as quickly as possible.”

  “You’d think. I really don’t know why they are dragging their feet the way they are.”

  “Maybe the guy you meet with today will be able to fill in some of the blanks or at least answer some of your questions.” Cody grabbed his cola and took a sip.

  “I hope so.” I leaned a hip against a counter. My appetite was pretty much non-existent, so I made due by picking at a bag of potato chips I wasn’t really eating. “I thought Tara would be experiencing out of control anxiety at this point, but she seems perfectly happy working at the bar with Danny. I’m the one who can’t quite seem to get a handle on things, and I really don’t know why. I’m not usually the anxious sort.”

  Cody got up from where he was sitting, crossed the room, and gave me a hug. “You’ve had a lot of changes in your life in the past few months. You’re bound to feel some anxiety at this point. Just know that if you need a hug or you need to talk, I’m here for you.”

  I hugged Cody tighter. “I know, and that helps more than you know.”

  Tara was waiting for me at the wharf when I arrived. I noticed two men who I assumed were from the insurance company, standing off to the side having a discussion.

  “So, what’s going on?” I asked Tara.

  “I’m not sure. When the men first arrived, one of them went inside for about thirty minutes. When he came out, he spoke to the man in the blue sweater who then made a call. Shortly after that, the man in the plaid shirt showed up, and the two men have been chatting ever since.”

  “Based on their expressions, it seems they are having a serious conversation.”

  Tara bit her lower lip. “Yeah. I’m not sure what’s up, but I’m not liking the way this is going.”

  Shortly after I arrived, the man in the plaid shirt left, and the man in the blue sweater approached Tara and me.

  “Thank you both for meeting me here,” the man said.

  “We were happy to. What’s going on?” Tara asked.

  I could hear the fear in her voice, so I grabbed her hand in a show of solidarity.

  “We’ve done some research and found out that there is an ordinance on your island that requires any structure undergoing a remodel or addition compromising greater than forty percent of the total square footage be brought completely up to code. The building you purchased to house Coffee Cat Books is a very old building that will need a lot of work to bring it current, and given the nature of the structural damage, reworking less than forty percent is an unrealistic number to shoot for. The insurance company has determined that it would be more cost-effective to simply label the building as a tear down rather than to repair it.”

  Tara paled. “What does that mean?”

  “That means that per your policy, your settlement will be a percentage of the appraised value of the building.”

  “So, you aren’t going to pay for the building to be repaired?” I verified.

  “We are not. You will get a lump sum settlement that you can use however you want. If you want to try to repair the building, the decision is yours, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that. The cannery you remodeled when you opened the bookstore was already an old building, and the damage from the explosion is substantial. Additionally, given the fact that the structure was built on a wharf, it has been subjected to a lot of movement over the years. I’m afraid when you add the damage caused by the explosion to the damage that already existed, repair really isn’t a viable option.”

  “How much in dollars are we talking about?” Tara asked.

  “I estimate it will cost you more than double the settlement you will receive to repair the place. My recommendation is that you use your settlement to pay off your loan, demolish the building, and settle your debts.”

  Tara squeezed my hand hard enough that it hurt, but while I flinched, I didn’t pull away. “So, you’re saying that we are out of business.”

  “I’m afraid that would appear to be the case.” The man handed Tara a piece of paper. “The total dollar amount of your settlement is being calculated as we speak. Someone will call you next week to go over the details.”

  Tara looked down at the document, which I imagined explained in writing what the man had just told us. “Once we’re paid off, we can choose what we want to do with the property,” she verified.

  “Yes. You can choose what to do. Your loan from the bank will most likely be due upon receipt of the settlement, and I honestly don’t think you’ll have a lot left to do repairs or to rebuild the property after that, but I suppose you can try to get funding from another source, that’s up to you.” He held out his hand and shook each of ours. “I really am very sorry.”

  With that, he walked away.

  I looked at Tara. “What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered as a tear slid down her cheek.

  “Let’s head to the bar. We can talk this through,” I suggested. “I’ll call Cody and see if he can meet us there.”

  She nodded but didn’t speak. I had to wonder if this was the unseen disaster I’d been stressing over as of late, but somehow I didn’t think so. In fact, based on the pit in my gut, I was pretty sure that things were only going to go downhill from here.

  I was happy to see that the bar was deserted when Tara and I walked in. During the summer, the place was packed open to close, but during the winter and early spring, there was a definite lunch crowd followed by a midafternoon lull, which led into the early evening hours when the after-work and dinner crowds would come in. I figured we had two hours before the happy hour group started to congregate.

  “So, how’d it go?” Danny asked.

  “Not good,” Tara said, a tone of defeat in her voice.

  “What happened?” he asked, pulling her into his arms.

  Tara started to explain but ended up sobbing, so I took over and caught him up to date the best I could.

/>   “Where’s Cassie?” I asked once I’d filled Danny in.

  “She’s on a break until four,” Danny answered.

  “I called Cody, and he’ll be here as soon as he finishes what he’s working on,” I informed the others. “I’m hoping that between the four of us, we can come up with a plan that will allow us to repair the bookstore rather than razing it.”

  “Maybe we should call Siobhan and get her input on the code issue,” Danny said. “If she doesn’t have the answers we need, she’ll have direct access to whoever does.”

  “That’s a good idea.” As mayor, Siobhan would understand the options available to us.

  Once Cody and Siobhan showed up, the five of us sat down and went over things. Tara and I shared what the man from the insurance company had told us while Siobhan looked over the document he’d given to Tara.

  “It is true that about three years ago, the island council voted to enact certain building guidelines meant to improve the quality of the infrastructure on the island,” Siobhan started. “The existing infrastructure was grandfathered in, but all new construction was mandated to comply with the new guidelines. As for existing buildings, it was determined that in the case of remodeling or additions, if the affected area was greater than forty percent of the total square footage, then upgrades which would bring the entire structure into compliance would be mandated in order to obtain a permit.”

  “So the guy from the insurance company was probably right,” Tara said. “It would cost a lot more to repair the building than to tear it down and start over.”

  “That’s not technically true,” Siobhan said. “But it would cost the insurance more to make the needed repairs and upgrades than to total the building and pay you the appraised value minus any deductibles you may have.”

  “So, what do we do?” Tara asked.

  “I’m not sure at this point,” Siobhan said. “Tearing the building down and rebuilding from scratch is going to be costly. I suppose the first thing you’ll need to do is speak to the bank and find out what they are willing to do.”