Page 43 of Fire Harbor
Revulsion crept over the group as they realized the magnitude of the horror laid out before them. The sunlight seemed to dim in this circle of hell as shadows fell around the bones and tattered remains.
Colt clenched his jaw, steeling himself against the urge to back away. “What kind of a monster does this kind of thing?”
Linus nodded in agreement as he dug out his cell phone. “I was thinking the same thing. I’ll let Brent know that we’re in. Should we start taking photos? Send him a picture or two of the bodies to warn him.”
“I’ll do it,” Theo volunteered. “We have Brent on speed dial.” But a shaken Theo fumbled with his phone, his hands trembling slightly as he captured the first image before swiping to Brent’s number. “Boss, we broke through the vines. We have a dump site of at least eight sets of remains, possibly more. You need to get down here. Don’t let forensics leave.”
While Theo reported to Brent, Linus knelt beside one of the skulls, his expression grim. “These poor souls have been here for a long time,” he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. “Am I nuts, or does it seem like each victim has been left in a specific position like a circle or a clock?”
Beckett’s jaw tensed as he surveyed the clearing with a steely gaze. “I was thinking that, too. Maybe in a sundial pattern.”
“That’s it, a sundial,” Linus muttered, pointing to a tattered piece of fabric caught in a nearby bush. “Even with the animal activity, you can still see the outline where they were originally laid out. How do you know what clothing belongs to what victim? This will take weeks to sort out. How long do you think they’ve been here?”
Birk’s eyes narrowed as realization dawned on him. “I don’t know. But we might be dealing with two different killers. Otherwise, why did Gabby Moreland’s partial remains end up on the other side of the wall? Then there’s the second victim Brodie found. That’s two that didn’t make it this far.”
“Maybe the killer had difficulty returning to his dump site,” Linus proffered. “He needed to get rid of Gabby’s body quickly and decided to bury it in the dunes because he couldn’t hack his way through that wall of vines in the dark. I know I couldn’t. Same circumstance with the second victim.”
“Maybe,” Colt muttered. “But I think Birk is onto something. Either way, it will take time to sort this out. There’s no clear answer…yet.”
Colt stopped talking when he saw Brent standing at the entrance, taking in the chilling scene.
Brent, hands on his hips, stared straight at Linus. “How the hell did you know this was back here?”
Chapter Eleven
“Wait. What are you saying?” Lake asked in disbelief, standing in the living room with her arms crossed in a defiant posture. “Brent actually questioned you about being the killer? Unbelievable.”
Linus winced. They hadn’t seen each other since that morning at breakfast. For him, it had been a stress-filled afternoon since the discovery. For her, the meeting at the church with Eastlyn had confirmed a serial killer walked among them. Tension hung over the room like a heavy morning mist.
“I appreciate you coming to my defense, but it wasn’t exactly like that,” Linus replied. “You have to remember cops don’t believe in coincidences. The fact that I found Gabby’s skull about seventy-five yards from the dump site gave him cause to be suspicious. Returning the next day to find the necklace didn’t do me any favors.”
“But—”
“It’s okay. Brent’s suspicion lasted about twenty minutes. He knows there are eight victims spread out from 2014 to 2021. We found eight skulls at the dump site.”
“Behind the thicket of vines.”
“Yeah. But the thing is, there are two victims dumped before you get to the scrub, the wall of vines we chopped down. Brent and several others believe there are two killers. The serial killer who put his victims out of sight behind that dense wall of foliage and the murderer who killed Gabby Moreland and an unknown second victim.”
Lake dropped into one of the room’s comfortable leather chairs. “I don’t know, Linus. That sounds far-fetched to me.”
“It would mean that one serial killer probably left the area while the other might be at the beginning of his activity.”
“Recent activity,” Lake provided.
Linus stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and paced in front of the windows. “A ramp-up is how it was explained to me. The most recent killer is ramping up, trying to find his niche. With tourist season approaching, there will likely be another murder victim near that bridge.”
“But nothing indicates he truly moved on, right?”
Linus shook his head. “I wish. Brent said there’s always a lag time in identifying a serial killer. They hide under the radar for so long, it takes something like Gabby going missing to know it’s for real, happening in our own backyard.”
“What about the victims dumped inside that circle you found?”
“They’ve been out there for at least ten years. That brings us to Joanna Hawkins, who disappeared in 2014 all the way to Keri Davis in 2021. Keep in mind that we don’t have proof it’s them yet. It will likely take forensics weeks or months to sort through DNA from the bones and match them to get even a partial skeleton. It’s weird that all eight women were from Santa Cruz, though.”
“Which means they were heading over that bridge, probably at night. That’s when they disappeared.” Lake made a face. “I don’t understand why someone would want to kill all these women near our little town. It’s terrifying to think we’ve been living among a serial killer all these years.”
“How do you know he isn’t from Santa Cruz?”