Jasper turned to see that a CO was trying to get in.
“You locked it?” Evelyn asked, a puzzled expression on her face.
Jasper shrugged to indicate he hadn’t meant to do anything wrong. “You had it locked, so I thought you wanted it like that.”
She started to say that hadn’t been necessary but stopped and simply shook her head. The CO was rapping on the door as though he couldn’t wait even a second for a response.
Jasper ground his teeth as she went to see who it was. He couldn’t believe this CO could be looking for him, so he wasn’t worried. He had permission to leave the prison, could say he’d just come up to make sure the doc—as most of the COs affectionately called her—was okay before he went home.
“Dr. Talbot, I’m so glad you’re here.” It was “Easy” Hyde, who’d started at the prison only two months ago. They used nicknames at Hanover House so much—not for everyone but for their favorites, which was probably why Jasper didn’t have one—that Jasper had no idea what the dude’s real name was. But his corpulent face was flushed and sweaty—ridiculous as far as Jasper was concerned. Someone needed to kick his fat ass and make him lose weight.
“What’s wrong?” Evelyn looked worried as she let in the obese guard. “Why are you so upset?”
Easy’s gaze shifted from Evelyn to Jasper and back again, but he was too caught up in whatever he wanted to convey to express any surprise that “Andy” was with her. “I got off at four, but I hung out here for a while, hoping the storm would ease off. I didn’t want to tackle driving home in a blizzard. But the moment the snow let up, I went out to get in my brand-new truck.”
“Don’t tell me someone crashed into it while it was parked in the garage,” she said.
“No. Worse than that. When I came around the back of it, I saw something hanging from the axle underneath, you know? I don’t know how the COs at the checkpoint missed it with their mirrors. They probably thought, like me, that it was a hank of long grass. But when I reached out to tear it away, I realized it was … It was…”
The big baby choked up. Jasper longed to punch him for being such a pussy, but he also felt his muscles go taut with expectation. He could guess what Easy was going to say.
Evelyn touched Easy’s arm to soothe his distress. “What was it?”
Instead of answering, he opened the bag he carried to show her, and she immediately covered her mouth and turned away. “Please tell me that isn’t what it looks like,” she said.
“It is!” he cried. “It’s a handful of human hair attached to part of a scalp!”
“Oh my God.” Gripping the side of the cubicle closest to her, she put her head down as if trying to avoid passing out.
“Are you okay?” Jasper feigned concern to be able to touch her shoulder. He couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt to put his hands on her after so long. Especially because he knew she wouldn’t recoil, couldn’t rebuff his kindness without being rude, and she was never rude.
She straightened slowly, but when she threw her shoulders back he knew she was tamping down her distress, taking charge. “I’m fine. Thanks again for the donut and coffee,” she said, and started walking him out.
Knowing his opportunity had disappeared, he didn’t try to resist.
“We’ll call Amarok right away,” she told Easy as she opened the door for Jasper. “Maybe he’ll want Phil to take what you’ve found to him, so he can submit it with the other evidence on this case first thing in the morning.”
“What case?” Jasper heard Easy ask as he stepped out of the office.
Apparently, not everyone had heard about the missing woman, even though, with Leland and the rest of his party staying in town, Hilltop had to be abuzz with the news.
Whatever Evelyn said in response was lost when the door swung shut, cutting Jasper off from the conversation.
He muttered a curse as he got on the elevator that would take him down to the first floor. He’d come so close. It made him more frustrated than ever to leave empty-handed, doubled the anger he’d felt after he’d had to let that stripper go. But with Amarok as busy as he was, Jasper would have other chances—probably plenty of them.
And it only took one.
*
“Say that again?” Amarok’s voice was thick with sleep. Evelyn could tell he wasn’t completely lucid, but he was lucid enough to speak quietly. No doubt he was trying not to wake his father and his father’s wife.
After Andy Smith had left, Evelyn had beckoned Easy into her office. They couldn’t use the phone in the conference room; she’d destroyed it. “It’s me.”
“I guessed that as soon as I heard the phone ring,” Amarok said. “That’s why my heart’s in my throat. It’s like … what … five in the morning? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She cringed when Easy, who was obviously eager to get rid of what he was holding, set the sack with the hair and scalp on her desk between them. “Sorry to drag you out of bed. You must be exhausted. But I’m with a CO who’s discovered something you need to know about.”
“What is it?”
“Human hair.”
“You did say human hair?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand.…”
She shuddered as a vision of what the sack contained passed before her mind’s eye. “It’s attached to a pretty good chunk of scalp.”
After a slight pause, Amarok spoke again, and she could tell he was now wide awake. “I see. More than you’d find if, say, that person was alive.”
“Exactly.”
“You believe it might belong to Sierra Yerbowitz.”
“Don’t you?”
He didn’t answer the question; he didn’t need to. “Where did this CO make his find?”
“I’ll let him tell you. His name is Jordan Hyde, but we call him Easy, and he’s right here. Let me put you on speaker so we can all hear.”
She pressed the appropriate button, put down the handset and gestured for Easy to lean in. “Easy, have you ever met Sergeant Murphy?”
“Not formally,” he replied. “I’ve seen him at the Moosehead or around Hilltop when I was getting gas, that sort of thing. But I have a wife and family waiting for me in Anchorage when I get off work. I can’t go to the bar as often as most of the other guys.”
“So how did you come across such a gruesome thing?” Amarok asked.
Easy used his sleeve to wipe the sweat beading on his forehead. “I noticed something dragging from my rear axle. I can’t tell you how it came to be there in the first place. I must’ve picked it up somewhere. That’s all I can figure.”
“Have you been anywhere unusual lately?”
“No. I’ve had to work the past five days, so that’s about all I’ve done. And I’ve only owned my truck for a week. My wife and I bought it last Saturday.”
“You haven’t been out to any hunting cabins.…”
“No. None. I’ve gone from Anchorage to Hilltop, and Hilltop to Anchorage. Other than stopping at the grocery store and taking my older kid to school, if I’m available, that’s it.”
“How long would you guess that piece of scalp has been there?”
“I have no clue.”
“You don’t think someone attached it to your truck, do you?”
“You mean as a gruesome prank or something? No. I don’t have friends like that. I don’t even have enemies like that.”
Before Amarok could lob another question at him, understanding dawned on Easy’s face. “Oh, wait! You’re asking if it’s possible someone wanted me to find it—like that severed head I heard about behind the Moosehead a couple years back.”
“Does that seem like a possibility to you?” Amarok asked.
“Not really. If I’d driven around with it much longer, it could easily have fallen off. Then I doubt anyone would ever have found it.”
“So you picked it up somewhere—by accident.”
A pained expression appeared on Easy’s face. “No disrespect, Sergeant, but I certainly didn’t pick it up on purpose.”
“The question is … how’d it happen?”