“True enough.” And Dr. Ling nodded, but allowed a smile when she added, “However, you could say he tried very hard to knock her head off.”
“Dr. Ling?” A tall young man called to her from the door. “That delivery you’ve been waiting for has just arrived.”
“Thanks, Calvin. I’ll be right there.” She returned the skull to its tray. “Will you both excuse me? I’ll be only five or ten minutes.”
“No problem.”
Ling had barely cleared the door when, like a mother with a child, Maggie pulled Racine’s elbow away right before she poked one of the bones with brain tissue still sticking to it.
“What? I just wondered what it felt like.”
“You know something new?”
But Racine wasn’t ready to talk about whatever it was and tried to change the subject. “That interview last night with your mother—that was brutal.”
“It must have been. She’s been leaving voice messages for me all morning wanting to explain. Quit changing the subject. Tell me what you found out.”
Racine got quiet. She was still eyeing the bone Ling had left on the tray.
“I thought I had it figured out,” she finally said. “I talked to Gloria Dobson’s husband last night. A male colleague was supposed to be making the trip with her. He said it made him feel better that she wouldn’t be driving the eleven hundred miles alone. He liked the kid. Said he was a good guy.”
She pulled a small notebook from her jacket pocket and flipped pages.
“Zach Lester, twenty-eight, five nine, a hundred and fifty pounds, light brown hair, blue eyes. Mr. Lester didn’t show up at the sales conference either. I put out a BOLO for him and for Dobson’s silver 2007 Toyota Highlander.”
“You think Lester killed her and took her vehicle?”
“Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one.”
“When did Mr. Dobson talk to his wife last?”
“Three days ago. She and Lester were on their last leg of the trip, almost to Baltimore. He said it wasn’t that unusual that he hadn’t heard from her since. The sales conferences were busy and he liked her to feel like she didn’t need to check in, give her a break from him and the kids.”
“What motive would Lester have for killing her?”
“Coworkers, road trip away from everyone. Maybe there was a thing between them. Maybe he hit her on the head when she rejected him.”
“Would he have been mad enough to bludgeon her to death?”
Racine shrugged. “We’ve both seen people do worse for less reason. Makes more sense than a stranger. Someone bashes in another person’s face like that, it’s usually personal.”
“But the skull inside the building complicates your theory.”
“Only slightly. It could be two separate killers. You’ve been saying all along that you didn’t think the arsonist was the same guy who murdered Dobson.”
“He didn’t bother to burn her body.”
“But the victim inside was toast.”
“Dr. Ling said she didn’t find any other bones from the rest of that body.”
“Could they have burned up?”
Maggie simply shook her head, not wanting to go into Dr. Ling’s long explanation.
“Guess we’ll have to wait and ask Zach Lester what happened as soon as the Virginia State Patrol finds him and Dobson’s SUV.”
“There’s something I should probably tell you.” Maggie waited for Racine’s attention. “The other day when I went down the manhole? I think someone followed me down.”
“What do mean? Followed you down?”
“I heard footsteps in front of me. Then all of sudden there were footsteps behind me. Someone started smashing out the lightbulbs in the tunnel before you called down and scared him off.”
“And you’re only telling me this now?”
“That’s not all. That night someone was seen back behind my property checking out my backyard.”
“Could be some crazy who saw Jeffery Cole’s profile.”
“I’ve taken a lot of precautions to not be found.”
“Property taxes are all online now.”
“Mine’s not listed under my name.”
Racine raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask. She crossed her arms over her chest and Maggie waited for the lecture. None came. Instead of anger, Racine looked concerned. Very concerned. And that was more unsettling than having the detective angry with her.
CHAPTER 56