It was Friday before Livia could get back to Emerson Bay. As Megan sat in the passenger seat while they headed to West Bay, the horizon seared with the last efforts of the setting sun.
“Who is this guy?” Megan asked.
“A piece of work,” Livia said. “The problem is, he might be useful.”
Earlier in the week Livia had caught Megan up on her findings from the evidence room—the green fiber match to Casey Delevan’s clothing, and the missing fork that Ted Kane had expertly identified as the tool used to end his life. Both findings created a link between Casey and Nicole on the night she was taken. By association, the findings had snared Megan as well.
Livia pulled through the light when it turned green, turned onto a side street a few minutes later, and stopped the car in front of the dilapidated house she had visited two weeks before.
“Useful how?” Megan asked.
“Here’s the thing,” Livia said. “When we go to your dad, I want ammunition. We’ve got the ketamine and the fibers and the missing fork. But for your dad to get on board, I need more. I need to convince him that Casey Delevan was taking girls.”
“You mean Nancy Dee?”
“Maybe others, too.”
“Other girls? Who?”
Livia pointed to the house. “I’m hoping to find out tonight.”
They climbed out of the car and knocked on the rickety screen door. Daisy went wild, barking and clawing. Nate Theros held her at bay while he cracked open the door.
“Nate. It’s Livia Cutty.”
Nate smiled as he stared past Livia.
Livia followed his glance. “This is Megan McDonald.”
His eyes unblinking, Nate carried the starstruck grin of a fan meeting his favorite movie star.
“Maybe you should put Daisy away,” Livia said, interrupting Nate’s moment as he gawked and grinned at Megan. “So we can talk?”
“Yeah,” Nate said, nodding. “I’ll be right back.”
While Nate dragged Daisy to her crate, Livia spoke over the barking. “This guy was a member of the club I told you about. The one that studied missing persons cases. He’s enamored of your presence. You’re as famous as they get.”
Megan raised her eyebrows. “I’m flattered.”
“Just bear with me. I promised him you’d be here to sign a copy of your book and answer some questions for him. It’s the only way he’d agree to talk.”
Nate was back a minute later. “You guys wanna come in?” he asked, oblivious to the many things that would prevent two women from entering his house. Like that they were in West Bay at dusk, with a muddy purple sky just ahead of Halloween. Or that his T-shirt did nothing to contain the tattoos that traced his arms and neck. Or that the giant hoop earrings that weighted down his earlobes shouted bad intentions and mischief.
“No, thanks,” Livia said. “Let’s talk on the porch.”
“Yeah, sure.” Nate walked onto the front patio and put a cigarette between his lips. “Hey,” he said to Megan.
“Hi.”
“I read your book.”
“Oh yeah?” Megan still hadn’t found the right way to respond to this. “Thanks.”
“Nate, Megan and I want to ask you a few questions about the club.”
“Go ahead.”
“You mentioned that the Capture Club talked about a variety of cases, old and new.”
“Right.”
“Who chose the cases?”
“Anybody. If you were curious about a case, you’d throw out a name.”
“Like Jeffrey Dahmer?”
“Dahmer, Gacy, Bittaker and Norris, Beneke. You name it. But we didn’t spend tons of time on them. They were old news.”
“You guys talked about current stuff mostly?”
“A lot of the time, yeah.”
“Anybody could bring up a topic or a name?”
“Yeah. Mostly we followed the news.”
Livia nodded. “Especially if someone nearby went missing?”
“Right.”
“Nancy Dee, for example.”
“Yeah, we talked about her.”
“You remember how the group got onto the Nancy Dee story?”
“I don’t know. Probably Casey. He was the most up-to-date on the new stuff. Always had a beat on it right when the story broke.”
“So, you’d say he knew about some of the cases before anyone else did?”
“Guess so, yeah.”
“You remember any other cases, newer ones, that you guys talked about.”
Nate wagged his head back and forth, eyes up to the sky. “Sure. Remember a bunch.” He lit his cigarette. “Got a binder full of the ones we talked about.”
“A binder full of missing girls?”
“Not just girls. Some dudes, too. Whoever the club thought was interesting.”
“Where’s this binder?”
“Inside.”
“Can we have a look at it?”
Nate shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s my private stuff from back when the club was in full swing.”
Megan cleared her throat. “I’d really like to see it.” She smiled at Nate. “If that would be okay.”
Nate inhaled from his cigarette and the smoke got lodged somewhere in his trachea, causing him to cough like a teenager taking his first drag. He avoided eye contact. “Be right back.” He pulled open the screen door and disappeared inside.
“Interesting guy,” Megan said.
“I think he’s harmless. Thanks for throwing your star power around.”
“What good is being famous if you don’t use it?”
Nate was back a few minutes later with a black three-ring binder. It reminded Livia of the folder she’d taken from Casey Delevan’s desk drawer. Nate handed it to her.
“Here’re most of the cases we talked about. I’ve kept up on a lot of them. Plus a couple new ones.” He looked at Megan. “Got a bunch of your stuff.” He shrugged, as if offering someone his life’s work. “If you wanna check it out.”
“Nancy Dee in here?” Livia said.
“Oh yeah. Got a few pages on her.”
Livia found Nancy’s pages and skimmed through them. Then she leafed through the binder, looking for information on Paula D’Amato, the other girl from Casey Delevan’s file. Halfway through the pages she found newspaper clippings about her.
“You remember this girl?”
Nate looked at the page, saw Paula D’Amato’s face. “’Course I do.”
“How’d the club get onto this one?”
“Casey was into that one. He was on it right away, and we talked about her a bunch. He was sort of fixated on her.”
“You remember much about this girl?” Livia asked.
“Georgia Tech freshman. Cops found her jacket in the woods off a trail that students take on the way back to campus. Arrested her boyfriend, but let him go after a while. I guess they’re questioning him again now. Plus some other fraternity guys. I’ve been watching that one closely since the other day, you know?”
“Since the other day?” Livia asked, holding the open binder. “What happened the other day?”
Nate let a slow smile form on his face as though Livia were playing a joke on him. He blew diluted smoke from the corner of his mouth. “They found her body. Like, three or four days ago.”
“Paula D’Amato?”
Nate nodded.