“No, Kitten. Because he was a drag queen, I asked him if he had one after I knew it was found, and he said he didn’t have any makeup with him.”
“So who’s the girl, Stiles? Is it anyone we know?”
Dear Goddess, it was horrible that a girl was missing, but if we knew her… Though, that was unlikely. If she was someone missing from Marshmallow Hollow, I’d have heard about it.
“We don’t know her. She’s from Chester Bay.”
The next town over. Chester Bay was bigger than Marshmallow Hollow by at least twenty thousand people, and not nearly as touristy. Though, most folks who wanted to experience my little town but couldn’t book a room during the busy holiday season, often opted to stay in Chester Bay.
So close to home, it chilled my already chilled bones. “What’s her name, Stiles? Can you tell me?”
“Secret squirrel again?”
“Till death.”
“Kerry Carver. Last seen walking to the local bus stop from her after-school babysitting job three days ago. Her parents reported her missing, but as usual it got back-burnered because she hadn’t been missing long. Even though, according to the report I got from Chester Bay’s guys, her parents were adamant she always came home from work without fail. She wasn’t, in their words, the kind of girl who stayed out late or partied.”
My heart crashed against my ribs. This felt so close to home—so close. “Anything else?”
“Just that the shotgun the killer murdered Gable with might have been Mr. Feeney’s. We finally located him and had him come to the store. He was understandably distraught, especially when he found out his gun is missing and it could be the one Gable was killed with.”
“He kept a shotgun at the store? A shotgun?” I asked in surprise. I knew Mr. Feeney was a hunter, so were his sons, but I guess I never realized he kept a gun at the store.
Though, it made complete sense to have a gun at a convenience store—even in little old Marshmallow Hollow—because hello, Hannah, look at how many murders we’d had in just a few days.
“He did. He was licensed to carry, though in Maine, you don’t need a permit to own one—or carry it, for that matter. But you know he and his boys loved to hunt in Iowa, and you need a permit to cross state lines with a gun.”
Grimacing, I bit my lower lip. “I think you know my specialty is tinsel and talking Santas, not guns. So I didn’t know that. But how did the killer get his hands on it?”
“I don’t know. Though Mr. Feeney says Gable knew where it was and he had access to it. Our best guess is, Gable pulled the gun on the killer, but he wrestled it away from him in the fight that ensued, ending in the bathroom. And that’s pretty much all I have.”
I blew out a pent-up breath with a shiver. “Okay, so I have some info for you from Uncle Darling that’s worth investigating. Did he say anything in his statement about the killer demanding an SD card? And have you looked at the store’s surveillance tape yet?”
There was a moment of silence where I heard the sound of papers flipping, and then he said, “No. Nothing about an SD card. But, to be fair to Darling, he was in a state of total shock. Maybe more will come back to him as the night progresses. As to the video itself, I can’t say for sure, but I am sure forensics is on it. They always are.”
I explained to him what Uncle Darling told me about what the killer had said, and then I wondered out loud, “Do you think this a robbery gone bad? Did the killer have his own gun? I mean, did he hold up the store not realizing Gable had a gun, too? And did he steal anything from the register? And why didn’t Gable push the silent alarm? Doesn’t every convenience store have one?”
The questions came spilling out of my mouth, having built up while trying to keep my thoughts contained with Uncle Darling.
“I don’t know about the alarm. I mean, I’m sure Mr. Feeney has one, but I can’t figure why Gable didn’t press it. Maybe he thought he could handle the guy because he had the shotgun? But the killer also didn’t take a single thing,” Stiles responded. “The register was never touched. No money missing, and Mr. Feeney said it didn’t seem like any items were missing, either.”
Still… “That still doesn’t explain the SD card. Why would he want it if he was in disguise? I can’t help but feel like there was something more on it than just him doing whatever he was doing in the store. Or am I conclusion-jumping here?”
“I guess it’s possible, Kitten, but every criminal knows a store has a surveillance camera. Maybe he was just making sure no one ever saw it and there’d be no trace of him unless Monty could identify him. And how would he do that if he was wearing a ski mask?”
“But,” I whispered into the dark of the barn, “he was fighting with Gable over the SD card. That’s what Darling said. That happened for a reason. And something else that worries me sick, Monty probably did see him and hear whatever transpired between the killer and Gable. He’s not safe, Stiles. That terrifies me.”
“Ansel’s already on it. He’s going to post someone at the hospital as soon as Monty comes out of surgery. They’ll keep him safe.”
I blew out another anxious breath. “So I guess until Uncle Monty wakes up, we don’t have much if the SD card is gone.”
“Well, we don’t have a lot, but we do have that missing girl. They’re sending Detective Godfrey out to talk to her parents tonight.”
How awful for this poor girl’s parents to know she was missing—and likely, the person who’d taken her had just tonight been in a convenience store but fifteen miles away.
But that lipstick… “What about that lipstick? If that girl’s been missing for a few days, and the lipstick was only discovered tonight, the killer has to have some connection to her, right? He must have been the one who had it. I mean, Mr. Feeney probably cleans the bathrooms at minimum twice a day. No way would a lipstick be left lying around for as long as a couple of days. Especially in the men’s bathroom. That makes me wonder if the missing girl wasn’t on that SD card…”
“Good point. Except Mr. Feeney said he checks the video camera footage every two or three days, and he hasn’t seen anything even a little suspicious, and he said he didn’t recognize Kerry’s photo at all. Besides that, Kerry couldn’t have physically been in the store as of the last time he’d checked the footage two days ago.”
Unless she was disguised when she came in? Or someone forced her to wear a disguise? Or was I just letting myself get carried away?
I plucked at my lip in nervousness, getting some fuzz from my gloves in my mouth. I had a lot to process and right now, I was so worried about Uncle Monty, I wasn’t sure I was capable.
“Let’s revisit this later. For right now, are you’re sure it’s okay to tell Hobbs?”
“Tell me what?”
I almost jumped out of my skin, whirling around to see the lights wrapped around the fence revealing Hobbs, his tall frame strutting through the doors of the barn with sure strides, his hands in the pockets of his favorite rawhide jacket.
I held up a finger to him to hear Stiles say, “How can you avoid it? Listen, Kitten. I think the time has come for you to consider telling Hobbs about your visions. You can’t keep playing both sides of the fence and keep your sanity. Your visions have helped me a lot. They’re not just about lost pieces of jewelry or hidden wills anymore. They’re about real crimes, and seeing as you guys are thicker than thieves these days, he’s going to start to wonder about your quote-unquote migraines.”