All the Beautiful Brides (16 page)

“A lady’s having a hard time saying good-bye to her basset hound.”

“Your cremation chamber is in the back?” Cal asked.

“Yes.”

“Let me see.”

Yonkers suddenly looked worried. “Are you here because you have a pet?”

“No, I’m investigating two homicides. Gwyneth Toyton and Constance Gilroy. Did you know either of them?”

Yonkers’s eyes darted between Cal and Mona. “I didn’t do anything to them.”

“I didn’t say you did,” Cal said.

Yonkers glanced at Mona. “Jesus. I should have seen this coming. You think it was me ’cause I was in that mental hospital?”

“Your sister was one of the Thorn Ripper’s victims, and Johnny Pike’s up for parole,” Cal pointed out.

Mona lowered her voice. “You wanna talk about that?”

Yonkers crossed his arms. “I did have some problems, but you would have too if you’d grown up with your parents depressed and obsessed over your sister’s murder. Hell, sometimes I wished I
had
died. I would have finally gotten their attention.”

“That must have been difficult,” Mona said softly.

He shrugged. “It was. But I’m on meds now. You can ask Mama. She’s sick, has been for a while, and laid up in bed. But she can tell you I’m not crazy. I take care of her.”

Mona frowned. “I saw you at the memorial service. If you’re so bitter, why did you go?”

“Because I did love my sister.” His eyes widened nervously. “Besides, a couple of the family members are clients.”

Cal cleared his throat. “Show me the back room.”

The scars on the man’s hands looked more prominent as he rubbed his chin.

As soon as Mona stepped through the door, the strong scent of cleaning chemicals assaulted her.

This man was certainly big enough and strong enough to overcome a woman. He could easily have killed Gwyneth and Constance.

Maybe he wanted the attention his sister and Johnny Pike had gotten badly enough to kill for it.

“Some folks can’t stand the thought of cremation.” Yonkers showed them the cremation chamber. “We only cremate one animal at a time,” he explained. “We do our best to be humane and honor the family’s wishes.”

Through a glass partition, Mona saw a middle-aged woman rocking herself back and forth as she dabbed at her tears with a tissue.

Cal’s scowl grew more intense as he strode through the rooms, as if he was searching for a hidden chamber where Yonkers might be hiding another victim.

The temperature chilled Mona again as they left the brick building and trudged through the snow to the man’s home. When he opened the door, the scent of soap assaulted her again, yet it was the stuffed creatures, animals that had once been alive but now had been preserved, that made her go cold inside.

A stuffed coyote sat on a table, two bobcats on a shelf by the wall, raccoons and squirrels and a . . . beagle, which looked so real it made Mona’s stomach roil.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Cal had searched for a secret room or chamber in the crematorium building, someplace where Yonkers could hold a woman, but he didn’t find one.

Logic nagged at him. If Yonkers had murdered those women, why not get rid of their bodies in his cremation chamber instead of carrying them to the falls?

Moving the bodies and leaving them so they could be discovered increased his chances of getting caught.

Maybe he wanted to get caught . . .

Or he was arrogant and enjoyed watching the town’s reaction and the police scurry to find the truth.

“You like preserved animals?” Mona asked.

“I couldn’t save my sister or keep her alive for my folks,” Yonkers said in a disturbingly calm voice. “But I do what I can to help honor the animals when they die.”

The inside of the cabin was just as disturbing as the crematorium. All those dead animals preserved, their eyes watching him.

Nothing in the tiny den or the man’s bedroom. Just jeans and flannel shirts and a book on taxidermy. Although it was possible that he’d hidden the jewelry he’d stolen from the victims somewhere in the house.

Hell, he could have sewn the jewelry inside the animals.

Dammit, if Cal found probable cause, he could obtain a warrant, then he could tear the place inside out.

“Mama isn’t well,” Yonkers said when they reached the door to the second bedroom.

Cal shrugged. The sound of Christian music echoed from inside the room. Yonkers knocked gently. “Mama?”

Mona looked warily at Cal as the man opened the door. A mixture of smells assaulted Cal—some kind of cleaner mixed with sickness.

A dim light glowed from a lamp in the corner and allowed him to see inside the room. A frail woman lay in the bed, her thin gray hair matted. An oxygen tube was attached to her nose, but her eyes popped open as they stepped in the doorway.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Yonkers. What’s wrong with her?” Mona asked softly.

“Liver cancer,” Yonkers said. “After my sister died, she drowned herself in the bottle. She can’t get around very well now, and her organs are failing.”

The entire family had been torn apart by Candy’s murder. “Shouldn’t she be in a hospital?”

“No, she wants to die at home.” He walked over, patted her shoulder, and offered her a drink of water.

The woman tried to speak, but her words were slurred. “Not today, Mama. Just rest.”

“What did she say?” Mona asked.

Yonkers cut her a dark look. “She asked if I’d brought a nice girl home for her to meet. Mama always wanted to see me marry and have a family. I think she was hoping a daughter-in-law would replace Candy. But no one ever measured up to her.”

Cal silently cursed. So much for questioning her about her son’s whereabouts.

As they stepped back into the hall, Yonkers turned to Cal.

“And before you ask where I was the night the Toyton woman was murdered, I was here. I’m afraid to leave my mother for too long. I don’t want her to die alone.”

If Cal didn’t suspect him of murder, he would feel sorry for the guy. But Yonkers fit the profile of the unsub.

Josie knew her mother was keeping secrets.

She’d promised to stay with her grandfather while her mother ran to the drugstore to pick up his medication.

Desperate for answers, she sneaked into her mother’s room, searched the dresser drawer, and pulled the diary from beneath some lace doilies. She had to hurry if she wanted to skim through it. Her mother might be back any minute.

She sank into the chair in the corner, opened the diary, and began to read.

Daddy doesn’t understand how much I love Johnny. He forbid me to see him today. But I won’t stop seeing him.

I’m going to meet him at our special place at the falls.

Johnny is the love of my life. He noticed me when no one else did.

And the other girls, the plastics—Brittany, Tiffany, and Candy—they’re all furious that Johnny likes me.

They want Johnny to give them the rose for prom. But I’m hoping he’ll give it to me.

Josie skimmed a couple more entries, until another caught her eye.

I told Johnny he was my first. I want him to be my only.

But tonight Tiffany was murdered. They say someone pushed her over the falls.

The police are questioning everyone at school.

I wish I hadn’t argued with her yesterday. They might think I did it.

Josie’s heart pounded. Her mother had been questioned in a homicide investigation?

Brittany died last night, just like Tiffany, at the falls. Everyone at school is in a panic. Candy accused me of being jealous and asked if I killed them.

But Johnny knows I would never hurt anyone.

He loves me. I think we’re going to run away together and get married.

Although if Daddy finds out, he’ll kill me . . .

Josie was so engrossed in the diary that she didn’t hear the door open. But her mother’s sharp voice startled her. “What are you doing?”

Josie jerked her head up as her mother ripped the diary from her hands.

Mona studied Yonkers as they walked through the pet cemetery. He was handsome in a dark, macabre kind of way. Intense dark eyes. Short-cropped brown hair. Olive skin.

Of course, some psychopaths were charming. “How did you get into this business?”

“I took over from my father. He was a vet and started the cemetery years ago when he saw the need for it.”

Cal crossed his arms. “Did your parents ever talk about Johnny Pike?”

“Everyone talked about him,” Yonkers said. “Have for years. The town is in a panic now just thinking he might be granted parole and be released.”

“Did your folks believe he was guilty?”

He shrugged. “Yes. Why? You aren’t trying to get him out, are you?”

“No, I just want to find the truth,” Cal said. “If you had nothing to do with the recent murders, give us a DNA sample and we can eliminate you from our suspect list.”

Yonkers glared at them. “Don’t you need a warrant for that?”

Cal shifted, his expression challenging. “Like I said, if you’re innocent, you won’t mind helping us.”

“I am innocent,” Yonkers said. “But Johnny Pike said he was, too, and they sent him to jail anyway.”

“I thought you believed he was guilty.”

“That’s not the point,” Yonkers said.

“Tell us about yourself,” Mona said, changing tactics. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Yonkers swung around, every muscle in his body tense with rage. “I have a feeling you already know the answer to that. My girlfriend left me the day I went in for treatment.”

Mona sucked in a sharp breath. Yonkers obviously felt betrayed. If he was off his meds, that betrayal could have triggered enough rage to make him kill.

Cal called Director Vance to request a warrant for Yonkers’s DNA as he drove away from Pet Heaven. Vance also agreed to send another agent, one of Cal’s buddies, Dane Hamrick, to run surveillance on Yonkers. If he made a move tonight, they’d know about it.

His phone buzzed and he told Vance to keep him posted, then punched Connect.

“It’s Deputy Kimball.”

Cal shifted into low gear to wind down the mountain. The damn roads were slick with ice. “Yeah?”

“I just talked to Constance Gilroy’s sister, Tanya.”

“And?”

“Her sister broke up with her boyfriend a few months ago because he’d become obsessive and pressured her to marry him. She wanted to finish her degree and turned him down. When he persisted, she filed a restraining order against him.”

Cal slowed as he maneuvered a switchback, the memory of their earlier crash still fresh. “Who is this guy and where is he?”

“His name is Steve Fulton. He runs a fishing camp in the mountains.”

“He grew up around here?”

“Yeah,” Deputy Kimball said. “And that camp is not too far from Graveyard Falls.”

“Give me the coordinates. I’ll check it out.”

“I’m texting them to you now,” Deputy Kimball said. “Also I looked into the sewing circles like you asked. There’s one at the Presbyterian church, but they didn’t recognize the wedding gown. I’ll check with a couple of others and get back to you.”

Cal started to hang up, but remembered the jewelry. “Kimball, did Tanya Gilroy say her sister was missing any jewelry?”

“As a matter of fact, she did. Constance always wore a silver locket that had a picture of their parents inside.”

“It looks like taking the jewelry is part of his signature,” Cal said. “But don’t tell that reporter.”

A hesitation. “Don’t worry. She won’t be a problem anymore.”

Cal thought he detected an odd note to Kimball’s voice, but the deputy was probably embarrassed he’d screwed up.

Hopefully he’d learned his lesson.

Cal checked his GPS, then turned down a side road that led to Steve Fulton’s fishing camp.