High Priestess Read online

  LaCroix wasn’t in his office. Raven scanned the room. There were only a handful of desks in the bullpen area of their small detachment. Down the hall was a squad room and a bank of computers the patrol officers used for investigating and filing reports. They had a secure evidence room, a small booking office, and two cells for holding prisoners for transport or until they could be bailed out or released on their own recognizance.

  Instead of hunting LaCroix down, Raven cornered his admin, Kelsey Resiewski.

  “Kels? Where is he?”

  Kelsey flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder and snapped her gum. “He had to go out. He should be back within half an hour.” She barely looked up, her fingers flying over her keyboard at an impressive speed. Every officer in the detachment tried to get Kelsey to type their reports for them at one point or another and no one had succeeded.

  Raven crossed to her own desk, her mind on the report she was about to type. Everything she had was hearsay and, therefore, not worth a crap. She may be able to wring circumstantial out of the flowers and the chalice, but she had no proof of their existence. She linked her fingers together, stretched her arms out in front of her to crack her knuckles then settled them over her keyboard. She wasn’t as fast as Kelsey, but she had skills. She wrote up the report as if Ena had told her of her suspicions before she died. When she finished, she typed up a request for a warrant to obtain the medical records from the hospital and Ena’s family doctor.

  Perfect timing. Just as she printed out the documents, LaCroix came in.

  “DS?” Raven jumped out of her seat and crossed the bullpen, documents in hand, before he made it to his office door. She placed the documents on his desk and laid out what she had.

  “It’s weak, but I think you’ve got reasonable grounds.” He signed the request for the warrant. “I’m sorry, Raven. I know you and your mom weren’t close, but if you’re right about what happened, she deserves justice.”

  “Damn right, she does.” She may have her issues with Ena, but no one deserved to have their life taken from them. And by the sounds of it, Ena had suffered greatly over the last few weeks of her life. Raven took the warrant request and faxed it off to a local judge. All she could do now was wait.

  * * *

  Orillia Secondary School had seen better days. The red brick building almost looked like a dilapidated old warehouse. The halls smelled like every high school Raven had ever been in with the addition of a musty odour. Raven and Mick waited in the office for eighteen year old Hayden Stoles. When he arrived, Raven’s first thought was ‘jock’. This guy was all muscle with the sweetest baby face. Dark hair and bedroom blue eyes sealed her opinion of him as a hot commodity around Orillia High School. Raven was pretty sure his tooth sparkled when she introduced herself and Mick. She should have kept her sunglasses on.

  “You’ve heard that we found Emily?” Raven asked, studying his reaction.

  His face sagged and he took a step back. “What do you mean you found her?”

  Raven put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to a bench to sit him down. “We found her body, Hayden.”

  The colour drained from Hayden’s face and then it flushed red. “So, she’s … she’s gone? Dead?” He stared down at the floor, rubbing his palms up and down his jeans.

  “That’s right.” Why the hell hadn’t Sawicki been to see Hayden to tell him the news and question him again? “Do you think you can tell me about the night she went missing?”

  “I’ve already told the police everything I knew. She had a ten thirty curfew on school nights, so she left my house at ten fifteen. That’s the last time I saw her.”

  “You don’t remember any strange cars parked on your street or anyone paying attention to Emily? Anything out of the ordinary?”

  “No. She was supposed to text me when she got home, but she never did. I never heard from her again.” His blue eyes filled and slow tears slid down his face. “How did it happen? Was she … hurt? Did someone hurt Em, r-rape her?”

  Quick and honest, Raven thought. “Yes, Hayden.” Hayden wailed like a wounded animal and Raven wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

  When he’d recovered enough to be coherent, he said, “We were waiting until we were both eighteen before we went all the way. Em was a virgin and someone … oh, God.” Hayden leaned into Raven’s shoulder and wept.

  “Is there someone I can call for you, Hayden? I think you need to go home and you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

  “My mom.” He hiccuped as he spoke. “She’s at home.”

  Leaving him with Mick, Raven asked the secretary to call Hayden’s mother then she sat next to him again. “Who were Emily’s friends, Hayden? Who did she hang out with?”

  “Her girl friends, you mean? Em and I hung out a lot, just the two of us. But, her best friend is Sarah Jensen. They hung out a lot at school.”

  “Is there anyone else she was close to?”

  “Her mom. I know that sounds stupid. Of course she’s close to her mom, but they weren’t just mother and daughter, they were friends. They enjoyed each other’s company.”

  Must be nice, Raven thought.

  She took Mrs. Rebecca Stoles aside when she arrived to pick up her son and explained the situation. It was easy to see where Hayden got his looks. His mother shared the same dark hair and hypnotic blue eyes. She was tall, slender, and walked like a runway model in her stilettos. Why on earth would she be dressed to the nines at one in the afternoon if she was just hanging out at home? Sweats and fuzzy slippers, she could understand, but a slim, fitted skirt and heels seemed like torture to Raven.

  Rebecca stated that Hayden and Emily had been high school sweethearts and Hayden had been devastated when she went missing.

  “Do you remember the night she disappeared? Were you home that night?”

  “Yes. Emily came for dinner and then Hayden and Em worked on their homework, watched some TV. Hayden said goodbye to Em on the front porch and then he went up to his room.”

  “How long were they out on the porch for?”

  Rebecca’s hand cupped her forehead. “Oh, I don’t remember. Ten, fifteen minutes maybe.”

  “Hayden said he was waiting for Emily to text him that she got home safe. Did he say anything to you that night about her not texting him?”

  “Emily’s mother called at about twenty to eleven and asked if she left yet. Hayden said he’d been trying to text and phone her, but wasn’t getting any response. We all went out looking for her. It was horrible not knowing where she went or what happened to her. It was just horrible.” She fished through her oversized purse, pulled out a tissue, and dabbed under her well made up eyes.

  Raven gave Rebecca her card and asked if she or Hayden thought of anything that might help them find who hurt Emily to please call.

  “God, that sucked,” Mick said. “Do you think he had anything to do with Emily’s disappearance?”

  “I’m not ruling him out.”

  “Really? You think he might have done it?

  “It doesn’t look like he left the house after he saw her off, but I’m not ruling him out yet.” Raven returned to the counter and asked the secretary to have Sarah Jensen sent to the office to meet with them.

  The mousey haired secretary frowned up at Raven with pursed lips. Even the colour of her eyes seemed to lack any life - a dull brown with no spark. “How many of our students do you plan on upsetting today, officer?”

  Raven offered the secretary her best smile. “Detective Constable. And, as many as it takes.”

  The secretary huffed, returned to her desk, and picked up the phone. When Sarah hadn’t arrived in the office twenty minutes later, Raven was on her way back to the counter to hassle the secretary. The door burst open and a flush faced teen rushed in wearing gym clothes. Or, a team uniform as the sleeveless top had a number ten in burgundy against a white background and the shorts matched the colour of the number. Long, lean legs gave way to a glowing white pair of Nikes that squeaked as she
came to a halt. “You wanted to see me, Miss Reynolds?”

  “Not me,” Reynolds replied and nodded towards Raven. “The cops.”

  “Sarah Jensen?” Raven took a step towards the girl. “I’m Detective Constable Bowen. I’d like to speak with you about your friend, Emily McMurtrie.”

  Sarah fisted her hands on her hips. “It’s about time someone looked into Em’s case. She’s been missing for months.”

  Raven took another step closer to Sarah, just in case. “Emily’s body has been found.”

  The flushed face lost its colour in a wave, from top to bottom, like an Etch A Sketch being wiped clean. Her eyes widened, pooled, and then she teetered. Raven placed a hand on her elbow and guided her to the bench where she sat in a fluid motion and leaned right back. “Em’s dead?”

  “Yes. Can you tell me what you meant by it being about time someone looked into her case?”

  Sarah stared straight ahead, the tears in her eyes holding there, ready to spill out at any moment. “After the initial search, there was nothing. It seemed like it to us anyway. No one came to ask us questions and we thought they would have, you know?” She turned to look into Raven’s eyes.

  “Who’s ‘we’, Sarah?”

  “Myself, Kristie, and Aurora. We were the fab four, but without Em it’s just not the same.” She closed her eyes and a tear ran slowly down her cheek. “It will never be the same.”

  “If the police had come to question you, what would you have told them?”

  “Everything Hayden hadn’t.” She laughed, sort of a half laugh and half huff. “Em was trying to break off their relationship, but he wouldn’t have it. He wouldn’t accept it. Em went to his house to talk to him about it and no one has seen her since. Er, at least, you know. Until you found her, I guess.”

  “Do you think Hayden killed Em?”

  Sarah placed her palm over her stomach. “I don’t know. Dude was so demanding and controlling. He hated Em hanging out with us, but it got worse last September when we came back to school. He literally forbid her from hanging out with anyone except him. Em felt crowded, like he was mauling her all the time. He didn’t give her any space.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “That afternoon. She was on her way to Hayden’s to talk to him and we kind of gave her a pep talk. Like, ‘You don’t have to put up with his crap. You go in there and tell him it’s over.’ Did we make a mistake?” She took Raven’s hand and squeezed it, screwing her face up as if she was in pain. “Did we cause her death?”

  “No, you didn’t. Don’t you feel guilty for empowering your friend.”

  Sarah nodded, her straight blonde hair bouncing down her back, but she still looked like she was in pain. She refused an offer to go home for the rest of the day and went back to her gym class. Raven got Kristie’s and Aurora’s last names from Sarah and had them sent down to the office one at a time. Their stories corroborated Sarah’s.

  “Now I see why you didn’t rule Hayden out, but how do you figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s lying?” Mick asked. “They all came across as genuine to me.”

  “Because they were genuine. They all believe their stories are the truth. What we need to do is hash out the truth from everyone’s different perspective. But, to do that, we need to question as many people as we can who knew Emily. Who would you talk to next?”

  Mick answered quickly and confidently. “Her mother.”

  “Yep.” Raven smiled and drew the car keys out of her pocket. “I wonder if Caroline McMurtrie wears six inch heels in the middle of the day.”

  “They weren’t six inches,” Mick said. “Three, maybe.”

  “Still, you can’t tell me they’re comfortable. Why do that to yourself?”

  “They’re sexy.”

  Raven cocked her head and regarded sweet faced, curvy Mick Warren, reams of curly blonde hair forced into a neat twist, in her starched uniform and tried to picture her in heels. She just couldn’t get there. She was getting images of Mick wearing black paten leather stilettos with a pretty suede bow above the toe in her police uniform and it looked utterly ridiculous.

  Mick pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at Raven. “Maybe, if we were all built tall and slender like you, we wouldn’t feel the need to wear shoes like that.”

  “I’m calling bullshit on that because Rebecca Stoles is about five foot eight without her spikes. It’s usually the tall, slender types who you see wearing killer shoes like that.” Ha, score a point for Raven. Mick’s big brown eyes were like a puppy’s.

  Raven slipped her sunglasses on as they walked to the car. It was easy to forget the situation with Ena and the pending warrant for her medical records when she was immersed in another case, but before she got in the car, she checked her cell phone for news on the warrant. Finding nothing, she stuck the phone in her pocket and settled into the driver’s seat.

  “Nothing yet?” Mick asked as she fastened her seatbelt.

  Raven added observant to Mick’s list of attributes. “Nope.” Without looking at Mick, she fastened her own seatbelt and put the car in gear. She didn’t drive to Emily’s parents’ house. She drove to Hayden’s. Even with one parent working outside the home, the Stoles’ had the most prominent house on the street. “Three people live in that, don’t they?”

  Mick nodded as she gaped at the house. “Mr. and Mrs. Stoles and Hayden. He’s an only child.”

  “You could probably go weeks in that house without running into another person.”

  Mick laughed, but Raven was wondering if it was possible that Rebecca Stoles only assumed Emily was in the house until ten fifteen.

  They walked from the Stoles house, following the route Emily normally took home, according to Hayden. There were plenty of street lights along the route, so it should have been well lit at ten thirty at night. She could have been offered a ride by someone she knew. Orillia wasn’t a very big town. Emily probably knew a lot of people here.

  “Someone must have seen her walking home that night.” Raven turned in a slow circle, scanning the homes lining the streets. It was an older neighbourhood with large brick houses and welcoming porches. The further they walked from the Stoles’, the less opulent the houses seemed, until they arrived at the McMurtries’, which was large enough, brick construction with the wide porch. Bicycles leaned against the side of the house and a basketball net stood sentry in the driveway. It was a family house. Lived in and alive.

  Caroline McMurtrie didn’t wear heels in the middle of the day. She answered the door wearing jeans, a cream, cable-knit sweater and slippers. Dark circles hung below faded green eyes. Her face appeared gaunt with her red locks pulled back in a ponytail. “Officers?” Caroline stared wearily at Raven. “I’m sorry, I can’t even think of your names right now.”

  “Detective Constable Bowen and Constable Warren,” Raven said. “I’m sorry to bother you, Mrs. McMurtrie, but we have a few questions we’d like to ask you.”

  “Why?” Her whole body wilted, slumped. “I told the police everything I knew when Em disappeared.”

  “I know.” Raven removed her sunglasses. “I know this is difficult, but everything you can tell us could help us to find out what happened to Emily that night. There may be some small detail that ends up being the key piece of the puzzle that we’re missing.”

  “I understand,” Caroline said and motioned for Raven and Mick to come in. They sat in the front room again. Caroline sunk into a plush chair that made her look small and frail. “I couldn’t make myself go to work today. I just couldn’t.”

  “I’d like to tell you it gets easier with time, but I’m not so sure that it does,” Raven offered.

  “It does,” Mick said. “It gets easier, but you never forget.”

  Raven turned to stare at Mick, wondering who it was she lost. Not the time, she thought, and turned back to Caroline. “Can you tell us a bit about Emily? What was she like?”

  Caroline smiled at Raven’s question. “She was be
autiful and smart. She wanted to be a doctor and was planning on studying at the University of Toronto. She signed with a modelling agency to help pay for her education. She didn’t need to. We would have helped her as much as we could, but she wanted to pay for it herself. She didn’t want to be a burden on us.” Caroline waved her hand in dismissal. “She was never a burden.”

  “You were close?” Raven asked.

  “We were a lot alike. We liked the same things, like shopping for clothes or watching episodes of the Bachelor together. She helped me a lot with the boys. She was so good with her younger brothers. She would have been a great mom.” Caroline’s hand flew up to cover her mouth as her eyes pooled and she began to weep, quietly at first and then her chest heaved and she sobbed. Raven moved over to sit on the arm of her chair. She put her arm around Caroline’s shoulders and just waited.

  Mick left the room and came back with a handful of toilet paper, placing it in Caroline’s hand. “Sorry. I couldn’t find any tissue.”

  Caroline dabbed her eyes then blew her nose. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Raven said. “Can you tell me about the night she disappeared?”

  Caroline hiccuped as she took a deep breath. “She wasn’t home by twenty to eleven, so I called over to Hayden’s to see if she’d left yet.”

  “Was she always home on time?”

  “Always. When Rebecca said that she’d left at ten fifteen, we were worried. It should only have taken her ten minutes at the most to get home. I stayed home with the boys and Steve went out looking for her.”

  “Did the Stoles help you search for her?”

  “Yes. Both Rebecca and Hayden.” Caroline scratched her head, messing her hair. “I think Matt was at work. He’s always at work.”

  “What was Emily’s relationship with Hayden like? Were they happy?”

  “They had been. They were inseparable last summer, but when they went back to school, Hayden was a little controlling. He didn’t like Em hanging around with her friends. He wanted all of her attention, you know? It was smothering and Em wanted to break it off.” She glanced up at Raven. “It was too intense for a young girl who still had her whole life ahead of her. But, she was still in love with him. She called to tell me that they talked and worked it out. Hayden listened to what she had to say and he was going to give her some breathing room. That was the last time we talked.”