Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [286]
“Will told me there was a car parked outside Tess’s house that morning he left.”
“Manx ran the license-plate number through the DMV.” It was one of the few things Manx had grudgingly shared with her. “The number belongs to Daniel Kassenbaum, Tess’s boyfriend.”
Nick glanced over his shoulder. “The boyfriend? Did anyone question him?”
“My partner did, briefly. Manx promised he would question him in more detail.”
“If he saw Will leaving her house, then he should be pissed. Maybe Stucky doesn’t have anything to do with her disappearing.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple, Nick. Apparently, the boyfriend doesn’t much care that Tess is missing or that she may have been cheating on him. My gut tells me Stucky has everything to do with this.”
Maggie’s cellular phone rang, startling both of them. She grabbed her jacket and searched until she found it in the breast pocket.
“Maggie O’Dell.”
“Agent O’Dell, it’s Tully.”
Damn it! She had forgotten all about Tully. She hadn’t called him, hadn’t even left him a message.
“Agent Tully.” She probably owed him an apology or at least an explanation.
Before she had a chance to say anything he said, “We’ve got another body.”
CHAPTER 54
At first, Tully had been relieved when he heard the body wasn’t in Newburgh Heights. The call came from the Virginia State Patrol. The state patrolman told Tully that a trucker had grabbed a take-out container from the counter of a small café. On the phone, he explained with a quaking voice how the truck driver hadn’t made it back to his truck before he discovered the container was leaking. What he thought was his leftover chicken-fried steak was suddenly dripping blood.
Tully remembered the truck stop, just north of Stafford, off Interstate 95 but it wasn’t until he pulled into the café’s parking lot that he realized this was probably Agent O’Dell’s route home from Quantico. His relief quickly dissipated. If this wasn’t Tess McGowan, chances were, O’Dell would still recognize the body.
Tully cursed when he saw the media vans and strobe lights already set up for the TV cameras. They had been lucky up to this point. Only local media had taken the time to be interested. Now he could see the national players were here. A group was crowded around a large, bearded man who Tully guessed was the truck driver.
Thank God, the State Patrol had had enough sense to confiscate the take-out container, and restrict the area behind the café. That’s where a battered gray, metal trash bin rested against a chain-link fence. The trash bin was one of the extra-large commercial ones. Tully estimated it to be at least six feet tall. How the hell did Stucky dump the body? Never mind that, how had he gone undetected, with the gas pumps and the café open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?
He flashed his badge at a couple of uniforms keeping the media behind the sawhorses and yellow crime scene tape. His long legs allowed him to step over the ribbon without much effort. The Stafford County detective Tully had previously met behind the pizza place was already on the scene, directing the commotion. Tully couldn’t remember his name, but as soon as the detective saw him, he waved him over.
“She’s still in the Dumpster,” he said, wasting no time. “Doc Holmes is on his way. We’re trying to figure out how the hell to get her out of there.”
“How did you find her?”
The detective took out a pack of gum. He unwrapped a piece and popped it into his mouth. The pack was in his pocket before he thought to offer Tully a piece. He started grabbing for it again, but Tully shook his head. He couldn’t imagine having an appetite for anything, even gum.
“Probably wouldn’t have found her,” the detective finally said, “if not for that snack pack he left behind.”
Tully grimaced. He wondered how many years it would take before he could refer to body parts in such a nonchalant way.
The detective didn’t notice and continued, “Least not until the