Already Dead (Laura Frost FBI)

CHAPTER TEN

Laura glanced up at the darkening sky with unease. It was early evening already, and she had hoped they would be further along than this by now. That there would have been an obvious lead the police had missed, something they could jump on right away. No such luck.

Which was why it was more important than anything that they get this done quickly and get the answers they were looking for.

“Is this it?” Laura asked, checking the GPS again. Without Waters leading them, now that he was back at the precinct, the GPS was their only resource to be sure of whether they were in the right place. The building in front of them appeared to be unmarked. It was just a warehouse of some kind, not looking at all like what she had expected.

Then again, she didn’t know what she’d expected. She hadn’t ever been to visit a candle factory before.

“Looks like it,” Agent Won said. He’d begrudgingly let some of his surliness go when Laura’s hunch had turned out to give them something: the name of the manufacturer who produced both of the candles, despite them being slightly different models.

“Alright,” Laura shrugged, cutting the engine and opening her door. “Let’s get in there fast. It looks like shift changeover time.” She nodded towards the rest of the parking lot as she moved; it was full of cars, some of them entering and some of them leaving. People were also streaming in and out of the doors, which complicated matters as she and Won joined the stream to fight through them instead of being just carried along.

Most of the workers knew exactly where they were going, but Laura was able to pull to the side towards a reception desk in the entrance. The building was similarly sparse on the inside: a simple logo, the name of the company in a sensible font, was placed above the desk on a glass plaque, but there was very little other decoration. Everyone seemed to be coming and going from a swinging door on the left, through which Laura glimpsed what appeared to be a staff locker room.

“How can I help you?” the receptionist asked, a wide-eyed look in her eyes that suggested to Laura unexpected visitors here were few and far between.

Laura placed her badge on the desk. “I’m hoping to speak to someone who’d know all the employees here – maybe a supervisor or a manager,” she said.

The second she saw the badge, the receptionist seemed to dive into her phone with a kind of rabbit-like terror. “Of course!” she exclaimed. “I’ll just call someone through now.”

Laura turned her back to the desk for a moment, watching the people coming and going. They seemed not to be one continuous stream of leavers, as she’d thought, but rather dribs and drabs. They left in pairs or alone, occasionally in a slightly larger group, while the employees going into the factory floor appeared to have dwindled to almost nothing. She figured people were taking their time in getting ready, or maybe that they were finishing off specific tasks before setting off for home.

“He’ll be out in just a moment,” the receptionist said, popping her head back up above the desk.

“Great,” Laura said. “What do you guys make here? I mean, candles, obviously, but…”

“Oh, we manufacture a number of different local and national brands,” the receptionist said, a gleam in her eyes to be back on familiar ground that she was confident enough to talk about. “There’s a number of brand names that you may have heard off.” She slid a laminated leaflet across the top of the desk towards her, letting Laura study it. She noticed the brand that was responsible for the candles their killer was using.

“Are there any which are sold only in the local area?” Laura asked.

“Not really,” the receptionist said, making a face as if she was disappointed that she couldn’t say yes. “We usually send them out to a number of different retailers.”

Laura filed that piece of information away. They could be bought in places outside of Pacific Cove. That only made it more likely, in her mind, that the factory being here was not a coincidence. And who would have better access to the products made in the factory – and more of a deeper connection to them – than someone who actually worked here?

“Hello?” said a voice from behind them, and Laura turned at the same time as Agent Won to see a bearded man in a long white coat and cap approaching them. He was overweight but stout, in that way some men have after middle age when they work on their feet all day long. “I’m the floor manager. Justin. I think you wanted to speak to me?”

Laura stepped forward and held out a hand for him to shake. “Justin. I’m Special Agent Laura Frost, and this is Special Agent Eric Won. Is there a private space where we can go to ask you a few questions?”

A troubled look passed over Justin’s face, but he nodded and led them in the opposite direction to where the workers were still slowly trickling out of the locker room. The door on the other side of the room took them into what was obviously a meeting space, complete with a meeting table and a long glass panel allowing them to see into the factory itself.

Good for observing the workers. Not good for doing it without being seen themselves.

“We’re looking for anyone who might have been exhibiting strange behavior among your employees,” Laura said, the moment the door was closed behind them. “For example, maybe someone was caught stealing candles and taking them home?”

Justin glanced behind himself, through the glass panel. “Candles? No.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not like they’re worth a lot of money.”

“Have any gone missing recently?” Agent Won asked. He was apparently getting his stride back. Laura let it go this time, given that the question was a sensible one.

Justin shrugged again, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s hard to say,” he said. “We have a certain amount of waste product – candles that don’t quite get made the right shape or where one of the lines malfunctions and we have to throw things away. It would be pretty easy for someone to take a candle here and there without anyone ever noticing it.”

Laura nodded, though internally she wanted to scream. Of course. It wouldn’t be easy for them, would it? “How about any other kinds of odd behavior? Anyone missing shifts, acting strange compared to what you’d normally expect of them, or so on?”

Justin turned and searched the factory floor, as if he was waiting for someone to trigger his memory. “I don’t think so,” he said, slowly. “Man, it’s hard to think when you ask me on the spot like this.”

Laura tried very hard not to lose her patience. He was probably right. If nothing came to mind immediately, perhaps a disciplinary procedure he’d had to carry out recently, then there was likely nothing that stood out enough to be a red flag.

“I’m getting a call,” Agent Won said hurriedly, his voice low. “It’s Detective Waters.”

Laura nodded. “Take it outside,” she told him, watching him go with slightly envious eyes. She was sure Detective Waters, who had been tasked with running background checks on the employees at the plant, was going to have something important to say. But he’d called Won, so she would have to wrap up this pointless interview.

Boys would be boys, she supposed. Of course, Waters would call the other young, inexperienced male assigned to the case instead of the scary woman who was both of their superiors. She hated to think of someone characterizing her that way, but she wasn’t here to make friends. She was here to solve a case. If he wasn’t mature enough to get up the courage to call her directly, then that was his issue.

“How has the reaction been to the recent murders in town?” she asked, thinking that this could be another source of suspicion. “Anyone had a strong reaction to it? Really interested in hearing the latest news, or grief-stricken when you wouldn’t expect it, that sort of thing? Or the other way – totally not seeming to care?”

Justin shook his head. “Everyone’s been pretty shook up about it,” he said. “Those two young girls – it doesn’t bear thinking about. Their whole lives ahead of them. And just about everyone here’s eaten at the Fresh Catch or had a coffee at Rise and Shine at some point. We knew these girls.”

Laura fought for control over her patience again. There had to be something. But she couldn’t just scream at the man to bring her a result. That wasn’t going to make him any more observant. And it was entirely possible that the killer, whoever they were, was doing a good enough job of assimilating that no one had noticed anything.

“Do you know of anyone ever having a problem with either of them?” she asked, just in case, though she was losing hope.

“I’m sorry,” he shrugged. “No one. We’re a good community here. Everyone gets along for the most part. I wouldn’t imagine anyone had any problem with them outside of the odd customer complaint about food.”

Laura nodded, pursing her lips together with dissatisfaction. She was going to have to move on. It was a shame, but this man couldn’t give her anything.

Maybe it would be worth a chat with the receptionist on the way out, just to tick off a box. Sometimes, people in those kinds of roles would know things that the management didn’t.

“Hey!” Agent Won called out, tumbling back into the room breathlessly as if he’d just run back in from outside. “Detective Waters found a match in the system. There’s an employee here with a record.”

Laura turned wide eyes on Justin. “You didn’t think to mention this?”