Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell by Vickie McKeehan

still at the restaurant. I knew right away something was wrong then.”
    “Why is that?” Skye wanted to know. “ Why is it you didn’t miss her crawling into bed with you in the middle of the night?”
    “I’m a sound sleeper. Besides, I took cold medicine before I went to bed around ten. You can ask anybody here and they’ll tell you I felt like crap yesterday, thought I was going to hack up a lung. So when I got home I ate some leftover spaghetti Willa had made, drank a couple of beers, and went to bed before I dropped. I wouldn’t hurt Willa like that. I love her.”
    Skye’s heart clutched at the heartfelt declaration. “ Did you ever tell her that?”
    When Charlie hung his head, she had the answer. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You give me a list of her friends and family, share a few phone numbers out of your cell phone I can check out.”
    “I called everybody I know after I talked to Velma.”
    “Doesn’t matter. I’ll give them a call, too.”
    “You might as well know, on my way to work this morning I stopped by Country Kitchen and checked out Willa’s car. There’s not a damn thing wrong with it. I replaced the spark plugs at Christmas and the head gasket two weeks after that. It might be old but it runs like a top. You ask me, somebody did something to her.”
    “ Okay. But you should know I plan to call a detective I know to make sure Willa’s put on the front burner and it sails past a uniform. Hopefully it won’t get stuck in a pile on someone’s desk. Any chance you have a photo of Willa?”
    Charlie hitched a hip and dug into his back pocket, pulled out a billfold. With his grimy fingers, he inched out a photograph. “Here’s one we took at the lake last October, a Sunday. We’d only been back together two weeks when I took this with my old Canon.”
    “I’ll see you get it back.”
    “Thanks,” Charlie said. “Will you let me know as soon as you hear something? Anything at all.”
    “I will. And Charlie?”
    “Yeah?”
    “If I find out you’re lying, I’m coming back here to get in your face. Even though I’m not a cop, you’ll likely need a lawyer if that happens. Or a doctor.”
    “Okay. Fine. But I’m not lying. Find her. Will you?”
    “You got it.”
    “Do you believe him?” Josh asked once Charlie headed back to the Suzuki.
    “I do. How about you?”
    “I think he’s telling the truth. Which means—”
    “We need to find Willa.”
     

     
    They walked around the corner to Country Kitchen where Velma greeted them with a troubled look instead of her usual wide smile.
    “So? Did you talk to Charlie Tucker?”
    Skye went through the byplay back at the garage with the boyfriend. “I called Harry on the way here. He’ll expedite it, put out a BOLO for Willa until the obligatory twenty-four hours is up. If they get nothing from the BOLO, he’ll get Seattle PD to investigate it as a missing person case.”
    “But you both plan to still look for her, right? You have to do something, Skye. You can’t just let Willa fall through the cracks like others have.”
    Skye grinned. “You bet. Now how about that breakfast you promised?”
    “Sure. What’ll you two have?”
    “I’m craving blueberry pancakes,” Josh admitted.
    “Sounds good to me, make it two,” Skye agreed. “Take a seat, Velma. Let’s go over exactly what happened last night with Willa.”
    “Again?”
    “Yep. Give it to me one more time.”
    In the middle of the rehash, Travis walked up. Skye looked him in the eye, pointed a finger and said, “You know what, Travis? As owner of Country Kitchen with waitresses working here ’round the clock, you really need to think about installing security cameras, both in front and in the back. And make sure they have a high-quality resolution, not that grainy stuff.”
    “Duly noted. I have a guy coming by this afternoon.”
    “A little late for that,” Velma moaned as she got to her feet. “We need to get the word out.”
    “And