The Things We Keep: The Jeri Howard Mystery Series Book 14 by Janet Dawson

Author:Janet Dawson [Dawson, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bodie Blue Books
Published: 2023-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

sixteen

I bought one of Anita’s beautiful glass and bead hummingbird feeders before I left. After stashing my purchase in my car, I walked over to the Bovine Bakery and snagged the last morning bun in the display case. I sat on the bench outside, enjoying my pastry with a cup of coffee. When I finished, I wiped the sticky residue from my hands and deposited the napkin in a nearby trash can.

Then I took out my phone and called the Alameda Police Department. Bradley Chen was in his office. “I’d like to get an update on your investigation. Any chance I can stop by later?”

“Sure,” he said. “I’m free now. But I have a meeting in about forty minutes.”

“I’m in west Marin. It’s nearly one. Depending on traffic, I could be in Alameda in a couple of hours. Three or after?”

“Let me see.” He paused, checking his schedule. “Three-thirty would work for me.”

“Okay. See you then.”

Back in my car, I got on the road again, retracing my route as far as the reservoir. This time I turned and drove southeast through the little town of Nicasio, then onto Lucas Valley Road. The two-lane road wound through the tall coastal redwoods and over the undulating hills, heading toward Highway 101 and San Rafael.

As I drove, I considered what I’d learned. Monk had disappeared in September 1969, at an inopportune time, blowing the band’s record deal. Liam certainly didn’t think Monk had gone back to Louisiana, no matter what Gloria told him. And Anita’s explanation for the guitarist’s sudden disappearance was that he’d fallen prey to the Zodiac killer. I wasn’t sure I bought that. But there was the timing. Monk vanished in the middle of the Zodiac’s 1969 killing spree—it might have some validity.

Then there was Martha Post. The teenager reported as a probable runaway turned out to be Sunny, Monk’s new girlfriend. She had dropped out of sight for good about the same time Monk did.

Lucas Valley Road widened as I reached the outskirts of San Rafael. At Highway 101, I took the southbound on ramp. This was where the traffic usually clogged and today was no exception. Finally I made my way over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to the East Bay. It was a quarter past three when I reached Alameda.

The Alameda Police Department stood at the corner of Oak Street and Lincoln Avenue, across from the new library. New, in that the building was constructed and opened in the twenty-first century. Before that, the library was housed in a small but beautiful old building dating to 1903, built with a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The old library still stood at the corner of Oak and Santa Clara. I hoped that someday it would be repurposed, perhaps turned into a museum.

I parked on Oak and fed the meter, then walked back to the red brick APD building and went up the front steps. I rang the buzzer at a window near the front door. An officer appeared at the window.

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