Milk Carton Murders 37

My vision of Lamont, the town of The Milk Carton Murders
(Photo is really Bastrop, TX, although my book is set in western NY State.)

SETUP: The three girls whose twenty plus-year-old remains washed up in coffins at Wiscoy Creek have been identified as Lisa Appleton, Rachel McKenzie and Samantha Briggs. Samantha was a foster child at Dave's house when he was a kid who he knew as Sally, and it was the last place Dave seen her alive. Last time Pepper tells Dave of the stuffed dog found in the coffin with Samantha. Turns out Dave had given it to her before she disappeared. We pick up a little bit ahead in the same scene. Pepper speaks first.

And now the snippet:

“Samantha put something inside the stuffed dog at some point, between the back stitches—a piece of balsa wood. We figure it survived because it was surrounded by fiber fill, basically encased in plastic.”

“Balsa wood? That’s what my pine wood derby car was made out of.”

“And when did you make that?”

“It was pretty soon after she came to us—May or June, but why do that?"

Pepper looked him straight in the eye, “Because it was a soft wood to carve into I imagine. She wanted to leave us a message, Dave; for the person she hoped someday would find her.”

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I wonder what it said? Don't you hate that?

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BLURB:

When three small coffins are unearthed near the Wiscoy Creek during a routine dredging operation, it’s the last thing DAVE ROBERTSON, of the Lamont Weekly Times, expected. Pinned to the skeleton’s clothing are pictures from milk cartons of missing girls.

Dave is stunned to find that one of the girls is Sally―a foster child his parents had cared for through the Friends of Foster Families (FFF) program. Cold case files reveal the girls disappeared over 20 years ago. Knowing his house was the last place he saw Sally alive, he can’t help but suspect his dad.

How can he write the biggest story of his career if his father turns out to be the killer? If the voice in his head would shut up and let him remember, he might figure it out before he loses his mind and his dad is charged with murder.

Full blurb and snippet recap here. 

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