Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Pretty much the same. And, if it’s the same killer, he’s willing to take out anyone who interferes with his plans.”

The picture of a true psychopath… “Okay, well, if it is him,” she began, “let’s hope his impulsiveness caused him to screw up

and leave us evidence we can work with.”

“We can hope. Also, if it is the same guy—just continue to hear me out—I don’t think we’re looking for someone who wants to hide their actions. Rather, he wants to draw attention to them. Otherwise, why kill Jane Doe in an abandoned house and proceed to set it on fire? If he just wanted to dispose of the body, why not burn it a field? I’d say he wants his fifteen minutes of fame.”

She regarded him, smirking. “You a profiler now?”

“I worked a case involving a serial killer before.”

“Yes. One.” She arched her brows. She’d found out all about Trent’s fifteen minutes of fame years ago at a barbecue that Becky had held at her house. He’d helped the FBI track down a serial rapist and murderer and almost got a one-way ticket to the white light.

“Just trust me. The last thing I want is for some serial killer to be on the loose.”

“I’m with you there. Let’s just explore it being an isolated incident before we get carried away.” The message from the note at the grave screamed at her, despite her words, and made her feel hypocritical. Whether the sender was Fox’s killer or not, just the fact that he said she was on the same team as him made her determined to prove him wrong. She should probably tell Trent about it, but then he might lose all objectivity.

“True enough, and I hope we’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Trent hopped up on a narrow deck that ran along the backside of the house and went toward a window with a pile of screen on the boards beneath it. “The entry point Officer Tucker mentioned.”

She nodded. “Let’s go back upstairs and see if the ME and CSIs have anything to tell us.” She’d seen enough, and it was time to get some answers.

Eighteen

Amanda and Trent headed back inside Shannon’s house and passed the CSIs, who were leaving. She heard Officer Tucker calling to the investigators just as the front door closed behind them. Upstairs, they found Paula Jeffery crouched near the body, her booty-covered shoes straddling the pool of blood.

Jeffery pressed a hand to the side of Shannon’s neck, her index finger and thumb spreading out and indicating the space between them. “There’s a prick in her skin. It’s possible she was pierced with a needle.”

“She was drugged,” Amanda concluded. “You’ll have a full tox panel run on her?”

“You can count on it.”

“Cause of death?” Amanda crossed her arms so tight, she had to release a little to expand her chest.

Jeffery didn’t respond.

All righty then…

Amanda took in all the blood on Shannon’s robe and pooled on the floor near her. “Was she alive when her tongue was severed?”

Jeffery kept her gaze on the body as she spoke. “She had a heartbeat, yes. As for how much she was ‘with it,’ though, would depend on the drug in her system.”

“Our killer may have shown some mercy. That’s if he used a type of paralytic,” Trent reasoned.

Jeffery glanced over her shoulder. “If.”

“Did she bleed out?” Trent asked, and Amanda winced at him. He had every right to ask whatever question he liked, but Jeffery didn’t seem to be in the mood to answer many.

“You mean did she die due to exsanguination?” Jeffery paused, as if to let the technical term sink in and prove herself intellectually superior. “I wouldn’t think so, given the volume of blood loss I’m seeing, but it’s too early to conclude.” She proceeded to open the robe, and Amanda held her breath as she let her gaze go over the woman’s chest.

No tattoo.

A relief, but it still didn’t excuse Doe’s killer from committing this murder. Even the different MOs should steer her suspicions in another direction, but her instinct was screaming they were looking at the same man.

Jeffery paused movement, her eyes on Shannon’s torso. “Umm.”

Now that Amanda could see the wound, she could tell it had been caused by a stabbing, not a shooting. She waited for Jeffery to elaborate on her Umm.

“Stab to her abdomen, and it appears to be rather deep, but it must have avoided the arteries in the region, or we’d be looking at more blood.”