Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

The lawyer frowned but didn’t say anything.

Amanda went on. “It is being examined thoroughly. Will we find trace from you—fingerprints, DNA?”

“I’d suspect you’d find something from my client,” Peter said firmly. “Josh had been dating the girl, something he’s freely admitted.”

That was the only problem with trace evidence—it was impossible to date. “Did you ever drive her car, Josh?”

“No. You kidding? She’d never let me.”

Peter shook his head.

“What?” Josh said to his lawyer.

“We’ll talk later.”

Amanda refrained from basking too much in Josh’s admission. If CSIs found Josh’s prints on the wheel, he would have some explaining to do. “The next step will be a search of your client’s home—”

There was a knock on the door, and Trent rose to answer it.

Amanda continued. “A search will be conducted of your client’s home for the murder weapon and anything that may have belonged to Chloe Somner.”

Trent stepped into the hall.

“I didn’t do this,” Josh said, repeating his claim.

“We’ll figure this out,” Peter assured him.

The door opened again, and Trent poked his head in. “Detective Steele? A minute?”

“Ah, sure. Excuse me.” She got up and joined Trent in the hall, closing the door behind her.

Malone was out there, and both he and Trent were wearing grave expressions. Her stomach swirled, and dread squeezed her shoulders. They didn’t say a word. They didn’t need to. “There’s been another victim.”

Malone pinched his eyes shut briefly.

Trent nodded. “And since our prime suspects are in custody, that means—”

“We’re back to square one,” she finished. Just when she thought this case was coming to a close, there was another body. Maybe she should have taken that cold case from Washington more seriously. Maybe it was connected with Chloe’s murder. Maybe there was a serial killer hunting in Prince William County. A lot of maybes with one result: due to her failure another girl had been murdered. “Has the victim been identified?” She could barely push out the question, her chest heavy and throat tight.

“Not yet,” Malone said. “Just like with Chloe Somner, no clothes, no ID.”

She laid a hand on her stomach. “And a black orchid?”

“Yes.”

“Time of death?”

“You’d have to ask an ME about that, but she was found about seven this morning.”

She wasn’t even going to ask why they were just hearing about this now—after eight thirty. Sometimes it took time for the message to hit the right person. “Where?”

“On the edge of the Occoquan River on the campus for the Geoffrey Michaels science center.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Vomit started up the back of her throat. She swallowed roughly, peaked.

“I wish I was. You guys need to go,” Malone said, hurried. “I’ll take care of what’s going on in there.” He waved a hand toward the room where Peter and Josh still waited.

But she was stuck on the text message from Josh to Chloe. How did that reconcile? And Chloe’s car at the Fairfax campus? How could Josh have killed someone while he was behind bars at PWCPD Central? The answer was as simple as it was complicated: he couldn’t have. And there was no way that Ashton Chambers could be behind this new murder either.

While she and Trent would be at another crime scene, their prime suspects would be released from custody.

As she and Trent rushed from the station, he said, “Are we looking at a serial killer, then? Do you think we can expect another college student in a few more days?”

“God, don’t even say it.”