THIRTY-SEVEN
Last night was exactly what Amanda had needed. Instead of cooking, she took Zoe out for a burger and fries at Zoe’s favorite place. She and Sir Lucky set up in the booth opposite Amanda. Amanda savored every moment she spent with the sweet girl more than ever, now aware there was the possibility she could be taken away. But Amanda wouldn’t let Zoe go without a fight. She owed that much to Zoe and herself. Theirs was a relationship and a future worth defending.
After dinner, they went home and played snakes and ladders, a game Zoe’s mother had played with her. When they bored of that, they watched Disney’s Frozen again. An obvious favorite of Zoe’s, as the girl happily watched it any chance she got, but Amanda would graciously accept that if it meant Zoe would stay in her life.
In the time she spent with Zoe, the job melted away. The stress, the exasperation, even the emotional burden that came with notifying next of kin was lessened somewhat. It was never easy seeing the faces of people who were being told their loved one was murdered. Gone. Just like when she had been informed that Kevin and Lindsey hadn’t made it. Not murder, but equally devastating and unexpected. It was always hard for her to deliver the news to those left behind because she’d been in their place. Finality. Never to hear a loved one’s voice again, see their smiles, warm from their laughter. Nothing left but a void of darkness and despair.
But Zoe had a way of zapping Amanda’s personal memories so they hurt less, a soothing balm for the pain from the past while providing a promise for the future. Zoe had saved Amanda, and now Amanda would return the favor. She would be there to help Zoe navigate her own hurdles through life for as long as she could, as long as Zoe would let her.
It seemed all was forgiven from the other night when Amanda hadn’t gotten home in time and Zoe had spent the night at Libby’s. Ah, the sweet forgiveness of a child. That in itself was a healing ointment.
It was now Friday morning, and Amanda was dropping Zoe off at school.
“I packed your favorite,” she said, handing a Dora the Explorer lunch bag to her.
“PB and J?” Zoe was grinning, and her tongue flicked her front lower tooth. Her eyes widened, and she snapped her mouth shut.
Amanda got the feeling it was something more than the sandwich that warranted that reaction. “Let me see…” Amanda moved in and looked in Zoe’s mouth.
“It’s loose,” she garbled, her mouth wide open, tongue pushing the tooth.
Amanda chuckled. Kids could be so dramatic. In all fairness, so were some adults. “Oh, that’s exciting. When it goes, you know what that means, right?” She assumed Zoe would; it wasn’t her first baby tooth to hit the road. She had one adult bottom tooth already.
“The Tooth Fairy.” She clapped her hands and took the lunch bag. “This is the best day ever.”
Amanda mussed her hair and kissed her forehead. “Have a good one, sweetheart.”
“You too, Mandy.”
With that, she was out of the car in a blur of color and excitement. Amanda was left behind in a wake of memories. Lindsey had the Tooth Fairy visit only once before she died.
But, Amanda sat up and took a deep breath, Zoe is the future.
An hour and a half later, Amanda stood in front of a cadaver at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner with Trent and Rideout. Oh, how her life presented such contrasts. One could get whiplash.
Jayne Russell appeared so small under the harsh lighting of the morgue, and her skin was more bluish than Chloe’s had been.
“I’ve conducted the preliminary already. As you know, I suspected epithelia in the victim’s front teeth. That’s been confirmed and sent to the lab.”
“Good.” She thought back to Luke’s “cat bite,” but that was really all it had looked like. His DNA would still be tested for due diligence, but it wasn’t a quick process. She still thought they had enough to hold him and get his blood type from his medical records, but once Malone had his mind made up, there was no changing it. And it didn’t help their case against Luke that Trent had looked at Luke’s laptop last night and found nothing incriminating. Trent arranged for it and Luke’s phone to be returned to him.
“She was stabbed seven times. This one”—Rideout indicated an incision on her left clavicle—“is indicative that her attacker did circle from behind. Just as you theorized at the crime scene.”
“Is that also the wound that killed her?” she asked, thinking that would have worked effectively to silence her screams.
“No. One to the heart again, but I believe it was inflicted second.”
“But why continue with five more blows if he’d already killed her?” Trent asked.
“Does the number seven mean something to him?” she kicked out. Annie Frasier entered her mind, but she’d only been stabbed three times.
“It could be a compulsive thing,” Rideout suggested. “Like OCD? Maybe the killer had the need to inflict the other wounds.”
“Good idea.” They could add this to the profile for their killer, but she had to admit she hadn’t seen any evidence of this with Luke Hogan. “But what compelled him to kill these girls in the first place?”
“Ah, that’s your job to figure out. Me? I stick to the bodies.” Rideout grinned at her.
She smiled back. “What else is this one telling you?”
“The killer would have been six foot to six foot four, thereabouts.”
“As was the case with Chloe Somner,” Trent said.
Rideout nodded. “No sexual assault, as was the case with victim one. Unlike victim one, though, this one doesn’t have bruising on her arm. The evidence has supported earlier speculation that she was attacked from behind.”
Amanda tried to figure out if that meant anything beyond trying to muffle her screams. It would seem there was another reason as the campus likely would have been deserted. Though the killer probably didn’t want to take yet another chance of being exposed. And certainly Jayne would have reacted strongly at the killer’s approach, especially after realizing it wasn’t Josh coming toward her. Amanda was curious, though—was the killer someone who Chloe would have recognized and let get close, but who would have alarmed Jayne if he’d approached head on? Who could that apply to, or did it even factor in? The chosen location for killing Jayne was certainly a bold and risky one. Yet he’d still gone about laying out the body with meticulous care, like there was no need to hurry. And what motive bridged two friends beyond the people they’d bullied?
“Same type of weapon used?” Trent asked, when she hadn’t said anything.
“Appears so. Yes. And there was this in one of the wounds.” Rideout turned and plucked a small evidence bag off a wheeled table. He held it up for them, and Amanda took it.
“A piece of metal. Part of the blade?” she asked, hopeful.