“We know it’s going to be hard for them. It’s tough to lose a daughter, a sister, anyone you love, to murder. You be there for them, Johnny, just like people in the community were here for us,” Sarah told her son and John gave his mother a hug.

* * * *

“The medical examiner’s report shows a blow to the head just above the right temple. She was stabbed with a long, sharp weapon, twenty times,” Sandman told Grace as he read certain parts of the medical examiner’s report.

Grace took a deep breath as a tear fell from her eye.

“What kind of object do they think she was hit in the head with?” Grace forced herself to ask.

Sandman looked at her a moment, amazed at her strength. He could see the fight in her eyes. She was determined.

“Well let’s see what it says here.” Sandman scanned over the documents. “The medical examiner said a possible weapon used was something made of hard metal, thin like a tire iron. The evidence found at Stew Parker’s house contained one tire iron with your sister’s blood on it.”

Sandman looked through the file.

Grace thought about it for a minute and felt she knew her sister really well.

“What are you thinking?” Big Jay ask

ed her as he looked up from the laptop. Even Duke sat nearby. He didn’t look happy at all about the situation.

Grace put down the file.

“My sister knew those woods inside and out. We used to always play in those woods then walk that same highway to get back home. Everyone in town knew Stew Parker. He was the poor guy who lived in the shack off the highway. Kids made up stories about him and a friend of our father’s who was the sheriff told us to stay clear of Stew, that he wasn’t mentally fit and we did,” Grace told them.

“Would your sister have given him a ride if she saw him walking the highway? That would explain the fibers from his coat that were found in the passenger seat,” Big John asked.

“No, she would never do that and the killer probably planted that evidence, too. At the time I was so distraught I didn’t know one day from the next, we were all confused, and scared. It was terrible. The entire town was on lockdown and in pursuit of a killer. I don’t think there was a person alive in our town that hadn’t been affected by the incident,” Grace replied, looking toward the slider doors instead of directly at the men.

Sandman figured she had a hard time talking about what happened. Sharing her feelings and experience with them was difficult for her.

“Clara would have never picked up a hitchhiker, a stranger, or Stew. If someone needed help, then she always carried her cell phone. She would call someone else to come help the person. My brothers taught us to be street smart, be aware of our gut feelings, and know when circumstances seemed wrong or unnerving. I think my sister knew the killer,” Grace stated confidently and Sandman moved forward in his seat.

“Other people were questioned in the area. All other suspects were accounted for, including her boyfriend at the time. The detectives checked their alibis, confirmed their whereabouts at the time of the murder,” Duke added.

“I’m telling you that Clara knew the person she let into her car. I should have known this then. I just wasn’t thinking clearly and then the detectives and the police found out about Stew and the evidence in his home. What exactly was found in his house?” Grace asked.

Sandman stared at her a moment before he looked down at the paper. He was utterly impressed with her strength. She wasn’t the type of woman to sit back and have everyone do all the work. She was a team player and it made him feel proud. That was an odd feeling to have, considering his other thought was how badly he wanted to sink his cock into her sweet, tight folds and make love to her for hours. He wanted to take her mind off of all this blood, gore, and heartache and just hold her, get lost in her body as he and his brothers explored what was theirs. He knew he sounded possessive, obsessed in a way, but he didn’t care. When all this was done and over, he and his brothers would take Grace away for a while and get lost in themselves.

“Sandman?” Big Jay said, interrupting his thoughts. Sandman cleared his throat and looked back at the papers.

He looked at the list from the file again as he read it off to Grace.

“One tire iron with blood stain, one set of plastic adjustable ties, one winter coat, a set of leather restraints with blood stains and some rope.”

Grace put her head down on the table. She was trying to think. She felt in her heart there was something there but she just couldn’t see it.

They had been working on the file for a couple of hours. They went over the other cases and Grace looked exhausted.

“Let’s take a break for now, Grace. I’ll call Donald and find out who else was on the detective’s list as a possible suspect at the time. My agents will find out more about them and recheck their alibis. If you think she knew her killer, then we may have something to work with. Good job, honey,” Sandman told her as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

* * * *

Grace stepped outside for some fresh air. Her ears absorbed the sounds of the pond and waterfall as well as the birds singing and peacefulness in the isolation and safety of the men’s home.

She took a deep breath as visions of her sister’s body kept flashing in her mind. The evidence that was found in Stew Parker’s home disgusted her. The ideas of what the killer had done to her made her stomach churn. She knew her sister suffered, she knew she was raped and tortured like some animal. This killer had no respect for human life, for body or soul. He had no soul of his own. Though after listening to the similarities in the cases and the way he killed each of his victims, Grace couldn’t help but feel the killer was killing with conviction. To him he had a purpose, a rationale. Kind of like a hobby. He was exact in all the killings. The way he tied them up or used the handcuffs to control them and keep them in place and then placed tape over their eyes. He tortured each of them the same way and he didn’t deviate from his pattern. The only exceptions were the males that were found murdered in a similar fashion that Sandman, Big Jay, and Duke thought were connected somehow. Those men weren’t raped but they were left on public display and exposed naked. What the hell did that mean?

Although she couldn’t handle looking at most of the crime scene pictures, she did notice that there wasn’t a lot of blood. The killer may be meticulous.

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