Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Let’s hope it gets us somewhere.” She put her attention on Jayne, contemplated how the killer had suppressed her screams, paired it with this new information. Something as simple as a hand over her mouth? “Does it appear she was also stabbed by someone using their left hand?”

Rideout dipped a gloved fingertip lightly into one of the incisions and angled his head this way and that. “I’ll know for sure once back at the morgue, but I’d say that’s right. That left is right.” He snickered.

She was still trying to form the image. “Is there any indication on her left arm that she was held like Chloe had been?”

Rideout took a closer look and shook his head. “Not seeing that, but I am noticing that it’s possible these stabs weren’t made while her attacker faced her.”

She glanced at Trent. “So the killer came up on her from behind, unlike with Chloe, who was attacked from the front?”

Rideout squinted. “Seems likely from what I’m seeing.”

Amanda painted the picture in her mind, and she realized how terrifying those final moments would have been for Jayne. The girl would have been standing next to the river in relative darkness with nothing but moonlight to illuminate the area—assuming she hadn’t brought a flashlight. A quick look around confirmed for Amanda there wasn’t any lighting down here. “He wrapped an arm around her, covered her mouth with his hand. That’s when she bit him.”

“And maybe she got a scream out when he reacted to being bitten? It probably caused him to drop his arm,” Trent suggested.

“I’m just thinking, though, was anyone around to hear?” It was probably too much to hope that someone had seen or heard something.

Trent bobbed his head at the building they’d talked about earlier.

“Time of death?” she asked.

“Covered that with him.” Rideout flicked a finger toward Trent.

Rideout’s normally chipper mood was gone. Maybe that’s what happened when he had to autopsy two college students in one week.

“TOD was within the last five to seven hours,” Trent interjected.

She looked at the time on her phone. It was ten o’clock. So time of death was likely between three and five AM. Jayne was to meet “Josh” at four, so had she arrived earlier? “I can’t imagine many around the campus at that time of day, but that coincides with that text message asking her to meet at four this morning.”

“Yep.”

“Plenty of time to kill her, clean her, pose her, and get away before the campus got busy.” The situation felt even more tragic broken down in stages. Emotion crashed over her from two directions—sadness over the loss of life and fear that Zoe would be taken from her. But when she’d been broken before, she’d thrown herself into her job; it was comfortable, familiar. “Going back to the stab wounds. I was noticing they seem to be placed similarly to Chloe Somner’s. Is that correct?”

“I have to get her back to the morgue and check the record to confirm for sure, but I would definitely concur that they’re within the same vicinity. Just made using a different approach—from behind versus from the front. I’ll confirm that for certain at autopsy.”

“Okay, keep us posted on when that will be,” she said, and stepped away with Trent. There were a couple of things niggling at her. Jayne’s time of death was so early, yet it seemed the killer may have taken a precaution to silence her screams, but who was really around campus between three and five in the morning? And Jayne hadn’t been found until seven, so there couldn’t be a lot of foot traffic. She was also thinking about the message from Josh’s phone number. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like Josh had lured Chloe and Jayne. Who and why?”

“Wish I knew, but I think it’s called spoofing when a call or message shows one number but originates from somewhere else.”

“Hmm. Someone is sounding techie, like Detective Briggs.”

“Not sure I’m that good, but he might be able to figure out who the real sender is. Is that possible?” He shrugged.

“Not a clue. I’ll pop a quick text about that to Briggs now.” She pulled out her phone and did just that.

“Luke Hogan and Stephanie Piper seem rather cozy over there.” Trent flicked his eyes in their direction.

“They are standing rather close to each other, and they could have reason to want Chloe and Jayne dead. Neither girl accepted them. Let’s go have a chat.”