Page 22 of Jagged

Donovan hauled off and punched Sali in the shoulder. "Nora's retired and Baretta is the best we've got right now."

"Yeah, well, she's not Nora." Sali scowled and shoved her back.

A tiny hint of something flickered in Donovan's dark, seedy gaze. The bit of a smile accompanied it, but she turned away before it could go any further.

"I agree with Sali." I motioned to the screen. "The interviewer didn't focus on the experience of a three-year-old. When I talked to Alessa, she mentioned smells being the strongest memory. That never came up in the recovery interview. Earth, gunpowder, honeysuckle."

Everyone stared at me.

"What?"

"She told you that?" asked Maggie, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah. I mean, it was in passing, but yeah." I gestured to the screen again. "She never said that here."

"Most likely that's an active memory, not a repressed one," said Maggie as she stood from her seat only to lean her hip against the table. A thoughtful expression melted over her face, turning it to the stony one I remembered from my youth. It seemed like she was going to say something, until her gaze flickered to mine. "What do you think that means, Jag?"

"The scents?"

Maggie nodded.

All of the faces in the room watched me, including Zay despite the coffee he sipped. My breakfast lay forgotten on the table in front of me.

"Um…" I glanced at Sali whose expectant gaze appeared impatient compared to her more pensive colleagues. "Either it's environmental or something she experienced personally. This was in Seattle, and she wasn't taken in the spring. Chances are, there was no honeysuckle around her. We know a weapon wasn't used in the murders, but that doesn't mean a gun wasn't fired at the scene. However, Alessa doesn't recall hearing or seeing one."

"Go on," encouraged Maggie while Walsh eyed us. He pinched his chin between his fingers and his overgrown eyebrows narrowed in concentration.

"Um…" I gulped and glanced at the others before looking back to Maggie. "Doctor Wright, the forensic investigator, told us that the genetic workup resulted in DNA found on each victim from the same X-X chromosome holder."

"Let's assume the X-X holder is female, for now. We're looking at a potential female suspect," summed Maggie. "A little girl left alone in a field unharmed, but terrified, and some unusual scents."

"If we rule out environmental, maybe it was the suspect who smelled of those things and that's all Alessa remembered," I said, my heart continuing to pound in my chest. "Maybe she got close to the suspect. If it was a female, perhaps around her mother's age or so, she would have listened to her and stayed in the field. Or someone she knew even." Fire burst inside me as the connections began to make some sort of sense. "Someone she'd seen or experienced before."

"Hmm." Sali paced the room, then suddenly spun around and pointed at me. "DNA would've been washed from the kid's clothes if she stood in the rain, right?"

"Yeah, probably. They still collected it though, I'm sure."

"See if that forensics broad can pull anything from those samples. It's two decades later. Technology's changed."

"But she pulled all the articles from the victims—"

"I bet you that they didn't run the same for the kids. We have two victims, age three, left behind at the scenes unharmed. Requisition their belongings. Alessa Trainor and Sharla Hill, both three, both survived, both possibly witnessed the suspect taking their mothers. If Alessa was close enough to remember scents from the suspect, I bet you the other might as well."

"The other girl is eleven now," I said, glancing between them. "Would her guardians let us interview her?"

"Maybe," replied Donovan. "Depends on her level of functioning and capacity."

"Can we find out?"

Donovan nodded, and I returned my attention to Maggie.

"Roth should talk to Alessa again," said Sali. "You got more out of her than the fancy-pants FBI wannabe newb." She jabbed her thumb in Caroline's direction.

My eyes widened at the tossed insults, and I looked to Walsh. He smirked, fully allowing these three women, who didn't even work for him, to run the show.

"Agreed," Donovan said after a moment. "Roth, reach out to Alessa tomorrow. Give her some time, and then set up space to debrief."

"Wait, why me?" My fingers tightened as my mind played out what I might even say to the woman a second time around.

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