Page 37 of Girl, Reborn

‘Riverbed beside the old Millston farm,half a mile from where we found Toledo.’

‘I’ll find it. What’s there?’ She metLuca's gaze while dread and resignation chased each other across his face.

‘We’ve got another body.’

She swallowed hard and willed steel intoher spine. ‘We're on it, Chief. We'll head over now.’

Ella hung up, jumped to her feet andgrabbed her jacket. ‘Break time’s over, Hawkins.’

Luca threw his cutlery down next to ahalf-eaten chicken breast and climbed out of his chair. ‘What? What do wehave?’

‘Looks like our profile might come inuseful after all. Because we’ve got ourselves a serial killer.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Ella stood at the edge of the dried-upriverbed, staring down at the corpse like it was a Rorschach test. What do yousee, Agent Dark? A dead man or your own failure splayed out in the mud?

The body lay face-down, limbs akimbo likea limp puppet. Water still seeped from the sodden clothes, turning the parchedearth to sludge. The air was thick with the cloying stench of river muck andencroaching decay. This body, whoever this poor gentleman was, had beendiscarded at the river’s edge. What passed for a river, anyway. It was a sadexcuse for itself, more mud than flow. Drought had taken its toll here too,leaving behind nothing but memories and silt.

Ella's heart gave that familiarsympathetic twinge, the one that came no matter how many stiffs she'd clockedover the years. Every vic deserved a moment of respect, even if it was just abeat of silence before the circus rolled in.

Sheriff Tucker lumbered over, lookingabout as cheerful as a man with hemorrhoids at a rodeo. ‘Ain't this a peach ofa situation,’ he drawled. ‘Y'all feds show up and bodies start dropping likeflies at a bug zapper.’

‘What can I say?’ Ella crouched down,snapping on latex gloves. ‘It’s what we do?’

Luca joined her then asked the sheriff,‘Any ID on this guy?’

Tucker shook his head. ‘Nada. No wallet,no phone. Whoever dumped him stripped him clean as a whistle.’

‘Who called it in?’

‘Dog walker found him 'bout twenty minutesago. Fido needed to take a leak, found more than he bargained for.’

Ella nodded absently as she studied thevictim. Male, mid-forties if she had to guess. Clothes still damp, clinging torapidly cooling flesh. ‘He hasn't been here long,’ she murmured. ‘Dumpedrecently. Within the last couple hours, tops.’

‘Yeah. The heat would have dried him outif he’d been here longer than an hour.’

‘An hour?’ Luca asked. ‘So our killer'sgetting bolder. Or more desperate.’

Ella turned back to the body. Two vics inas many days, both drowned and dumped like yesterday's trash. She studied thecorpse with a critical eye, and to her trained eye, he didn't look local. Hisclothes were too nice, too crisp. The kind of threads you'd find in a boutique,not the Piggly Wiggly.

‘Hey,’ she called out to Tucker. ‘You oryour boys recognize this guy?’

The sheriff conferred with his deputies,then shook his head. ‘Not a soul. And in a town this size, that's sayin'something.’

‘Another out-of-towner,’ Luca said.

The vic's hands were soft, uncallused.Nails manicured to perfection, cuticles trimmed with surgical precision. Histhumb was unblemished, lacking the telltale ridge of someone who spent theirdays typing or texting.

‘Office worker,’ she murmured. ‘But notmanagement, given the threads. Mia would have a field day with these thumbs.’

The thought of her missing partner sent apang through her chest, but she shoved it aside. Focus, Dark. One disaster at atime.

‘So we've got another city slicker,’ Lucasaid. ‘What's the connection to Toledo? Why drag them out to Nowheresville justto dump them?’

‘Million-dollar question, Hawkins.’ Ellastood, brushing off her knees. ‘We need to ID this guy ASAP. See how he fitsinto the bigger picture.’

Luca raised an eyebrow. ‘How? Our killer'snot exactly leaving breadcrumbs.’

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