Where had he heard the name? And then it clicked. “My sister had a friend in high school and college by the name of Diane Emery.” There’d been four girls that first semester at college who’d all been friends in high school and then in college.
Kara, Diane, Elena, and Tessa.
“Your sister died, right?”
“She died of an overdose. Twelve years ago.” The back of his skull burned with a warning. He’d learned quickly never to ignore the feeling. He dialed Andrews’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“Loading your files into my computer.”
“Andrews, I just identified a murder victim we found in a local park. Her name was Diane Emery Richardson. She was a good friend of my sister, Kara, at the time of her death.”
“I came across her name in several of Knox’s files. He interviewed her twice.”
“Cause of death was a high amount of narcotics in her system via an IV. Her face was tattooed to look like a doll’s.”
Andrews didn’t speak, but Sharp knew he had his full attention.
“Kara had been missing for days before she was found. The crime scene photos I saw were either blurred or didn’t show her face. I’m hoping Knox had other pictures.”
“Witness statements report your sister had been to a Halloween party, and she and several of her friends went dressed as dolls, but your sister was wearing a red dress. One of those friends was Diane Emery.”
Sharp’s heart hammered in his chest. What were the chances Kara and a good friend of hers had died in the same manner? Drug overdoses weren’t unheard of, but his instincts, which had never failed him, said otherwise. And in both cases, there’d been a link to dolls.
“My sister hated dolls,” Sharp said. “Everyone knew she couldn’t stand them. That explains why she wasn’t dressed as one.”
“There was no evidence of tattooing on your sister’s face, nor was there any makeup from what I can see.”
Emotions Sharp had struggled to keep locked away for years clamored for freedom. He shoved them all back into their dark recess and forced his mind to focus. “The cases could be connected.”
After a pause, “Feed me what details you can on your active case. I’ll analyze both cases separately and see if evidence connects.”
“Understood.” The call disconnected. Sharp checked his watch and shoved his phone in his pocket.
“So what was that all about?” Vargas asked.
“I don’t know. I’m going to find Tessa. She knew my sister and Diane Emery.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Friday, October 7, 4:00 p.m.
Tessa was finishing the last of a stack of HR forms when she felt him. The familiar tightening in her gut told her Sharp was close. Setting her pen aside, she looked up. He was standing in her doorway, studying her.
Slowly she rose, sensing this was the moment he was going to insist she file the papers and be done with their marriage. “Is everything all right?”
He walked into her office, his tall frame dominating the space. Boxes filled with medical books and unhanged framed diplomas lined the wall behind her desk. His gaze settled on a picture resting on the top box. It was taken of her in the jungle six months ago.
He frowned. “What can you tell me about Diane Emery?”
What had prompted that question? “Diane was one of our friends from town. There were four of us from town who went to the college.”
“I remember Kara mentioning her, but not much else.” At her desk, he picked up a paperweight given to her when she’d made the honor society in medical school. Slowly he turned it over in his hand. “I remember you. But not Diane, or Elena.”
“We all knew each other in high school, but we didn’t get together much outside of school. We four roomed side by side on the same freshman hallway, but you were in Iraq then. I was Kara’s roommate, and Diane and Elena stayed in the room next to ours.”
“She never mentioned Diane to me.” How many times had he tried to recall their last conversations together, she wondered. “But then there were always other things to talk about. Mom. Roger. College applications. She did say she had friends from high school going to college with her.”
“Why the questions about Diane?”