Page 18 of A Dark Place

Asher frowned at what he’d heard a thousand times. “What about the second victim?

Olivia typed several commands and the victim’s file appeared on the screen. “Marissa Ingalls.” Asher moved his chair over to where she sat and looked over her shoulder. “She was mid-twenties, lived with her parents, and was a manager of a clothing store at the mall.”

She peered over at him. “There’s nothing tying them to Lizzy or each other, much less Sylvia Abbott.”

“They aren’t connected to Lizzy either. At least not the first three, which makes me believe Buckley was fully in control back then and calling all the shots, including which victim they took.”

Olivia looked through the rest of the victims before confirming. “Agreed. So, Buckley has his own way of picking the victims, and so far there is nothing on the surface that ties them to each other besides physical attributes. Some serial killers pick victims that are similar in looks.”

He shrugged. “Exactly.”

“If Buckley was controlling everything back then, I think we can eliminate the first set of victims before Sylvia. The only thing connecting her to them is Lizzy.” Olivia started typing on the laptop and brought up a file.

“What are you looking for?” Asher asked.

“The ERT’s report on Sylvia.”

Asher read over it with her. There were no fibers found on Sylvia’s clothing. No skin cells under her nails which seemed to confirm what Lizzy told them. The killer incapacitated her with the stun gun and then kept her unconscious with ketamine.

“Tox screen confirmed the presence of ketamine. . . wait, this could be something,” Olivia said and Asher to lean closer.

“What’d you find?”

“They found some traces of dirt on Sylvia’s clothing. They’re analyzing it to see if they can pinpoint the region it came from.” She shifted toward him. “If they can isolate the dirt to a particular area, we have a start.”

“We do. Let’s go check to see if they’ve found anything yet.”

Both rose and headed out the door when Declan met them.

“Oh, hey, did you find out anything useful at the attempted kidnapping location?” Asher asked his former partner.

“Nothing except a footprint, which is a longshot. Where are you two off to?” Declan looked between them.

Asher explained about the dirt. “Want to take a walk with us?”

“Gladly.” Declan fell into step beside them.

As they walked, Asher told him about Holden’s latest run-in.

“That man’s got it in for you two,” Declan declared.

Before they reached the ERT lab, Asher’s cell phone buzzed a message. He pulled out his phone and read the message from Luke.

“We may have something. Luke was following up with the neighbors of the couple whose car was stolen. Several had doorbell cameras. One captured a person walking in front of the older couple’s neighbors to the right. Luke showed it around the neighborhood, and no one recognized the person.”

“You’re kidding?” Olivia’s wide eyes held his. “We need that photo to see if we can do facial recognition.”

“It’s coming through now.” Asher held up his phone. “We’ll check back with the ERT later. Let’s get the photo to our Computer Analysis Response Team.”

Asher hurried to the elevator and punched the button to the CART floor. All three got off the elevator and went into the lab.

Asher searched the room until he spotted a friendly face. “Howie.” He hurried over to his go-to techie. “We need your help.”

Howie stopped typing. “I’m here to do your bidding, Agent Lackland.”

His friend had a weird sense of humor, but he was a genius with the computer and had helped Asher on many occasions.

“I’m sending you a photo. Run it through all the databases. We need a hit.” Asher quickly attached the photo from Luke and sent it on its way.

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