Page 26 of Shattered Sanctuary

Adrian leaned back in the chair and rubbed his eyes. “If you see it again, call me right away. But for now, there’s not much I can do. I don’t see how it could be connected to the bodies in the woods, but at this point, I can’t be certain of anything. I don’t want to take any chances. Please don’t go outside if you see anything suspicious.”

“Like I would do that,” Erin said under her breath.

“I’m going to work on a profile for you tonight,” Kaely said. “I know this sounds awful, but if there was more than one recent body, it would be easier. I can’t be sure whetheror not the killer has a certain type of victim, and that can shape a profile quite a bit.”

Just then his phone rang. “Excuse me,” Adrian said. “This could be important.”

“Of course,” Kaely said.

Adrian answered and listened to the voice on the other end. After asking a couple of questions, he disconnected the call.

“God must be listening,” he said as he put his phone back in his pocket. “Another body has just been identified. The woman murdered before Terri. Her name is Ann Squires. Annie, as she was called by those close to her, was reported missing by her parents when she didn’t come home from college on break. Some of her friends thought she’d run away with her boyfriend. He was interviewed by the police and was able to prove he hadn’t seen her. He thought she might have decided to visit her aunt in Taylor, a small town just a few miles to the north of Sanctuary. The aunt said she hadn’t contacted her, but she did have a habit of just showing up unannounced. They were really close.”

“Has the evidence revealed anything yet?” Kaely asked.

“Detective Sergeant Johnson went over the dress and the shoes and couldn’t find anything that would help us,” Adrian said. “Locard’s exchange principle appears to have failed us this time. Gibson didn’t add much, but he did establish TOD at around four to six hours before we found the body. So between one and three in the morning. It could have been earlier because it was so cold last night. He feels pretty confident about his estimation though. He agreed with your assessments, Erin. The dress was put on her. Her undergarments were her own. She wasn’t sexually violated either. The killerknew exactly where to stab her. That doesn’t happen very often. The other two bodies didn’t show the same kind of skill. The ribs were nicked, and he saw something odd in the second oldest body. The hyoid bone in her neck was broken.”

“She was strangled,” Kaely said. “He didn’t hit the heart when he tried to kill her, and she fought back. He had to strangle her to get her to die.”

Adrian nodded. “Exactly what Gibson thought.”

“Anything on the oldest body?” Erin asked.

“Not yet,” Adrian said. “Although two of her ribs are broken. Doc can’t tell us how that happened though. Was there a struggle? Did it happen when he buried her? We just don’t know.”

“None of the buried bodies wore dresses, blue ribbons, or had a figurine,” Kaely said softly. “We believe he was waiting for the perfect kill. She was the only one who deserved his attention. The dress, the blue ribbon, and the figurine are his signature. They’re what’s important to him.”

“I think that’s right.”

“Do you know where the killer crossed paths with the victims?” Erin asked.

Adrian shook his head. “You do remember that we only discovered the first body this morning, right? I think we’re doing pretty good here. Of course, being able to access records of missing persons helped.” He sighed. “Identifying the first body might take a while. She’s obviously been missing a long time, and there’s very little to go on.” He downed the rest of his hot chocolate and stood. “I’ll let you know if we find anything in the morning. For tonight, please keep your doors locked. I’m more than willing to send one of my officers out here to keep an eye on things,if you’d like, but I have a feeling that my offer wouldn’t be accepted.”

“And you’d be right,” Erin said. “We’re both trained and armed. We can take care of ourselves.”

“I have no doubt of that.”

Adrian couldn’t think of anything else to say and made a clicking noise with his tongue. Jake jumped down from the couch. He took a look back at Erin and Kaely as if hoping Adrian would change his mind and stay a little longer. It appeared that Jake had made some new friends. “I should be in the office pretty early tomorrow. I appreciate your offer of a profile. Anything I can learn that will help me to know where to look or who I’m searching for is appreciated more than I can say.” He sighed. “I was certain that working in Sanctuary would give me a quiet life. Just goes to show how wrong you can be.”

“I’m sure you have your challenges, even without trying to find a serial killer,” Kaely said with a smile.

“It’s true. But nothing like I faced in Chicago. I know you’ve both encountered the same things.” He shook his head. “This is a nice community. Good people. This kind of thing shouldn’t happen here.”

“Unfortunately, evil doesn’t seem to have borders, Adrian,” Erin said.

“Sadly, that seems to be true, Miss Delaney.” He nodded at them. “Call me any time. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Erin smiled at him. “If you want me to call you Adrian, you must call me Erin.”

“Sorry, Erin. Habit learned from dealing with the public.”

He headed for the front door, with Jake following behindhim, his nails clicking on the wooden floor. When Adrian had arrived, he hadn’t really been concerned about the so-called ghost in the woods. But after talking to Kaely and Erin, he was worried. They’d seen something. But what? Were the women in danger? Although they seemed confident they could take care of themselves, he wasn’t convinced. Something terrible was happening in Sanctuary, and he wasn’t sure that anyone was safe.

TWENTY

“So, what do you think?” Erin asked after Adrian left.

“He believes us.”

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