Page 31 of Serial Love

“Yep,” Jack answered. Looking around, he said, “Luke, what do you want to do on this one?”

“Same as always. You interview and feed me info. I’ve got an angle I’ve been looking at, but I’ll take whatever data you can send to me.”

“Chad, Blaise. You two just drove through the night. You up for more?”

“Absolutely,” both replied at the same time.

“All right, Monty. The six of us will roll out of here. We should be there in about thirty minutes. We’ll rendezvous and you can get us inside where the FBI is investigating. I want all of you on this and use whatever means you need. We’ve got to stop this fucker.”

Once more, the men left Jack’s place to prepare to hit the road. He stood by his kitchen counter looking down at the empty, washed cobbler dish and his mind turned to the beautiful blonde with the heart of gold.How the hell can I give you what you need when I can’t be home during regular hours? And how the hell can I keep my world from tainting yours?Locking up and leaving his house, he felt more desolate than he ever had going on a mission.

He was beginning to see the handwriting on the walltelling him there was no way a white picket fence would fit in his life. And Bethany deserved nothing less.

The men effectively spread out, each knowing what needed to be done. Cam, Blaise, and Bart went to interview the girl’s roommates, classmates, and friends to gather as much information as they could. Hacking into student records, Marc delved into her classes, grades, loans, and accounts. Luke was back at the compound digging into her Facebook and social media. Monty was with the FBI at the scene where the body was found.

And once again, Jack was in the medical examiner’s room, this time staring at the mutilated body of Karen Solter. Blonde, blue eyes, medium build.Fuck. Looks too fuckin’ much like—Stop…don’t go there.

Forcing his mind to the task at hand, he discreetly moved from the side to the head of the victim, looking down at her body. While the cameras had taken pictures from multiple angles, he was stunned to see what the other medical examiner’s assistant had said. At this angle, it did appear as though the random mess of cuts did point like arrows from the girl’s pubic region toward the throat slice.Doesn’t give us much but could confirm the sexual motivation of the actual killings.

Moving back around to the side and out of the way, he admired the professionalism of the medical examiner, who combined clinical precision with a profound respect for the murdered girl.

“Weapon of death?” he quietly asked as the doctortook meticulous measurements of the length and depth of the wounds.

“Very long, thin blade. These lacerations are almost surgical in exactitude.”

“You think a scalpel?” he prodded.

“No, no. A scalpel wouldn’t be long enough.”

The examiner walked over to a computer and quickly began searching. “Here,” he said. “I would have to take more measurements, but something like this.”

Jack walked over and stared at a long, filet knife. The one on the screen called it a fishing filet knife.Fishing?His thoughts raced to the fishermen he ejected from Bethany’s place days earlier. Once again, forcing her from his mind, he asked, “This would be a common knife, wouldn’t it?”

The doctor gave a derisive snort, “Oh yeah. Got two of them at home myself. Take the grandson fishing when he comes to visit. Hell, in Virginia, with our beaches, rivers, and lakes, you’d find one of these in over half the homes here.”

Nodding, Jack left soon after, meeting some of the men in their hotel room. Marc reported what was becoming a familiar tune as they were finally starting to connect some dots in the backgrounds of the victims.

“She was a solid student, not brilliant, but studied a lot and studied hard. Her professors have mostly been here a while and I’ve already checked with Luke, none of them had been at any of the other colleges when one of the girls went missing.”

Cam, Blaise, and Bart had preliminary reports and would continue interviewing the next day.

“She was considered a good girl,” Cam said. “No partying, no boyfriends, no booze.”

“Her roommates appeared genuinely upset. Liked her and said she had no enemies. Usually kept to herself and studied in the library most evenings. They had recently met with some friends, and they were surprised when she had come along to a bar for dancing. That was unusual for her, but they were thrilled she came with them,” Blaise reported, looking down at his notes.

Bart took over from there. “I checked out the bar they went to. Live music and a friend of theirs was playing so that appeared to be the reason she went. They said she had a great time dancing. She didn’t drink so no one could have spiked it. There was a guy she was dancing with for a long time, but he left earlier than her group did, and he left alone. He has an alibi; he met up with his girlfriend later.”

“Now there was one piece of information I followed up on, but it led to a dead-end. The roommates said the bar was crowded and they lost track of each other, but one said she looked up at one time and saw Karen standing on the stairs leading to the loft chatting with a man there. Later, when she looked up, neither Karen nor the man was there.”

“She leave with him?” Jack asked.

“Roommates say no way. She was not about to pick up a guy in a bar; it just wasn’t her.”

“Cameras in the bar?”

“Only in the bar area so the owner can keep track of his bartenders’ handling of money.”

“Get it,” Jack growled. “Send it to Luke.”

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