Page 26 of So Lethal

She shook her head. “Send him back. He’s just going to stick to his guns. While we’re at it, let’s have Ferris get people to interrogate every member of his staff. Prioritize anyone who worked on the clinical trial.”

“Will do.”

The door opened, and Ferris walked inside looking grim. Faith had seen that look on the faces of many law enforcement officers in the past. She knew what Ferris was going to say before he said it.

"We've got another body, guys. Parking garage of the South Bay Community Center. Victim was last seen alive forty-five minutes ago."

“Which means it couldn’t have been Dr. Crane because he was in custody forty-five minutes ago,” Michael said. “Damn it.”

Faith’s shoulders slumped. All of that effort wasted. Turk and Michael injured for nothing. They had chased a rabbit up a tree only for the branch to snap underneath them.

And once more, Faith’s fixation on a lead had allowed the real killer to take another life.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Faith stared at the woman in the front seat of the late model Lexus sedan and tried not to lose her self-control. She was tall and athletic with chocolate colored skin and eyes the color of black coffee. She had noble features and full lips that no doubt made the heartbeats of many quicken.

An hour ago, this woman had been alive. While she put handcuffs on an innocent man, the real killer had been lying in wait for her. While she and Michael were browbeating Dr. Crane for information he didn’t have, this woman had lain in her sedan, the life choked out of her.

This was the worst part of the job, and twelve-plus years later, it hadn’t gotten any easier. Turk trotted around the corner and stopped in front of the rear passenger seat. He looked at Faith and barked once.

“Victim is Sarah Martinez, thirty-eight,” Ferris informed them. “She lost her hearing a year and a half ago when she caught strep and it went to her ears. Doctors were able to save her life, but she lost her hearing.”

“What was she doing here?” Michael asked.

“Support group for those with hearing loss,” Ferris said. “It’s a charity function of St. Teresa’s Hospital. That’s where Miss Martinez was treated.”

“I don’t suppose Dr. Crane was involved in her treatment,” Faith asked.

Dr. Crane wasn’t a suspect anymore, but if Sarah was also treated by him, then he would still be a connection between the victims, and it would be worth continuing to follow up on that lead.

“We’ll pull her medical records to confirm, but St. Teresa’s did tell us that Dr. Crane isn’t affiliated with their hospital.”

Faith sighed. "Check anyway, just in case she got a second opinion or something from him."

“Yeah, we’ll do that.” Ferris looked around and scratched his head. “I can’t figure out how the killer stayed out of sight. There are three different entrances to the garage.”

“He crouched behind the rear driver’s side door,” Faith said, pointing to the spot where Turk sat. “He wouldn’t be visible to the entrances from here. We’re on the tenth floor of the structure on a Tuesday night, so I don’t think there would be a lot of people up here. Maybe no one else.”

“Why would she park up here by herself?” Ferris asked.

“So no one would talk to her,” Michael speculated. “She wasn’t born deaf like our first two victims. She lost her hearing in an accident. It would be painful for her to interact with people when she couldn’t hear or speak to them anymore.”

Ferris sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“So he waits behind the car,” Faith said, “Kills her, then puts her in the front seat. Then he gets out of Dodge.” She looked around. “Do those security cameras work?”

“I’ll find out,” Ferris said. “Last time the killer wore a ski mask, though.”

“We can still get some basic identifying data,” Faith said. “Height, build, clothing. We can probably determine if it’s a male or a female too. Anything helps at this stage of the game.”

“Good point. I’ll see what I can do.”

Ferris left, and Faith looked back at Sarah. She had come here looking for help coping with her affliction. Instead, someone had killed her for it.

“We’ll look for a connection between the three obviously,” Michael said. “But let’s say we don’t find a connection. Why these three victims? We have a woman in her late twenties, a woman in her late thirties, and a man in his late forties. Are we looking at a man in his late fifties next? Or a teenager?”

Faith frowned. “That’s not funny, Michael.”

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