Page 12 of Already Lost

“Or he’s neither bold nor cunning but justsaw an opportunity and went for it,” Laura added. She hoped fervently that herlast guess was the most wrong. Opportunistic killers were far harder to catch.Tracking down their motive was near impossible. It was the Ted Bundys of theworld that made their job incredibly difficult. Those who killed their friendsor relatives or people who had slighted them were so much easier to stop.

They made no further comment as they workedtheir painstaking way along the route, right up to the front door leading intothe store.

“Nothing on my side,” Laura said, feelinga little defeated.

“Mine either,” Nate responded. “I guess itwas too much to hope for at this stage of the investigation.”

“Right,” Laura agreed. “Do you think shewent into the store?”

“I guess the locals would already havefigured that out,” Nate suggested.

“I’ll call,” Laura said, grabbing her cellphone out of her pocket. She dialed the number she’d taken down for the captainand waited, glancing around as she did so.

“Captain Kinnock,” he said as soon as theline connected.

“Hi,” Laura said. “It’s Special AgentFrost. Have you ascertained whether Dakota Henson arrived at the store she washeading for or not?”

“Surveillance footage doesn’t show herentering,” Captain Kinnock replied promptly. “We only have coverage of theentrance – the rest of the street is residential, so no other cameras.”

“Right.” Laura thought for a minute, abouthow useless this whole trip had been so far. They’d come to interview thefamily and learned absolutely nothing new, and the walk to the store had beenfruitless as well. They needed to start speeding up, to find the answers theyneeded quicker. This was taking too long. “Can you tell me if there wasanything relevant discovered in the interview with the first victim’s family?Jenna Janes?”

“Nothing,” Captain Kinnock sighed. “Verysimilar story to what we learned with the Hensons. Jenna’s husband had noanswers as to why someone might have targeted her.”

Laura chewed her lip, thinking. She lookedup at Nate, who held her gaze as if thinking with her. “The setup was exactlythe same for Jenna?” she asked.

“Just in a different location,” CaptainKinnock replied. “Bound hand and foot, with room to move their hands a little,gramophone and record playing, all the same. Jenna was also abducted and thentaken to the location later on.”

Laura rubbed her forehead. There wasn’tenough data, even though they had two victims already. They just didn’t havethe information that would separate the two victims, show them why they inparticular were chosen, what the killer was trying to say. There must be a linkbetween the two victims in some way, even if it was just that they had beenavailable to the killerin the same waywhen opportunity did strike, butthey weren’t seeing it yet. And, most frustrating of all, the lack of evidencethey could trace to a known person meant they were going to be chasing afterhim until he made a mistake.

“Thanks,” Laura said. “We’re going to headto the coroner and take a look at the bodies.”

She ended the call, looking up at Nate’ssemi-amused expression. “We are?” he asked.

“Sorry,” she said. She’d made the decisionon her own. Maybe she’d grown a little too used to working with rookies andtaking charge while he’d been on leave. But it was the only thing that madesense now. “I’m just frustrated with the lack of progress. I figured we look atthe bodies next and see what the coroner can tell us. If we don’t get anywheresoon, we can circle back around and see what the family of Jenna Janes can tellus later, or look at her crime scene. I don’t want to waste too much time onthings the locals have already done, though, since they did a thorough enoughjob here.”

Nate nodded his agreement. “Luckily,you’re right,” he grinned, though the smile lasted only for a moment. Lauracould see he felt the same way as she did: that this case wasn’t going to solveitself, and if they didn’t start to move faster, they weren’t either. “Let’s gosee the coroner.”

Laura turned back towards where they hadleft the car, feeling an itching under her skin that they weren’t going fastenough – and determined to do what she could to catch up.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The coroner’s office turned out to beunderground, beneath the precinct, taking advantage of the cooler tunnels underthe earth to aid in storing the bodies of those who needed examination.

The coroner, however, was nowhere to beseen.

“Hello?” Laura called out again for whatfelt like the seventeenth time. She bent forward over the front desk, trying tosee if there was a button she could press or some way she could let them inthrough the locked door.

“It’s pointless,” Nate said. “Maybe weshould go check something else out first and then come back with CaptainKinnock.”

“Check out what?” Laura asked, exasperatedbeyond measure. “And even if we go get the captain, who knows if he canactually get in himself?”

“He can’t, actually.”

Laura spun around to see a tall, thin manin a white lab coat approaching them. He was licking his fingers on his righthand, and had what appeared to be a small metal lunchbox in an old-fashionedstyle in his left.

“You’re the coroner?” Nate asked, sizingthe guy up immediately.

“I am,” he confirmed, in a casual manner.He stood sharply, almost clicking his heels as he snapped into a militaryposture, drawing himself up. “Ian. I’m guessing you’re the FBI agents I’ve beenwaiting for.”

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