Page 13 of Already Lost

“That would be us,” Laura confirmed. Sheeyed his lunchbox, wondering what on earth he was up to.

“I’ve been having lunch,” Ian clarified.His dark hair was slicked back over his head and away from his glasses, givinghim what had to be a textbook nerd look. But, like Captain Kinnock, Laura hadto guess he was unusually young for his position.

“It’s eleven in the morning,” Nate pointedout.

“Yes, well, I start early,” Ian said,sweeping past them towards the door that had been locked until now. He produceda swipe card from his pocket and opened it with a flourish. “And thankfully, myworkmates don’t tend to mind when or how long I go out on a break for.”

A blast of cooler air hit Laura as shefollowed Ian into the morgue, Nate coming up behind her. There was also a veryparticular smell: mostly cleaning fluid, along with something strong and mintythat Laura identified as probably some kind of air freshener. She had found inher many travels, occasionally, coroners who liked their morgue to have aparticular scent to mask that of the bodies.

“Right,” Ian said, dropping his lunchboxonto a desk in the corner with a clang that made Laura jump. “Who would youlike to see first? Miss Janes, or Miss Henson?”

They’d already seen so much of DakotaHenson’s life, it would be interesting to get a view of the other victim.“Janes,” Laura said – at exactly the same time as Nate. They looked at oneanother with a spark of amusement in their eyes. Even when one of them wasattempting to take charge, it seemed, they both had the same ideas anyway.

“Janes it is,” Ian said, whirling aroundand trotting right to the exact drawer they wanted and pulling it out.

She was a shocking sight, as all bodiesinvariably were. Laura had seen so many of them in her career, but that didn’ttake the sting away completely, even if it did deaden her senses a little. Whenthe victims were young or beautiful, or both, it was more difficult. There wassomething about a life snatched down in its prime that was just harder to take.

And Jenna Janes, for her part, hadcertainly been beautiful. She was older than Dakota Henson and yet stillyounger than Laura herself. She must have married early in life. Vibrant redhair framed her face even in death – Ian had fanned it out over the metaldrawer as if she was posing for a photoshoot set in a morgue, not laying inone.

“She looks asleep,” Nate commented. It wasa fair point to bring up: often when they dealt with murder victims, the bodywasn’t so pretty in more ways than one. There would be a slit throat, abashed-in skull, a gunshot wound to the head. But Jenna really did lookperfectly asleep and still, without a mark on her face or shoulders.

Until Ian flipped back the sheet to thebottom of her torso, revealing the large stab wound right through the pointabove her heart.

“Not anymore, she doesn’t,” Lauramurmured. It was a horrible thing – a mark that spoiled everything. Even thoughthe blood had been washed away, leaving the wound strangely white, it stood outon Jenna’s chest as a blight, matching the marks left by the coroner’sexamination.

“As you can see, death was conclusivelycaused by a stab wound to the heart,” the coroner said. “She wouldn’t havelasted long after being stabbed. The killer knows what he’s doing. He’s used astrong degree of accuracy both here and in the case of the other victim. Rightdown with a blade wide enough to pierce essentially the whole of the heart,bringing about cessation of function with immediacy when the blade iswithdrawn.”

“She wouldn’t have suffered, then,” Laurasaid. There was something about Jenna’s haunting beauty that made her gladabout it. That she wouldn’t have wanted this woman to suffer.

“She might have, I’m afraid,” the coronersaid, pointing downwards to draw their attention further. “She has rope burnsto the wrists and ankles where she was restrained. This suggests there was acertain amount of movement before she was killed – that she perhaps tried toescape or run. It’s the same in the other case. If I was to describe the sceneof their deaths, I would say they were looking up from a prone position on thefloor, perhaps trying to crawl backwards away from him, and they saw him bring thesword down on them. Oh, and there’s also some bruising to the hips and back inboth cases, suggesting they were pushed down to the floor from a higherposition with enough force to cause an impact.”

Laura shook her head silently, seeing Natedo the same in her peripheral vision. Whoever this was, this killer, he hadsome kind of agenda. He had to. There was pattern to this. It wasn’t just a madfrenzy – not like the Ted Bundys of the world she had thought of earlier. Withcareful and considered method, there was often reason, logic. A twisted logicthat only a madman would understand, but…

Ian turned away to gesture to anotherdrawer, and Laura brushed her hand against Jenna Janes’s hand surreptitiously.She waited for the headache that always signaled one of her visions was aboutto start, but nothing came. It rarely did, with the bodies, no matter how muchshe wanted it to. There was nothing in Jenna Janes’s future. Nothing for hervisions to predict.

“Do you want to see the other one? It’sthe same story,” Ian said.

“No, thank you,” Nate replied, choosingfor both of them. “I think we’ve seen enough.”

Laura nodded. She had. The coroner’sexpert opinion was what they really needed here, and they had it. If touchingthe body gave her nothing, Laura was going to have to wait and find somethingelse. Ideally, something the killer had touched.

A murder weapon would have been wonderful,but of course they wouldn’t be that lucky yet.

“Let’s go find Captain Kinnock,” Natesuggested. “Get ourselves set up at a desk and look everything over.”

“Sure,” Laura agreed. But she had theuneasy feeling that what they had so far was a whole bunch of nothing.

***

Laura adjusted the chair she’d been lentby one of the detectives in the precinct, uncomfortable in more ways than one.She hated it when they were given a desk in the middle of the bullpen insteadof a private office. She could always just feel everyone staring at her.Looking at the FBI agents. Resenting, or wondering, or idolizing – whatever thereason, she didn’t enjoy the scrutiny one bit.

Still, they had to go with the space thatthe precinct had available – and apparently, this was it.

“Let’s go over everything piece by piece,”Nate suggested. “So, from what we know, he abducts them when they’re alone andvulnerable.”

“So far, we’ve probably narrowed it downto every single serial killer ever who’s used abduction,” Laura said drily. “Ifit was me, I don’t think I’d choose to abduct someone who was in a large groupof friends and heavily armed.”

“I’m just laying out the facts,” Natesaid, giving her a sour look. Laura tried to rein her own disappointment in andstop taking it out on him. “He takes them to an abandoned location. That part,he has to scout ahead of time, right?”

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