Page 8 of The Girl He Wanted

"Have you been able to find any links between them?" Paige asked.

The detective shrugged. "Nothing obvious. Both women were in their mid-twenties, had no criminal records, and were living in Winterly at the time of their deaths. We've looked into their pasts, but there's nothing that stands out as a motive for their murders."

Paige frowned. She guessed that if there had been that kind of clear link, the detective would have solved the case already. "What about their personal lives? Did they have any enemies, or anyone who might have wanted to harm them?"

"We've checked into that as well," Detective Johnson said. "But so far, nothing has turned up. Bea Milling had a boyfriend until recently, while it looks like Ellie Kane was single. We're still interviewing their friends and family, but it's looking like a dead end."

Christopher rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What about the locations where they were killed? Were they significant in any way other than the height?"

The detective shook his head. "Not that we can tell. The water tower was just a random location, and the clock tower was the only tall building in the area. We're still trying to figure out why the killer chose those specific spots."

Paige glanced at Christopher, feeling a sense of frustration building in her chest. She also found herself worrying about him. He hadn't said much in their conversation with the detective, when ordinarily he might have taken the lead in talking to local law enforcement. Paige guessed that, for all he claimed that he could handle his share of this case, he wasn't going to be able to push aside his grief that easily.

Paige considered the women, figuring that was the best starting point. They both shared the same age, they were both women, and they were both found in high places. But other than that, there was nothing that linked them together.

Paige sighed, feeling frustrated. "There has to be something else. Some kind of connection that we're missing."

"We've questioned everyone who knew them," Detective Johnson said. "Friends, family, co-workers. We haven't found anything yet."

Christopher leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "What about the symbols that the killer left behind? Have you tried to decipher them?"

Paige was grateful that he was engaging more in the conversation.

Johnson shook his head. "We haven't been able to figure them out. We've had a few people look at them, but no one can make sense of it."

Paige hadn't been able to work it out yet either, but she was determined to make some kind of sense of it. Something like that was important enough to the killer that he'd paused to write the symbols in the victims' blood. Understanding why he'd done it might be the key to catching him.

Paige sighed. "Okay, thank you for the information, Detective. We'll start our own investigation and hopefully find some answers soon."

She and Christopher left the police station. She waited until they were both clear of it before she turned to him. "Are you ok?"

Christopher looked at her, his eyes dark and unreadable. "I will be," he said after a moment. "I just need to focus on the case for now. It's the only thing that's keeping me together."

Paige nodded, understanding all too well the feeling of throwing oneself into work to avoid dealing with personal pain. "Do you want to take a break? Maybe grab a coffee or something?"

Christopher shook his head. "No, let's keep going. We need to find something, anything, that could give us a lead on this guy."

"All right, if you're sure," Paige said. "Where do you want to start?"

She had her own ideas, of course, but right then, she wanted to make sure that Christopher really was focused on the case. She didn't think that she could send him back to DC, and she really didn't want to do this alone, but she wanted to know how much she could trust his judgement when he was so grief stricken. Was she going to have to take the lead here, when before, he’d been the more senior agent calling the shots?

"We'll start where we always start," Christopher said. "With the crime scenes. Come on, I'll drive us to the water tower."

CHAPTER FOUR

The water tower was a little way to the north of the town, outside its limits, standing alone, solitary in a field. To Paige, its weathered surfaces made it look like it had been there forever.

Christopher parked the car by the side of the road next to the field, and they both got out. The air was crisp, and Paige could feel the chill in her bones. She zipped up her jacket and walked over to the tower, staring up at the top of it.

It was tall, at least forty feet, with rusted metal panels that clanged in the wind, providing the only real noise out here away from the city. Paige looked up, imagining what it must have been like for the victim to be up there. She shuddered, feeling a sense of unease at that thought.

"It's pretty rickety," she said. The structure looked as though it should have fallen down years ago.

Christopher nodded. "It's also a long way outside of town."

He had a point. This wasn't anywhere that Bea Milling might have come in the course of her normal day, which meant that the killer hadn't grabbed her here. This hadn’t been opportunistic. He'd abducted her somewhere else, then brought her here to kill her. Paige tried to imagine the kind of planning and effort that must have gone into something like that.

Did it mean that the killer had targeted her specifically? Was there something about her that had made him decide that she was the victim he was looking for? Or had he merely grabbed a young woman off the streets of the city at random when he saw the opportunity and then driven here?

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