Page 17 of Just Now

Black jackets, ragged button-down shirts, scuffed blue jeans, heavy shoes.

As her numb mind slowly took this in, Cami’s brain finally began to work again. This was odd, it wasn’t right. Could it mean something? Was there a clue hiding in this?

Cami took out her phone and quickly checked that she was right. Getting bolder, embracing her theory, she forgot about the sweat now cooling on her face. Instead, she looked more closely, analyzing and comparing the labels, the sizes, and the records of the women in their own online photos.

“If that’s all, then we’d better get going,” Connor said to the pathologist, and Cami drew a sharp breath.

“Wait a minute,” she said to Connor, who glanced around, surprised.

“What is it?”

“There is something strange. Look here, Connor. Can you see it? I’m seeing it.” She held out her phone to him, and then indicated the piles of clothes.

“Their clothing?” he asked.

Cami nodded.

“They’re both wearing men’s clothing. It doesn’t look brand new, it’s worn and old and shabby. Maybe secondhand, because it seems to be their size, more or less. But I don’t see any sign on their social media that either of them dressed that way. Kate seems to have worn skirt suits mostly. And Gracie likes trendy, feminine tops and goes for the color pink. Why were they dressed this way?”

She stared at him and saw his eyes light up.

“That’s a very good question,” he said. “An excellent question, in fact. You might just have found something important here that could tell us more about this killer.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Staring at the piles of clothing, Connor felt intrigued and enthused by this lead that Cami had picked up. She was sharp and observant, and something like this, a detail she noticed that deviated from the normal, could be very important.

“So, what do we have here?” he asked. “Can we go through these piles in detail?”

Dr. Hargreaves hurried over to the piles and set out the garments.

“We have normal underwear,” Connor saw, noting that in Gracie’s pile, the underwear was indeed pink themed. But the rest of the garments weren’t.

“You’re right,” he said, feeling even more convinced that this was significant.

“We have men’s clothing,” Cami added, pointing to the faded jackets and dark blue jeans. “And shoes, and they are both in their size. But why would both of them be wearing these?” Connor saw her shake her head, and now she was so intrigued by her own theory that some color was returning to her face. “If it was just one of them, I could understand. Sometimes men’s clothing is more comfortable than women’s. I like men’s flannel shirts. But both of them, from top to toe?”

Connor nodded, his mind racing with possible scenarios. “It could be a way of changing their identity. Maybe the killer dressed them in men’s clothing to make it harder to identify them—in his mind, anyway, seeing they both had their ID and phone on them when they were dumped. Or else, he wanted the world to know who they were and how he’d changed them.”

He was rambling now, he knew, following his line of thinking that might not lead anywhere conclusive, but he saw Cami nodding.

“Or maybe it’s something more personal, more specific to the killer’s motivations. I wonder if he purchased these clothes from a specific place,” he concluded, feeling hopeful.

Connor was now looking at the labels, wondering if there were any clues about where they had been purchased. Cami’s guess was right. These items looked secondhand—at any rate, some of them did. They were worn garments, in smaller sizes. Different labels and brands. Cheap clothing. No sign of where they’d been bought. Could be from one of twenty local stores, or online. But these weren’t the victims’ choices. He had expected the lawyer, in particular, to wear good-quality garments. Her hair, her nails, everything he’d noticed while looking down at her dead body, pointed to her being a lover of quality. Even the gold chain she’d worn around her neck, which had been removed by the pathologist and placed in a tray, was solid and expensive.

So, cheap, old garments. Had the killer bought them and forced the women to wear them? And if so, why men’s items? Did this hold a clue to who he was?

It might, but there were no more clues here. The origin of the clothing was still unclear.

“Will you send these in for analysis?” Connor asked the pathologist. “It’s a long shot, but there might be a hair, or a stain, or some trace evidence on these garments that can take us further, if they belonged to the killer or were in his possession for a while.”

“I’ll do that,” Dr. Hargreaves agreed.

“I think we can get going now,” he said, seeing Cami visibly relax. “Thanks again,” he told the pathologist.

He strode out.

As he did so, the suspicion about Cami’s activities surged again in his mind.

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