Page 9 of Absent Reason

"Do you think the victims knew that the killer was after them?" Amber asked Simon. “Would they have had any reason to suspect what was happening?”

It might make a difference. A victim who knew that she was a killer’s target might have left some kind of clue.

"It's hard to say at this point," Simon replied, his eyes scanning the area. "Given the way they were killed, it's possible that they didn't even see it coming. A noose around the neck? To me, that says that the killer attacked them from behind."

Amber nodded, taking in the scene. They were standing at the edge of the bridge where Kelly Wasner's body had been found. The area was cordoned off with police tape, and there were still signs of the forensic sweep that had taken place after the body was discovered.

As with the first crime scene, the potential solitude of the location at night struck Amber while she looked out over the river.

"It wouldn't be easy sneaking up on someone on a bridge if it was quiet," Amber said.

Simon looked around for a moment or two and then nodded. "It would be easier towards the end of the bridge. There are more spots to hide there. There isn't the same camera coverage that there was at the first murder site, though, so it's hard to say for sure."

It was speculation, but Amber was willing to bet that it was how this had happened. The killer had ambushed his victim, dragged her to this spot, and hanged her over the edge of the bridge.

"This is someone who isn't looking for head-on conflict with his victims," Amber said, trying to guess at the mindset of the individual who had done this. "He wants to sneak up, kill them, display them and get away before anyone notices."

Did that point to someone who felt that they couldn't fight victims face to face or to someone who felt that was simply the best way to avoid leaving evidence? Was this a predator trying to be careful, or one who had been forced to be because they couldn't simply attack head-on?

One other thing was bothering her. One way that this case didn’t fit in with the ones that they’d worked on before.

"Why did Palliser send us on this one?" Amber asked. "There's no obvious puzzle here. We've become experts at dealing with killers who like puzzles and who play games with people. There's nothing like that here."

Amber certainly had. Thanks to her previous work as a puzzle editor, she’d become an expert at dealing with cases that had puzzles at their heart.

"We don't get to pick and choose the killers we hunt," Simon said.

Amber frowned. "I don't mean it like that."

Maybe a part of Amber did, though. She felt more comfortable when there was a clear puzzle to solve. It was the thing she was the best at, the thing she could do better than almost anyone else.

Almost good enough.

The memory of those words written in her diary made Amber shudder. That was a mystery where the perpetrator clearly had an interest in puzzles. Maybe she should have stayed in DC to solve it. Except that it hadn’t been an FBI case. An assault like that would be handled by the Washington PD. It wasn’t something Amber could help with.

"It's just... I'd feel a lot more comfortable if the killer had left us a code or a puzzle to solve, something that would let us get ahead of him."

Amber saw Simon shrug. He obviously understood how this would feel to her, but Amber suspected that there wasn’t anything he could do to make this easier for her.

"I get what you're saying, but we have to work with what we have. Maybe there's something we missed, some clue or detail that will lead us to the killer," he said. "We just have to keep looking."

Amber nodded, knowing Simon was right. They couldn't force this case into a neat little box, no matter how much they wanted to. They had to be patient, thorough, and let the evidence guide them.

She looked back out over the river, the sound of the rushing water filling her ears. It was peaceful here, in a way, despite the violence that had taken place. Maybe that was a part of what the killer was after, Amber thought. The quiet, the emptiness, the stillness. Maybe he wanted a spot where he could be alone with his victims.

For now, though, they needed to look for other sources of evidence.

"We should head back and see what the coroner has to say," Amber said, turning to Simon. "Maybe they found something that can help us."

Simon nodded, and they made their way back to the car, ready to continue the hunt for the killer.

***

The coroner's office was located in a building that looked from the street like it had seen better days. Amber couldn't quite shake the feeling that they were walking into a place that was more abandoned than operational. The paint on the outside of the building was peeling, the windows at the side were cracked, and the sign over the door was so faded that it was barely visible, as if it had been there for years and had never been touched. As they walked in, Amber couldn't help wondering if they would be able to trust anything that came from inside a place this badly maintained. If they were that sloppy about looking after the building, how detailed would they be in their work?

The interior of the morgue was a stark contrast to the outside of the building. Everything was clean and sterile, the walls gleaming white under the fluorescent lights above. The air was cold, and the smell of disinfectant was almost overpowering. Amber tried not to let it get to her as she headed deeper into the building to one of the examination rooms. With everything so pristine, Amber started to hope that maybe they might get more answers than she’d thought there.

The coroner met them in the examination room. She was short and stout, with gray hair pulled back into a tight bun. Her face was lined with wrinkles, but her eyes were sharp and intelligent, looking over Amber and Simon as if assessing them carefully before she spoke. Amber had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew what it was like to be one of the bodies on the coroner’s slab in that moment.

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