Chapter 25

Aiden stared at the flickering computer screen. A lump the size of a block of concrete settled deep in his gut. He scrubbed his hands over his aching eyes and looked again. Nothing had changed. The same shocking report from the medical examiner’s office flashed on his screen.

Joe strode over, a mug of coffee gripped in his hand. He sank with a groan onto a chair beside Aiden’s desk and stretched out his legs. “What’s got you looking so sour this morning?”

Aiden rubbed his two days’ growth of whiskers and swiveled the monitor so Joe could see the screen. “This is the report from the ME on those bones Candace Cooper and I found in the cave in Creighton Springs State Park.” He pointed at the color photographs of a tibia and a human skull. “The ME sent them to the State lab for examination by their forensic specialist. No question, the bones are human.”

“And?” Joe slurped coffee. A few drops dripped onto his shirt, combining with several other stains.

“Candace was right. The skull is from an adolescent female between the ages of twelve and sixteen.” He huffed out a breath. “A team of crime scene investigators went over the cave with a fine-toothed comb and found several other bones belonging to the same individual.”

Joe grimaced. “Is it Amanda Jacobs?”

Aiden shook his head. “The mineral absorption in the bones indicates they’ve been in that cave for at least six months. Probably longer.”

“Jesus. Another victim.” Joe chewed on a fingernail and spat a chunk of nail on the worn linoleum floor. “How’d she die? Can the medical examiner tell cause of death from the bones?”

Aiden shook his head. “Teeth marks on the bones indicate predation by carnivores. After the victim’s death, an animal, a bear, or coyote, probably, scavenged the body and scattered the bones about the cave. That’s why some are missing.”

“Poor kid.” Joe plunked his empty cup on the desk with a loud clatter. “Any ID on the bones?”

“Nope.” Aiden’s gut knotted, and a sour taste filled his mouth. His stomach burned, and he opened his desk drawer and rifled through a tangle of paper clips, loose change, pens, and stacks of sticky notes searching for the bottle of antacids. Grasping the small, plastic container, he unscrewed the child-safety cap and poured out two pink tablets. Stuffing them into his mouth, he chewed, grimacing at the dry, chalky, over-sweet cherry flavor. This case was going to kill him. He’d been popping antacids like candy.

“No one’s reported her missing. There’s nothing in our data base of a missing teen that fits the time frame.” He rubbed his burning gut. “It’s like this girl vanished, and no one gave a damn.” Anything involving missing kids punched his buttons, but this case was really getting to him. A bunch of missing girls, all with similar physical characteristics, and now these bones that belonged to a young female found in that isolated cave in the state park.

Add in the possibility of a connection to a twenty-two-year-old kidnapping case, and you had a catastrophe of the highest order. How did Candace fit in? Was the attack on campus the other night related? Was it a failed abduction attempt? His brain swirled with all the unanswered questions.

“Earth to Loverboy. Hello? Are you with me, or are you dreaming about that hot Cooper babe? How did your interview go with her anyway?” Joe pursed his fleshy lips. “I can’t figure out how you two ended up in that park. Interesting interrogation technique.” Joe’s voice dripped sarcasm.

Aiden frowned. Joe’s disparaging remarks rankled more than usual, especially since they hit so close to the truth. Aiden was attracted to Candace, and he had crossed the line…not once, but twice. An image of holding Candace in his arms and kissing her sweet lips flashed before him. He cleared his throat. “Dr. Cooper’s interview went fine.” He kept his voice level, hiding his embarrassment.

Joe’s smirk widened. “I bet it did.” He winked lewdly.

Aiden reined in his annoyance and continued with his report. He tapped the keyboard, and a close-up photo of a human jawbone and teeth appeared on the screen. “The forensic experts compared the teeth of the victim in the cave to dental records of missing teenage girls across the country for the past five years.”

“And?” Joe arched his shaggy, gray brows. “What did they find?”

“No match.” Another sharp pain stabbed his gut, and Aiden winced. He grabbed the antacids and popped two more pills. “I don’t know how her remains ended up in that cave, but I have a bad feeling.” He popped another pink tablet. “A real bad feeling.”

Joe narrowed his eyes. “So, you think the same perp did the victim in the cave, and the body found in Lynn Canyon, and snatched Amanda Jacobs?”

“Not only that—” Aiden sat forward and clicked buttons on the keyboard. Another image appeared on the screen. “Take a look at this.” Earlier, he’d arranged the facial photos of Amanda Jacobs and the victim murdered in Lynn Canyon on a single screen. At the last moment, he’d added one final photo to the lineup.

Joe leaned closer and peered at the screen. He frowned and reached into his shirt pocket and tugged out a pair of reading glasses and slipped them on. “You’re shittin’ me, right?”

Aiden shook his head. “I wasn’t sure at first, but when you look at the photos together, the similarities are impossible to miss.” He tapped each photo on the screen with the eraser on the end of his pencil. “All the females are Caucasian, all have long dark-brown or black hair, and all have distinctive blue eyes. They even have similar builds—tall and slim.” He sank back on his chair. Every time he looked at these photos, his gut spasmed.

Joe’s brow furrowed, and a line carved deep between his bushy gray eyebrows. “I see the similarities between Amanda Jacobs and the murder victim from Lynn Canyon.” He rubbed his stubbled chin. “It’s a stretch to think they’re connected, but it’s a possibility.” He tapped his finger on one of the photos. “What I don’t get is why you included Candace Cooper. Sure, she looks a bit like the other victims, but she wasn’t abducted.” He sat back and crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “If you ask me, you’re so desperate to find this perp, you’re seeing patterns where none exist.”

Was Joe right? Was Aiden reaching at straws? He studied the array of pictures, and his body tingled with the certainty he was on to something. “Look at her.” He stabbed a finger at Candace’s photo. “She fits the type…tall, slim, dark hair, blue eyes. Just like the others.”

“As do hundreds of other women.” Joe’s mouth twisted. “She’s at least fifteen years older than the other victims. These guys don’t usually go for adults…too hard to control.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling that the cases are all connected.” Aiden ground down on his back molars. The more he studied the photos, the more certain he was of his theory.

Joe’s lip curled. “You’ve done it again, haven’t you?”

“Done what?” Aiden flinched under his partner’s stare down.

“You’ve fallen for that woman.” Joe shook his head. “Don’t bother to hide it. I can see it in your eyes.” He pushed to his feet. “Jesus, man. Why the hell are you going down that rabbit hole again? Didn’t you learn your lesson in Seattle? You’re already at the ass end of the universe. Do you want to end your career for good?”

Aiden opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it and clamped his lips tight. It killed him to admit it, but Joe was right. Aiden was attracted to Candace. Hell, if he were honest with himself, what he felt for the very pretty college professor was more than simple physical attraction. Something deep inside him sparked when they were together, something visceral and real, something he’d never felt with another woman.

He had to fight his feelings, no matter what it took. He’d been burned before. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—let the same mistake happen again.

But Candace wasn’t anything like Marissa, and the situation was completely different. Candace had nothing to gain by befriending him, and she was a victim, not a suspect in a crime. But he’d thought Marissa was innocent of any wrongdoing too…until she wasn’t. Until she proved to be a killer, and an innocent child was dead.

He swallowed back his guilt and misgivings and hit the Print button. Lurching to his feet, he grabbed his worn suede jacket from the back of his chair and shrugged into it.

“Where you goin’?” Joe clamped his hands on his hips, looking for all the world like a stern father demanding to know his teenage son’s plans.

“To talk to the captain. She needs to know about this.”

“What the hell? You’re making a big mistake.” Joe’s frown deepened.

“Maybe. But it’s my mistake to make.” He strode to the printer and picked up the paper from the tray. His words sounded braver than he felt. He was putting his career on the line. If this hunch didn’t pan out, he’d lose the captain’s respect, and probably be demoted to riding a desk in the police station lobby directing people to where to pay their traffic fines.

Joe’s glower followed him out of the crowded detectives’ room and down the hall to the captain’s beveled-glass door.

He quelled his rumbling gut and tapped on the wood frame.

Captain Cerroli looked up and gestured for him to enter.

He shoved open the door and poked his head in. “Got a minute, Captain?”

She heaved a heavy sigh and nodded. “I suppose. Come in, Farrell.” She pointed at the teetering stack of paper on her desk. “Those remains you found in that cave in Creighton Springs State Park have stirred up a hornet’s nest. Every police department in the country is sending me photos of missing teens.” She tugged off her glasses and rubbed the smudged lenses on the tail of her police-issue blouse. “You wouldn’t believe how many missing girls there are in this country. It’s a national disgrace.”

He met her tired gaze. “I have a pretty good idea.” When he worked in Seattle, his assignment was missing persons. It wasn’t long before he noticed the majority of the missing were women, and most of those were under twenty-one. A staggering 31,000 girls and young women went missing in the States last year, almost three hundred of them in Colorado alone.

The captain slipped her glasses over her nose and sat back on her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay. What do you need?”

“Anything new on the bones we found in the cave?”

She flipped through the piles, scattering reports. Grasping one, she read the label and handed it to him. “This just came in. We got an ID, but no cause of death.”

He opened the folder and studied the missing person’s report. His gut iced with each typed word. The remains had been identified using dental records. They belonged to a fifteen-year-old girl from Bishop. She’d been missing for nine months. Her foster parents hadn’t bothered to report her disappearance. They assumed she’d run away like she had twice before and had decided to let her go this time. Of course, they also hadn’t notified child social services, and so the foster parents continued to receive the monthly subsidy checks. His lip curled. Nice people. Real nice.

He slid the first page behind the second and stared at a color photo of the victim.

And there it was.

His heart stuttered. The connection confirmed.

“I can tell by your face that you see what I see.”

The captain’s voice broke through his dismay. He met her red-streaked, tired eyes. “She looks like Amanda Jacobs.”

She nodded. “They could be sisters.”

He set the paper in his hand on her desk. “Take a look at this.”

She studied the faces of the young women.

The drone of voices, footsteps clomping down the hall, ringing phones, and a burst of male laughter seeped through the closed door.

Aiden slid a glance at his watch and tapped his foot on the floor. His gut screamed he needed to get out of there. They were looking at a serial abductor, and he had no doubt Candace was a target. The attack on her the other night wasn’t random. No damn way. For some reason, the perp who’d abducted, then killed those other girls, had targeted Candace. He’d failed in his first attempt. He’d try again.

Aiden had to warn her.

Finally, the captain looked up. The furrow between her eyebrows had deepened, and she seemed to have aged a dozen years in the space of a few minutes. “I’d better call the chief.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “He’s not going to be happy, but it’s time we let the FBI know we’re looking at a serial kidnapper.”

His heart sank at hearing his worst fears spoken aloud. But then she spoke again, and he realized there was an even worse fear.