Dead Woman Crossing J.R. Adler (early reader chapter books txt) 📖

Kimberley nodded.

Sam’s desk phone rang, and he quickly picked it up.

“Sam… Yep. Sounds good. We’ll be right there,” he said into the phone and then just as quickly put it back on the receiver.

“Don’t tell me another body.”

“No, preliminary results are in. Let’s go.”

Kimberley breathed a sigh of relief and stood from her chair. She knew and Sam knew they had nothing to go on as of yet. They needed something. A fingerprint. DNA. Just anything.

Megan Grey met Chief Deputy King and Sam at the front of the medical examiner’s office, which was located in the same city as the sheriff’s station, Arapaho. The outside was a discreet pale-yellow brick building. Inside, it was nearly all white, the most sterile of environments. It was an unwelcoming building as it was one reserved for the dead. Megan held a clipboard and wore a long white doctor’s coat. She nodded at them, a tight smile on her face, before turning down the long corridor. Kimberley and Sam followed behind as she walked down the brightly lit hallway, her heels clicking along the tile.

They entered the medical examining room where Hannah’s body and head lay uncovered on the embalming table. Her clothes were gone, bagged up for the sexual assault evidence kit, Kimberley presumed. There was a long incision down the center of her body, exposing everything inside of her—cracked ribs, organs that no longer functioned. Kimberley found her unrecognizable compared to the friendly, yet lonely woman she had met just a few days ago.

“Please tell me you’ve got something good,” Sam said, taking a deep breath.

Megan walked over to the body—that’s what she would be called now, Kimberley thought. A body. Not a woman. Not a mother. Not a part-time pharmacy worker. Not Hannah. She was a body. She was rotting flesh, broken bones, useless organs, because she hadn’t declared herself an organ donor. Hannah Brown didn’t exist anymore… but a body did.

“I retrieved this.” Megan used a pair of tweezers to hold up a bullet. “It was lodged in her brain, two inches from the frontal bone. I can say with certain this was the cause of death.” She set the bullet back into the Petri dish.

“What caliber?” Kimberley asked.

“.38.”

“Same as Katie DeWitt James,” Sam said scratching his chin.

“Any fibers, fingerprints, DNA?” Kimberley looked to Megan.

“No fingerprints or foreign fibers. The cell phone we found on her only had one set of fingerprints, which matches Hannah’s. One of your deputies picked it up an hour ago. I also performed the sexual assault evidence kit. I’ll have the results tomorrow afternoon. However, since her body was spotless and free from any bruising, scratches, fingerprints, I’m thinking it’ll come back clean.” Megan furrowed her brow.

“To leave no evidence behind, this had to have been planned meticulously. It wasn’t an impulsive murder,” Kimberley said.

Sam nodded. “Have an idea of time of death?”

“The time of death was sometime between two and four a.m. on September eighth,” Megan said confidently.

“How about Isobel?” Kimberley asked.

“No marks on her. Not even a hair out of place. The hospital where Nancy brought her took some swabs after her wellness examination and sent them over. We analyzed them to see if we could find any DNA, like, perhaps, the killer held her. Preliminary is showing several different strands of DNA though.”

“What’s that mean?” Sam asked.

Before Megan could speak, Kimberley cut in, “She went to daycare yesterday, so she’d have lots of DNA on her. Sounds like a dead end.”

“Exactly. I can do further testing, but, like Chief Deputy King said, it’s a lost cause.”

Sam sighed heavily and nodded.

“Anything else you can tell us?” Kimberley asked.

“Not right now. But when the results come in, I’ll keep you both posted.” Megan thumbed through the papers on her clipboard.

“Thank you, Megan. We’ll see ourselves out,” Sam said with a tilt of his head and walked out of the room.

Kimberley paused for a moment and looked over at Megan. “What’s your take on this case?”

She looked up from her clipboard, raising her eyebrows. “In my professional opinion, I think you hit it right on the head. Hannah Brown knew her attacker.”

Kimberley nodded. “You know… your work is impeccable, Megan.”

“You don’t have to say that. I’m sure you’re used to a higher standard coming from the NYPD.” Megan tilted her head, looking back at her clipboard.

“By all standards, I mean.” Kimberley gave a small smile.

Megan glanced up at Kimberley. “I usually hate being called out to the boonies for these one-off cases, but with you around, I’m looking forward to it. Seems like I can learn a lot from you.”

“Likewise.” Kimberley nodded.

Megan returned a small smile, before diving back into her work, while Kimberley left the room, catching up with Sam.

“Jack shit to go off of besides the caliber of the bullet and a time of death,” Kimberley was thinking out loud as they were driving to Hannah’s mother’s house. “The time of death tells us something though, she definitely knew the person.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Why the hell would she be under that creepy bridge between two and four in the morning on her own? Plus, why would you bring your daughter with you? In a stroller, no less. Makes me think she was drugged or tied up somewhere else and then brought there. The killer probably even brought the stroller from her house. Maybe that’s the place to start, search for signs of a struggle or anything out of place.” Kimberley was on a roll in her mind. “And you heard Megan. That crime scene was clean as a whistle.”

“That’s all speculative and circumstantial at best. We’re not rushing to any conclusions.” Sam chewed on his bottom lip. “Besides, it still don’t sound like anyone I know in this community,” he added.

Kimberley took a deep breath and decided not to press the issue any further.

14

Sam pulled his police-issued Ford Bronco into the gravel driveway leading up to a small ranch house in the center of Dead Woman Crossing. The home hadn’t seen