Chapter 3
CHAPTER
THREE
NOVA
“Unidentified remains of a female have been found,” my source from the FBI reports. “We’re pulling DNA from her now and comparing it to the victims’ families. Once I get that back from the lab, I’ll let you know.”
“Where were the remains found?” I ask, trying to get as many details out of him as possible.
He’s been pretty informative, but there are things he’s been tight-lipped about.
As he should be since it’s an ongoing investigation, I just wish he wasn’t that way with me seeing as we’re both working the case and on the same side.
“If I tell you, you can’t show up at the scene, at least not until my men clear it,” he states.
“I wouldn’t. I like to be on my own when I go over a crime scene,” I tell him.
“Even if there’s no longer any evidence there?” he asks, sounding skeptical.
“It’s not about the evidence, it’s about trying to get inside of his mind and figure out why he used that particular place for his dumping ground,” I inform him.
“You think we’ll find more victims in the proximity, don’t you, Nova?”
“I do,” I conclude. “They may not be in the same exact plot, but they’ll be somewhere close by. Are you planning to bring in cadaver dogs?”
“Most likely, it’ll be a lot easier to do that than to aimlessly amble around and risk overlooking it completely. So, I’ll expand our search perimeter. Your hunches so far have been spot on,” he mumbles.
“Now that I’ve made promises, which I intend to keep, and shared my thoughts with you, Special Agent Patterson, care to tell me where y’all found her?”
“Terrell Forest,” he answers.
And like a lightbulb going off in my head, it suddenly makes sense because they’re tearing out trees and making room to add apartments.
“They accidentally disturbed her gravesite when they started ripping out the trees and excavating the land, didn’t they?” It wasn’t a tip that led to this discovery, it was purely coincidental. Or damn good luck.
“That’d be correct,” he responds. “I’m heading that way now. I’ll drop you a pin of the exact location so you’re not wandering around trying to find it. Not that it’d be hard to see for yourself since we’ve done some digging and expect we’ll be doing more of that once I get there.”
“I’ll head that way once you’ve cleared the area. Until then, I’m going to go through the cameras from the street surveillance and compare the cars leaving to the ones from prior abductions,” I state.
“You better have permission for that, Nova, because if not, we can’t use anything you find in court to use against him,” Patterson reminds me.
“I have permission,” I say, negating his concern.
Or at least, trying to. “The captain sent me the link and login information to their security system. In his words, he’s as interested in bringing this fucker down as we are.
He just doesn’t have the resources and manpower to assign the case to an investigator. ”
Which I call bullshit on.
He has the men and means, they’re just all lazy assholes who want someone else to do the hard work for them and then let them have the glory of the find.
I never take credit for solving crimes and taking down an offender because with what I do, I need to stay as far away from the limelight as I can.
“Or he just doesn’t care. He’s been so flippant with me that I want to rip that hat off his head and smack him in the face with it,” Patterson mutters.
“Let me know when you do that so I can be there to watch,” I snort. “I’ve had the same thoughts when it comes to him. There’s something not right about that motherfucker. I just can’t get a read on his pulse to know what that is.”
“That’s because he’s a goddamn predator that doesn’t have one,” Patterson retorts.
“You think he’s in on it?” I ask.
“Not on this, but he’s in on something. I think he’s fucking dirty, Nova.”
“But there’s nothing we can do to bring that to light without undeniable proof,” I assert, sighing.
“Which is my conundrum. I’ve been trying to catch him being shady or not following the letter of the law, but all I’m managing to unveil is him being a fat, lazy fuck.”
“Which describes his entire precinct in a nutshell,” I reply.
“I’ve caught several of his deputies parked off the side of the road, napping.
One of those times, I was nearly side-swipped by a speeder.
Pissed me the hell off because I was busy saving myself from eating dirt and didn’t get a license plate number. ”
“Which you shouldn’t have had to do considering there was a patrol car there,” Patterson adds. “If he’d been alert while on patrol, he could’ve caught the speeder.”
“Yes. I threatened to sue the city but they made it right by having my bike repaired and my medical bills covered. I didn’t take things further because I didn’t think it’d do any good. The city would’ve buried my case to the bottom of the barrel and I’d never have seen a dime in reimbursement.”
“Small townships get away with too much political bullshit,” Patterson rebuts.
“Citizens no longer come first. It’s why they don’t thrive and are slowly crumbling into ghost towns.
Then they ask for government assistance because they’re losing not only their residents but income from businesses as well. ”
“They forget that taxpayers provide them with their paychecks. If they push people out, there’s no one to add to the town’s funds,” I tack on.
“I’m here. I’ll let you know if we unearth any more bodies, Nova.”
“I’ll keep my phone on me. If you need to bounce any ideas off me, feel free to call, Patterson.”
“Will do,” he says before disconnecting.
It takes an entire week for them to clear the crime scene, and even then Patterson is hesitant about letting me scout the area.
They found three more corpses buried in the general region as the first. Which leaves one still unaccounted for—that’s his biggest concern about letting me traipse through their burial site.
He’s fearful I could compromise things, but what he doesn’t understand is that I’m better trained and more qualified than him and his techs are.
I don’t flaunt that fact in his face because I need him to keep letting me in.
Without that, I’ll be five steps behind them and I need to get in front of this as quickly as I can because if I don’t, another woman will come up missing and I can’t continue living with that on my conscience.
They don’t suspect that Stella is among the bodies found, but soon, she will be disposed of if the killer follows his timeline. I only have a few short weeks to sort this shit out and I feel the weight of the clock as it counts down the minutes.
One clue—that’s all I need so I can solve this and end this fucker’s reign of terror.