All the Pretty Brides Read online

  “Not here. We need more information.”

  Jake knew questions like this would be directed at him from the brass. Last year he’d taken an FBI profiling course at Quantico. Would it offer any insight or help? That remained to be seen, though he certainly could use an edge. His recent promotion to lieutenant would make him the lead on the case. During an election year, the candidates vying for the mayor’s office could be a nuisance as they often put on the pressure to solve cases.

  “I don’t have a clue. We’ll find out when we catch him. But it will never make sense to anyone but the killer.”

  “None of the other victims have been found. He obviously wanted this one found. But why? And is it the same guy?” Louie asked.

  “All good questions, but without the other bodies, we can’t be sure.”

  “I’m only throwing them out there for discussion.” Louie scratched his head.

  Jake was used to Louie voicing his opinions and thoughts out loud. A lot of times it helped find the answers. “Maybe someone came upon him dumping the body and forced him to change his MO.” They had nothing to link the killer’s modus operandi to anything yet. Though deep down, in the pit of his stomach, there was no doubt about it—it had to be the same perpetrator. Nothing else made sense.

  “Maybe he’s tired of not getting the credit for his work.” Jake heard the frustration in his own voice.

  “It’s a good thing she was discovered quickly. With this putrid weather the body would’ve decomposed in no time,” Louie said.

  Every July 6, for the past four years, a young woman had disappeared. Four beautiful young women ready to start their lives, all gone without a trace…until now, with number five. And Louie was right, it was a big question. Why now? What had changed?

  “I hate when it ends this way, but at least now we have something to work with. Maybe she’ll lead us to the other women,” Louie said.

  Always the optimist, Jake thought.

  With a rhythm born from years of partnership, Jake and Louie worked side by side in silence, directing, gathering, and bagging evidence. Together they examined the train tracks in the area where Nadia’s body was found. Jake stood beside the splayed body, eyeing the different ways the murderer could have brought her in without being noticed. If he’d done it himself, he would have parked beneath the underpass.

  This location, covered in empty crack vials, cigarette butts, fast-food containers, cheap wine and liquor bottles, along with used condoms, was a favorite teen hangout. The area around the body had been cleared of debris—staged as if it were a shrine—but to who—the victim? They were probably dealing with an organized killer. Fingernails and hair had been recently washed. Bending down to get closer to the body, he took a sniff. Yep, there went his trace, damn it. The criminals learned how to spoil evidence from television. Why here, why now, kept popping back into his head. The killer had a reason for dumping her where she’d be found fast. What was it? Jake’s stomach churned. Whoever washed the body was familiar with police procedure. Or could it be a cop? He hoped not. The department had had its share of scandals recently. It didn’t need more.

  Disease Haven, he’d dubbed this place years ago. It was bad enough he had a contaminated scene, between the homeless and the emergency response team. It was obvious she was dead. But it was standard procedure to call in the EMT wagon, though when they viewed the scene they should have stayed back. Why didn’t they? Jake wouldn’t be able to get any decent footprints, and the garbage in the area would hinder them further.

  He directed the CSIs to pick up every bit of litter they saw. Told them he’d assign uniforms to help if necessary. He wasn’t taking any chances—didn’t want to miss a piece of important evidence due to laziness. One gum wrapper and maybe he’d be able to nail the suspect. Louie had a couple of officers taking swabs from Neil McMichaels, the railroad safety inspector who’d called in the report after the kids ran into his office to notify him of what they had found. Jake took samples from any of the homeless they could pin down, to eliminate them from the mix. They had to wait for the parents before they could take the kids’ samples.

  * * * *

  After overseeing the collection of evidence, Jake walked back to the body and joined the assistant medical examiner. Louie had already bagged the hands and feet. Doc McKay pronounced the victim dead on scene and made a notation of the time. Once he completed the other necessary tasks, McKay signaled to the morgue drivers. Turning from the corpse, he took off his gloves, rolled them together, then placed them in an evidence bag so as not to contaminate any of his other instruments. Next, he wiped his hands with an alcohol wipe, then swiped the wipe over his tweezers before putting them back into his bag.

  “I heard what you said to your team,” McKay said, his eyes meeting Jake’s before he continued. “It’s one of the reasons I like working with you. You respect the victims.”

  “Thanks, Tim.” Embarrassed, Jake asked, “Do you have an approximate time of death?”

  “No, I don’t even want to guess. With the wild weather and heat we’ve been having it could’ve been last week or a month ago. I’ll give you a heads-up when I’m done posting.”

  Doc McKay stood about five-ten, with thinning hair, and his paunch hung over his belt. He handled the dead with care. On his scenes, Jake only wanted Lang or McKay.

  “Good enough, Doc.” He watched as the morgue assistants loaded up the body for transport.

  * * * *

  He and Louie headed to the west end of town, to an affluent neighborhood and a house lined with cheerful, multicolored flowers dancing along its border. After they delivered their news, it would be a false facade. He hated this part of his job. Cop families knew when another cop knocked on their door the news wouldn’t be good. Civilians stalled, hoping to delay the notification. Today he would dash the hopes of the Carren family and change their lives forever.

  Jake knocked harder than intended. An attractive, petite brunette in her late forties, who resembled the pictures of her missing daughter, answered the door. The welcoming expression dropped off her face when she spied their badges.

  “You found Nadia? Is she okay? Where has she been?” Hope lived in her eyes.

  “Mrs. Carren, is your husband home?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, come in.” She stepped back. Once they were inside, she turned and showed them into the living room. “I’ll get him.” She ran up the staircase located outside the room.

  Mr. Carren walked in, followed by his wife and a young woman Jake thought must be his other daughter. The man towered over his family. Shoulders squared, his face an emotionless mask, his body language told Jake he expected the worst.

  “Officers, my wife said you have news of Nadia.”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Carren, I’m sorry to inform you Nadia’s body was found this morning.”

  Mrs. Carren let out a scream as she collapsed into her husband’s arms. Their daughter sank into the nearest chair, tears pooling in her eyes.

  “Are you sure it’s Nadia?” the daughter asked.

  “Yes. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Useless words, but he had no others. The family’s grief coated him like motor oil on an engine. It reminded him of his own family’s devastation over his younger sister Eva’s death. The bastards of the world preyed on the young and innocent.

  “Can I get you anything?” Louie asked.

  “No, we need time to process this. We prayed—we hoped—we’d find her alive. I knew this was a possibility, but still…I can’t believe it,” Mr. Carren said, never letting go of his wife. “Your children are supposed to outlive you.”

  “Mr. Carren, I understand this is a difficult time, but we have a few questions we need to ask to help us find her killer.”

  Weeping louder, Mrs. Carren curled into her husband. The daughter walked over and wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders, then patted her father’s back. They’re a unit, Jake thought.

  “Ask. I’ll answer what I can,” the daughter said.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name. Are you Nadia’s sister?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, I’m Rori.”

  The girl wiped tears from her face while she tried to gather her composure.

  * * * *

  They asked their questions but got nothing new from the family. Everything they supplied was already in the Missing Persons case file. Rori offered to fax over a list of the phone numbers and addresses of Nadia’s friends. Leaving the family to their grief, Jake and Louie climbed into Jake’s car and headed back to the scene.

  “How’s Brigh?” Louie changed the subject to a lighter matter. A tactic he’d developed over the years to combat other people’s grief.

  “Good. She still shakes when strangers come to the door. It’s something I’ve learned to live with,” Jake said.

  “Are she and Mia getting along?”

  “Yep. Want to grab lunch before I drop you back at your car?” They both needed a break after the emotional scene with the Carrens.

  “That sounds good. Where do you want to eat?”

  “You pick it today.”

  “Excellent, then let’s go to the chicken place on West Main Street.”

  “You have such childish tastes,” Jake said.

  “Sophia doesn’t allow fried foods at home. Lunch is the only time I can sneak them.”

  “If Sophia was cooking for me every day, I’d brown-bag it.”

  “You’d get tired of good food all the time, too.”

  * * * *

  After lunch, Jake dropped Louie at his car. “I want to process a couple of things before we interview the fiancé.”

  “I have one stop to make, then I’ll meet you back here,” Louie said, staring down at his cell phone and frowning.

  “Something wrong?”

  Louie walked away without responding.

  Odd, Jake thought.

  Chapter 2

  Back at the station, Jake typed his notes into his computer. After printing the documents, he placed a copy in the murder book. His head snapped up when someone knocked on his door. Expecting Louie, he instead saw Detective Kirk Brown and had to switch his mind-set.

  “Yes, Kirk?”

  “I heard you found the missing girl. Is she tied to the others?” Brown asked.

  “It seems to be.”

  “Are you going to form a task force?”

  “It’s too early for that. Why?”

  “I want in, if you do. I knew the first girl, Lizzy.”

  “Elizabeth Bartholomew?”

  “Yes, my youngest sister went to school with her.”

  “I’ll consider it, Kirk, after I weigh the pros and cons. When you go back to your desk, send Romanelli in.”

  “He’s not back from lunch yet.”

  Jake frowned at Brown. “Thanks.”

  Something was definitely up with Louie. It wasn’t like him to disappear. Jake reached for his cell phone to give him a call, then thought better of it.

  I’ll give him another twenty minutes before I head out to interview the fiancé alone.

  * * * *

  Jake reread the file on Nadia Carren. He searched for any information the original case detectives of the Missing Persons department might’ve overlooked. He found none. The case detectives had done their jobs. When the third woman went missing, that’s when they’d made the connection to the first two victims. Elizabeth Bartholomew’s file mirrored Nadia’s, as did the Baudlion, Roberts, and Greene files. Jake started a spreadsheet. On one side he listed what the women had in common and on the other side their differences. He glanced up when there was another knock on his door.

  “I heard you wanted to see me,” Louie said, going directly to the coffee machine.

  “Where have you been?”

  “I had something to take care of,” Louie said. “What’s up?”

  Okay, he doesn’t want to talk. He pulls information from everyone else, but rarely offers anything about his life. I’ll find out what’s up in the car.

  “Let’s go interview Donny Donahue. See what light he can shed on his fiancée’s demise.”

  “What were you doing?”

  “I’m culling facts from all their files to see what they had in common. I started a spreadsheet.”

  “I’ll work on that.”

  “You want to do it together at my house tonight?” Say no. I promised Mia I wouldn’t work tonight.

  “I can’t. I’m on kid duty.”

  Quirking his brow at the tone of Louie’s voice, he said, “Close the door.” Jake stood, and watched Louie push his door shut. “Spill.”

  “There’s nothing to spill. Sophia’s out tonight.”

  And you’re not happy about that. “She got something hot going on?” Jake joked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it…really. Let’s move on.”

  “Okay, you do the spreadsheet. Be ready, I want to leave within five minutes to interview Donahue.”

  “Ten-four.”

  Jake watched him leave his office, then put a call in to Sophia. “Hey, Sophia, it’s Jake.”

  “This is a surprise. What’s up?”

  “I haven’t spoken to you in a while, thought I’d call to say hello.”

  “Cut the baloney, we’ve been friends too long. What has Louie said to you?”

  “Nothing, that’s why I’m calling. What bug crawled up his ass?”

  “Jake, no cursing. If he isn’t speaking to you about it, I can’t either. Please respect his boundaries.”

  Well, Christ. What now? “Okay, but—

  “Thanks for being there. We’ll call if either one of us needs you.”

  “No problem.” He hung up and stared at his phone as if it had exploded in his hand before he headed to Louie’s desk.

  * * * *

  Jake drove with the window open. Louie blasted the air conditioner, pointing the vents at himself. At Donahue’s place of business they found he had left abruptly after receiving a phone call. Jake figured one of the Carrens must’ve called him. Donny’s boss had no idea when he’d return to work.

  “The kid’s broken up, Lieutenant. He never figured it would end this way.”

  “Thanks. You got his home address? It would save us some time.”

  The boss gave it to them, but not without a warning. “You won’t get anything from him today, he’s a mess.”

  Jake climbed into the car, waited for Louie to do the same, and entered Donahue’s address into his GPS. Lost in his own thoughts, he missed what Louie said.

  “What?”

  “I said, this case sucks big time. Here they were planning their future—marriage, kids, all the rest of it—and now he’s burying the girl.”

  “Yeah, life sucks.”

  * * * *

  He pulled up in front of a modest yellow house, lined with rosebushes still in bloom. The last rose of summer, he thought. They walked to the front door. It opened before Jake could knock.

  “You’re the police? Mike called from work,” Donny said.

  “We need to speak to you.” Jake held out his badge. Louie did the same.

  “I figured. Come in.”

  As he stepped in, Jake noted the red, puffy eyes, the runny nose and the hunched shoulders—Donny’s world had been destroyed. With Nadia only missing there was still hope. Now with the body found, the final chapter had been written.

  “Mr. Donahue, we have some questions.”

  A woman walked into the living room carrying a tray of tea and scones. She placed it on the coffee table then sat down next to Donahue and took his left hand in both of hers. Based on age, he assumed her to be Donahue’s mother.

  “I’m Lieutenant Carrington and this is Sergeant Romanelli. We’re in charge of Nadia’s case.” Jake continued, “Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt Nadia?”

  “No, damn it. She was good…shy. She never hurt anyone,” Donahue said.

  “I’m sorry to put you through this, Donny, but we need to ask. We have to eliminate anyone who knew the victim.”

  “The victim’s name is Nadia…Nadia Carren,” Donny said through clenched teeth.

  “Donny, Nadia’s ours now, and we won’t forget who she is. We’ll work until we can give her justice. Understood?”

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “Did you or Nadia have any problems with friends or anyone at work?”

  “No.”

  “Did either one of you make any new friends, individuals or couples, as the wedding drew near?”

  “No. Well, we did meet a new couple at the pre-Cana conference. We went out to dinner with them after one of the sessions. We’ve been too busy to do it again, what with the wedding plans, and we were trying to hold down expenses. We didn’t go out much after that. I don’t think Nadia stayed in touch.”

  “What were their names?” Louie asked.

  “Nadia kept track of things like that. The guy’s name was Jim. No, Tom. Sorry, I’m not sure.”

  “Where was the conference held? We can get their names from the priest.”

  “At St. Pete’s church.”

  “Is there anything else, Donny?”

  “No.”

  “Did any of your buddies joke how you didn’t deserve Nadia?”

  “Steve told me she was too good for me… No, man…he wouldn’t hurt her. You’re looking in the wrong direction if that’s where you’re heading.” Donny got up and paced the room.

  “We have to investigate everyone who knew her, Donny.” Jake turned to the mother. “Mrs. Donahue, do you have anything to add?”

  “No. We’re heartbroken. Nadia was a lovely young woman. I couldn’t wait until she was officially in our family.” She left the room, crying.

  “One last question, Donny. Where were you on the night of Nadia’s disappearance?”