Murder Stalks Read Free Page B

bruises.”
Rex pointed to the victim’s upper body.
    “ Which ones? The ones on
her ribs or those around her neck? Her legs are fairly beat up
too.” Tony swiped a hand down his face, pulling harshly at his
skin.
    “ He burned her.” Rex’s
voice was tight.
    “ You think that’s what
happened to her belly?” Tony asked.
    Sekorski pointed to the marks. “It’s recent
damage. Doesn’t look like a cigarette, maybe a heated piece of
metal.”
    Tony wanted to kick something, but didn’t.
Violence for violence’s sake had made him want to be a cop, but
every time he saw the result of violence, it ripped a piece of his
heart out. Before things went south in his marriage, it was a
little easier to work a murder scene, but since Marissa had walked
out, his life had been turned to hell. His wife blamed him, and she
was right. He had been wrong. Add that to the guilt over losing
Ashley, and he was fucked. He should have been there for his
daughter that weekend. Instead, he had spent the time at work.
Hell, he should have been there for Marissa too, but something
urgent was always happening.
    This killer had damaged the victim and made
her into a thing, but Tony knew someone had loved this woman and
thought of her as precious.
    He covered his mouth with his left hand,
stifling the curses that came to mind, while obscuring a bit of the
smell that emanated from the body on the floor. The gesture was
hopeless. Once the scent of death settled in his nostrils, he knew
only time would take it away, usually a long time.
     
    ****
     
    The thick brown drapes blocked the bright
sunlight, but not the heat. Temperatures hovered in the
mid-nineties, and there was no hope of relief in sight. Sweat
beaded on his forehead and pooled under his arms.
    Doctor Sekorski flipped off one of the
high-powered bulbs. “We’re not gonna get much. She’s clean.”
    “ There has to be
something. Unless David Copperfield took up murder for his next
act, there has to be a fiber or hair shaft somewhere in this
apartment. Hell, in this heat, he would have dripped sweat on the
victim.” Tony shook his head, not wanting to believe that Sekorski
could be right. “How could this guy have done this so
cleanly?”
    “ Once I get her back to
the lab I’ll have a better idea on the trace evidence. But
honestly, it doesn’t look good. Take a look at the rug.”
    “ What about it? It’s tan,
cheap, probably the same stuff from when Marissa and I lived in
this complex.”
    “ Those marks, see them?
Look more closely. Someone vacuumed recently. Then look here.”
Sekorski focused the other light on the victim’s legs. “Those
bruises, what do they look like to you?”
    “ I don’t know.”
    Sekorski pointed to a long bruise on the
vic’s upper right thigh. “That looks like a vacuum wand to me. I’ll
match it up once we get back to the lab.”
    “ I’ll go search for a
vacuum.” Rex volunteered and left the bedroom.
    Tony clenched his fists and bit his tongue.
He wouldn’t blow his anger on his team. It might spark a fire under
his colleagues, but experience taught him that kind of fire burned
up quickly in police officers. He wanted his team committed to
finding this killer, not committed to looking for a way to escape
his wrath. Finally he said, “Find something to work with. Do we
have a name yet?”

Chapter 3
     
    Rex came back into the bedroom, a frown
furrowing his brow. “Why don’t these dudes do their killing in
December, when it’s cold? By the way, the vic is Angela Longfellow,
twenty-one. She’s got a different address on her driver’s license.
Found her purse in the closet, but no vacuum.”
    “ Search for mail,
something with her name and this address. I want to know how long
she lived here. I want to know if she was enrolled in classes. Was
this her first or last semester. And I want to know if she was
planning on moving soon.”
    Tony turned his attention to the double bed.
The covers were gone, only the white mattress