Read Online Bleeding Through: A Rachel Goddard Mystery (Rachel Goddard Mysteries) by Sandra Parshall - Free Book Online
Authors: Sandra Parshall
Tags: Mystery & Detective
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the outs with,” Fagan said. “Other students, professors, friends—everybody seemed to love the girl. Did somebody here have a problem with her?”
Tom nodded. He told Fagan about the Hadley family’s quarrel with Shelley over her work on Vance Lankford’s behalf.
“That’s a possibility,” Fagan conceded. “But if she was abducted and murdered in Fairfax County, her killer’s most likely walking around there right now, not down here.”
“I want to hear what you’ve got on her boyfriend, teachers, school friends.”
“Yeah, I’ll fill you in.” Fagan gazed absently into space as he tapped an index finger on the wooden arm of his chair. “Why bring her body out here? That’s what puzzles me.”
“I don’t know, but it makes me think the killer’s familiar with this area. Either came from Mason County or still lives here. But why would he go out of his way to bring his crime so close to home? Why not leave her where she died, or dump her somewhere far away, so he couldn’t be connected to it?”
“People who do this kind of thing, they don’t think rationally,” Fagan said. “Their behavior’s got its own logic.”
“I realize that.” Tom stifled his irritation at the other man’s instructive tone. “But he had the presence of mind to either kill her and hide her body for a month or keep her captive for all that time. I think we’re dealing with somebody who’s organized and gives some thought to what he’s doing.”
“Maybe he got rid of her just because he needed room in his fridge for his next victim.”
“Are you’re suggesting this is a serial killer?” Tom asked. “ What do you base that on? ”
Fagan waved a hand as if trying to erase what he’d said. “Joke, joke. ”
Not a funny one, Tom thought, if you happened to have known the girl when she was alive and well. “There must be a reason why her body was brought here.”
“You think the killer’s sending us a message?” Fagan delivered the question with a heavy dose of condescension. “You know how rare that kind of thing is?”
Tom kept his own voice level and neutral. “It wouldn’t have to be a message to the police. All I know is that she was brought back to her home county, and she wasn’t buried. Whoever put her there knew she’d be found. We can’t even be sure she was abducted and killed in Fairfax County. She could’ve gone somewhere with the killer voluntarily, if it was somebody she knew and wasn’t afraid of. After she left the meeting with the innocence project team that night, she never got back in her car, did she?”
“No,” Fagan said. “It was still parked in the lot, about a hundred feet from the door of the building. She probably never made it back to her car, but we didn’t find any signs of a struggle.”
“No witnesses?”
“No. The office is in a strip mall with small shops and a café. There were a few people around at the time, but we couldn’t turn up a single witness who remembered seeing the girl. Whatever happened, it was outside the range of the security camera over the door, and it went down quietly.” Fagan paused. “I believe she was murdered in Fairfax County, but I’ll stick around here for a while and talk to people who knew her, see if I can pick up any useful information.”
“Sure,” Tom said. “You’ll get more cooperation if you go with me, not alone.”
Fagan didn’t respond to that. “I want to take a look at where you found her. What kind of physical evidence did you pick up at the site?”
“Just a lot of trash, and I doubt any of it relates to the crime, but the state lab’s going over all of it. Everything the crime scene guy found and everything the kids collected. The lab’s got the mattress too.”
“Well,” Fagan said, rising. “Take me out there, will you?”
Tom was tempted to say he had more pressing things to do and send Fagan out with another deputy, but he thought better of it. He’d reached a conclusion that he
Tom nodded. He told Fagan about the Hadley family’s quarrel with Shelley over her work on Vance Lankford’s behalf.
“That’s a possibility,” Fagan conceded. “But if she was abducted and murdered in Fairfax County, her killer’s most likely walking around there right now, not down here.”
“I want to hear what you’ve got on her boyfriend, teachers, school friends.”
“Yeah, I’ll fill you in.” Fagan gazed absently into space as he tapped an index finger on the wooden arm of his chair. “Why bring her body out here? That’s what puzzles me.”
“I don’t know, but it makes me think the killer’s familiar with this area. Either came from Mason County or still lives here. But why would he go out of his way to bring his crime so close to home? Why not leave her where she died, or dump her somewhere far away, so he couldn’t be connected to it?”
“People who do this kind of thing, they don’t think rationally,” Fagan said. “Their behavior’s got its own logic.”
“I realize that.” Tom stifled his irritation at the other man’s instructive tone. “But he had the presence of mind to either kill her and hide her body for a month or keep her captive for all that time. I think we’re dealing with somebody who’s organized and gives some thought to what he’s doing.”
“Maybe he got rid of her just because he needed room in his fridge for his next victim.”
“Are you’re suggesting this is a serial killer?” Tom asked. “ What do you base that on? ”
Fagan waved a hand as if trying to erase what he’d said. “Joke, joke. ”
Not a funny one, Tom thought, if you happened to have known the girl when she was alive and well. “There must be a reason why her body was brought here.”
“You think the killer’s sending us a message?” Fagan delivered the question with a heavy dose of condescension. “You know how rare that kind of thing is?”
Tom kept his own voice level and neutral. “It wouldn’t have to be a message to the police. All I know is that she was brought back to her home county, and she wasn’t buried. Whoever put her there knew she’d be found. We can’t even be sure she was abducted and killed in Fairfax County. She could’ve gone somewhere with the killer voluntarily, if it was somebody she knew and wasn’t afraid of. After she left the meeting with the innocence project team that night, she never got back in her car, did she?”
“No,” Fagan said. “It was still parked in the lot, about a hundred feet from the door of the building. She probably never made it back to her car, but we didn’t find any signs of a struggle.”
“No witnesses?”
“No. The office is in a strip mall with small shops and a café. There were a few people around at the time, but we couldn’t turn up a single witness who remembered seeing the girl. Whatever happened, it was outside the range of the security camera over the door, and it went down quietly.” Fagan paused. “I believe she was murdered in Fairfax County, but I’ll stick around here for a while and talk to people who knew her, see if I can pick up any useful information.”
“Sure,” Tom said. “You’ll get more cooperation if you go with me, not alone.”
Fagan didn’t respond to that. “I want to take a look at where you found her. What kind of physical evidence did you pick up at the site?”
“Just a lot of trash, and I doubt any of it relates to the crime, but the state lab’s going over all of it. Everything the crime scene guy found and everything the kids collected. The lab’s got the mattress too.”
“Well,” Fagan said, rising. “Take me out there, will you?”
Tom was tempted to say he had more pressing things to do and send Fagan out with another deputy, but he thought better of it. He’d reached a conclusion that he
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