Read Online The Watcher by Jo Robertson - Free Book Online

The chloroform, for God’s sake.”
    “No.”
    “You gotta give me more than unaccounted-for panties, Myers.” Slater shook his head. “I don’t see that some missing underwear is a viable link.”
    But more important, he thought, what started her looking for a case like this anyway, with such broad parameters? A case way outside her jurisdiction? And if she were correct, what connection could there possibly be between two teenage girls murdered, possibly murdered he amended mentally, in the same county, in a nearly twenty-year span of time?
    “It’s true that a missing article of the same type of clothing isn’t enough of a similarity,” Myers said. “It isn’t uncommon for a killer to remove his victim’s underwear, but – ”
    “But what?”
    “The killings occurred here. In Bigler County. Doesn’t that have to mean something?”
    Slater shrugged. “It’s a wild card considering the length of time between the two events and taking in the evidence as a whole. Hell, it’s probably no more than random coincidence.”
    At the stubborn look on Myers’ face, Slater added, “What else? There’s more, right? You saw something during the autopsy.”
    Myers stood and paced the room, her fingers interlocked behind her back. “I didn’t recognize it at first. It didn’t mean anything to me when I saw it in the report.”
    He couldn’t keep the impatience from his voice. “What are you talking about?”
    “The autopsy report for the Stuckey girl mentions some kind of scrap on her inner thigh.” She waved toward the manila folder lying on the desk in front of Slater. “I didn’t think anything of it until I saw the mark on the Johnston girl.”
    “The sideways eight?”
    She nodded. “In Mary Stuckey’s case, everyone assumed it was caused by battering from the water.”
    Slater flipped the file open and pulled out the medical examiner’s report on Mary Stuckey. “And now?”
    “Now I think it’s the infinity sign, altered by water and insect deterioration.”
    Slater rubbed his jaw. “All right,” he conceded. “I can run this by the Sheriff. See if it’s something he wants to take a look at. Marconi’s been in the department since the seventies. And he’s in his office right now.”
    “No!” The look on Myers’ face broadcast pure alarm.
    “No?” Slater lifted his eyebrows. “What else aren’t you telling me, Doc?”
    “I just think – I think we should keep this between ourselves for the time being.”
    “You don’t think the rest of the team should know.” He framed the words as a statement, not a question. He damn well wasn’t used to keeping his team in the dark on their cases.
    “If the Stuckey girl’s death wasn’t accidental, if it was murder, then maybe we’re talking about a twenty-year-old cover up.” At the look on his face, she quickly added, “At the least, incompetence.”
    Slater glowered at her. “Hell, Myers, you do like to stir up a storm.”
    He shook his head in disgust and stomped back to his desk, leaving the case folder behind. He needed to get away from her before he let loose his irritation. Why should he trust Myers? She hadn’t proved herself as a law enforcement officer, hell, hadn’t even proved her competence as a doctor, forensic or medical. And there was something about her that grated him, even while he was grudgingly fascinated by it.
    Entitlement, he realized. She exuded an air of assurance that everyone would trust her and do her bidding without question.
    What she proposed was preposterous, of course. He’d known the men in the sheriff’s office, some of them, for the whole ten years he’d been here. They were like a second family, and Marconi, well, maybe he wasn’t the best sheriff or the smartest investigator, but to suggest the man would deliberately sabotage a case? How could he believe any one of them was involved in covering up the murder of a teenage girl? It was nuts.
    He threw himself into his chair, linked his fingers