Page 3 of The Sinners Touch

He squatted and used his penlight to push her hair away from her face. She was pretty, like the other women. Her blonde hair was stringy, matted with blood. Her already pale face had gone gray and ashen. Several bruises marred her beauty, deep black and purple ones, especially around her jawline, like he’d gripped her chin and forced her to…he broke off that train of thought. Best not to let himself think of that. It would only serve to feed his rage.

“Pauley!” He looked over his shoulder at the medical examiner technician. The man was speaking with one of the younger officers while he unloaded his gear from the ME van. When he heard his name, he looked up, and Kade waved him over. He had an idea.

“Agent Kincaid.” His high, nasally voice always irritated Kade, but he kept that to himself. No point in upsetting the guy over something he couldn’t help. “Something you need?”

“I was thinking. Do you think we can get prints off the body?”

“The first thing we do is check the body for physical evidence. Then it’s dusted for prints. This guy is meticulous, though. He showers them before he dumps them. We haven’t found a scrap of physical evidence aside from traces of soap that can be bought at millions of stores nationwide.”

“I do read the reports, Pauley.” He shone his penlight on the deep, deep bruises around her chin and mouth. “See here? It looks like finger marks. I was wondering, is it possible to lift fingerprint patterns off the indentions left in the bruises?”

Pauley frowned, his brown eyes narrowing, and he squatted beside Kade. “No. Fingerprints are basically a series of ridges that can be detected because of the oil on a person’s fingertips that allows a print to be left behind. A bruise is a contusion on the skin, which is supple due to blood flow. It doesn’t allow for that type of imprinting. Now, if they were inflicted after she died, it might be a possibility because the skin loses its elasticity and the blood doesn’t flow, allowing it to pool and retain indentions, possibly even as slight as a fingerprint indention.”

“But not here.”

“No, I don’t think so. He’s too smart, Agent. There’s no reason to do something to cause a bruise after she’s dead.” Pauley stood, his expression almost pained. “I’ll do a deep tissue scan just to be thorough. It’s not something we typically do. If he gripped her too tight at any point after her death, it might have left an impression behind.”

There went one idea out the window. Pauley looked too doubtful, and he’d know if it were possible or not. He’d been at this for several years. The man might look like a twenty-year-old, but he had to be in his early thirties or thereabouts. Kade expressed doubts about someone so young handling some aspects of the case when they’d first met, but Bailey only grinnedand informed him the lad had been with the ME’s office for over ten years.

“Has anyone done the death notification for her parents yet?” Pity mingled with his growing rage as he memorized every detail of her face. She did not deserve what happened to her, and it was because Kade couldn’t find a pattern. How many more would die because of his inability to see the missing link?

“Yes. The captain sent Rogers and his new partner over there.” Bailey approached slowly, his dark tennis shoes blending into the dirty concrete beside the dumpster. Rank odors tickled Kade’s nose, and he scrunched it slightly. “I thought we could give them tonight to get over the shock and then go see them first thing in the morning.”

Kade would have preferred to do it tonight, but showing up on a grieving parent’s doorstep with liquor on his breath wouldn’t do them any favors. He needed them to trust him, and whiskey breath didn’t inspire confidence.

“Oh, there’s one other thing you should know. He left a witness behind.”

Kade’s head snapped around at the casual statement. “Witness?”

“Two, actually. He dumped the body while they were out here on a break.” Bailey couldn’t suppress his grin anymore. “We caught a break.”

Witnesses? He stood and took several deep breaths, refusing to let his expectations rise. Witnesses were notoriously unreliable. Even though they both might have seen the unsub, their descriptions could be vastly different. Still, Bailey was right. They’d finally caught a break.

“Where are they?” Whiskey breath or not, he needed to talk to them now. While their memories were fresh.

“Inside. One got a good look at our perp, and I’ve already sent down for a sketch artist to meet us here. I want to try toget an accurate sketch before she forgets or starts blurring her memories with what she’s seen or heard.”

“Let’s go have a chat with our witnesses.”

“You don’t want a preliminary from the ME first? I see him arriving now.”

“No. We’ll talk to him when we finish inside if he’s still here. Otherwise, we’ll swing by in the morning before we talk to the girl’s parents. Our priority right now is to interview the witnesses.”

“We’re a little concerned.” Bailey fell into step beside him as they walked toward the back entrance of the bar. “The one didn’t just see him. He saw her too. A good, long look at her. She’s scared.”

She had every right to be if he saw her and knew she worked here. “We’ll need to get her police protection.” He wasn’t about to lose another woman to this depraved madman.

“I’ve already got a call in to the captain about that.”

“We’ll need to check all the video surveillance we can find. Traffic cams, local stores and restaurants. Hell, we might as well check ATM cams too. If he left a witness, he might stick around in the crowd, waiting to follow her home.”

“I thought about that. I’ve already got uniforms out on the hunt for potential surveillance cams. Most of the tapes we won’t get until the owners or opening staff arrive in the morning. It’s after three a.m. now. Our tech department is pulling footage from the traffic cams as we speak, though.”

Kade rubbed a hand across his eyes as they entered the kitchen. The heat hit him in the face as soon as they stepped across the threshold. The place was busy. They served a full menu until closing, and while the kitchen was shut down and they were in the middle of cleaning up, the heat remained.

He followed Bailey into the bar, barely paying attention to his surroundings, his mind focused on one fact. Finally, the unsubhad made a mistake. After all these months, he’d made a mistake and left a witness behind. Not that the unsub had much choice, but it was breaks like these that solved cases.

Bailey came to a stop in front of him, bringing his attention back to his surroundings. O’Grady’s was an Irish pub, and it looked it with the rich mahogany wood and the back bar lit up to showcase the premium spirits. A man was presently wiping down the bar while another woman stocked glasses for the next shift. The patrons had been replaced with uniformed officers.

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