Page 123 of Girl Between

The ambitious NOPD officer called shotgun as soon as assignments were made, leaving Dana to ride in the back with two other agents. George was in the vehicle behind them with three more BAU agents.

Dana watched the glowing dawn light paint the morning sky like a watercolor. Yellow, to peach, to blue—pushing the dark blanket of stars away until night was only a distant memory.

For Dana it remained much too vivid.

She turned to look back at the SUV behind them, wondering if George had cooled off yet.

She’d pushed him too far with Landry. She saw that now.

It wasn’t just the way he’d snapped at her at the crime scene. Dana had expected that after forcing him to confront Landry. But when George bit Lena’s head off at the coroner’s office, she knew things were going to get worse before they got better.

This case was getting to George.

That wasn’t unusual, but his growing temper was. He’d kicked the trash can in Lena’s exam room so hard he’d left a dent, not to mention scattered medical waste. “Somebody clean that up,” was all he’d muttered before making his exit.

Dana could still hear Lena’s shattered voice. “I’m trying,” she whispered.

“I know,” Dana assured her. “So does George. He just can’t see that right now.”

“I can start again,” she’d suggested.

“Lena, you’ve been over these bodies twice already. If there was something to find, you would’ve,” Neville had said.

“He’s right,” Dana added. “Get some rest. Come back to it in a few hours.”

Dana let the memory fade as she continued to watch the scenery around her awaken. She didn’t know whether to admire or fear theway the world continued to trudge forward. Shouldn’t tragedies earn a brief concession?

Two lives had been snuffed out last night. Yet the morning dew washed the world anew, ready to begin again.

Dana understood why George was so agitated. The warrants had come through, but they hadn’t managed to gather any new information from the crime scene or the medical examinations. They had two more white females, in their mid-twenties missing organs and blood. No IDs. No trace left behind by the unsub. The victims had been scrubbed clean.Surgically clean.

Dana rolled the window up and flipped through Lena’s report even though she’d been through it a dozen times already. Both victims were found wearing white dresses and masks.

Like the first two Casquette Girls.

Both victims bore ligature marks on their wrists and ankles.

They’d been bound.

Both showed signs of atrophy.

Wherever they were being held, they’d been there a while.

Both victims were missing livers and kidneys. One of them was missing lungs.

Dana mentally cataloged all the missing organs on the victims thus far. It felt like she was arranging a morbid takeout menu.

“Shit!” The thought hit her like a bolt of lightning, zapping away the cobwebs in her sleep-deprived mind. “That’s what’s been bothering me!”

“What?” LaSalle asked, eyeing her in the rearview.

“The most recent victims are white women in their twenties. What if the unsub was targeting them because they were more likely to be a match organ-wise? I know we’ve talked black market organs before, but what if that’s what’s driving this thing?” Dana asked.

“We’ve been over that,” said LaSalle. “That market exists on the dark web. Our wunderkinds are working on tracking it, but it’s a vast world of mischief, right boys?” LaSalle asked the two agents glued to their laptops beside Dana.

“Yes, but what if our unsub started local?” Dana’s words werecoming quickly now. “Say it’s Monroe. He was a volunteer EMS. Probably had access to medical records, hospitals. It wouldn’t be that hard to figure out who was on the transplant list.”

“Then what? He went out snatching bodies and selling organs? Don’t transplants need to be from a relative or at least have the same blood type?” LaSalle questioned.