Page 101 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

George’s head was spinning as Dana unspooled her theory. They were back at the precinct, flipping through the ME photos of the victims now linked to the Casquette Girls case in chronological order.

“See,” Dana explained. “The earlier victims didn’t have autopsies performed.”

“Yeah,” George argued. “There was no need. Look at the mutilation. COD was evident. Severe blood loss, severed organs, butchered body parts. Take your pick,” he said, referring to the charts.

“Yes, but from what? There was no car accident or anything cited. A routine autopsy should’ve been performed.”

“Okay, so protocol wasn’t followed. It was a long time ago. Bringing that up now is only going to put the department under review.”

“Not the department,” Dana said. “One person. Look at who signed off on each one of these ‘ruled accidental’ deaths.”

George stared at Dr. Richard Landry’s signature.

He scratched his head, knowing it would be impossible and unethical to ignore the glaring pattern Dana had uncovered, no matter how much respect he had for the man.

“I’ll question him about it. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There could be a simple explanation. ”

Dana was already moving on. “That’s not the only thing.” She pointed to the other initials on each report. These are from the EMS team that recovered the bodies. Look familiar?” She flipped through each report, pointing to the same set of initials each time.

“Look,” LaSalle said, passing George a copy of the newspaper clipping with a photograph of two men. One, a tall Latino, the other a short Caucasian. They stood in front of an ambulance, both wearing EMS uniforms.

George read the caption beneath the photo. “Luis Fontera and VIGOR trainee Levi Monroe.”

“Wait,” said Dana, leaning in to get a better look. “I know him.” She pointed to Monroe. “The EMS at Metairie Cemetery.”

George looked closer, frustration unleashing a string of swears when he realized Dana was right. Monroe was there. “I can’t believe I missed that.”

“We didn’t know who we were looking for yet,” Dana reminded him.

“Killers often insert themselves into the scene of the crime,” LaSalle added. “We need to recheck the CCTV footage to see if he was at any of the other crime scenes.”

George nodded, handing the newspaper clipping back. “Give this to Creed and have his team recheck the footage.”

LaSalle nodded, eager to pursue the new lead.

George frowned, feeling the weight of the situation pressing down on him. He knew Dana was right. Ignoring the signs would mean taking a chance that more innocent lives might be lost. And that was something he couldn't allow.

“These men match the description from Taurant,” Dana pressed. She pointed to Fontera. “He was dating one of our victims. Jasmine Baker.”

“Okay,” George said. “Let’s get Taurant down here. We need a positive ID on record.”

“Already on it,” Dana replied. “Taurant is on his way in.”

“Start a full work up on Fontera and Monroe,” George ordered. “I want priors, last knowns, everything. If we get a positive from Taurant we need to be able to move on this, stat.”

“What about Landry?” Dana pushed.

George swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth. “I’ll handle Landry.”