Page 50 of Last Girls Alive

“Thank you. That means a lot.” She hadn’t spoken about work with him before, but he seemed genuine. Glancing at her watch, “I better get back so that I’m not late for work.”

“See you soon,” he said.

The decoy and other officer said their quick goodbyes.

Katie hurried back the way they came and made it to the parking lot where her work sedan waited. Loading up Cisco and climbing behind the wheel, she quickly checked her cell phone for texts and messages. There was a text from John in forensics:Have some updates for you—anytime today.

Katie drove out of the parking lot, leaving behind the K9 patrol cars and a couple of SUVs as the training continued. She was so focused on the road and the cases she didn’t see the anonymous hiker wearing dark running pants and hoodie watching her drive away.

Twenty-Three

Thursday 1015 hours

Katie rushed into the forensic lab eager to talk to John. Just before she reached the main exam laboratory, she turned to see McGaven heading back in to their office.

“Hey, you want to join me?” she called after him.

“You have it under control. I’m going to keep organizing searches—taking a closer look at the county workers at Elm Hill.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll update you when I get back.”

“Sounds good,” he said and kept walking down the long hallway to the last office on the right.

Katie heard the door open and shut. It was easy to hear just about anything in the forensics lab due to the extreme quiet. The soft hum of the recirculated air was the only thing audible most of the time.

“Are you coming in, or are you going to just stand there?” said John. It was difficult to say if he was in a good mood or not.

“Oh,” she uttered and then entered the lab. Katie noticed that the work areas had been reorganized to create room to spread out evidence.

“I take it you’ve been keeping busy,” he said.

“Yes, two homicides.”

“That’s quite a work load for the cold-case unit.”

“It seems to work out that way—at least for us.” Katie always had a difficult time holding John’s gaze. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that he was an ex-Navy Seal and seemed to command that type of attention, or if there were some attraction towards him. Either way, she pushed it aside and dismissed it.

“What do you want to hear first?” he asked, cracking a smile.

Katie moved closer to him, near the computer area. She noticed that all the computers had even larger monitors, which made it easier to see evidence in closer detail. “Let’s start with the Harlan case.”

John flicked through some files until he came to a large photo of the right index fingernail. The cotton candy pink was difficult to ignore. “You were correct, the fingernail belongs to the right index finger and there are good chunks of DNA which we will compare when we have Carol Harlan’s DNA.” He looked at Katie for a moment. “What’s bothering you?”

Katie sighed. “So many things…”

John chuckled. “Well, let’s start from the beginning then.”

“Can you tell if the nail was torn because of a struggle or if it was intentionally removed?”

“It was ripped with force, judging by the bits of cuticle still attached. You don’t like that it was just sitting in the dirt beside her—like someone put it there?”

“Yes. It doesn’t make sense—seems a little contrived. Do you have photos of the victim’s hands?”

He switched to another file and did a split screen where you could see the victim’s hands and the torn fingernail.

“See, look at the condition of the other nails. They are broken and dirty with an older version of polish, but the nail by itself looks like it was newly painted.”

“Maybe the killer took the nail at a different time and saved it, but there are signs of the flexor and extensor tendons, which would indicate that it was torn forcefully, leaving behind these pieces.”