Page 82 of Our Daughter's Bones

“As a runaway? Not a missing juvenile?”

“Yeah, because of her history.”

It was a case that hadn’t stood out to her, even if she had heard about it in passing. Lakemore dealt with troubled youth and teenage runaways all too often. She’d already checked what cases she’d been working on at the time: a homeless man found dead in the park and a housewife beaten to death. “Did anyone tell you about this?”

He pondered, no doubt trying to remember what he’d been working on. “Come to think of it, Aaron mentioned a runaway had been found dead outside Lakemore, so it wasn’t their jurisdiction anymore. Guess he was talking about Daphne.”

Mackenzie opened the autopsy reports. The screen flooded with forensic pictures of Daphne washed up on the shore of the Saluktuk River. Her skin was covered in bruises and scrapes, but the coroner had concluded that most of them were post-mortem, resulting from being carried by the rough tides of the river. Cause of death was asphyxiation, based on the fractures found in the hyoid bone. Vaginal lacerations, bite marks on breasts, and bruises on thighs indicated rape and sexual assault. The semen had degraded, and they never found any match for the bite marks. Based on the tides, they had tried to estimate where the body was thrown in the river. But they were unable to narrow down the point of entry. It could have been anywhere in Pierce County or Thurston County.

“It says she was held captive, based on the bondage marks on her wrists,” Nick said.

She scrolled down the page and froze. Blood drained from her face.

“Look.”

The number 916 was branded on her thigh. The coroner concluded that the mark was put on her skin ante-mortem using fireplace pokers.

What did that number mean? It now connected three girls.

“Think Erica was branded?”

“Probably.” Nick winced at the picture. “She wasn’t found fresh. Any branding is gone, along with her skin. But she wasn’t held captive either. So, maybe not?”

“Erica had left the house willingly, probably to meet Abby. Maybe ‘916’ was watching her, because of the cocktail napkin found in the room. He followed her. She fought too hard and, in the struggle, he killed her earlier than he had planned to.”

“Or he held her captive but she wasn’t bound as tightly, leaving no micro-fractures. Which is why she was able to escape.”

“But she was found a little over a mile away. Was she being held that close to home?”

“Possible but unlikely,” Nick conceded. “Usually, victims are taken far away from familiar surroundings.”

“What if she went someplace?” Mackenzie suggested. “What if that cocktail napkin came from there?”

“She didn’t go anywhere unusual based on her credit card statements and family and friends’ accounts. No significant amount of time has been unaccounted for. No suspicious behavior.”

“Did they close Daphne’s case?”

The police had arrested a homeless man, Garrett Ward, after they discovered her necklace on him. He claimed that he found it on the shore, but he was incoherent and mentally unstable. They couldn’t match the bite marks either but stated that his excessive use of methamphetamines resulted in tooth decay and hence the match was “inconclusive.”

He had died in prison sixteen months ago, awaiting trial.

She pulled up his picture. He was sixty years old with a silver-gray beard that started just below his eyes and obscured his mouth.

“Think this mentally unstable old man raped and killed that girl?” she asked Nick.

“And came back to life to kill Erica and abduct Abby?”

“They rushed to close this case.” She gritted her teeth. “I can’t believe they pinned it on some deranged man to wash their hands of her, saying meth use interfered with forensic dentistry.”

Nick frowned at the computer and skimmed through the files again. “We submitted information of literally one page to Tacoma PD.”

“What?”

He was right. All Lakemore PD provided Tacoma PD was a basic background check on Daphne—her address, the social worker and foster parents’ contact information, and her brief history of running away. The information was biased. It obviously colored the perception of Daphne to the Tacoma PD.

“Aaron was investigating. Did he not find anything? He must have had witness statements from that night, but that wasn’t shared,” Mackenzie said. “Who signed this off?”

Nick leaned back and linked his fingers behind his head. “Lieutenant Peck.”