Page 29 of Pretty Broken Dolls

Cisco growled.

“It’s okay,” she said to the dog.

Katie and McGaven headed to the door.

“There’s more to the investigations that you don’t know. At least, not yet.”

Katie sighed as her patience waned. “What is it?”

Campbell leaned against the desk. “Hear me out.”

Katie waited.

“We have been able to find a link between all the victims. It was actually accidental and one of the junior detectives stumbled on it. It seems that all three victims were in the military for a short time. Even though they were all different ages, they have one thing in common.”

“Being a homicide victim.” Katie didn’t hide her cynicism.

Campbell ignored her crass comment. “No, they were all part of the K9 military training program.” He gestured to Cisco. “There were a total of eight women in the program.”

“Are you sure?” she said slowly. Feeling a rush of heat and a slight prickle up her arms and down her spine, she steadied herself. She had never thought she would have something in common with a homicide victim, much less these three victims. It changed her outlook and now she wanted to solve the crimes more than ever.

“Positive.”

Katie paused, looking back at the crime scene photographs.

“Were they all handlers?”

“Two were handlers like you—Nancy Day and Gwen Sanderson. Jeanine Trenton was a kennel manager and dog trainer.”

Katie moved closer to the wall and took a longer look at everything. “So the military is the common thread?”

“That was one of the reasons why I thought you would be the perfect person to work these cases—with your military background in the same area as these women. Not to mention your success rate of cold cases.”

“We didn’t see any of this information in the boxes.”

“No,” he said and walked over to a desk, where he retrieved a flash drive. “Here. Everything we have is on there.”

“Not in the boxes?”

“Just in case some paperwork gets misfiled.”

Katie turned to McGaven who had been riveted to the new information just as much as she was. She gave him the look—he knew what she was asking and nodded in agreement.

“There’s more, isn’t there?” she said.

Campbell hesitated.

“These cases are about a year apart. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“So that would mean this last case here in Pine Valley at the fairgrounds is on schedule?”

“Detective, you are very astute. That’s why it’s been important to have another set of eyes on these cases.”

“While we wait for forensics and an ID to come in, we would need to re-examine everything on the Jeanine Trenton case—the autopsy, forensics, and reports.Everything.No restrictions.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t expect any less. In fact, I look forward to your assessments.”