When You See Me (Detective D.D. Warren #11)(12)

“Fifteen years ago,” Kimberly continued now, “social media was still in its infancy. So, given what we’re accustomed to being able to learn about a teenager in this day and age, there’s hardly anything on Lilah. Her parents claimed she was a good girl, looking forward to attending community college in the fall and becoming the first member of her family to graduate. Except, one bright sunny afternoon, she disappeared. Until ten weeks ago.”

Kimberly paused again, let everyone absorb. Kimberly believed in personalizing cases, had learned it firsthand from her profiler father. The victim had to matter—because God knows that in the weeks and months to come it would cost them all significant pieces of their personal lives to pursue justice.

“How did Jacob Ness become a suspect in the disappearance?” D.D. spoke up first.

Flora Dane, Kimberly noticed, remained completely expressionless. They could’ve been discussing the weather. But Kimberly didn’t doubt that Flora was registering every word.

“The age and gender matched Ness’s known targets. Also, the town where Lilah disappeared is near a major truck stop.”

“Her abduction occurred within Ness’s preferred hunting grounds,” D.D. translated.

“Exactly.”

“Cause of death?” Flora spoke up. She stared at Kimberly balefully.

“Unknown. The forensic exam was limited by the lack of any remaining soft tissue and the fact that many of the bones are still missing.”

“You don’t have the full skeleton?”

“Scavengers, unfortunately, wreaked havoc with the site, given the shallow burial. Looking at what was recovered, Dr. Jackson identified a broken hyoid bone, which can be a sign of strangulation. However, in a girl that young, the hyoid bone often isn’t fused yet, so Dr. Jackson can’t conclusively rule that as COD.”

“He preferred knives,” Flora said. Every investigator was gazing at her now. Flora kept her stare on Kimberly.

“True. But remember the timeline. If Lilah Abenito was indeed one of Ness’s victims, her disappearance fifteen years ago would mark her as one of his first.”

“He beat his wife. Raped a teenager. She wasn’t his first.”

“First kill,” Kimberly amended, keeping her tone as matter-of-fact as Flora’s.

The Mosley County sheriff raised his hand. “Hank Smithers here. I’ve read about Jacob Ness. I understand your point that this girl disappeared from his known hunting grounds. But there are two locations for us to be considering. The second, where her body was dumped, is in my neck of the woods to the north. We’re talking more mountains than highway. How do you figure that?”

“We don’t,” Kimberly said honestly. “That’s one of the questions we need to answer. Now, Miss Dane”—Kimberly nodded toward Flora—“in her statement regarding her own abduction, thought she was initially held in a mountain cabin. It’s possible Ness has a connection to northern Georgia, Mosley County, whatever. We’ve never been able to identify that cabin, and as you can imagine, we’d like to.”

“The remains were found off a hiking trail,” Keith interjected, frowning. Kimberly had watched him flip through the binder. From what she could tell, he’d scanned the entire contents in a matter of minutes. “How far up the path?”

“More than a mile.”

“Incline?”

“Six hundred foot altitude gain. Trail gets significantly steeper after that.”

Keith turned to Flora. “He strike you as a hiker? Because I’ve never read about him doing any physical activities, not even high school sports.”

“The Jacob I knew was a fat, out-of-shape addict. I can’t imagine he was magically fitter eight years prior.”

“Hauling a body one mile uphill is no mean feat,” Keith added.

“You’re assuming he was carrying her,” Kimberly replied blandly. “For all we know, Lilah was alive when she walked up that trail.”

“He led her to the location he wanted, then killed her,” Flora stated. “Now that sounds like Jacob.”

“Or he had help.” Keith, looking at Kimberly again.

She nodded slowly. “It’s important to note what we didn’t find in the grave. Clothing. Shoes. Physical restraints. None of that. The body was laid out in the shallow grave unbound and completely naked.”

“Forensic countermeasures,” D.D. interjected. “He removed any objects that might yield evidence.”

“That’s certainly a possibility. To be clear, Jacob didn’t take those steps with his other known victims?”

“No, he just dumped them, bloody clothes and all.” Flora again.

“Maybe that means she was special,” Keith spoke up thoughtfully. “First victims, there’s often a personal connection to a serial predator. Meaning Jacob took extra precautions because he had more to fear if someone found the body.”

“All reasonable assumptions,” Kimberly said to the taskforce. “But just that—assumptions. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. While there’s good reason to consider Jacob Ness a prime suspect in Lilah Abenito’s abduction and murder, we don’t know that he did it. We don’t know anything at all, which is a huge injustice to her and to her parents, who all these years later, are still waiting for their daughter to magically come home.”