When You See Me (Detective D.D. Warren #11)(42)

She ate. Shamelessly. Then went straight for the trifle, even though D.D. glared at her and made a sound suspiciously like a growl.

“Call dibs on the bowl,” the Boston detective said.

“Rock-paper-scissors.”

A fresh glare from D.D.

“Not gonna help you,” Kimberly informed her. “I have two daughters who practice that look on a daily basis. Besides, I spent the day exhuming skeletons. You?”

“Fine. I get the brownie platter.”

“Deal.”

“Why isn’t Flora eating?” Kimberly asked presently, leaning against the wall beside D.D., savoring the trifle. There were little chocolate chips. And toffee. Heath bar crunch maybe? “Or is that a symptom of PTSD?”

“She ate all day.”

“She ate all day?”

“We’ll get to it. Your day?”

“We’ll get to it.” After one more scoop of trifle, Kimberly decided.

“Where are your ERT people?” D.D. asked.

“They stayed at the hotel; they’re beat and have to be back at the site at oh dark thirty tomorrow morning. But I have the report on what we found.”

“Dr. Jackson?”

“Same deal. She’s jonesing for her lab, not a meeting where all she can say is ‘wait for my report.’ We have at least one more day of field work, then the team and Dr. Jackson will return to Atlanta. In the meantime, we have discoveries to discuss.”

“I have a new lead,” D.D. said. “She’s underaged, can’t speak, read, or write, and apparently suffers brain damage from a childhood injury. But I have a feeling about her.”

Kimberly arched a brow.

“After the meeting,” D.D. murmured. The detective had her gaze on Sheriff Smithers, sitting across the room and apparently devouring taco salad. “This town, the locals . . . I have some concerns.”

“You mean you’re not falling for Main Street’s quaint charms?”

“Not after learning what’s buried in the mountains.”

Kimberly couldn’t argue with that. She cleared her throat, indicating it was time to get started. And just like that, the room fell to order.

Kimberly took up position front and center. “All right. First off, a big round of applause to the ladies of the Congregational Church for this amazing dinner. A huge step up from a taskforce’s general diet of pizza, pizza, and pizza.”

Everyone clapped enthusiastically. Clearing platters, Franny paused, blushed, fidgeted with the delicate gold cross she wore around her neck.

“Now then, we have several efforts to catch up on. I’ll go first with the report from the second burial site.”

Kimberly waited a heartbeat. Investigators hastily shoved aside plates, booted up laptops and tablets.

“The second grave revealed three more sets of skeletal remains. Dr. Jackson was able to confirm all three are female. At least two are teenagers and one prepubescent.”

“How young?” D.D. spoke up, her tone expressionless.

“Nine or ten.”

Silence.

“No clothing was recovered from the grave,” Kimberly continued evenly. “Though we had a few unexpected finds, including a short piece of plastic tubing, a strip of adhesive tape, and a pair of latex gloves.”

Keith’s hand fired into the air, and Kimberly nodded for him to speak.

“You’re going to test the gloves for prints? And the inside? As well as touch DNA?”

Look who’d once more spent some quality time with Google, Kimberly thought. “All evidence will be subject to a complete forensic exam. For immediate consideration, Dr. Jackson is theorizing that one of the bodies may have had IV tubing taped to the back of her hand at the time of burial.”

“But that would mean the person had received medical attention,” Flora said slowly.

“It’s possible.”

“Jacob wasn’t averse to needles, but medical assistance? I was lucky if he tossed a couple of aspirin my way.”

“The presence of an IV seems outside of Jacob Ness’s purview,” Kimberly agreed. “Still, evidence is evidence. The tape may yield DNA, something to help identify victim or perpetrator. In the meantime, Dr. Jackson will conduct a full analysis on each set of remains. She knows we need answers soon.”

“Does the doc think the second burial site is from the same time frame as the first?” Sheriff Smithers asked.

“In her own words, that’s not an unreasonable conclusion, but will require additional testing.”

“The first skeleton,” Sheriff Smithers continued now, “Lilah Abenito.”

Kimberly nodded.

“She wasn’t from around here. She went missing from Alabama. Meaning these other girls, they might be from elsewhere, too. Makes sense, if you think about it. Four local girls going missing all at the same time would call attention. But if they’re from different places . . .”

“We’re going to need to pull missing persons records for teenage girls, nationwide, going back fifteen years, maybe even twenty.”

“That’s gonna be a lot of names.”

“We have some work ahead of us, no doubt.”

“COD?” D.D. spoke up.

“Nothing obvious. Again, Dr. Jackson hopes to learn more back at the lab.”