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“But same place, same MO, and you must have a feel for the guy – same killer?”
“Yes,” Laura nodded. “It’s definitely the same killer. We’re the first ones to make the connection, judging by these files.”
“Then we definitely have something,” Nate said. “Are there any other cases?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Laura said. “I looked up strangled women and it turns out there’s quite a lot. I need to go through the cases more carefully, bearing in mind it’s also possible that the killer was actually caught or even convicted in another case, so it’s going to take me a while. But…”
“What?” Nate asked, tilting his head. He obviously already had the feeling that she was about to ask for something he wasn’t going to like.
Laura put on her best innocent smile and asked it anyway.
“I think they both came out of the same bar.”
“How is that possible?” Nate asked. “You said they were found, and stalked, on the opposite sides of town.”
“I know, but I went into the case file for the second victim,” Laura said. “Her name was July Hall. She went on a night out with friends that seemed to have taken them from one place to another. They started out at this one bar – The Major Hart. That’s the one that Joy Kingsley was leaving when she was attacked. And if July’s friends weren’t quiet about where they were going next, someone could easily have followed them.”
“That’s an interesting theory,” Nate said. “And this J thing – Joy, July. You think there’s something in that?”
“I don’t know,” Laura said. “Two could be coincidence. I’d like three for a pattern. But if it takes this killer two years to pull off every attack, maybe he is that precise. Maybe he finds girls who fit his extremely particular niche, then stalks them relentlessly until they put themselves at risk. And I thought, what kind of person would be able to watch young women get drunk, find out their names, observe their state when they leave a bar, and all without raising suspicion?”
“A bartender,” Nate said, picking up on her line of thought immediately.
“A bartender,” Laura repeated triumphantly. “And if he’s killing a victim every two years or so, and no one has noticed the connection yet, then he could still be out there. Serving drinks. Acting innocent. Biding his time.”
Nate sighed and rubbed his eyes. “You want to go out there and talk to the people who work at the bar.”
“If we can solve two, maybe more, cold cases, and stop a killer who is still out there, then don’t you?” Laura asked. “This is way more important than paperwork.”
“You do realize that if we don’t do all of our paperwork correctly, some of our old convictions aren’t going to be processed properly and other killers could walk?” Nate protested. But Laura didn’t pay him any attention. He knew as well as she did that the paperwork they were doing at the moment was mostly the dregs of the boring admin that got left at the very bottom of the inbox because it was pointless and unimportant. No convictions were going to be vacated because they hadn’t turned in their personal mileage expense forms properly.
“Come on,” Laura said. “We can take my car. It’s not that long of a drive. On the way, you can help me come up with the excuse as to why I was looking into these two cases in the first place so we can explain to Rondelle how we managed to link them. With this two-year gap, I’m nervous. I don’t want there to be another victim this year – this month – even this week, when we could have done something today to stop it.”
Nate sighed. “Let me get my coat on, at least.”
Laura grinned in victory. “I’ll meet you downstairs in the parking garage.”
CHAPTER NINE
Laura pulled the car into the parking lot, turning off the engine and sitting to appreciate the scene for a moment. There was a lot that this place could tell them. It had witnessed both of the victims leaving, and at least one woman had gone on to die elsewhere.
“We going in?” Nate asked.
“I just want to get a feel for the place first,” Laura said, craning her head to look up at the building. It was a secluded enough area, a short drive out of the town. They had passed the same woods they’d traipsed through yesterday, then moved on further until the bar loomed up, the only thing at the end of a short track with its own parking lot.
The building was kind of squat, made of red brick, and the windows appeared grimy. Laura knew, though, that there could be a big difference between the disgusting, slimy reality of a place in the daytime and the glamor that came with the cover of darkness – and the addition of copious amounts of alcohol to further obscure the senses.
She shrugged off thoughts about alcohol, trying her hardest to see this as a crime scene and not as a bar where alcohol could, if one wished, be purchased – and opened the car door.
“I think we have to play this smart,” she said in a low voice as they both walked towards the main entrance. “We need to act like we’re just looking for witnesses. If they know we suspect the staff, we could lose the suspect before we’ve even locked onto them. They might warn one another.”
“I’ll follow your lead,” Nate said, sketching a mock bow and then opening the door for her to step through. “It’s your case.”
Laura flashed him a look of gratitude as she walked into the bar, grimacing even more as she took it in. It had the look of a room in which every single surface would most likely be sticky. She made a mental note not to lean on anything.
“Oh, hi,” someone called out, sounding a little flustered. “We’re closed. We don’t open until five.”
Laura turned towards the source of the voice, discovering a muscular, tall man in a black tank top with long blonde hair tied up on top of his head, matching a perfectly-groomed blonde beard. She made an immediate mental note that someone of his build and stature would have no problem at all with grabbing and strangling a young, drunk woman to death. He looked to be in his early twenties, but if she was off by even a short time – or if he’d been going to bars when he was underage – then he could be a candidate for both murders. “Hi,” she said, opening her badge to show him. “We’re not customers.”
