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“No,” Laura said. “Actually, there’s no social media that dates back as far as when Joy Kingsley disappeared. And the more I think about it, the more suspicious that is.”
“You think they tried to cover it all up and change their image?” Nate asked.
“I do,” Laura confirmed. She took a breath. “And I think we need to look for more cases that match the victim profile and MO we have – because I don’t think this killer has only struck twice.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Laura was sure her intuition wasn’t going to let her down on this one. With access to the local precinct’s system to conduct searches, all they had to was find the other cases that matched – because she knew the difference between a killer who knew what he was doing and one who was just starting out.
In her visions, he knew what he was doing. He had a pattern. He didn’t hesitate. There was no fumbling, no letting the woman almost escape. He’d been waiting on purpose for them to come by – though how he might have known Joy would go into the woods, Laura didn’t know. Perhaps that was just luck, and he’d been planning to lurk out of the trees at her.
But there was nothing of the nervousness or impulsiveness that would characterize a first-time crime. None of his actions were by accident. He knew where to wait to get them. He knew how to make them afraid, to let them run from him even though he was faster and stronger, and he knew when to take them down and kill them.
He’d done it before.
And, as the saying logically followed: he would do it again.
“Okay, here we go,” Nate said. “We need to set our parameters.”
“We should search for any women who disappeared from anywhere in town or even outside the town borders,” Laura said. “Maybe set it to the last twenty years to start with. We can refine the search down after we know what we’re dealing with.”
Nate typed in what he’d been told, clicking on a few boxes and sliders, and then they both sat back a moment to let the results load.
When they did, Laura pressed her hand to her mouth.
“That’s a lot of results,” Nate said, vocalizing what she was also thinking.
“How can there be this many disappearances in one area and it not be flagged up?” Laura asked.
“I don’t know,” Nate replied. “But we need to narrow this down some. They’re not all going to be relevant.”
“Okay, let’s look at removing the ones that have been resolved and found alive,” Laura suggested. “Also, we can take out any that were killed by other methods. Any shootings, stabbings, anything like that – if they weren’t strangled, we shouldn’t consider them.”
Nate nodded as she spoke, doing his best to refine the characteristics of the search as much as he could. When he was done and the list refreshed, it was significantly smaller.
But that was still worrying in itself. To see a list with more than a couple of names, when narrowing it down to just women who had disappeared without a trace or been strangled to death in a small area, immediately brought suspicion to mind. Something was off, here. Someone was killing girls.
“Let’s look at the cases,” Laura said, her mouth dry. “We’re looking in particular for anyone who was last seen at a bar, or drinking with friends, before going off alone.”
“There’s Joy and July,” Nate said grimly. “At least we know our search results are working if they both came up.”
“What about the next one?”
Nate dutifully clicked on it. “Let’s see… she went missing after hiking in the woods alone. This was twenty years ago, right at the limit of our search parameters. I guess search equipment and cell phone technology wasn’t as good back then.”
“Never found,” Laura said. “I don’t think we should include her as a potential. She was probably trapped or fell somewhere, starved to death, and got eaten by animals.”
Nate made a face. “Geez.”
“You know I’m right,” Laura muttered. “Next one, come on. Let’s get through these.”
“Alright, next one… Abducted by her own uncle and found two weeks later,” Nate said. “We can skip that one, too.”
“Next one?” Laura asked, taking the opportunity to read this one as it came up. “Found in a wrecked car a day after being reported missing, down a ditch. Next.”
“This one was drunk, but according to the witness reports, she likely slipped and fell into the river and then never came up,” Nate said.
Laura sighed in frustration. “Are we seriously saying that this many women have been reported missing around here and it’s all just coincidence?”
