“Daddy, is she going to be our new mommy?” Melissa looked up at Hunter with adoring eyes.

Kerry smiled at the innocent question while forcing her heart not to break. Her daughter, had she lived, would have been almost two.

No, sweetheart.” Hunter knelt eye level to Melissa and ran a gentle hand down the little girl’s blond curls. “Kerry is working on a case with me. There’s a bad guy after her. I want her to be safe, so I brought her to the safest place in the world.”

“You mean here, Daddy, with us?” Melissa’s eyes widened.

“Yup.”

“Okay.” His daughter slipped from his grasp and skipped over to Kerry. “You want to see my room?”

Kerry laughed at Melissa’s acceptance of everything her father said. “Sure.”

Hunter raised his brows and smirked. “I’ll put your things in the guest room.”

Melissa grabbed Kerry’s hand. Baby powder and sweet shampoo floated upward. What she wouldn’t give to have her own little girl back.

Melissa led Kerry past the room where Hunter was stashing her suitcase and into the last room on the right.

The little girl halted at the entrance. “Isn’t it beautiful? Aunt Jen and I decorated it.”

Kerry smiled. “It sure is.”

A blue ceiling, complete with white puffy clouds, hovered above a four-poster bed with a pink and white checkered bedspread. Sitting in one corner was a large bin filled with toys, and off to the side was a bookcase that spilled over with dolls of every kind.

“Come see this.” Melissa pulled her toward the desk. A small laptop glowed. “Daddy gave this to me. I can play games on it and everything.”

Hunter’s daughter was well loved.

The object of Melissa’s adoration appeared in the doorway. “Melissa, let’s let Kerry get settled. You can play with her later. She’s already had a hard day.”

“Why did she have a hard day?”

“Why don’t you play with your dolls while Kerry and I talk about our case?”

“Okay.” Question forgotten, apparently.

“Come here.” Hunter opened his arms and Melissa ran toward him. He lifted her up, gave her a kiss, and then spun her around. “You’re such a good girl. Love you.”

“Love you back, Daddy.”

He set his daughter down and then flicked his head toward the living room.

Kerry followed. “You’ve done a wonderful job with Melissa. She’s delightful.”

“Thank Jen. I don’t know what I would have done without her, especially with my hours.” Wrinkles etched around the smooth area of his eyes.

“Ever think of quitting the force?”

His jaw twitched. “No. Too any criminals still to put away.”

Oo-kay. She wouldn’t bring up that topic again. His pinched mouth made her want to hug him, but she didn’t dare. She needed to stay objective and couldn’t chance not solving this case.

“Let me show you to your new digs. I’m afraid it isn’t fancy. The room is actually my office, and you’ll have to sleep on a pull-out bed.”

She smiled. “That’s wonderful. One can’t put a price tag on peace of mind.” A jolt of apprehension jerked her to attention, and she grabbed Hunter’s arm. “Ohmigod. Whoever stole the skull doesn’t know I’ve left Grandpa’s house. He may come back and harm him.”

Hunter turned and ran his hands down her arms. “I’ve thought of that. Now that a crime has been committed, we’ll have a squad car outside your house at night. At least until our killer realizes you aren’t there.”

Kerry let out a breath. “Thank you.”

Hunter shifted his stance, tucked his thumbs in his pockets and straightened. He cleared his throat. “Let me show you to your suite.” Her heart thawed under the heat of his smile.

He led her into a room measuring about twelve feet by ten feet. All the office furnishings were a boring brown down to the desk, two bookcases, one five-drawer file cabinet and a sofa.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s all the space I have.”

Had the disappointment she’d tried hard to bury color her face? At least there was a closet for her to hang her things. “No. It’s perfect.”

“Unpack, then meet me in the living room. I want to go over your statement again.”

“Why?”

“Sometimes witnesses recall things after they’ve had time to reflect.”

She shrugged. “You’re the expert.”

* * *

Hunter leaned against the back of the sofa and slapped his notebook closed. “I appreciate your willingness to talk about this nightmare one more time.”

“I wish I could remember more,” Kerry said. “I know how much one sound, one smell, one thing out of place can help.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “It feels like someone erased my memory after I went back to sleep.”

“You did fine.”

She leaned forward on the recliner across from him. “Let me make it up to you by cooking dinner.”

“You don’t have to do that. You’ve recalled more than most witnesses I’ve interviewed.”

Her lips pressed together. “That may be, but I need to do something with my hands or I’ll go crazy.”

“You sure? I suck at cooking, so you won’t get an argument from me.” He mentally raced through what he had in the cupboard and in the refrigerator. “I don’t have much in the way of fancy ingredients.”

She smiled and his other brain reacted.

“Leave everything to me and your daughter.”

“You’re the boss.”

Hunter gathered Melissa and let the two of them do their thing. His daughter was overjoyed when Kerry asked her to choose the menu. Her pick was spaghetti and meatballs. He could have guessed. It was his daughter’s favorite.

As they searched the kitchen for the pots and pans to prepare the meal, he squeezed his eyes shut when Kerry guided Melissa’s hand in stirring the pot.

He wasn’t wishing for an Amy replacement. Far from it. But someday he dreamed of a mother for Melissa and a wife at his side—someone who would understand the rigors of police work. That was one area where he and Amy had disagreed almost nightly. She never understood why he couldn’t just walk away from an assignment when she wanted him home.

“Melissa,” Kerry said, “would you mind setting the table?”

“Sure.” She spun around toward Hunter. “Can you help me, Daddy?”

Hunter pushed away from the doorjamb and hustled toward her. He pulled the dishes from the cabinets and placed them on the table. Melissa took over and lined up the silverware next to the plates.

Ten minutes later, Kerry brought over the meal to the table and smiled. “Dinner’s ready.”

Her smile almost made him forget why she was here.

They ate in silence for the first few minutes. He hadn’t realized how hungry he’d been.

Melissa broke the quiet. “This is great, Kerry. Daddy’s not a very good cook.”

“Hey, watch it, Pumpkin. I can boil water with the best of them.” He reached over and ruffled her hair.

“Aw, Daddy, I was only kidding.”

Little stinker would be a major man-eater when she grew up. She was sprouting up way too fast for him as it was.

Just as they finished, his phone rang. “Excuse me.” He glanced at the caller ID, but didn’t recognize the number. “Markum.”

“Detective... Markum?”

“Yes.”

“This is Jamal Wilson. I saw you on the news. I think the clay model might be my fiancée. She disappeared seven months ago.”

His pulse jetted into overdrive. Hunter recognized the name. Jamal had been questioned when his fiancée went missing. “Would you mind coming to the police station? You can get a closer look at the model.”

“Sure. When?”

“Say, in forty-five minutes?”

“I can be there.”

“And bring some photos of your fiancée. They’ll help our forensic anthropologist determine if our body is hers.”

Jamal let out a small gasp that sounded fake.

“I’ll, ah, see what I have. Bye.” Jamal disconnected.

Hunter put his cell phone away. Every muscle in Kerry’s body tensed. Because Hunter didn’t want to discuss anything in front of Melissa, he lifted his daughter’s chin. “Sweetheart. I’m afraid—”

She moved out of his reach and his throat clogged. Hunter swallowed. “Melissa?”

“I know. You have to take care of something.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’ll get ready to go over to Aunt Jen’s.”

Her small cracking voice ripped him up inside. “I’m sorry, hon.”

“That’s okay. You have to save the world. I understand.”

Jen must have told her that tale. He leaned over and kissed her. “Get ready then.”

When Melissa had left the kitchen, he told Kerry about the call.

Her eyes brightened. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I can’t help but be excited. We might have identified our second victim.”

* * *

After they dropped Melissa off at Jen’s house, Hunter drove them to the M.E.’s office to pick up #1’s reconstruction for Jamal to study up close and personal. Good thing Kerry had the key code to get in.

The head-on-a-stick, as Hunter dubbed it, now sat in front of Jamal Wilson at the conference table.

“I’m not sure,” Jamal said, shaking his head at the model.

“Why did you wait so long to call?” Hunter asked. They’d displayed the case three days ago.

“The face only kind of looked like Tameka, you know what I mean?”

Kerry leaned forward. “Reconstructions aren’t exact science, Mr. Wilson. I had to guess the shape of the lips, ears, eyelids and other parts that are formed by fatty tissue rather than by bone.” Kerry tapped the pile of photos he had sitting in front of him. “May I see what you brought?”

“Sorry.” He slid the pictures over to her. “I had to get them from her mom.”

He didn’t have any photos of her? Something didn’t fit.

Kerry flipped through the pictures. “May I keep these for a little while? I’d like to scan them into the computer to compare them to the X-ray of her face. This might give me a better idea if we have a match.”

“Sure, whatever.”

Hunter opened Wilson’s file. “It says here you were brought in for questioning in regards to Tameka’s disappearance.”

“Yeah, but they got nothin’ on me.” Cocky SOB.

Hunter leaned back. “You and I both know, Mr. Wilson, that if this is Tameka’s body, we could bring formal charges against you.”

He waved a hand, but Hunter could tell it was all bravado. “I got nothing to hide. I didn’t kill her. I loved her.”

That was why he’d hit her. “Says here there were four domestic violence calls against you.”

Wilson crossed his arms. “I didn’t come here to get fucking interrogated. I wanted to make sure this was my woman, that she hadn’t run off.”

He probably meant he wanted to make sure his slave hadn’t left on her own free will. Most likely he missed having her cook and clean for him.

Hunter’s avenue of questioning wasn’t getting him anywhere. “Why don’t you start with the last time you saw Tameka?”

Jamal shrugged. “I don’t know the exact date. It’s been a long time, ya know?”

“What were you doing right before she disappeared? Surely, you can remember the day Tameka didn’t come home. After all, you were engaged to the woman.” Acid burned in Hunter’s gut. The man didn’t deserve Tameka.

“Sure. I was at work. She had some kind of doctor’s appointment or something after she finished her shift. I never saw her again after that.”

Hunter straightened. “What kind of doctor’s appointment?”

Jamal skewed up his lips. “What do you care?”

“It may be important.” Hunter forced his tone to be civil.

Jamal rolled his eyes. “I think it was a plastic surgeon. She’d had to have some work done to her face and all.”

“For what kind of procedure?”

“Shit, I don’t know, man.”

Hunter leaned forward and leered at him. “Try to remember. It could be very important.”

“Don’t get your pants in a wad. Her ex-husband beat her up pretty bad. Got lots of cracks in the bones right around here.” He ran a finger down the right side of his face. “One cheek had become lopsided. Made her ugly.”

Jamal was no looker himself. “Go on.”

“She figured as long as the doctor agreed to do the work kind of cheap, she’d ask for a chin implant. Said it would help her self esteem. Hell, I was all for it.”

Hunter looked over at Kerry who sat perfectly still. She’d grasped the hem of her blouse and bunched it tight.

Hunter glanced back to Jamal. “How long ago was she injured by her ex?”

“Maybe a couple months before we met.” Jamal slapped the table. “What does this have to do with anything?”

Hunter wouldn’t answer his question. “Do you know the name of the doctor?”

Jamal stretched out his legs and leaned back in his seat. “Hell no. I couldn’t keep track. Once she found a job that gave her health insurance, she was going all the time to dermatologists, eye doctors, you name it.” He waved a dismissive hand.

“Where did she work?”

“Wal-Mart.”

Kerry straightened the photos on the table. “Do you by any chance have a hair brush she might have used? I’d like to compare her DNA.”

“Lady.” He laced his fingers on top of his head. “I tossed all her shit out once she left. Her old lady might have kept her stuff. Ask her.”

* * *

Kerry leaned closer to the computer for a better view of the image. Her desk sat in the corner of her lab and rays of the afternoon sun streaked across her screen. She’d scanned the pictures Jamal had lent her into Photoshop. Using the Transform Tool, she rotated and resized the images to match the size of the skull’s X-ray. One at a time, she laid the X-ray of Tameka Dorsey’s skull over each photo.

“Crap.” Too many of the pictures were either blurry or the angle of the head couldn’t be corrected effectively.

“Wait a minute,” she mumbled to herself. Two photos looked like they might line up, and excitement coursed through her. Using the arrow keys, she nudged the photo to the right. While the photo wasn’t a perfect fit, Kerry wasn’t ready to rule out she wasn’t Tameka Dorsey.

Thank goodness she’d asked Hunter to reach Tameka’s mother for her daughter’s dental X-rays along with a hairbrush or toothbrush. Kerry needed just one item to extract her DNA.

Tameka had no filings or crowns, which might imply she hadn’t gone to a dentist in a while. That could hinder the identification.

Her cell rang. Her pulse quickened as she raced across the room to where she’d left her phone. “Hello?”

“It’s Hunter. I was able to locate the dental X-rays and dental report for Tameka Dorsey.”

Hearing his voice brought her relief. “That’s wonderful.”

“The doctor’s office is on my way to your lab, so I thought I’d pick them up and drop them off.”

How sweet. “I appreciate that, but don’t you need a warrant or something for them?” He’d only spoken to Tameka’s mom today. When did he have the time?

“I had her mom sign a consent form for her release. You know, all that HIPAA stuff.”

“Good thinking.”

“Give me about fifty minutes.”

“Okay, bye.”

The wait to discover the identity of #1 was almost over. She might finally have a name on her grave marker.

With her stress level lowered for a moment, Kerry sat on her chair and closed her eyes, hoping for a short power nap before Hunter arrived. She’d spent a restless night on his pullout sofa. Each little noise had woken her up. First, the air conditioning clicked on, then Hunter or perhaps Melissa, had risen in the middle of the night. Strange houses had strange creaks.

At first she chalked up her sleeplessness to the fear of another intruder attack, but Hunter had insisted she lock the office door from the inside. That helped give her some peace of mind, but she kept imagining the creep crawling in through the bedroom window.

Having Hunter down the hall only added to her inability to sleep. Her fertile mind conjured up all sorts of erotic scenarios. Did he sleep naked? What would he be like to sleep next to? Was he a cuddler? She figured her carnal thoughts had to be the result of anxiety since she’d never dreamt about a man like that before.

A knock on the lab door roused her from her daydream. She bolted upright. Hunter walked in with a packet in his hands. “Power napping?”

She must have left the door ajar. She swiped a hand over her eyes to clear them. “Sorry. I suddenly couldn’t stay awake.” Thank God, he couldn’t read her mind.

“No need to apologize.”

Hunter dragged a chair from one side of the room, sat next to her at the computer and handed her the information.

When she fumbled with the clasp, he slipped the envelope from her fingers. “Let me.”

In a flash, he’d pulled out the X-rays, and then passed them to her. Kerry studied the report. “No filings or crowns. We may have our girl.” She looked up and smiled.

“Are you sure?”

The report was sparse, but it did contain a single radiograph that spanned both the upper and lower dental arcades. “Give me a sec.” Kerry placed the dental X-ray over the X-ray of the skull. The tooth roots fit perfectly. “I’d say we have a match.”

Hunter grinned. What she would give for a camera now. “Good job, Doctor Herlihy.”

She prayed her beating heart didn’t show through her surgical gown. “Did you happen to ask Tameka’s mother the name of her plastic surgeon?” She needed to take her focus off Hunter’s handsome face and concentrate on her job.

“Sure did.”

“And what did she say?”