Shauna rubbed her hands over her face and breathed deeply, in and out. In a minute, she’d need to head down to the section of the railroad track being lit by the forensic team’s large portable lights. If this was Carrie’s body, there would be no more hoping they’d be able to bring the girl home safely. There would be no more praying Carrie would survive this if they tracked Adrienne’s killer fast enough.

Zach and Ronan stood by her side, likely having the same sense of dread she had. If it hadn’t been for one of the track’s maintenance guys trying to sneak away for a cigarette he wasn’t supposed to be having on the job, no one would have discovered this body for weeks. Or so the guy’s boss had told them. The body was in a tight turn in the tracks, a few miles up from the New Haven station. Unlike a lot of the tracks, this area was isolated, with little around in terms of businesses, walkways, or residences.

Shauna looked up. The area cried out for better lighting and security cameras, but then, she supposed there was little to secure here other than the tracks. It likely wasn’t high on the radar or important enough to get into the city’s budget.

She wondered if the killer knew that. If this had been well planned and skillfully executed or sheer chance. She had a feeling it was the former.

She moved down the stairs onto the track, following Ronan and Zach. Damn, the men both looked defeated. As a cold case detective, she was used to a hell of a lot of let down in her job. Leads were more likely to fizzle out than they were to move a case forward. It was a job with frustration and disappointment built in, and it was something she’d become accustomed to.

Then again, she rarely had to face the emotional toll of knowing you’d let a recently-living victim down. That your race against the clock had been thwarted by a killer you had yet to stop. For her, it was often about getting justice, not about stopping a killer before he could strike again. She thought briefly that she’d probably deadened her emotions a little too much.

Zach seemed to read her thoughts. “If this is her, she’s been dead for close to a week. Dr. Kane’s assistant thinks this girl was probably killed before Adrienne.” They already knew the age was right. This was the body of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Shauna nodded. She supposed that should bring relief in a way. If this was Carrie, she’d been dead from the start and nothing they could have done would have stopped that.

The tall portable lights lit the scene, lending a garish cast to the body. The girl’s legs were tucked behind a bush on the side of the track, but the scraggly shrub provided little cover. There were signs of animal activity and what they’d done to the body wasn’t pretty. There was significant damage coupled with decomposition. 

Ronan shoved his hands in his pockets as he and Zach stared down at the body. It was Ronan who pointed to the necklace. “It’s Carrie. Her mother gave her that necklace for her birthday last year. That and the pieces of blonde hair ...” He didn’t finish. It was good enough for their purposes tonight.

“Will you ask the parents—” Shauna began.

Zach’s voice was gruff as he answered her question before she’d gotten it out. “No. We’ve got dental records ready to go back at the lab. We can’t let them see her like that.”

Shauna wondered how much involvement he’d had with the parents. How close he’d gotten to them. That was one of the hardest parts of the job. Talking to parents who had all but given up hope. Who were looking to you for answers you sometimes didn’t have. For a miracle you usually couldn’t provide.

If Zach had been in that position before, he knew what was coming.

“I can go with you,” she said softly, expecting him to say no, but hoping maybe he wouldn’t.

He looked at her sideways, then gave a silent nod. Just a single bob of the head.

“Another dump site, I’m guessing?” Shauna asked.

“Yes, most likely. There are traces of the lipstick, but it’s hard to tell if it’s the same at first glance” He grimaced and Shauna knew what he was thinking. Much of the girl’s face was destroyed. “The rope looks the same. Can’t tell if she was posed, of course.”

Shauna nodded. The body had been disturbed by too much animal activity to know what position it had been left in.

“Ronan, will you go back to the morgue with Dr. Kane while Shauna and I go talk to the parents?” By some miracle, the Senator and his wife hadn’t shown up at the scene yet, and Zach wanted to get to them before they did. “I’m guessing the doc will get her on the slab right away.”

Ronan nodded and walked toward the doctor and her assistant, whose faces were both as drawn as his.

Zach and Shauna were quiet as they drove out to the large property the Senator and his family owned. When they’d started up the long drive, Shauna spoke.

“Your niece is about Carrie’s age, huh?”

Zach flinched and she regretted asking, but he plowed on anyway. “She is. It’s a hell of a thing to see her face on each of the bodies we’ve found.”

“How is she? Is she getting ready for college?”

“Yep. My brother tried to convince her to stay home, but she got into Dartmouth. She’ll be up in Massachusetts.”

“It’s not too far.” Shauna would guess the two brothers wanted her closer, though. She knew they’d lost their mother and their sister and her husband—Naomi’s parents—to a car accident years before. She would bet they’d want her to stay close.

“Far enough.” He sounded so grim, his jaw clenched beneath the black stubble that coated his face. Yeah, it would be hard to let go of Naomi with all she would bet Zach had seen in his work. She didn’t envy him that.

Then again, in a way she did. She had her brothers and her parents, but she’d begun to think marriage and a family weren’t going to happen for her. She’d given the marriage thing a shot and that had gone to hell, fast. If she wasn’t willing to try that again—and she’d decided she wasn’t—a family of her own was looking complicated, at best.

Sure, there was adoption and insemination, but was that really something she could do as a single mom with a dangerous job and long hours? Not really.

So, she guessed, when she thought about it, she did envy Zach that he had Naomi in his life.

Until she saw the way the Senator and his wife crumbled at the news of their daughter’s death. Carrie’s mom looked like she’d be the one to hold her husband up when Zach told them they’d found Carrie’s body. The husband all but collapsed. Mrs. Athill wrapped her arms around her middle, as though she could feel the pain in her womb.

Carrie’s brother Drew’s eyes were flooded with pain and rage, and Shauna found herself wondering who would hold him up.

“Can we see her?” Senator Athill asked.

Zach shook his head. “I wouldn’t recommend that. She was out in the elements for some time.”

Shauna couldn’t ignore the choked sob from Mrs. Athill. Drew ran from the room, slamming through the staff member who’d just entered to bring a box of tissues to his parents.

“We’ll be doing dental analysis to confirm the identity,” Shauna said softly.

Senator Athill bent at the waist in his seat, covering his head and ears, like he couldn’t bear to hear more. His wife moved to sit beside him and wrapped her arms around him.

Shauna knew tragedy like this could often tear families apart. She wondered if this one would manage to stay together. If Drew Athill would ever manage to reclaim any semblance of normalcy in his life.

Mrs. Athill looked between Zach and Shauna. “Is it the same person who killed Adrienne?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Zach said.

“But you suspect?” was her response.

“We do.” Zach confirmed.

Senator Athill raised his head. “When was she killed?” The question was almost a whisper and Shauna wondered if the man would torture himself for not knowing his daughter was dead for a week. People seemed to think they should feel or know something in cases like this.

Zach was, again, as straight forward as he could be with the little they knew. “We don’t know for sure yet. We suspect closer to when she went missing.”

“So he hasn’t had her all this time?” This came from the doorway. Drew was back.

“No. We don’t believe so, but we’ll know more as soon as the medical examiner has done her examination.”

“Do you have any suspects?” the Senator asked.

Shauna could feel the tension rip through Zach at that, and she knew why. She’d heard rumors and read the reports in the paper a while back. She also knew enough from her contacts within the New Haven Police Department that one of the people killed in a string of murders had been Zach’s prime suspect.

They’d shared information with a family member, and it had resulted in the suspect being gutted before Zach could get there to arrest him. She had a feeling, Senator or not, Zach wouldn’t be free with information very easily now.

He shook his head. “I’ll let you know when we have more we can tell you.”

From the expressions of the Athill family, they knew he hadn’t answered the question directly. Leave it to a politician’s family to recognize Evasion 101.