Faithless by Karin Slaughter Read Free Book Online Page B

neighbors if they’ve seen anybody in or out recently who looked like they didn’t belong.”
    “I jog through there all the time,” Sara told him. “I’ve never seen anyone. We wouldn’t have even known she was there if you hadn’t tripped.”
    “Brad’s trying to get fingerprints off the pipe.”
    “Maybe you should dust for prints,” she said. “Or I will.”
    “Brad knows what he’s doing.”
    “No,” she said. “You cut your hand. Your blood is on that pipe.”
    Jeffrey paused a second. “He’s wearing gloves.”
    “Goggles, too?” she asked, feeling like a hall monitor but knowing she had to raise the issue. Jeffrey did not respond, so she spelled it out for him. “I don’t want to be a pain about this, but we should be careful until we find out. You would never forgive yourself if…” She stopped, deciding to let him fill in the rest. When he still did not respond, she asked, “Jeffrey?”
    “I’ll send it back with Carlos,” he said, but she could tell he was irritated.
    “I’m sorry,” she apologized, though she was not sure why.
    He was quiet again, and she could hear the crackling from his cell phone as he changed position, probably wanting to get away from the scene.
    He asked, “How do you think she died?”
    Sara let out a sigh before answering. She hated speculating. “From the way we found her, I would guess she ran out of air.”
    “But what about the pipe?”
    “Maybe it was too restrictive. Maybe she panicked.” Sara paused. “This is why I don’t like giving an opinion without all the facts. There could be an underlying cause, something to do with her heart. She could be diabetic. She could be anything. I just won’t know until I get her on the table- and then I might not know for certain until all the tests are back, and I might not even know then.”
    Jeffrey seemed to be considering the options. “You think she panicked?”
    “I know I would.”
    “She had the flashlight,” he pointed out. “The batteries were working.”
    “That’s a small consolation.”
    “I want to get a good photo of her to send out once she’s cleaned up. There has to be someone looking for her.”
    “She had provisions. I can’t imagine whoever put her in there was planning on leaving her indefinitely.”
    “I called Nick,” he said, referring to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s local field agent. “He’s going into the office to see if he can pull up any matches on the computer. This could be some kind of kidnapping for ransom.”
    For some reason, this made Sara feel better than thinking the girl had been snatched from her home for more sadistic purposes.
    He said, “ Lena should be at the morgue within the hour.”
    “You want me to call you when she gets here?”
    “No,” he said. “We’re losing daylight. I’ll head over as soon as we secure the scene.” He hesitated, like there was more he wanted to say.
    “What is it?” Sara asked.
    “She’s just a kid.”
    “I know.”
    He cleared his throat. “Someone’s looking for her, Sara. We need to find out who she is.”
    “We will.”
    He paused again before saying, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    She gently placed the receiver back in the cradle, Jeffrey’s words echoing in her mind. A little over a year ago, he had been forced to shoot a young girl in the line of duty. Sara had been there, had watched the scene play out like a nightmare, and she knew that Jeffrey had not had a choice, just like she knew that he would never forgive himself for his part in the girl’s death.
    Sara walked over to the filing cabinet against the wall, gathering paperwork for the autopsy. Though the cause of death was probably asphyxiation, central blood and urine would have to be collected, labeled and sent to the state lab, where it would languish until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s overburdened staff could get to it. Tissue would have to be processed and stored in the morgue for at least three years.