Missings, The by Peg Brantley Read Free Book Online Page A

Chase plugged "Santeria"into the search engine. There were a couple of postings associated with animal sacrifice and a lot of innuendo related to musicians and Hollywood celebrities. He clicked out of those sites. Innuendo would never count as evidence. Animal sacrifice did not connect beyond doubt to a mutilated human being.
    The Mexican drug cartel angle had some possibilities, except for one thing. It did not match up at all with what he’d learned of Rachelle Benavides. It had been a long time since a civilian had been able to fool Chase. His gut told him that this young girl was not involved in drugs. For the moment at least, he’d give her the benefit of the doubt.
    About to log out and head home for the night, his phone rang. What now?
    “What the hell are you still doin’ at work, Waters?” Sheriff Jerry Coble’s voice forged a balm to his senses after dealing with cults and human sacrifice.
    “Caught a case that’s giving me fits, Sheriff. Not gonna sleep well until it’s off the board.”
    He could almost see the man nod. “What do you need from the county?”
    “Did you guys have a couple of incidents last summer of murders where the victims were mutilated?”
    A brief silence on the line, then Coble cleared his throat. “Yep. We did.”
    “Did you solve them?”
    “Nope, and my guess is you’re not asking out of idle curiosity.”
    “I think we might have some connected cases in Aspen Falls.”
    “ Some ? As in, more than one?”
    “Looks that way. What can you remember about them? Yours, I mean.”
    “Hell, Waters. I sent your lieutenant all of the particulars.”
    Chase decided the prudent course of action would be to avoid any discussion of Lieutenant Butz. “Were the victims Hispanic?”
    “Yep. And missing what you might call vital parts.”
    “Did Dr. Taylor do the autopsies?” He couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t made a connection.
    “Nope. Jax was off at some continuing ed classes or some conference or something,” the sheriff said. “ME down in Denver took her place for about three weeks or so.”
    “Could you get me the paperwork?”
    “I’ll have it sent first thing when I get in the office tomorrow.”
    “Can you have it sent tonight?”

Chapter Thirteen
    Aspen Falls Police Department
    Friday, September 21
    Chase strode into the meeting room with a half-dozen of The Coffee Pod’s freshest muffins in one hand and three equally fresh coffees in the other. Daniel and Terri were already there.
    The three of them worked well as a team. Someone had set up the whiteboards in front of the room, and Daniel stood in front of them, marker in hand. Chase smiled. Of the three detectives, Daniel had the most legible handwriting. Both Chase and Terri wrote so badly their notations were often difficult to read even when they knew what it was supposed to say.
    “You look like hell.” Terri leveled her gaze in his direction.
    “Hey, I shaved.” Chase peeled off a strip of tissue under his chin.
    The notes he’d printed out before he went home last night sat on the table in front of the boards. They’d been read, and Daniel had already put up some column headers: DB #1 COUNTY, DB #2 COUNTY, DB #3 DUMPSTER, DB #4 HIKER, DB #5 BURIAL GROUNDS, MISSING: RACHELLE BENAVIDES, and MOTIVATION.
    There were two solid vertical lines separating the missing girl from the others. Cops were among the most hopeful people Chase knew.
    “Good job, Daniel,” Chase said. “Except move #4 next to our missing. No mutilation like the others. May or may not be connected.”
    Daniel made the change, then began adding the detail from Chase’s notes. Other than dates of discovery and autopsy results, there were precious few known facts. The hiker had the most. No ID, a wallet with seven dollars in cash and a photograph of a young woman. The back of the photograph had the name Maria, and the numbers 7/11. Presumably his wife, since the victim had also been wearing a cheap wedding band.
    Chase told Daniel to