Flashback (Kendra Michaels #11)

“It looks like a homemade garrote. The Bayside Strangler’s victims were strangled by what was thought to be extension cords. Pretty much just like this one, but none were ever recovered.” They stared down at it for a long moment. “Marlee, do you know why Chloe would have something like this in her house?”

“She was thorough. She might have made that herself to figure out the kind of weapon the killer might have used against her mother and all the others.”

“Reasonable enough. One thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

“Look closer.” She moistened her lips. “I think there’s blood on it.”

CHAPTER

6

Less than twenty minutes later, Detective Ronald Breen was standing alongside Kendra and Marlee in Chloe’s bedroom, staring at the garrote resting next to the square-shaped hole in the floor.

Kendra crossed her arms. “I’m guessing you walked right over this.”

Breen scratched his short mustache. “You guessed right. But I’m a bit curious about how in the hell you knew how to find it.” He looked at Marlee. “You told her about this?”

“Nope. I didn’t have a clue.”

Kendra smiled. “It’s a twelve-by-twelve-inch hole in the floor, Breen. It sounded like a bass drum when we walked across it. In my experience, your officers don’t pay nearly as much attention to their ears as they do their eyes.”

“You may be right about that. I probably walked over this thing half a dozen times.” He knelt and stared at the garrote. “It does look like blood on this thing. Though I’m not sure if the Bayside Strangler actually drew blood from any of his victims.”

“Two.” Kendra read from her phone screen. “Leah McLane and Katrina Burge. The others just showed bruising.”

Breen squinted at the gory photos on Kendra’s phone. “Wow, those are police crime scene photos. Did you get those off the Web?”

“No. Courtesy of the Morgan sisters. Scans of their work that your colleague carted off yesterday afternoon.”

“Oh, yeah. Perry’s taken over an entire conference room with that stuff.” Breen was still staring at the garrote. “You’re not suggesting that this contraption is the actual murder weapon, are you?”

“I have no idea. I just think it’s strange that it was so carefully hidden in the home of someone who devoted her life to finding a killer who murdered his victims with a cord just like this one.”

“I won’t argue with that.” He produced a clear plastic evidence bag. “You didn’t touch that thing with your bare hands, did you?”

“Please.”

“I had to ask.” He scooped up the garrote and sealed the bag. “I’ll have it tested, and if it’s blood, we’ll run DNA.”

“Good.”

He looked between the two women. “You find anything else I should know about?”

“Not yet, but the day’s still young. We’re about to head over to the sister’s place. Sloane Morgan’s house.” Kendra smiled. “Of course, you’ve already gone over it with the same fine-tooth comb you used to search this place. No way I could ever find anything there, right?”

“Very funny. Now I can see how you’ve earned that ‘pain in the ass’ rep.”

“Aw, come on. It was given purely out of affection.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Dr. Michaels.”

“Trust me, I will. Sometimes it’s the only way I can make it through the day.”

Breen chuckled as he left the room and walked toward the front door.

Marlee turned toward Kendra. “Now I see why Paula wanted to bring you in to this. You found something a whole army of cops couldn’t find.”