DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) by J Kiefer (best classic books to read TXT) 📗

“The doctor saw nothing,” Jared replied. “He stated that somewhere around one or one thirty in the morning, he got hungry and decided to go to the break room for a snack. He said he was there for around fifteen minutes, and upon returning to the examination room, he found the body missing. He immediately reported the incident to the officers on duty, which then went about treating the lab as a crime scene. As you already know, up to this point the investigation has turned up nothing.”

Johansson said, “The real question in all of this is not just how, but why? Why this particular body? The coroner did have time to examine the body before it disappeared and the wounds on the man are not consistent with the same type of weapon that killed the other victims. The murder weapon usually preferred by the Stalker, and the one that killed the other two victims, was a large serrated hunting knife. This one, however, is clean and seems to be made from something more precise, like a surgical instrument. That being said, out of all of the victims that this bastard has left in his wake, what makes this one special?”

“Other than the victim being killed by a completely different type of weapon,” commented Jared, “he is a man and not a woman. That’s not usual for the Stalker. Maybe the man was killed because he stumbled on the Stalker killing the girl. A case of wrong place wrong time.”

Johansson nodded.

An officer walked up and handed Dana some paperwork. She casually looked it over as she listened to Jared and Johansson talk. After reading it, she knew one more thing that made the missing corpse special. “Well, actually there is another thing that makes him stand out,” she said, handing Jared the papers. “Out of the three victims we have here, he is the only one that could not be identified.”

“You mean we couldn’t verify his name or where he lives?” Jared asked.

“I mean, that upon investigating him, we found nothing. As far as we can gather, he has never been arrested for a crime and his fingerprints are not on file in any database we have access to. He has no birth certificate that we can locate, and no one has come forward yet looking for a missing person of his description. Agent Johansson may have access to more information than us, but as far as our investigators are concerned, he’s a ghost.”

“That is strange,” said Johansson. “It is possible that he’s from another country. I’ll run him through the agency’s database and let you know what I come up with. Most likely he is a foreigner who is not registered with any local agencies. Honestly, I would not worry about it. It may be strange, but I am sure we will find a rational explanation for the disappearance.”

Dana scrunched up her forehead slightly and squinted her eyes. “If you say so, but I have been a cop for a long time, andI have never heard of a body disappearing from a morgue.”

He shrugged her concerns off with a smile. “True, but this guy was probably just some immigrant who was at the wrong place, wrong time. Don’t worry, though. I will look into it and let you know if I find anything.”

Dana was still unconvinced, but she let it go for now. As she thought, her hand gently brushed up against her chest, and it took everything in her not to freeze in panic when she felt the small locket underneath her shirt. Instantly the events from this morning and the night before rushed back to her and she balked visibly.

“You okay, Detective?” Agent Johansson asked curiously. “You seem like you are about to lose your coffee.”

Dana composed herself quickly and physically waved away Johansson’s concern. “I’m fine. Just tired, is all. I didn’t sleep well last night, and I think I just need something a bit stronger than coffee to get me fully going today. I will be fine, but I do need to go over a few things with my partner here before we get the day started.”

“Okay…” Johansson replied. “Well, I have to go make a few calls and go over a few emails, anyway. I will be forwarding whatever your tech geeks found to my people in NYC, and I’ll bring you both up to speed as soon as I do.”

Jared also was unconvinced, and he watched her with concern as Johansson walked away, already talking loudly on his phone. He noticed that Dana was absentmindedly playing with something through her shirt and he wondered about it.

“You good, partner?” he asked. “I know how you act when you are overtired, and you are not that grouchy yet. In fact, you are not even as mean as usual.”

“Well, if you want, I can be even more of a bitch,” Dana snapped, her hand never leaving the place on her shirt.

“Whoa,” responded Jared, putting his hands up. “Dang, Dana, I’m just concerned. You are visibly shaken by something and it has me worried. I know this case has taken its toll on you, but I can tell that something else has gotten under your skin. Honestly, I haven’t seen you this shaken up in years.”

Dana sighed. “I need to talk to you about something, but it has to be in private. I think it may have something to do with the murders, and it has me… spooked, for lack of a better word.”

“All right,” he said. “Let’s get out of here and go to the coffee shop around the corner. That should be private enough and you can tell me this big secret of yours there.”

“I never said anything about a secret.”

“You don’t have to,” he replied with a smirk. “As I said, I know you and I can tell when you have something you need to get off your chest.”

“Well, you got me.”

And in more ways than you