Karen Rose - Have You Seen Her?

Steven frowned. "She'd better."

"She will," Jenna said from the door. "I'm safe as I'll ever be with these fine people to guard me." She smiled at Steven and his heart did a slow roll in his chest. "Go home, Lucas. I'll be fine."

"I'm betting Steven will be, too," Nancy snickered and Liz and Sandra grinned knowingly while Jenna's cheeks heated to an attractive rose.

"So will Helen," Liz added. "Now maybe she can concentrate on finding somebody for me. I'm not picky. Tall, dark, handsome. Rich is good."

"Don't forget a good kisser," Sandra said. "And, uh, undercover skill doesn't hurt either."

Nancy's snicker became a full laugh. "Is he, Jenna?"

Jenna set her mouth in a prim line even as her violet eyes danced. "That would be telling."

Liz took Jenna's arm and led her from the room. "Which is just what we had in mind. We have very sophisticated interrogation techniques."

Sandra grabbed her purse with an amused backward glance at Steven. "Yeah, it's called thirty-two-ounce margari-tas at happy hour."

Thursday, October 13, 8:00 A.M.

"Okay, boys and girls," Steven said loudly to bring his team to order. "Tell us what you know."

Sandra rolled her eyes. "That you're totally tubular and we're like, so lucky , y'know, to be like, your helpers and all." She pretended to stick her finger down her throat. "Gag me."

Kent snickered and Steven felt his cheeks heat. "Thank you, Sandra," he said dryly, "for that fascinating foray into adolescent linguistics. Do we know anything more pertinent to the matter at hand before venturing out into yet another day with our teen interviewees?"

Sandra shuddered and Nancy looked pained. Liz just sat there grinning.

"What?" he asked her. "What's so funny?"

Liz shook her head, her eyes twinkling. "Nothing. I was just thinking how much a good night's rest agrees with you. I expect Jenna is equally rested."

He knew his redheaded complexion was working overtime, but couldn't stop the grin that nearly broke his jaw any more than he could erase from his mind the image of Jenna slipping into his room last night, her dark hair stark against her white silk kimono-style robe. Then the kimono slithered to the floor and there were only silk stockings, garters, and… skin. And Jenna.

Davies scowled, which made Steven feel inordinately pleased. That he'd had a rousing, satisfying night of sex must show. He could certainly think of nothing else short of blows to make the interest in Davies's eyes disappear. Because the man still was interested in Jenna. His Jenna .

Steven looked away from Davies and back to the group. "Okay, back to business. Kent?"

Kent sobered and opened his folder. "Alev's limbs were severed with a circular saw."

Everyone around the table became alert. "What?" Steven asked. "Can they tell what kind?"

"Diane's got one of her guys tracing the pattern of the saw." Kent looked slightly nauseous, then visibly shook himself back into focus. "The hairs we found in Kelly's room yesterday were microscopically similar to the hair from the Clary clearing. Same color, same everything."

"From the same guy?" Steven asked.

"Without DNA confirmation I can only testify that they are similar," Kent answered. "But between us, I'd have to say yes."

"What about the white powder?"

Kent frowned at that. "Ketamine, dried. This is a common way to treat the substance. Dissolve it in a solvent and let it crystallize on filter paper. The powder is commonly rolled into cigarette paper, lit up, and inhaled. Three puffs and the user's out. It's more uncommon to be directly inhaled. I found a fiber attached to one of the powder crystals." He pulled out an enlarged microscopic view. "This is at five hundred times magnification. See the fiber attached to the crystal? It's a specialty nonwoven, made for filtration."

Steven stared at the photo. "How special?"

Kent shook his head in disgust. "Not special enough. I called around and found three chemical supply houses that could FedEx it to me overnight. No questions asked, pay by credit card."

Steven pushed the photo aside. "Well, damn "

"But at least you know how he's overpowering the girls," Davies said thoughtfully. "It's a new piece of his MO. In Seattle, he just knocked them off with a pipe."

Nancy fidgeted with her glasses, her lace worried. "Nancy?" Steven asked. "What's wrong?"

She bit her lip. "Well, yesterday I asked Dr. Bondioli at the school for the attendance rosters. I was thinking that all the known abductions have happened at night. Except for the day in the clearing. You figured that Pal, the Clary's dog, attacked the killer sometime between ten and noon."

"And whoever did it wouldn't have been in school that morning," Liz said slowly.

Steven's gut twisted. "Please tell me Rudy wasn't in school that day, Nancy."

Nancy sighed. "I wish I could, but I can't. He was there."

Davies paled. "Maybe he skipped a class and they just marked him present."

"I thought about that," Nancy said gently. "I checked the individual attendance records. He has Jenna between ten and noon. She marked him present and she of all people wouldn't lie."

"Could the attendance records have been changed?" Sandra asked. "Hacked?"

Nancy shrugged. "Sure. But teachers keep individual attendance records. It should be easy enough to check. I think he was in school that day, Steven. Which means-"

"He wasn't in the clearing," Steven finished grimly. "Which means the hair isn't his."

"Which means the hairs we found yesterday aren't his," Kent added, just as grimly.

Liz closed her eyes. "Which means all this time we've been looking at the wrong guy."

"Sonofabitch," Harry snarled softly.

"This can't be right," Davies said, sounding a little desperate. "It's him."

"We'll check Jenna's attendance records when we get to the school this morning," Steven said evenly. "If he was there, we have to eliminate him as a suspect." He looked away, furious with himself for allowing his team to become so easily sidetracked. He smacked the table with the flat of his hand. " Dammit ." Then he looked back at Nancy and made himself smile at her. "Good work, Nance. Really, really good work." He stood up and paced. "Let's review what we have. An athlete of some kind with dark hair. We still don't know what the tattoo means." He looked over at Davies who shook his head mutely. "We know Roosevelt High is a common factor, that the three dead girls all cheered at games their schools played against Roosevelt. We know our killer walked across sawdust and wears a size ten shoe and has access to a circular saw. We know someone ordered ketamine through Mr. Richards's account, strange because the old man is dead." He looked over at Harry. "Harry, see what more you can dig up on that while we question the rest of the kids."

"Okay, Steven," Harry said, his face dejected.

His whole team was dejected. Dammit all to hell. "Perk up, people. We've got him running. We just need to make him run faster, so we can make him trip."

When everyone filed out, only Steven and Liz remained. "Don't lecture me, Liz," he said sourly, looking away. "I'm kicking my own ass hard enough for both of us."

Liz put her hand on his arm and waited until he met her steady gaze. "Don't kick yourself, Steven. I thought Rudy was the one, too. I even went out on a legal limb." Her smile was wry. "I was going to surprise you with it this morning. I got William Parker's records unsealed."

Steven's jaw dropped. "You did what? How ?"

Liz shrugged. "Friend of a friend from law school is now a judge on the Washington State Court of Appeals. I told him what we had and asked if he'd release Parker's DNA just so we could eliminate a suspect. I think he disagreed with the original ruling and pulled some strings to grant my request. The DNA prints should be here by courier by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."