Ernie waved his acknowledgement and stepped off to gather his guys. Several officers had to wade waist deep in the water in order to pull the body out. With Ernie’s seniority, he managed to stay on the riverbank and he looked quite relieved to be doing so. They carried the dead girl a few yards and hoisted her up onto an awaiting gurney, readied by the CSIs with an opened black-vinyl body bag.
Emily followed the men and the body as they wrestled it into the open bag. When the officers backed away, she stepped in and studied the girl’s face, relieved that even with the bruising she could tell it was not the girl from the hotel.
Colin and the doc stood across the gurney from Emily.
“Just like I thought,” Dr. Walters confirmed as he did a cursory exam, “beaten pretty badly, but I won’t know cause of death until I get her back to the morgue for autopsy. She does have signs of drug use, so I’ll have to run a tox screen, get her blood work, see what comes back.”
“Is rape a possibility, Doc?” Emily piped in.
“I can’t say just yet, Ms. Parker, but I’ll do that exam when I get her back to my lab. As soon as I’m done, I’ll get the results to Colin. I can tell you one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” Colin asked.
“My CSI, Jackson, says it doesn’t look like she was killed here—no signs of struggle. Looks like the body was dumped in the river and she caught on some thick branches in the water. That’s where the guy found her, bobbing in the river where the officers pulled her out.”
“That’s good to know,” Colin replied.
Dr. Walters zipped the dark plastic body bag shut over the young woman and motioned to the body retrieval team to take her away.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I come up with something.” Dr. Walters picked up his medical bag and turned to walk away. “Glad to have you back, Andrews,” he called out over his shoulder.
“Thanks, Doc,” Colin replied before turning his attention to Emily. “I’m going to have one of the officers take you home.”
“I want to stay,” she argued.
“I’m going to be here for a while, interviewing the man who found the body, talking to the CSIs and stuff. There’s no need for you to be here. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“But I want to stay.”
“Not this time, Emily, please.”
She wanted to make her case to stay, but she could see there was no point in arguing about it. Colin had a job to do and it needed his full attention. “Okay, okay, you win. As much as I hate to, I’ll go home.”
“Thank you.” He looked in her eyes, then leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before he turned to call for a ride. “Hey, Ernie,” he shouted to his man, who came running, “can you get one of the guys to give Emily a ride home?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
~*~
Emily went home, did a sweep of her little house, and checked the locks on her doors and windows. Feeling safe and alone, she made herself a cup of tea and crawled into bed to read a mystery novel.
She’d hoped the book would take her mind off Colin and the dead girl, but she couldn’t get the ghastly image of the girl’s pale, beaten, and lifeless body out of her mind. She read the same page over and over again, finding her mind drifting away from what she was reading, wondering what happened to that girl—and the one from the hotel restroom. Could they be connected?
Unable to sleep, she decided to check the GSP tracker to see what Jethro was up to. She checked the history of his movements since she attached the tracking device that afternoon. It showed him going back to his condo, making a stop along the way, probably at a store, then later taking a route down her street.
Then that must have been him out there before Colin arrived.
Emily checked his movements after leaving her street and saw he had gone back to his place. The vehicle had not moved since.
Exhausted, she climbed back in bed and decided to try to get some sleep. Her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand, and she saw she’d gotten a text from Camille reminding her of the football party the following afternoon.
She turned off the light and snuggled down under the covers. The phone buzzed again. She