great-grandchild,” she said, and grinned. “I just look like a spring chicken!”
He lowered his head, smiling. Casey had fluffy silver hair—and more energy than a twenty-year-old.
She grew serious. “So, another body in the Everglades. I take it you don’t think these are all separate cases?”
He shook his head. “Not this case or the one before it and the two before that. They were killed in the same fashion. Throats slit, but quickly, doesn’t appear there was torture involved—something far more like execution-style. Did you see the last crime scene photos?”
“No. I didn’t want to be influenced. You know how that goes. You can’t make evidence meet your theory. You always have to fashion what you’re doing—sketching, investigating—to what we know as facts. Okay, well, sketching is a bit different, but I didn’t want to be swayed in any way from what your clerk was going to tell me.”
“I like it,” he told her. As he spoke, he saw Brianna Adair coming into the coffee shop. He rose, and when she arrived at the table, he introduced her to Casey. They chatted, seeming to hit it off right away. A good thing. That meant Brianna would speak with her easily.
He asked what the two would like, then ordered coffee all around with a sampling of the menu’s little desserts. When their order arrived, Casey pulled out her sketchbook.
Brianna thought the woman from her shop had been about thirty. Slim. Her hair had been shoulder length and golden blond. Her face narrow. The nose small. Eyes large, brows arched and waxed or plucked perfectly. The young woman’s mouth had been generous, her teeth had appeared to be perfect.
That might mean someone at the morgue had searched for a dental match, but if they had discovered one, they had yet to inform him.
The description went on as Casey sketched. Brianna instructed her. “The nose just a wee bit longer. Perfect. The mouth, a little wider, with a beautiful smile. Oh, and her eyes! They were majestically blue, like a bright day!”
The eyes...
Axel hadn’t seen her eyes. They had been gone. Pecked away by carrion birds.
It saddened him, as it always did. Casey went on with the sketch; when she was done, she had created a likeness of a lovely, smiling young woman.
Axel was sure it was the young woman he had seen so horrifically destroyed on the bank of the canal in the Everglades.
“Thank you so much for your help,” Axel told Brianna.
Brianna studied the likeness a moment longer and then looked at him. “You think that this girl might be...the Everglades victim?” she whispered.
“Possibly,” he said. He wished that he could lie.
* * *
Raina spent about an hour working with Titan, though it wasn’t necessary. Titan knew his part. It was something that occupied her and kept her mind somewhat busy.
Titan knew his drill. And he was very happy to please her just as he had always been. She’d gotten him as a rescue, and she could only assume whoever had left him at the shelter had simply not expected him to become such a big dog—though, in her mind, it had to have been apparent that he would grow quite large. But people left animals at shelters for all kinds of reasons, many of which angered her. But sometimes people just had no choice.
She was, naturally, friends with a lot of people who worked at animal shelters. She volunteered time herself but could only bear to work at “no kill” facilities.
At some point, she realized she was still practicing with Titan because she didn’t want to think.
Today had surely been the longest day in history.
And a strange day. It had been years since she’d seen Axel Tiger—and even then, she’d only met him briefly.
But in that one day, it seemed he’d left quite an impression. She’d been fascinated by him when she’d been a teenager.
That fascination hadn’t gone away.
Sleeping wasn’t easy; she kept thinking about him.
He’d matured nicely.
And he’d believed her. He’d rushed right in—almost like a knight on a white horse—and rescued her when the police had been convinced she was somehow guilty.
Her brother had come to her rescue, too—and she hadn’t remembered to call him and thank him—even if Axel had used his influence to get her released.
That, too, was worrisome. It still bothered her.
Thinking of her brother, she quickly gave him a call. She loved her brother. He was, in her mind, an amazing man. A kid in love with comics and superheroes, he had wanted to do