Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,57

said she was playing for change from the passersby. I don’t remember where.”

“So, she was probably homeless, playing for loose change to feed her habit, since the tracks on her arms suggests she’d been using again.” Aaron paused and called to Ramos, “Anita? Are those fresh track marks?”

Instead of yelling back her reply, the tech exchanged some words with Carson and the pair walked back to the cruiser.

“They were fresh at the time she was killed,” Ramos said.

“So, yes, they’re fresh,” Aaron said.

“Well, no,” the tech said.

“Which is it?” Aaron asked, drawing his brows down in confusion. “Are they fresh or not?”

“What she’s trying to tell you is, this victim was frozen,” Carson said.

“Frozen?” the trio said at once, turning to stare at Ramos.

“We’ll have to wait on the official autopsy,” she said, “but the core liver temperature is five degrees Celsius. So, about forty in Fahrenheit.”

“Doesn’t the body usually lose all its heat when it dies?” Brianna asked.

Ramos shook her head. “Not like this. It loses heat until it reaches the ambient room temperature. I’d say it’s just thawing out. We’ll know more after the lab runs some tests on the cells. But the moisture under the body also suggests she’d been frozen and left here to thaw.”

“I’d say more posed than simply left,” Carson said, drawing all their attention to him. “May I ask which direction your previous victim was facing?”

Aaron and Brianna exchanged a puzzled look.

“East?” she said.

“Yep. East. Why?” he asked Carson.

At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds and over the skyline to shine directly on Mia’s face.

“That’s why.”

“Why did you call our other guy the previous victim? Don’t you mean first?” Jaylon asked.

Carson shook his head. “If we’re correct and this woman has been frozen a while, unless we find your other victim was also frozen”—

“He wasn’t,” Aaron said. “We have eyewitness verification he was alive at least a week ago.”

The profiler gave a quick nod of acknowledgement, “Then we have to assume, unless we find any other frozen corpses, that this is victim number one.”

“And something about Mia might have triggered the killer to begin killing,” Brianna said.

“I don’t see why I can’t go to my own apartment,” Paula said, seated in the back of Aaron’s SUV.

Brianna and Aaron had switched the old beat up sedan for his SUV after Mia’s body had been taken to the county morgue. She’d wanted to go back to the station and answer any other questions he or Special Agent Smith might’ve had about Mia, but Aaron had insisted they needed to get to the hospital to relieve Nana. They’d agreed to meet up with the others in the afternoon to go over the case information that they had so far and hopefully the preliminary autopsy report would be available, although they all believed it would show the same cause of death—a slow torturous draining of all her blood.

After leaving the others at the crime scene, she and Aaron had walked in just as the doctor finished his visit and decided Paula was well enough to be discharged home, but only if she had someone to help take care of her. That had evolved into a discussion about Paula’s safety and the need for in home care. Paula had bristled at having her independence curtailed, but realized the only way to get out of the hospital was to give in. Now she was reverting to the level of a teenager, whining about doing what was best for her.

Thinking about how her friend had died, saddened and angered Brianna. She wasn’t losing another one to this maniac.

“Like we said at the hospital,” she bit out through nearly clenched teeth, half turning in her seat to focus a steely-eyed stare at Paula, “you need care and help getting around right now. We think Stanley may be able to identify Art’s killer, so he needs to be protected. For all we know, you may have come into contact with the killer, too. It makes sense to move both of you to a safehouse until this is solved and you are back on your feet. Get over it or Aaron is turning this car around and taking you right back to the hospital. Got it?”

Paula let out a huff and turned to stare out the window, her hand stroking over Stanley’s head in her lap. “I get it.”

Brianna opened her mouth to apologize, then closed it and faced the front once more. She knew she was taking her anger and