Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,88

is the work of the same killer.

He nodded to Jaylon and the pair flipped over the whiteboard stationed at their end of the conference room. At the top were eight-by-ten photos of Art and Mia, but not how they’d appeared at the crime scenes. Instead, Aaron had asked Jaylon to post Art’s photo as a young man just entering the army and the photo of Mia from her first year in college holding her violin. He’d made them people, not just victims.

Below those photos were the pictures of each of the crime scenes, showing them posed and a second one showing closeups of them looking, Brianna knew, to the east.

Aaron gave a summary of the bios of both Art and Mia, then he spoke how each body had been cleaned from head to toe post-mortem and changed into clean clothes—both appropriate to an earlier time in their lives—before being staged to be looking at the sunrise when found.

“It says in your report that they were found exsanguinated?” the police chief asked. “But your crime scenes are pretty bloodless.”

“We believe there is another crime scene where the victims are held and killed,” Jaylon spoke up, then glanced at Anita.

“The cause of death is exsanguination,” she said, taking over the telling of the story. “We believe he is harvesting their blood.”

“Harvesting?” This from an Asian American woman in a patrolman’s uniform of white blouse and blue slacks, seated across the table from Brianna.

“Yes, ma’am,” Ramos said, deferring to the woman’s rank. “This isn’t a quick kill. We’ve determined that he slowly drains them of their blood. This can take several hours or even days, depending on the health of his victims.” She flipped a page on the file in front of her. “We found levels of Ketamine and GHB in both autopsies—”

“How did you find drugs in their system if there is no blood?” Captain Stedaman asked.

“There was a small amount of blood in the first victim we found,” Anita pointed to Art’s picture. “But not enough to do a toxicology test. We drained a small amount of urine that had pooled in his bladder and also tested for drugs from hair samples.” She pointed to Mia. “The second body we found, which we believe may have been his first kill was frozen, so we used hair samples from her, too.”

“Wait,” the chief said, holding up his hand. “What do you mean she was frozen?”

Aaron took over once more, explaining that they believed Mia was actually the killer’s first victim and that he’d frozen her body for what was probably six or seven months, based on the last time anyone had spoken with her. He also went on to explain that they believed whoever was doing this was choosing the homeless, because they were already an at-risk population and easy to disappear them. “As Jaylon said at the beginning of this, no one looks for someone they already consider missing.”

Several heads nodded around the table.

“True. If you’re going hunting, look for the easiest prey,” Carson said.

“What can you tell us about this murderer since you’re the profiler? And by the way, how did you come to be in on this so quickly?” The Chief lifted one brow in suspicion at him.

“Special Agent Smith is on sabbatical from the bureau right now,” Aaron stepped in to say. “He is a friend of a friend of mine and offered to help.”

“Considering we have a sick sonofabitch killing in our community, we of course appreciate all the help we can get, ” Captain Stedaman fixed a serious look at Aaron, the unsaid warning that Aaron was skirting the line of not following protocols hanging between them.

“Yes, sir,” Aaron said, the little muscle in his jaw ticking.

“Before we hear from our FBI friend, Investigator Ramos, were there any other drugs found in the toxicology tests?” the Chief asked.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “We found small levels of Methamphetamine.”

“Great,” another of the uniformed officers on the opposite side of the table said. “He’s going for homeless drug addicts?”

“I didn’t say that,” Ramos said to the man, just a little on the testy side.

“If you found Meth—”

“As I said,” it was Ramos’s turn to interrupt him, “we found a small amount of Methamphetamine in both their samples. Not enough to indicate long term use. Since we know he’s draining their blood, the cardiac stimulant affect of Meth could have been used to keep the victim’s blood pressure elevated and their heart beating to circulate the blood as the volume