LITMIR.BIZ

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as well,” Kate said. “This way we can start looking the case over with our own eyes, without the influence of what anyone else has found.”

      “You think we need to speak to the daughter next?”

      “Probably. And then we’ll look into the first crime scene and see if we can find anything there. Hopefully we’ll find someone who’s a bit more sociable than our friend Palmetto.”

      They headed back out of the house, turning off the lights as they went. As they headed back outside, the sun finally peeking out from the edge of the world, Kate carefully placed what she thought was a scrap of a child’s blanket into her pocket and could not help but think of her granddaughter sleeping under a similar blanket.

      Walking toward the sun did nothing to suppress the chill that crept through her.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      Breakfast consisted of a Panera Bread drive-thru in Roanoke. It was there, while waiting in the small early-morning line, that DeMarco placed several calls to set up a meeting with Olivia Nash, daughter of the recently slayed couple. She was currently staying with her aunt in Roanoke and was, by her aunt’s own words, an absolute wreck.

      After getting the address and approval from the aunt, they headed for the aunt’s house just after seven o’clock. The early hour was not an issue because, according to the aunt, Olivia had refused to sleep ever since having discovered her parents.

      When Kate and DeMarco arrived at the house, the aunt was sitting on the porch. Cami Nash stood when Kate got out of the car but made no move to come meet them. She had a cup of coffee in her hand and the tired look on her face made Kate think it was certainly not the first she had enjoyed this morning.

      “Cami Nash?” Kate asked.

      “Yeah, that’s me,” she said.

      “First and foremost, please accept my sympathies for your loss,” Kate said. “Were you and your brother close?”

      “Pretty close, yeah. But right now, I have to look past that. I can’t… grieve right now because Olivia needs someone. She’s not the same person I spoke with on the phone last week. Something in her is broken. I can’t even imagine…what it must have been like to find them like that and…”

      She trailed off and sipped down some of her coffee very quickly, trying to distract herself from the onslaught of tears that seemed to be rapidly approaching.

      “Is she going to be okay to speak with us?” DeMarco asked.

      “Maybe for a while. I told her you were coming and she seemed to understand what I meant. That’s why I’m meeting you out here before you go in. I feel like I need to tell you that she’s a normal, well-rounded young woman. In the state she’s in now, though, I didn’t want you to think she had some sort of mental issues or something.”

      “Thanks for that,” Kate said. She had seen people absolutely devastated by grief before and it was never a pretty sight. She couldn’t help but wonder how much experience DeMarco had with it.

      Cami led them into the house. It was as quiet as a tomb inside, the only sound coming from the hum of the air conditioner. Kate noticed that Cami walked slowly, making sure not to make too much noise. Kate followed suit, wondering if Cami was hoping the silence would help Olivia finally fall asleep or if she was simply trying not to alarm the already-fragile young woman in any way.

      They entered the living room, where a young woman was half-sitting, half-lying on the couch. Her face was red, her eyes slightly swollen from recently weeping. She looked as if she hadn’t slept in about a week rather than just a day or so. When she saw Kate and DeMarco enter, she sat up a bit.

      “Hi, Ms. Nash,” Kate said. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us. We’re so sorry for your loss.”

      “It’s Olivia, please.” Her voice was hoarse and tired—almost as worn out as her eyes seemed to be.

      “We’ll make this as quick as possible,” Kate said. “I understand that you had just come in from college. Do you know if your parents had planned to have anyone else over that day?”

      “If they did, I didn’t know about it.”

      “Please forgive me for asking, but do you know if either of your parents had any long-standing grudges with anyone? People they might have considered enemies?”

      Olivia shook her head firmly. “Dad was married once before…before he met Mom. But even with his ex-wife, he was on good terms.”

      Olivia started crying noiselessly. A series of tears slipped from her eyes and she did not bother trying to wipe them away.

      “I want to show you something,” Kate said. “I don’t know if it has any significance to you or not. If it does, it could be quite emotional. Would you be willing to take a look and let us know if it looks familiar to you?”

      Olivia looked alarmed, maybe even a little scared. Kate really didn’t blame here and almost didn’t want to show her the scrap of fabric Palmetto had handed them—the scrap Kate felt certain was part of a blanket or quilt. A bit reluctantly, she pulled it out of her pocket.

      She knew right away that Olivia didn’t recognize it. There was an immediate sense of relief and confusion on the young woman’s face as she looked at the plastic bag and what it held inside.

      Olivia shook her head but kept her eyes locked on the clear plastic bag. “No. I don’t recognize it. Why?”

      “We can’t reveal that right now,” Kate said. Truthfully, there was nothing unlawful about revealing it to the next of kin…but Kate didn’t see the point in traumatizing Olivia Nash any further.

      “Do you have any idea who did this?” Olivia asked. She looked lost, like she did not recognize where she was…maybe not even herself. Kate couldn’t recall the last time she had seen someone so clearly detached from everything around her.

      “Not right now,” she said. “But we will keep you posted. And please,” she said, looking from Olivia and then to Cami, “contact us if you can think of anything that might help.”

      At that remark, DeMarco withdrew a business card from the inner pocket of her jacket and handed it to Cami.

      Perhaps it was the years she had spent in retirement or feeling guilty for having to abandon her post as grandmother last night, but Kate felt awful when she left the room, leaving Olivia Nash to her intense grief. As she and DeMarco made their way out onto the porch, she could hear the young woman let out a low moan of distress.

      Kate and DeMarco shared an uneasy glace as they headed to the car. From within her inner pocket, Kate could feel the presence of that scrap of fabric and it suddenly felt very heavy indeed.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      As Kate left the small town of Whip Springs and headed for Roanoke, DeMarco used her iPad to pull up the case files on the first set of murders. It was nearly an exact copy and paste of the Nash crime scene; a couple had been murdered in their home in a particularly gruesome fashion. Preliminary results turned up no likely suspects and there had been no witnesses.

      “Does it say anything about anything left behind in the throats or mouths of either of the victims?” Kate asked.

      DeMarco scanned the reports and shook her head. “Not from what I can see. I think it’s maybe a—no, wait, here it is. In the coroner’s report. The fabric wasn’t discovered until yesterday—a day and a half after the bodies were discovered. But yes…the report says that there was a small piece of fabric lodged in the mother’s throat.”

      “Does it give a description?”

      “No. I’ll give the coroner a call and see if I can get a picture of it.”

      DeMarco wasted no time, making the call right away. While she was on the phone, Kate tried to think of anything that might be able to link two seemingly random couples, given what had been found in the throats of the females. While Kate had yet to see the piece of fabric that had been taken from the throat of the first female

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