Hold on to Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

them.”
    Caitlin nodded. Bruises scattered over the bodies. Small round burns on breasts and thighs, probably a lit cigarette pressed against the tender skin. Thin cuts on the arms and abdomen, enough to bleed, enough to cause pain and terror, but not death.
    Except for Amy.
    Caitlin picked up the photos depicting Amy’s body. Her killing had been more violent, with bruising to her face absent from the other girls.
    And the stab wounds.
    She counted the jagged gashes. Seven in the abdominal area, three more on her upper torso.
    A vicious, brutal death.
    A personal murder.
    She’d known her killer and he’d known her.
    Why had he wanted her dead? To cut her out of his life? To keep her from belonging to someone else?
    The ultimate control, maybe.
    Darkness hovered at the edges of Caitlin’s mind, trying to steal her breath. She forced it back, focusing on the process of getting oxygen in and out of her lungs. She couldn’t fall prey to the panic, not here, not now.
    Not in front of Tick.
    She diverted her attention from the mutilation of Amy’s body, studied the pictorial record as a whole again. The bodies were too clean, the scenes too clean. “You didn’t find trace evidence on them, did you.”
    “No hairs, no fibers, no fluids. Bagged their hands, but I doubt Williams can pull anything.” Tick nudged a picture with a long finger. “I think he washed them before dumping them.”
    “So no clues as to the whereabouts of his kill site. And no DNA.”
    “Right.”
    “He thinks he’s smarter than us.” Jeff’s words held a note of annoyed offense.
    “What else do you have?”
    “Not much.” Frustration darkened Tick’s voice. “Witness statements from the night Sharon disappeared, preliminary interviews with the girls’ friends and families. Some items pulled from Amy’s apartment this morning—her address book, her laptop.”
    “Anything from those?”
    “I’m still trying to access her files.” Cookie slumped in his chair. “She password protected a lot of things. Checked out her MySpace page online, her little blog, that kind of stuff. Thousands of damn comments on her MySpace. I’m working through all of those.”
    “My partner might be able to help with that. She’s a computer expert…she’s amazing.” Caitlin’s concentration strayed to the photos once more and she traced a finger over the bruises at Amy’s neck, down to the stab wounds. The girl had to have been terrified. Caitlin made herself shrug off the remembrances clamoring in her head. “I’ll get you her number.”
    Jeff leaned forward, steepling his fingers together. “Where do you suggest we go from here?”
    “Equivocal—”
    “Forensic analysis,” Tick finished for her in his deep drawl.
    “Exactly.”
    “Mind repeating that in English?” Cookie chuckled.
    “It means we’re starting over,” Tick said.
    “Going through all the evidence.” Caitlin avoided the urge to rub at her tired, burning eyes. The nightmares and periodic insomnia were bad enough; plunging back into the field with this case, working with Tick Calvert was even worse.
    “Sharon didn’t keep an address book.” Cookie’s musing brought her attention around to him. “We should see if Vontressa did. We could set up a database and cross-reference the people they all knew. Since most murder victims know their killers, it makes sense that the three local girls may have known this guy.”
    Caitlin flicked a glance at him, admiration stirring to life in her. Brilliance lurked beneath the flippant façade. She smiled, the first real one all day, hell, probably the first one in weeks, maybe even months, if she was honest. “Good idea.”
    “I have lots of those.” He grinned, a hint of salaciousness in the expression. “You and I should explore one or two.”
    Jeff groaned. “Oh, God, here we go.”
    “What we’re going to explore is the rule of twenty-four.” Tick’s words held a steely warning. “We’ll start with Amy, since she’s