Stone Maidens Read Online Free PDF Page A

lab-coat pocket—“leaves little doubt it’s the same man’s work. This man has strong hands. Calluses are built up over his medial finger pads, meaning he’s likely a farmhand, gas station attendant, or regular laborer of some kind. The job allows him to move around freely. He is efficient, gentlemen. No one’s reported seeing him yet. No one’s spotted a struggle.”
    Prusik’s eyes landed on the greenhorn recruit. “Any computer matches, Higgins?”
    The young man sat up straight. A long lock of dark hair fell across one eye. Tucking it back behind an ear, he skimmed through a pile of printouts.
    “Including assaults with mutilations involving women and all known assailants from ages eighteen to forty-five, forty-one hits came back for the Midwest corridor between Chicago and New Orleans. Thirteen are confirmed incarcerated, leaving twenty-eight.”
    “Yes, I know what forty-one minus thirteen equals, Mr. Higgins.” Prusik folded her arms across her chest. “What of the unaccounted?”
    He glanced up from his laptop. “Who? Me?”
    “Come on, Mr. Higgins.” Prusik motioned for him to continue.
    Higgins clicked open a series of spreadsheets, one leg wiggling tensely. Eisen had warned him to be prepared. “I haven’t received confirmations on their whereabouts during the dates in question. Only four have existing last-known addresses in Indiana and Illinois.”
    “And?”
    Leroy Burgess cleared his throat loudly. Prusik glanced over at the chemist and the fiber expert, Pernell Wyckoff, sitting next to him. What they lacked in communication skills they usually made up for in delivering the goods on trace elements and identification of the finer grades of wool, cotton, and polyester fibers from various clothing manufacturers. So far this time, though, they had not come up with much more than metallic grit, possibly rust from a vehicle trunk or truck bed.
    She looked back at the new guy. “And?” she repeated.
    “Still waiting to hear back from local authorities on those, ma’am,” Higgins said. “No current or outstanding warrants are showing.”
    She approached the man. “Higgins, you’re new here?”
    “Eighteen months with the bureau, ma’am.” It was the wrong answer.
    “But you transferred to forensics only last week, right?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Deciphering evidence in your case depends on programming ability, knowing your way around Internet access codes. But you’re only good to me if you can produce results. Eisen here says you can. Can you?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “When I report in from the field or, say, update you on a breaking development, I need to know you’re going to take that information and run with it. That means initiate without my asking,” she said in a lower voice. “Got it?”
    Higgins nodded, his lips pursed uncomfortably.
    “He’s been staying late, Christine,” Eisen underscored softly. “Like the rest of us.”
    “Late is not good enough.” Without taking her eyes off Higgins, Prusik said, “It’s all about science with a sense of
urgency
, gentlemen. I work late. You work late. But we can’t afford to have our results be late. I am in charge of investigating this case. As long as my ass is in a sling, so are yours. Understand?”
    “Yes, sir.” Color flooded Higgins’s cheeks and throat. “I mean ma’am.”
    “He likes creeks, gentlemen.” She capped the pen and faced the room. “So he can clean up after. They say it’s a gift when a complete stranger knows how to find his way quickly into a young girl’s heart. This guy has charm in spades. He’s not skirmishing with them out in the open. This isn’t a boorish thug. His victims offer little or no resistance. They go willingly to their deaths in well-concealed places near water.”
    Prusik glanced at Eisen. “Lights please, Brian.”
    Eisen went to the light switch by the door while Prusik arranged the slides on the glass surface of the special overhead projector, which had 30X