The Holiday Killer Read Online Free PDF

little ones still in there, and a lot of eggs."
    "More than likely." Liz stood up, taking in the sight of the body. Aside from the slit in his torso, which ran to his crotch, and his missing eyes, there were only a couple of burns on his wrists and—she leaned down to check—ankles, where he'd been restrained.
    This boy was too old for the Holiday Killer—ten, maybe eleven years old. His clothes were too well maintained for a homeless kid, but also too threadbare to be first-hand. He was from a poor neighborhood, maybe ran away from home and ended up nabbed. Maybe his parents were used to him staying away from home for days at a time. In the poorer districts, it wasn't unique for a kid to go wandering for a month before he turned back up again. The parents eventually stopped worrying and calling the police.
    She was starting to get the impression that this was not a Holiday Killer victim.
    Bill looked her over. "The Holiday Killer threatened Jamie. We were all worried the man would take him. And yet, here's his next victim, with no action taken against your son."
    "Are we sure he's the next victim?" Liz asked, looking at the boy. "No public death, no clear kidnapping, nothing. Just a body found in a watery grave, on Easter morning."
    "That's not strictly true," Lisa said, stepping up beside them. "They found three Easter eggs in his pockets. We're going to officially treat it as the Holiday Killer's crime, unless something pops up to make us think different."
    "But this one is different," Liz said, looking back at the body. "It's completely different from the others. No display, no heavy mutilation,… This death is completely different from those of the Holiday Killer's victims."
    "Until you can make a case substantiated with evidence that this was a copycat, or a completely different case, then you will treat this as the same." Sergeant Donhowi looked at Lisa. "I can't believe there's two child-killers in this town, not without evidence. I just can't. Now let's get this boy on the stretcher and get him home."
    "We have to work out where home is, first. It's a good thing he wasn't in the water too long; facial recognition might still work." Liz shook herself and looked at Lisa. "Can you organize that? I have to talk to the boys."
    Lisa looked at the fishermen and nodded, turning back to the body on the tarp. The forensics team was looking him over, taking photographs of whatever they could, including the assorted wildlife still nibbling on his entrails and skin.
    Liz headed over the swampy marsh, wind milling a couple of times as her feet sank deeper into the mud than she expected. By the time she got to where the two divers were standing, she was red-faced and out of breath.
    "God, I need a bath," she muttered, stepping up onto the pavement and heading for the fishermen standing uncomfortably near one of the first-responder vehicles, both studiously looking anywhere but at the body.
    She smiled at them as the shorter one looked at her, taking off her latex gloves and handing them to one of the forensics boys as he ran past.
    "Hi," she said, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I'm Special Detective Donhowi. I'd like to talk to the pair of you about what you found this morning."
    "Are you with the FBI?" one of them asked, hurriedly hiding something behind his back. "It's only, I wasn't meant to be on this shift this week, but my parole officer said I could go with the boat, long as I kept checking in."
    Liz filed that away for later. The man had a record, which meant if she tried his prints, he should show up on the database. After the last guy to find a body killed an officer and ran off, she wasn't about to let this pair go without being able to find them again, through any means necessary.
    "I'm not with the FBI, Mr. … Jones," she said, reading the name on his jacket, right below the label of the Dauntless , a fishing ship recently involved in a flashy bit of news she hadn't paid much attention to. "How long have you