But hunting a killer was dangerous. In his line of work he’d learned that firsthand. He’d known Kate only briefly, but holding her while she cried made him feel protective of her. No way was he trusting Kate’s safety to someone else.
Jase left the office, his first stop the morgue. According to Kate, Dr. Jerome Maxwell was the medical examiner who had handled her sister’s case.
For a bounty hunter, the right contacts meant the difference between success and failure. Jase knew Jerry Maxwell. He’d helped him locate his grandson, who had dropped out of school and was hanging around with a bad crowd. Jase had found him, talked to him, helped set him straight. The boy was back in class and doing well.
“Hawk,” Maxwell called out as Jase walked through the door. “It’s been a while. It’s good to see you.”
“You, too, Jerry.”
“Have a seat.” Maxwell sat down at his desk, and Jase sat down in the chair beside it.
“What can I do for you?”
“I need information on a dead girl named Christina Gallagher. Died a little over a week ago.”
Maxwell nodded. “Homicide victim. I remember her sister, Kathryn. Beautiful woman.”
“Yeah, well, according to Kate... Kathryn... Christina was beautiful, till she started doing drugs.”
Maxwell located the file, set it down and slid it in front of Jase. He flipped it open to the photos of the victim. Pale, emaciated, eyes sunken in, Chrissy Gallagher looked nothing like her older sister.
“Cause of death was blunt force trauma,” Maxwell said. “She was very badly beaten. There was bruising on the torso and face, but it was a blow to the head that killed her. Looks like it was made with a bat of some kind, or something shaped that way.”
“What else?”
“Needle marks indicate heavy drug use. Multiple fractures and contusions, some several years old, others recent.”
Jase looked up. “She left home at sixteen, been missing two years. The cops told Kathryn that Christina was a prostitute.” He looked down at a photo of Chrissy’s bruised and battered body. “Whoever was pimping her out wasn’t kind.” He glanced over at the doctor. “What about DNA?”
“No skin under her nails, nothing like that. Probably too drugged up on heroine to fight back.”
“Recent evidence of sexual intercourse?”
“No semen. The guy used a condom, so again no DNA, but there was a great deal of bruising around the vagina.”
“So the sex wasn’t for pleasure.”
“Not unless she liked it rough, which could be the case. There were ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. Both old and new.”
Jase frowned, thinking of the pretty young girl who had left home at sixteen and the broken young woman in the photos. “Maybe she wasn’t working the street by choice.”
Maxwell pushed his black-rimmed glasses up on his nose. “It’s possible.”
“She was young when she left home. She would have been a likely candidate for trafficking.”
“It’s also possible being tied up was her specialty. Johns pay extra for certain kinks.” Maxwell sifted through the photos, pulled up one Jase hadn’t noticed. “She had an interesting tattoo on her neck right here.” He pointed to a photo. “Red. Just behind her left ear.”
“Shaped like a pair of lips...or more like a red lipstick mark left from a kiss.” Jase pulled out his cell and took a photo of the tattoo. “Ever seen a tat like that before?”
“No.”
He went through the rest of the file, his mind spinning with possibilities. None of them good. He wished he didn’t have to tell Kate.
He stood up from his chair. “Thanks, Doc. I appreciate your help.”
“No problem.”
Jase left the building. Maybe there was more going on here than a john roughing up a whore and accidentally killing her, he thought. But first, he needed to talk to Detective Benson.
