Her mouth went dry as she moved closer. Could that really be her sister’s blood? Her stomach heaved. “Jase! Over here!” She studied the red spatter and swallowed past the bile in her throat. “I think I found something.”
Jase jogged up beside her. His gaze followed where her hand pointed. He crouched in front of the spray. “I think you’re right. It’s the right color, and a pattern like that could easily have come from a blow to the head.”
He took out his cell and hit one of his contact buttons. “Benson? It’s Maddox. I think we’ve found your primary crime scene on the Christina Gallagher murder.”
She couldn’t hear what the detective said, but Jase replied, “Heard a rumor on the street and decided to check it out. I think you’re going to find blood spatter, and I think the DNA is going to match Christina Gallagher’s.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Within the hour, Detective Benson showed up with the Dallas PD crime scene unit. Jase had used the time to talk to the owner of the liquor store, Reuben Hernandez, but Reuben hadn’t heard anything unusual going on outside before he’d locked up. Hadn’t heard anything, hadn’t seen anything, didn’t know anything.Yada yada yada.
In this case, however, Jase believed him. Whoever had followed Zepeda the night he’d forced Tina Galen to leave the rehab center would have been careful not to kill her in front of witnesses.
Benson left the white-coveralled CSIs at work on the rusty spatter on the rough brick wall and walked over to where Jase stood.
“It’s blood, all right,” the detective said. “The lab will test it, see if it matches the victim’s. If it does, they’ll run DNA. You say you heard a rumor on the street? That’s how you found it? You talk to someone who witnessed the murder?”
Jase shook his head. “Someone saw her in front of the liquor store that night. I came down to check it out. Kate found the blood.” You didn’t give up your sources. Unless, of course, Eli turned out to be the killer.
“I also heard the vic had only been working in Dallas a couple of weeks. Came to town from somewhere else. Word is, that tat on her neck is a brand. Signifies who she belongs to.”
“You mean a pimp?”
“More like a group she worked for. Could be organized crime. Some kind of sex trafficking ring.”
“I told you, we would have heard something about it.”
“You just did,” Jase said. The second time he had brought up the possibility.
Annoyance cut grooves into the detective’s forehead. A light, humid breeze whipped strands of his thinning brown hair.
“You said the girl hadn’t been in Dallas that long,” Benson said. “She left Rockdale two years ago. Where’s she been?”
“Good question. We figure that out, we’re going to know a whole lot more than we do now.”
Benson nodded. “If you come up with something else, let me know.”
“Same goes,” Jase said, but he didn’t think the detective would go out of his way to keep Jase informed. As Benson walked away, Jase looked at Kate. She seemed transfixed, watching the crew at work in the alley, staring at the place her sister had likely been murdered.
Feeling a shot of pity, he set a hand at her waist. “Come on, darlin’. Let’s get out of here.”
She turned to him, the gold in her dark eyes glistening. She blinked away the moisture and nodded, let him lead her away. When they reached the Yukon, she stopped him with a hand on his chest, a simple touch that sent heat burning through him. It was crazy, the constant hunger he felt for her.
“We aren’t very far from the rehab center,” Kate said. “Would you mind if we stopped by and checked on Holly?”
“Not a problem. Might be good to talk to her again.” He opened the passenger door and Kate climbed into the SUV.
It didn’t take long to reach the center, a few blocks away. Standing next to Kate, Jase knocked on the front door.
Vera Lockwood answered, smiled when she saw them. “Kate and Jason. How nice to see you. Please come in.” She was at least five inches shorter than Kate, small and fine-boned, yet with a presence that commanded respect.
They followed her into the parlor. “Would you like some iced tea or perhaps a cup of coffee?”
“Iced tea sounds good,” Jase said.
Vera motioned to one of the girls who happened to be standing in the doorway, and she disappeared down the hall.
“We came by to check on Holly,” Kate said. “How’s she doing?”
