"It's a hospital admittance band," she said. "I see enough of them on a daily basis here."
"The date," Noah said. "When was Hailey Benton admitted?"
"About a week ago," Callie said. Her voice was steady but her jaw had tightened.
Noah studied the band. The numbers were warped, bleeding into the plastic, but the shapes were there. The date could have matched the window when Hailey had been at Adirondack Medical Center, but it was so degraded that certainty was impossible from looking alone. He looked at Callie. She looked back.
"I'll pull her dental records," Adelaide said quietly. "Give me a few hours.”
The Daily Grindwas half full with the late-morning crowd. A woman in running clothes typing on a laptop. Two men in construction vests eating muffins at the counter. Lacey was behind the register, her ponytail swinging as she moved between the espresso machine and the till.
Noah and Callie took a booth by the window. Noah nursed the coffee in front of him, looking out across the parking lot as the small town went about its business, oblivious to the body on the table ten miles away. Callie sat across from him with her hands wrapped around her mug, not drinking, just holding.
"Finch and Hollis are both locked up," Callie said. "Samuel is dead. Hollis couldn't have done it if she died yesterday."
"The victim was strangled. All the other girls have been stabbed. It's not the same."
"How many victims do you think had a hospital admittance band on their wrist and went missing?"
"We don't know yet if that's Hailey. We couldn't read the name."
"Come on, Noah."
He took a sip of his coffee and set it down. Outside, a woman walked her dog past the window. A truck pulled into the hardware store across the street. The world kept turning at its regular speed while the two of them sat in a booth trying to make the pieces fit.
"What I don't get," Callie said, "is why go to all the trouble of destroying the face and hands if you're going to leave teeth in place?"
"Maybe he was interrupted. Maybe pulling teeth is too much work. Who knows what this sick bastard's reason is."
"If it is her, it's pretty obvious. Hailey could have identified him. So he takes her out."
"That's risky. It doesn't match his MO. He likes to control where he takes them. That's the point of the rag in the exhaust pipe. He would have had to be watching the hospital, or run into her after she left.”
"Or he lured her out."
"How? She didn't have her phone on her." Noah turned his coffee cup in a slow circle on the table. "Even if it is Hailey Benton, she could have crossed paths with someone else entirely."
Callie sighed and leaned back in the booth. "Look, I know you and Ray want to believe this is all in the bag. But what if it isn't?"
"Ruby's body was found..." Noah began.
Callie cut him off. "On Three Pillar property. Yeah, I get it. And you're going to say that Hollis had the college IDs, the chloroform, and the rags. But he denied it."
Noah chuckled. "They all deny."
"What if he was set up though?" Callie leaned forward. "I mean, they haven't announced formally that charges have been pressed against Hollis. They're planning to do that today. Ray told the media that we had a suspect in custody. That's all." Sheheld his gaze. "So who would have known Hollis was at that property at that time?"
"Tabitha Smith. But she was arrested alongside him. She hasn't made bail yet." Noah paused. "And who knows who Tabitha told."
"You said Seraphine picked him out from a lineup of photos."
"Yeah."
"Suggesting that Derek had been involved in the disappearance of her mother, Jessie Maddox."
"That's right."
"And that person was also the one who pointed Seraphine to the bog. Which she then sketched."
