Page 94 of Forever Gone

“I know.”

Kelly lowered her attention to the desk, giving him what privacy the room allowed.

Connor rubbed both hands over his thighs. “I sometimes wonder what’s happened to this place.”

Connor stared into the half-filled cup. “Phil had all her medication lined up on the kitchen counter. He said he kept thinking she’d walk in and complain that he’d moved it. Then he started apologizing to me for the argument they had before she left.”

“What did you tell him?” Selena asked.

“That people say things when they’re angry. It didn’t put her in that barn.”

“Did he believe you?”

“No.” Connor turned the cup between his palms. “I’m not sure I did either, and I know better.”

Guilt rarely cared about evidence. Selena had watched families take responsibility for choices made by killers because blame felt easier to carry when it had a familiar name.

Selena glanced toward the murder board. Elmsview and the surrounding county had never been as safe as childhood memory pretended. Poverty, addiction, grudges, and violence had always existed beneath the familiar roads. Three women killed with the same ritual still changed the scale of it.

“At least you care,” Selena said. “A lot of people grow cold the longer they deal with this.”

“I signed up to be sheriff to help the community, not bury them.”

The words remained between them.

Connor picked up his coffee again but did not drink. “How are you getting on?”

Selena turned her chair toward him. “Blethan confirmed the same type of weapon was used on all three women. Fixed blade, around six inches, partially serrated. He believes it’s a combat-style knife, although a hunting or survival knife could have the same features.”

“Same knife in all three attacks?”

“He can’t prove that yet, but the cut patterns are close.”

“Anything else?”

“No foreign DNA on Karen or Ruth. No usable unidentified prints. Linda’s examination and the vehicle processing are still underway.”

Selena studied the three photographs. Karen had just left a marriage and moved somewhere isolated. Ruth had told Oliver he was pushing things too fast. Linda disappeared after telling Phil she was done being ignored. The women had not only attended the same school. Each had been pulling away from a man when the killer found her.

“Whoever chose them knew what was happening in their private lives,” Selena said.

Connor followed her attention to the board. “Friends? Coworkers?”

“Or somewhere they were talking when they thought no one was listening.”

Connor glanced toward the school records spread across Selena’s desk. “You’re still working the high-school connection.”

“Yes.”

He shifted his attention to Kelly. “What about you?”

Kelly turned from her computer. Her posture changed, the hesitation disappearing.

“Actually, I think I have a breakthrough.”

Selena’s fingers stopped on the keyboard.

“I don’t think the high school is the connection,” Kelly said.