by Janie Crouch
Silence. Ugh, had she laid it on too thick?
“The only one missing is Rihanna Clark. She’s our PR person. She interacts with the media, the local PDs and crime victims. She had a meeting today,” Alana said, rapping on the table and pushing to her feet. “Now that the niceties are out of the way, we have work to do. Opaline?”
Opaline clicked her keyboard and the oversize TV screens on either side of the room came to life—only to show death. Two young women, both on their backs, sprawled on the ground, a gaping gunshot wound in their chests.
Alana aimed a pointer at the split-screen, the red laser hovering over the bodies. “Two victims in Port Huron. Both near the lake, different roads. Single gunshot to the chest, point-blank. The Port Huron police don’t have any leads yet but…”
The next slide jumped onto to the screen and Amanda gasped. “I-is that a baby?”
“It is.” Alana clenched her jaw. “A baby in a car seat was next to the most recent victim. Child Protective Services has the baby now, and the PD ordered DNA tests to determine if the baby belongs with the dead woman.”
Max growled. “Was the baby hurt?”
“The baby is fine, which is how the second body was discovered. Someone called in an abandoned baby. Didn’t mention the dead body next to the baby, but reported the baby.”
“Was it the killer?” Axel hunched forward, the veins popping out of his forearms, hands clenched.
Alana shook her head. “We don’t know. He didn’t leave a name or contact info, but could just be a scared bystander.”
Selena asked, “Did they trace the call?”
“Cell phone. No info on that phone yet.”
Opaline looked up, shoving her glasses higher on her nose. “I’m looking into the phone now.”
“Has the PD identified the victims? Do they have any similarities?” Carly scribbled on a notepad in front of her.
“The first victim had opioids in her system, too soon for toxicology on the second victim, and both had a small amount of fentanyl on them—packaged to sell.”
Alana tipped her head at Aria, and Aria squared her shoulders. Fentanyl she knew, along with all its street names: China Girl, Dance Fever, Apache, Goodfella, and on and on.
Alana continued. “Both women were about the same age, brown hair, brown eyes, not sex workers—at least, not known to the PD—and they were dressed conservatively. They did both have ID on them.”
Selena slumped in her seat. “That makes things a little easier.”
“Not quite.” Alana took a big breath. “The IDs they had were identical.”
Aria blurted out, “Identical?”
“That’s right. These women not only look alike, they were carrying IDs that have the same name, same address, same height, same weight. For all intents and purposes? The same girl died twice.”
Don’t miss
ROOKIE INSTINCTS by Carol Ericson,
available November 2020 wherever
Harlequin® Intrigue books and ebooks are sold.
www.Harlequin.com
Copyright © 2020 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN-13: 9780369704450
Conceal
First published as Untraceable in 2015. This edition published in 2020.
Copyright © 2020 by Janie Crouch
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises ULC. 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor Toronto, ON M5H 4E3 Canada.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com