Cavanaugh Cold Case by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

As soon as he got back to his desk, Malloy began searching for Zoe Roberts’s next of kin. It took some extensive digging, but because he’d managed to pick up a few computer tricks from Valri, he was finally able to learn that his second identified victim was a product of the social services system.

According to what he uncovered, there had never been a father in the picture, and her mother had died of some unspecified disease when Zoe was eleven. With no other identifiable relatives to be found, Zoe Roberts was turned over to social services.

Once absorbed into the system, she went from one foster home to another—he counted eight in total—until she finally aged out at eighteen. Throughout those turbulent seven years, she had somehow managed to keep her grades up and had, apparently through sheer determination, earned a full scholarship to UCA.

Malloy closed the file and rocked back in his chair for a couple of moments. He stared at the blank screen, thinking.

It just didn’t seem fair to him.

“All that potential, just to wind up in an unmarked grave for the past twenty years,” he said to himself. “Who the hell did this to you, Zoe?”

“So now you’re talking to yourself, Detective?”

Malloy didn’t have to turn around to know who belonged to the melodic voice coming from behind him. He did, anyway.

“What are you doing in my part of the building, Doc?” he asked.

An odd restlessness as well as an unrelenting curiosity had brought Kristin here to the cold case squad room. She wasn’t the type to remain idle, especially when there was something to do.

“Well, I sent the autopsy report in to be transcribed, and until you give me another name to match up to the remaining nine skulls, or homicide sends me another body, I really don’t have anything to do. By the way—” she dropped the stack of flyers he’d left with her on his desk “—for what it’s worth, I separated the blondes from the rest.”

But Malloy’s attention was focused on something she’d just said. “Nine skulls?”

“Yes.” Why was he questioning that? He knew how many had been dug up as well as she did.

“We started out with twelve and identified two. Wouldn’t that leave ten?” he asked.

“It would—but you’re trying to identify women, and if you recall, one of those skulls turned out to belong to a man.”

“Right. I guess I lost sight of that.” Rocking back in his chair, he scrutinized Kristin for a moment. He had a feeling there was more, but he didn’t want to come right out and ask, so he led up to the subject and let her fill in the blank. “You didn’t have to come all the way up here to bring me the flyers. I would have picked them up. All you had to do was give me a call.”

“I didn’t come here to bring you the flyers,” she clarified. “I came to find out if you managed to locate Zoe’s next of kin.

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