Our Daughter's Bones: An absolutely gripping crime fiction novel (Detective Mackenzie Price Book 1) by Ruhi Choudhary

Author:Ruhi Choudhary [Choudhary, Ruhi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838888268
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-08-18T18:30:00+00:00

Thirty-Eight

Mackenzie stared at her reflection in the computer screen. She saw herself—what she and her life had become—how underneath her ironed and expensive clothes and prim manners resided a stricken and confused mind. She looked at the sharp edges of her reflection and wondered when she had become cynical and hardened.

What was the moment that destroyed her innocence? Was it when she realized that her father beat her mother? Or was it when she buried him? She was always wound up, afraid to be like others around her, afraid that she’d end up revealing too much.

Her heart felt like a block of ice in her chest. She was too used to muffling her emotions. She had lists and tasks. She understood determination. Maybe she never really understood love at all. All those moments with Sterling felt like a phase now. A lie. A mirage. They had slipped away from her grasp like a fading dream. Now, she scrambled to find out if they meant anything at all.

Was she even in love with Sterling anymore? Or was she just determined to keep her marriage intact?

“Detective Price?” Daniel said, walking into the office. “You okay?”

“Yeah! Sorry, I haven’t been sleeping well. What’s up?”

“My guy got back to me. The picture you sent me of 916? That logo is not in our database. No known ties to organized crime or anything. But when I ran a search of the individual elements, I got a hit.”

“You did?” She straightened.

He put a report on her desk. The logo was dismantled into possible individual symbols and compared to the signs on the database. “The software breaks down the sign into smaller signs to check for combinations and modifications. This logo consists of two symbols,” he traced his finger on the paper. “These two: the Xs and the circle with the lines inside. Both have been slightly modified, but they’re Native American signs. They represent brotherhood and four stages of a man.”

Mackenzie’s insides curdled.

Brotherhood.

Four stages of a man.

Why were those words sinister? She couldn’t shrug off the feeling that there was something more twisted for her to discover. What had Abby stumbled into?

“Did Clint get any hits?” Daniel asked, leaning on her desk.

“Nope. No business uses this,” she sighed. “I’m not surprised. It sounds like a secret gentlemen’s club. But the crime lab is running some tests on the cocktail napkin. I think we’ll have something by tomorrow.”

“916 is your best bet?”

“Yeah. It’s the only suspicious and tangible clue that connects the two girls. Once we find out what it means, we’ll be closer.”

His knee bobbed in place. “W-what about Eddy Rowinski?”

“I couldn’t find anything that connects him with Abby or with Erica.”

“Guess that was just a coincidence then.”

“Yeah…” her voice trailed off.

Eddy Rowinski was like superglue stuck to her brain. Despite no concrete evidence against him, she couldn’t rule him out. But she questioned if that was just her bias; that she wanted him gone to save Clara, so she was looking for reasons to connect him to Abby’s disappearance beyond a chance encounter.

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