CAUSE TO DREAD by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The searchlights bordering the small cove along the western edge of Jamaica Pond looked like something out of a sci-fi film from a distance—like several UFOs had come down to the body of water, waiting to kick off an invasion. There were a few police vehicles parked fifty or so feet away from the water and a few people scattered around the scene.

Avery parked behind a police cruiser and found Finley right away. He was standing over near the water, next to a small pier that extended out into the pond for a distance of about twenty feet. The pier looked very rickety, the sort of thing that had been well used several years ago and then neglected and abandoned.

Finley and three other officers were huddled around a body that had been laid down on a plastic tarp. It was a woman of about twenty or so—far too close to Rose’s age as far as Avery was concerned. Her hands were bound behind her back and there was something around her neck, a cloth of some kind.

“Any ID yet?” Avery asked.

“Not yet, but we’ll have it soon,” Finley said. “There was a debit card tucked into her back pocket. We’ve got the info being run right now. Should be any minute.”

Avery knelt down by the body for a closer look. The searchlights were some help, but Finley assisted in aiming a small flashlight at the body. Avery looked her over, doing everything she could to push images of Rose out of her mind.

The girl was quite pretty and surely weighed no more than one hundred and ten pounds. She had blonde hair that was a bit longer than shoulder-length and her blue eyes were wide open, staring up into the night sky. She was fully dressed, wearing a white long-sleeved top and a pair of tight-fitting jeans. Her hands had been bound with basic cord, a thick rope that had been expertly tied. The cloth around her neck was tied in the same type of knot, but it was loose-fitting. It had not been used to strangle her but looked dangerous nonetheless.

“This cloth on her neck,” Avery said. “I put my money on it being used as a blindfold. Her killer didn’t want her to know where they were going.”

“I don’t see any visible bruising,” Finley said. “No scratches or abrasions. No signs of a struggle from what I can see and—”

Another officer approached, walking quickly from the direction of the parked cruisers. “I got an ID from that debit card,” he said. “The victim is Abby Costello. Twenty-two years old, an employee at an accounting firm here in Boston.”

“Did you get an address?” Avery asked.

“Yes. We’ve got three officers headed over that way as we speak,” the cop said.

Finley looked down at Avery with a playfully suspicious look. “What are you thinking?” he asked.

“Her eyes,” Avery said. “They’re wide open. She was scared when she died, I think. Very scared.”

“Well, yeah. What’s so crazy about that?”

“Nothing at first glance.

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