There were parallels and the two spots are barely a half hour apart.” Lorne

shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I never even heard about the case

you’re talking about at Fort Monroe. No one from CID ever called us about it.

And we had our hands full back then. Me and Leo were just young detectives at

the time, but the force had had some attrition and we were the senior homicide

guys. So we got the case. We busted our asses, spent every waking hour on it.

Got to be an obsession if you really want to know.” “And we still didn’t solve

it,” added Peckham. “And not that it matters, but our career path took a big

hit. Promotions were slow in coming after that. But those poor dead women

suffered far worse.

 

The fact we never brought their killer to justice? I’ll never get over that. No

matter what else I did in my career, I was a failure.” Knox said, “Don’t be too

hard on yourself. Sometimes the bad guys get lucky and get away with it. I’m

sure you did everything you could.” Puller added, “The file didn’t have many

clues. No real forensics.” Peckham nodded. “The guy didn’t leave any DNA behind.

And there was no sexual assault. And he apparently wore gloves.” “But no

defensive wounds? Nothing under the victims’ nails? If he strangled them there

would have been a struggle, unless they were bound first. People don’t just die

without a fight.” Peckham glanced at Lorne and said, “They weren’t bound. At

least there was no evidence of that.” Lorne shifted in his seat. “You looked at

the file photos?” Puller nodded. “Well, pictures couldn’t really convey the

actual damage. When I said strangled, that was probably not entirely correct.”

“What would be more correct?” asked Knox quickly. “That their throats, their

windpipes, were completely crushed.” Puller stared at him. “Crushed?” “Flattened