“Not much. Nothing on the bodies either,” he said. “The one was definitely frozen. The others were fresh.”
“That’s always disconcerting,” Andy said.
“Do we know how long she was frozen?” Richard asked.
“A few months,” he said. “Hard to say any closer than that.”
“So possibly as soon as she went missing.”
“Do you have any idea who she was with?” the female tech asked.
“No. Somebody new, who would make her life perfect.”
The forensic tech just rolled her eyes, nodded, and said, “That’s what they all say.” She waved him away.
Andy asked Richard, “Do you want to talk to the coroner?”
“I’ve checked the autopsies that we have so far, and, of course, we’re still waiting on the drug tests.”
“We also need to confirm that the others were drugged as well.”
They made their way to the coroner’s office. When they knocked on the door, the coroner called out, “Come in.” He looked up and frowned at them both. “I don’t like this much work,” he said, snapping at them. “So would you find this asshole before I get a fourth body?”
“We’d love to,” he said. “Do you have anything for us?”
“They were all drugged. The lab tests are out until we get it back, but I’m suspecting it was something like ketamine, like the first one.”
“Right. And it was served in alcohol?”
“Yes, and their stomachs were full. They all ate their last meals, but nothing was tremendously different about any of them. Mostly burgers.”
“Burgers for all three of them?”
“Elena had a salad.”
“Which makes sense. She was a model,” Richard said.
“The other two had burgers,” he said.
“I wonder if a burger joint is close in the area where these bodies were found.”
“That’s your job,” the coroner said. “Go.” He shooed them out of the room.
They headed back upstairs to their desks in the communal bullpen and looked up any restaurants in the area around where the three dead bodies were found. Armed with the photos of the victims, they both hopped up and headed out to walk the streets. As soon as they got into the general five-block radius that they had picked to search, they went from restaurant to restaurant, asking if any of these people had been seen.
Almost immediately they got a hit. “Hey, that’s Liana,” one guy said. “She was in here all the time, and then I never saw her anymore.”
“When was this?”
The guy shrugged. “Must have been a couple months ago at least. No clue.” He looked at the photo, frowned, and asked, “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Sorry,” Richard said. “Yeah. Did you recognize who she was with?”
“She had one guy toward the end,” he said. “Up until that, she was almost always with a group. But then it became just one guy.”
“Any idea who it was?”
The waiter shook his head. “No,” he said. “I got so many people who come and go from here, it’s almost impossible to tell you who was who.”
“But it was a guy?”
The waiter looked at him in surprise. “Well, I mean, from the surface, I’d say it was, yes.”
He nodded. “Okay,” Richard said. “And no chance of a description? Have you seen him since? Have you seen that other guy with anybody else?”
“No,” he said frowning. “I only recognized Liana.”
“We need something to go on,” Andy said. “It might have been our killer.”
The waiter looked at him in horror. “Jesus, if that would ever make me remember, you just shocked it out of me.”
“Well, think a minute. Think about the two of them together. Was he taller than her? Was he skinnier than her?” Richard asked.
“Nobody is skinnier than Liana. The drugs took their toll on her. Another year or two, she probably couldn’t model anymore.”
“So, physical description?”
“A little heavier, a little taller, a little darker.” He frowned.
They waited, hopeful that something would trigger in his memory.
And then he shrugged and said, “I really don’t have any more. I got to get back to work. I need my job.”
They thanked him, got his name and phone number, and then left.
“Well, if he was seen at one, chances are, he was seen at multiple places.”
Andy said in agreement, “Let’s go.”
After going to several more restaurants, they found another one, a little corner marketplace that served subs. Several workers looked at the photos and recognized the victim immediately. One said, “Yeah. She used to come in here for a sub.”
“Did you recognize who she was with?”
The Italian-looking woman and another one frowned at him. “Why are you asking?”
Richard gave her a bit of a smile, pulled out his detective badge, and said, “We’re investigating her murder.”
Immediately she clasped one hand over her mouth, the other over her heart. “Oh my,” she said. “That’s terrible. But I don’t know anything about it.”
“Which is why we’re asking,” he said. “Somebody knows something.”
She nodded. “Yes, yes, yes. Somebody knows. But I don’t know anything.”
“Did she ever come in alone? Did he ever come in with others?”
“She came in with people, and then once she came in with a boyfriend.”
“Did you know her boyfriend?”
“Yes. He comes here too.”
“What’s his name?”
She frowned. “I don’t know his name. He wasn’t friendly like she was.”
“So, you have no clue who he is?”
“No,” she said. “It’s not my business.”
“I get that,” he said, “but we’re trying to find out who killed Liana.”
“Are you thinking this man did it?” She looked horrified and enthralled at the idea.
“No, not necessarily,” he said. “Remember? We don’t know anything yet.”
“You should know something,” she scolded him. “She was a nice young woman.”
“Which is why we’re trying to do something for her.”
“No,” she said, raising her voice. “You should have done something for her before.”
“Why is that?”
“She had a rough childhood,” she said. “With a better start, she’d have done well in life. Been more normal.”
“In what way was she not normal?”
“She was just different. She was too shy, too quiet. People took advantage of her. It was easy to tell her that the sky was falling, and she would believe it.”
“And you still don’t remember
