He could have.
He had tried that however, and it was boring. Mind numbingly so.
Instead, he had decided to go out on his own. It was more fun that way.
Interesting.
And he didn’t have to climb the corporate ladder.
And he could work on his project.
But the last girl. She was too easy. He needed someone older, more mature, with more fight this time.
Mark moved to his PC and popped open the Facebook tab and began making a number of requests. He requested several hundred friends in under a few minutes. Then he leaned back and rested his hands in his lap.
Now to wait.
It didn’t take long, just a few minutes latera little red notification showed up.
He was in business.
CHAPTER 7
NAYA
Naya dropped her head into her hands and grumbled in frustration. It had been nearly a week since Julia’s Charles’ body had been discovered, and they were absolutely no closer to finding her than they were that first night. There were no fingerprints, no footprints left on the scene, there was nothing that would give them a single hint as to what happened to the eighteen year old athlete.
Atlas leaned back in his chair and huffed. “I’m guessing you’re just as stuck as me?”
She nodded without looking up from the coroner’s report she was reading for the umpteenth time. “It’s like she was beamed up by aliens, got her blood sucked out, and was dumped in that field.”
“I know.” He replied, his dejection matching hers. “I haven’t had a case like this in a long time. Usually people have at least one enemy, but everyone loved this girl. And I mean everyone.”
Atlas wasn’t exaggerating, after informing the parents they had found her body last week, they had gone to interview the best friend, as well as half of the girl’s high school, and she didn’t know if it was because the girl was dead, but no one had anything bad to say.
Maybe it was her prejudice from working in a small town, but in La Junta, whenever she had a case, especially a murder, there was always rumors and gossip to go with it. Everyone there had comments and opinions.
She flipped the pages of the report, looking for something, anything she hadn’t see on her other passes. But no luck. “No leads on what happened to her phone?” she asked again.
Atlas shook his head as he rattled off the same thing they both knew. “Still hasn’t surfaced. Has been off since about nine that evening, which is her estimated abduction time. Time of death was between ten and eleven that evening.”
She’d heard it before, and she knew Atlas was humoring her by going over it again, but she couldn’t help it. This case was getting under her skin.
Suddenly, she remembered the files she had tucked in the bottom of her desk drawer, she leaned down and dug around for them. Atlas must’ve thought she had found something because he raised an eyebrow in interest.
“Don’t get too excited.” She joked as she pulled out the three cold cases from La Junta.
“What are those?”
“Cases from my time as Sheriff in La Junta. They are the only three cases I never solved.” She flipped open the top one, it was from five years earlier when she was still just officer Largusa, it detailed the sudden disappearance of a six year old girl.
“Do you think they have something to do with this case?” He asked incredulously.
Naya shook her head. “No, but sometimes it helps to focus on something else for a minute and then come back.”
“You know most cops just use social media for that.”
Naya smiled. “I’m not most cops. Besides, I don’t want to flood my mind with new information, I want to look at this case I know everything about then look back at the case in question. You never know what might help jolt your mind to make connections.”
He rolled his eyes but was smirking. “Well I’m going to look at something known as the breakroom. I need coffee, want a cup?”
“Please.” She checked her watch, it was almost eight at night and she knew she needed to go home soon. Derek would have left a couple hours ago, and Vance needed dinner.
Life was much easier with Derek around and Vance seemed to be eating more. Naya had also noticed that on the days Derek came Vance was always dressed a bit nicer. Maybe they went out for walks or something, she wasn’t sure, but it still made her happy.
As much of a blessing as Derek was, he had also been the bearer of bad news. After just two visits he had mentioned to Naya that she needed to purchase a wheelchair for Vance. She hadn’t done it yet, mainly because when she opened the internet window to do so she had started crying inconsolably and had been unable to complete the order. She would have to try again when she got home tonight, but before she clocked out she wanted to take one more look at the report on Julia Charles.
She was scanning the part where it talked about the vast amount of blood which had been drained from her body, when it hit her. She hastily opened Google and began searching.
Atlas walked back over, noticing her enthusiasm as he placed a paper cup in front of her. “Did you seriously crack the case while I was getting coffee?” He joked.
“No, but I thought
