The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

implicated our mom and is worried she might send someone to kill him.”

Juliette whistled. “Your uncle?”

“Correct.”

Her phone chimed with a text from Demko.

@brkfast. Where r u?

She said good-bye to Juliette, fired off a text and headed to the hotel’s breakfast area.

Demko had settled at a table with a plate of sausage and biscuits and a mug of coffee for her.

“How was your Easter?” he asked.

“I went to church with Tina and Juliette, then back to work. Oh, and we all got your baskets. Thank you very much.” She kissed him and he smiled.

“That’s great.”

With her father gone and her mother and brother both incarcerated, Nadine spent most holidays with her aunt Donna’s family, never feeling quite at home. But yesterday Juliette and Tina had made her feel part of a family.

“How was your visit with Christopher?”

“Nice. Too old for an egg hunt, but I gave him a basket, too.”

“The one you left me is huge! It was so much.” She pushed a small box in his direction and then set the envelope beside it.

“What’s this?”

“An Easter gift. One that Molly can’t destroy. The envelope is from Skogen. The policy manual I told you about.”

He opened the gift, a metal flip-style wallet, tested its use and then gave her a kiss.

“Thank you.” He ignored the envelope. “Christopher was sorry you couldn’t be there.”

Nadine glanced down, breaking eye contact.

“Once he meets you, sees we’re serious, it will be good. He’s a sweet kid, Dee, and I really want you two to be friends.”

She nodded, remaining silent. She feared that Christopher would not want her as a friend.

“Maybe next time?” he asked, pushing.

It seemed they’d only pressed pause on their last conversation.

“After we catch this one. Okay?” Nadine glanced up.

His mouth was tight.

She stood. “More coffee?”

“Why is it every time I mention getting more serious, you run?”

“I don’t.” She so did.

“You either take me to bed or change the subject. What are you afraid of?”

“Demko, can this conversation wait? We are here to catch a killer.”

She realized she’d just proven his point.

He took her hand and brought it to his lips, then released her. “I’m here because you asked for my help.”

“I know.” His reminder made her recall her conversation with her brother. She settled back to her seat. “Speaking of help…”

Nadine explained about the red-tagged vehicle that had belonged to her father.

He went silent, seeming to consider for a moment. Was he deliberating allowing her to again table this topic or pondering the problem of a vehicle tagged more than a decade earlier? At last he sighed and folded his hands before him.

The former, she decided.

“That’s a tough one. Let me call Willie Druckman.”

“He’s a trooper up here?”

“Orlando. That’s the closest barracks. This is their territory, though.”

He made the call and left a message for the highway patrolman to contact him. Then he rose.

“See you tonight.” He walked toward reception and then out the front door. Beside his empty place at the table, the envelope from Skogen still sat.

At the office, she found Tina working. She paused to beam up at Nadine.

“I wish you could have joined us on the kayak trip yesterday. We saw otters and loads of turtles.”

After Easter brunch, Nadine had skipped their outing in favor of work.

“Did you locate Bianca Santander with Immigration?” Nadine asked.

“Her attorney can’t find her. She’s not listed in the detainee locator. He’s still looking.”

“Is this normal?”

“It’s illegal to withhold a detainee’s location, but, yes, it happens.”

“Keep on it.”

Nadine tucked in behind her desk and opened her email.

“Holy cats!” she said.

Tina stopped working and came around her desk. “You’ve got one hundred forty-five new emails.”

“From media. Look at this. Major networks and newspapers… is that the Washington Post?”

Did the press somehow know she was profiling this case? Or could the influx of emails be linked to Crean and her upcoming book?

“Open one,” suggested Tina.

Nadine blew out a breath and did so. She scanned as Tina read over her shoulder. White cat hairs clung to the cuff of Tina’s black sweater.

Most days she could handle the myriad of offers she received, but since her initial success as a profiler, and Crean’s book tour apparently, her email box was slammed. Tina seemed to pick up on her disquiet.

“Do you want to be interviewed, provide a quote for their articles or appear on camera?”

“No way.”

“Then let me answer them,” said Tina.

“You got it.”

Nadine forwarded them to Tina, who went silently to work as Nadine did the same.

Exactly at noon, Tina announced she was going to the grocery store deli for a sandwich.

“You want something?”

“No.”

Forty minutes later, Tina returned with a cup of chicken noodle soup and a hard roll for Nadine.

“It’s pouring out again.”

“Really?” Nadine had no window to check. She glanced up to discover that Tina’s hair was plastered to her head.

“Wow.”

“Eat your soup before it gets cold.”

She did and devoured the buttered roll in minutes.

Tina gave her a critical stare.

“What?”

“You are worse than Demko, forgetting to eat.”

“Two meals a day are plenty.”

“It isn’t, though,” said Tina.

The afternoon sped along as she filled in details on the victims and searched for commonalities.

Tina stepped out for more coffee, passing Skogen, who appeared in her doorway, a wide, self-satisfied grin on his face.

“We got a match on the DNA from Karnowski with the groundskeeper, Barney Arnold.”

Nadine wasn’t exactly surprised.

“That’s great.”

“He’s in custody. Already amended his bullshit story. Now he’s admitted to the sex act. Pervert found Karnowski’s nude body arousing. He called it in and then, well, he had several minutes alone with the remains.”

“To masturbate,” said Nadine.

“It’s not normal.”

“Agreed. But masturbating doesn’t mean he killed her. Where’s the evidence for that?”

“I’ve got enough to charge and hold him. Get a search warrant issued and see what turns up. I’m heading over there now.”

Skogen’s team would confiscate Arnold’s computer, laptop, tablet and phone. The tech team would use them to assemble a forensic digital profile. Gathering the data would be quick, since they had the devices. Sorting through it all would take several days, and that was a