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

Nadine retrieved her phone and checked her settings. She had the notifications on the bird-watching app switched off. But Juliette’s was switched on.

If Juliette were to review her old notifications, would any match those used by the victims?

Juliette!

Nadine pulled up Juliette’s number from her list of recent calls.

“What’s up?” asked Demko.

She explained as she placed the call.

“Might be a coincidence,” he said. But his expression said she was onto something.

“You think so?”

“I think I’d proceed as if you figured it out, until I knew otherwise.”

The phone call flipped to voicemail.

“Damn it!” She lowered her phone. “No answer. We have to warn Juliette.”

Eighteen

MONDAY

The knock on her door woke Nadine to daylight. She stared at an unfamiliar ceiling fan, trying to orient herself. Morning, the town house, Monday and she was back in goddamned Central Florida.

Yesterday they’d delivered the message to Juliette not to follow any bird notifications and the Bureau was collecting alerts now.

There was another series of taps on her door. She groaned and rolled, grasping her phone as the tapping came again.

“Nadine?” It was Demko’s voice.

“Yes. I’m up.” She wasn’t because she’d tried to use her phone to stop his knocking.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

She threw back the covers and swung her bare feet to the vinyl flooring, forcing herself vertical. She raked a hand through her hair and tugged down her cotton nightshirt so that it covered her.

“Yes, come in.”

The door creaked open and he peered inside. They’d agreed to keep separate rooms, mainly not to irritate Tina and Juliette. Neither she nor Demko was a quiet lover. She flushed at the view of him, shirtless, in a pair of low-slung gym shorts. Demko half-dressed was a better wake-up than any alarm. He seemed momentarily stunned at finding her wearing nothing but a thin veil of cotton that barely reached her thighs.

Molly pushed past Demko and greeted her, tail wagging as she pranced. Nadine patted her shoulder and she retreated out the door.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“After eight.”

“What?” She reached for her phone and found it dead. She stared at the black screen in confusion.

“Power outage. Did you hear the storm last night?”

She shook her head and retrieved her battery charger, plugging in her device and seeing the charging icon appear.

“I got a call from Skogen, trying to reach you. He’s with the District 5 ME. They have another body.”

Her heart jackhammered in her chest. “Is it Tolan?”

“Unknown. I’ve got to find Juliette, she’s out on a run.”

“Not alone?”

“Tina and security. The female special agent. What’s her name?”

“Coleman.”

“Right.” He left her.

Nadine finished in the bathroom and dressed. Her phone rang and she scooped it up. The display showed only a 5 percent charge and that Skogen was calling.

“Where are you?” Skogen asked, loud enough that she had to hold the phone away from her ear.

“Sorry.” She offered no explanation. “What’s up?”

“Boater found a body.”

“Tolan?”

“Possibly. Body is female, found in Silver Glen Springs State Park.”

She knew the natural springs. The limestone opening poured millions of gallons of freshwater a day from the aquifer, creating a lagoon as clear as the Caribbean Sea. She and Arlo had swum there often, trying to breach the submerged opening, only to be pushed back out by the force of water. The sandbar just beyond created a destination and natural docking spot for the many houseboats on the river. The spring created a quarter-mile pool that flowed into Lake George.

Now she pictured the idyllic destination with a body pushed by that same constant current.

“We’re on the way.”

The state park was as Nadine remembered it as a kid, except for all the sheriff’s boats, where Skogen and Juliette, who’d gone on ahead, waited. Skogen scowled at Demko’s arrival but did not prevent him from boarding the vessel, held steady by one of the rangers.

Allie Lowe, a Marion County sheriff, ferried them to the crime scene. She was a striking middle-aged woman, with a uniform so pristine she looked like an advertisement to join the force.

The body lay on the far side of the lagoon, pushed up a channel as far as the current could convey it to tangle in the tall reeds. The corpse looked more like a movie prop than the remains of a human being.

Sheriff Lowe idled the engine, angling them toward shore.

“We believe someone dropped it from the camping area and the spring’s flow pushed it there,” she said, indicating the developing crime scene.

They beached and stepped from the vessel to stand together on the shore, where they had a clear view of the remains.

“How long has it been in the water?” asked Demko.

“Unknown,” said Lowe, at the same time as Juliette said, “Not long.”

Dr. Kline and Juliette waded into knee-deep water for the extraction.

“I want you and Juliette to be present at the autopsy. I’ve asked the district ME to push it.”

The extraction took much of the morning. Skogen remained with Nadine as she waited anxiously to hear if this was Linda Tolan.

At last the District 5 ME returned, wet from the waist down, with bits of debris on her pants.

“Okay, body is gone, so we can head back to District 5. You can meet us there.”

“Is it Tolan?”

“This one has implant dentures. Tolan didn’t. So, no. Not her.”

Nadine’s shoulders sagged. It wasn’t Linda.

But then, who was it?

Nadine and Juliette headed to the morgue, while Demko remained at the scene. Dr. Kline sat at her computer monitor, glanced to the door and removed her glasses.

“There you are.” She rose and led them out. “Busy day.”

They paused to don their PPE and then entered the autopsy room. At first glance the room might have appeared to be an operating theater except for a few key differences. The surgical tools were the same. The industrial sink and coiled hose and hanging stainless-steel scale were not.

Here, none of the machinery was associated with monitoring vital signs and, though the tables were stainless steel, each had a lip and trough to catch fluids. Nadine had the darkly bizarre thought that