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

The question was, did the Huntsman follow Tolan from the hotel because of the altercation with Nadine, send out a notification for this scarlet songbird seeking a random target, making her capture a coincidence, or had he somehow known this was the bait that would bring Linda to him?

Nadine tended toward believing that final possibility.

The last known victim, April Rupp, did not use the bird app or receive notifications that brought her into the forest. In fact, she did not own a smartphone. This woman was targeted, like Santander, for her relationship to Nadine, hunted and abducted. The leak of her identity in the papers corresponded with their move from the hotel and the capture of Rupp.

She reminded herself to ask Jack how he was doing in identifying their leak.

Nadine now had a direction and emerging portrait of a killer seeking notoriety, baiting the authorities and relishing his game. But was she any closer to identifying him?

The gentle tapping on her closed bedroom door drew Nadine back to her surroundings.

“Come in,” she said.

“Jeez! This place is huge. Where are you?”

She recognized Juliette’s voice, coming from the bedroom area.

“Walk past the bed and through the archway.”

Juliette wandered into the sitting area, glancing about before taking a seat on the navy-tone couch facing the coral stone fireplace.

“It’s like a Tommy Bahama store threw up in here.”

“Yeah, but I need a desk, chair and Ethernet connection,” said Nadine.

“I heard Tina working on that. You’ll have a desk tomorrow.”

“Amazing. How are the critters?”

“Demko took Molly with him. I’m not sure where he is, but she’s the first one to try out the pool. Tina’s cat is still hiding but under a different bed, now. I swear I’ve seen that thing maybe twice.”

“And Jack-Jack?” asked Nadine, inquiring about Juliette’s perpetual two-year-old feathered dependent.

“He’s in the kitchen with some mango slices. Tina’s watching him.”

Nadine shifted and her stomach muscles tightened, preparing for the real reason for her friend’s visit.

“What’s up?” Nadine asked.

“Well, you heard about the dental records.”

Nadine nodded.

“Beyond that, the lab made a DNA match for your hair and the headband they recovered in Tolan’s car. That means you had a face-to-face with our guy.”

Disquieting did not begin to cover the electric bolt of anxiety prickling through her. It was one thing to suspect and another to know.

“I figured. Wish I could remember what he looked like.”

“No luck with the sketch artist?”

“I hardly noticed him. Actually tried not to look at him out of embarrassment from waking him.”

Juliette heaved a sigh. It was an opportunity lost. Nadine vowed to be vigilant, note her surroundings, and all the men she spotted from here on out.

She suddenly recalled the man walking the small dog that day she had been outside with Mrs. Rupp. Could that have been the same man as at the hotel?

Nadine thought it possible and jotted a note to discuss it with Demko.

“What else?” she asked, returning her attention to Juliette.

“They found Tolan’s remains in Lake Bryant. Kline made a positive ID. Autopsy tomorrow, but on visual inspection, it looks like the others.”

Nadine heaved a sigh. “This might be my fault.”

“It’s not. It’s our perp’s fault. Don’t forget it.”

The room grew so quiet Nadine could hear the hum of the fan’s motor.

“Anything else?”

Juliette’s hesitation did nothing to calm her nerves. Her friend sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees, her hands clasped before her, studying the ground. When she met Nadine’s eyes, her expression was grim and her mouth pressed tight.

“We also got a hit on the DNA on one of the bodies recovered from the River Forest area.”

Nadine’s momentary confusion was erased when she switched gears from their current case to the cold case. Juliette was referring to the human remains that her brother had helped authorities discover. Two bodies, one male and one female.

Whatever Juliette was about to tell her, Nadine knew it was bad. Did that mean they had not found her father or that they had?

“We got a hit from the DNA database. The results show a familial match to your brother, Arlo. Parent–child.”

Nadine nodded. “So you found our father.”

“It’s Dennis Howler. Yes. In addition to the DNA match, we have medical records indicating a fractured wrist and collarbone. Also a match. The female skeletal remains belong to Infinity Yanez. Identification through dental records.”

Nadine let the news sink in that her absent father had not abandoned them as she’d long believed. He had been torn from their family.

Her hopes of having a nice, normal father collapsed.

The next realization struck like a slap. She and Demko now had something else in common. Both their mothers had murdered their dads.

“Another lie,” she murmured.

“What?” asked Juliette.

“My mother. All this time, even knowing what I do, I believed her when she told me he ran out on us.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. And I’m sorry, Nadine. Truly sorry for your loss.”

All her stupid tiny hopes that someday he might come back for her were snuffed out. Arleen had killed any chance of that, along with Dennis.

“I have to tell my aunt Donna.”

“I can send an agent or the ME from her district.”

“No. I’ll tell her.” Nadine used both hands to wipe away the unwanted tears. “Are they looking at my mother for the murders?”

Juliette nodded.

“Thank you for telling me,” said Nadine.

Juliette’s look was filled with anxiety. She cleared her throat and swallowed. Nadine lifted a brow, waiting for the other shoe to fall, and pushed herself deep into the padded backrest.

“There’s one more thing. We ran your DNA from the swab you provided against Dennis Howler.” Juliette leaned forward and placed a hand on hers. “Nadine, you’re not a match.”

“What? How is that possible?”

“Because Arlo is only your half brother.”

The buzzing was back in her mind, the kicked hornet’s nest making it difficult for her to think. Her lips went numb and her fingertips tingled.

“If Dennis Howler isn’t my father, then who is?”

Twenty

TUESDAY

Nadine sat at the kitchen’s marble island. Since learning that Dennis Howler had left Arleen around the