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

“I’ll let you get some rest. See you in the morning.”

Nadine nodded and rose to shake his hand, but the moment he turned his back, her mind latched onto her profile of an emerging killer.

Two

WEDNESDAY

The floor of the hotel breakfast bar was sticky by the orange juice machine, and the aroma of waffles pervaded the air. Nadine continued her phone conversation with Dr. Juliette Hartfield on her wireless earbuds as she filled her travel mug.

“What does that mean?” asked Nadine. She was mindful that her conversation could be overheard, and that the earbuds and her long hair combined to make it seem like she was talking to nobody.

“Just that I arrived at work this morning and before I even opened my mouth, I was given my reassignment. Who did you have call my director?”

Nadine finished filling her mug and stepped out of the crowded room and into the alcove by the elevators.

“The lead investigator. He said he’d see what he could do.”

“Well, apparently what he can do is have the director of the FBI call my boss.”

“What do you mean, the director?” Nadine had not meant to sound cross, but her words held a sharp note.

“I mean the director of the entire FBI. The one in Washington. You must be into some high-profile shit.”

Indeed. It appeared so.

“When will you get here?” Nadine asked.

“Soon as I can finish some paperwork and pack my stuff. You know if that hotel takes pets?”

Juliette was referring to her feathered toddler, Jack-Jack, a rescue bird with a voice that could rupture eardrums. Nadine had to smile at the thought of Juliette bringing the bird along on the investigation.

“Yes. They do, and they have a parrot in the lobby.”

“What kind?”

Nadine told her what she knew of Petunia.

“They should be fine with one more small bird.”

One small bird the size of a football, who could throw a single grape twenty feet and who always required a sheet under his perch as he was not housebroken.

“Do you know if Demko is bringing Molly?” asked Juliette.

“Not sure. Did you read the autopsy reports?” asked Nadine.

“Got them as an attachment last night from the District 5 ME. Grim. Very grim. I’m anxious to see the remains.”

“Semen recovered from one of the bodies,” Nadine said, referring to what she had gleaned from the paper copies Skogen had left her regarding physical evidence.

“Yes. But not much else, apparently. Freshwater is hell on evidence.”

“There’s the arrowheads.”

“Yeah. Saw that. Entrance wounds are visible on the crime scene photos.”

“Both bodies were found in brush near the river.”

“Yeah. Got that. Oh, and the second body was moved postmortem. The blood pooling shows she died on her side but was recovered on her stomach.”

Both bodies were found near the place her mother had dumped a victim. Nadine had memories of this spot, a place near the River Forest Camp.

“Do you agree with the cause of death?” asked Nadine.

“I can see where they could be listed as animal attack. But the arrowheads in the spines would have rendered the victims unable to move from the point below the severed spinal cord,” said Juliette. “Victim one suffered a cervical lesion. It would have rendered her paralyzed from the shoulders down. This one couldn’t move anything except her face and jaw.”

“Would she have been breathing?”

“No. Impossible.” Juliette paused before continuing. “The second had an injury to the lumbar area. She would have been unable to move her legs.”

“So the alligators left the water to attack them?”

“Unlikely. I believe they were in the water.”

“If they were paralyzed, how did they get into the water and how did they get back out?”

“Likely walked in, barefoot, based on the river mud under their toenails, and so already in the water when shot. Photos show duckweed and watermeal on their bodies and in their hair. They’re aquatic plants, freshwater only. You won’t find them on land. Perhaps our victims were also shot there. And they were dragged out with something. Bruising on the bodies look like the links of a chain to me.”

“The animal activity was prior to death. Correct?”

“Yes. But there wouldn’t have been any sensation. So no pain.”

Juliette was trying to soften the horror of knowing these women likely were conscious and aware that a large alligator was tearing them apart, that they were being eaten alive.

Nadine didn’t need that kind of help. She needed all that horror and the accompanying images to give her fuel to catch this killer. Two women made a series. And Nadine already saw the evolution from the first, with the neck injury, to the second with the back injury.

Was he disappointed that he could not witness the first woman struggle? Had her inability to breathe shortened his pleasure at her death?

“Could the first victim speak, before she died?” What she actually wondered was could she scream, beg and plead for her life? Could she feed this monster’s need to witness her desperation?

“No. You have to control your diaphragm to speak.”

So… no screaming or struggle. And a limited time before that initial victim died from lack of oxygen. How disappointing for this killer.

Their unsub had to have dangled them like baitfish and then retrieved their ravaged bodies, to dump them on the shore.

Why? So they’d be discovered?

“What do you make of one being covered and the other left exposed?”

“That’s the most confusing part. So odd.”

“Agree.”

“You look up the ME that is working on this investigation?” asked Juliette.

Nadine glanced longingly back at the breakfast area. Her English muffin and untouched bacon were both getting cold. She’d yet to take a sip of her coffee and she had a meeting in twenty minutes.

“No. Why?” she asked.

“Dr. Pauline Kline is why. District 5’s ME. I read her textbooks when I was in medical school. Qualifications up the yin-yang and all the MEs up in the central districts have ten more years’ experience than I do. They certainly don’t need my opinion.”

Skogen had mentioned Kline last night. She was a member