“So lots of places for these two girls to get lost,” Harding said.
“Yup,” Pearson told him.“But the good news is there were a lot of long-term passes being used on the buses last night, so we’ve got a record of who boarded when.One of us,” she said, looking at Crosby reprovingly, “can start calling people up to see if they spotted anything.”
“And call up the security footage from the buses themselves first,” Harding told him.“I’ll send you the federal passcodes.”
“Ooh,” Crosby muttered.“Fancy.”
“You’re with the Feds now,” Harding said dryly.“We pull out all the stops.Speaking of which, Pearson, you and Garcia go to the 12th and Whitcomb stop, and Denison and I will hit druggie central.Chadwick, Carlyle, you go to Rainbow House and see if there were any other kids going to the dance who might have seen anything.I know the cops might have asked them, but they might not have.It sounds like the locals are being assholes, and the shelter director is pretty protective of his kids.Crosby’s running point from here, since he can’t really run.And he needs to alert the hospitals and morgues so they know what to look for.”
Gideon actually felt the air pressure in the room change.
“That’s not the outcome any of us wants,” Harding said softly.“But we’ve got to prepare for it.Everybody, good hunting.”
And with that, everybody gulped what was left of their coffee, snagged a last pastry or bagel, and headed toward their weapon lockers before they went downstairs to the garage to claim their vehicles.
SCTF Lonely Hearts Hour was over, and they were at work now.
Crosby, who had beenverynervous about taking overwatch duties, was actuallystellarat his job, because they hadn’t gotten more than two blocks when they got a call from Elaine.
“Hey, Gideon, long time no see!”
“Hey, Elaine,” Gideon said in genuine pleasure over the SUV’s intercom.“Good to hear from you.”He hadn’t seen her since the night of his get-together—the night Joey Carlyle had come to his bed and had obliterated the thought of any other potential partner from Gideon’s mind.
“You have some time to talk?”Elaine asked, and Gideon risked a glance at Joey, who gave him an absolutely flat, expressionless face back.
“We’re on our way to a call,” Gideon apologized.“You caught us in transit.Elaine, Joey Carlyle.Joey, Elaine Aiello, Chief Medical Examiner of New York.”
“We’ve met,” Joey said, his voice as flat as his eyes.“What can Gideon do for you, Ms.Aiello?”
Gideon’s eyebrows went up.Elaine might not recognize his very purposeful distancing, butGideondid.
“That case you’re checking out,” she said.“The two trans girls in Brooklyn?”
“Missing for fourteen hours,” Gideon recited, a chill in his stomach.“We’re heading to interview the LGBTQ shelter right now.”
“I’d suggest you detour here,” Elaine said, no nonsense.“I don’t have your girls, for which I’m grateful, but I do have a body that came in last week and hasn’t been claimed, and you might want to take a look.”
Next to him, he felt Joey’s active hostility begin to ebb away.
“We’ll be there in ten,” he said, and Joey—who wasn’t Catholic in the least—crossed himself.
“Oh God,” he muttered.“Here it comes.And I thought Crosby was bad.”
“Crosbyisbad,” Gideon muttered, slamming on his brakes, taking a hole on his left, and racing to cut in front of a car four cars ahead of where they’d just been.“I’mgood.And I’m faster than Crosby!”
They made it in seven, and the smoldering hostility from Carlyle had completely disappeared.
IF THISbitch put her hand on Chadwick’s sleeve one more time, Joey was going to stuff her in her own goddamned hurt locker.
Elaine Aiello was lovely, blond, fortyish, which put her a few years older than Chadwick, but most people wouldn’t notice the difference.She had a charming smile, kind manners, and wasveryconcerned over SCTF’s missing girls.
And she had reason to be, Joey grudgingly admitted after he saw the body.
The girl’s makeup had been smeared off her face when she’d been brought in, and her wig had been ripped off, as had her corset, leaving bleeding crescents on the thin, breastless chest where the underwires had dug in.She’d been anally violated, and her genitals had been taped to her thighs with duct tape, which had been torn off brutally, ripping hair and skin.
Aiello’s compassion for her dead victim was absolutely heartbreaking to witness, which was the only reason Carlylehadn’tkilled her yet.
“She showed up a week and a half ago,” Aiello said, covering the body and asking her dieners to return it to its spot in the refrigerator racks.The drawers were for active cases.The racks were awaiting identification or disposal.It wasn’t pretty—or dignified—but it was a small bit of land with a lot of dead bodies, and space was at a premium.“COD, asphyxia.”
