Page 27 of Cooper’s Passion

Anita dreaded the moment. If this was Janet Fillmore, then she’d failed. She’d come too late. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Buffy lifted the sheet and drew it down to the dead woman’s cleavage, where she let it rest. Anita took another step closer and looked at the dead woman’s face. She looked ashen, completely drained of blood. Her hair was still blonde, but it had lost its brilliant sheen. She didn’t have to open the woman’s eyes to know that they were blue, because she recognized her. She had no doubts.

“It’s Janet Fillmore. She disappeared from Elko County six weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Cooper said from behind her and put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.

Anita nodded, acknowledging his condolences. “How did she die?”

Buffy cleared her throat and cast a glance past her to Cooper. “Ahm, massive blood loss.”

“Gunshot wound? Stab wounds?”

“None.” The answer came from Cooper.

Anita looked back at Janet’s dead body and saw something on her neck. She brushed the dead woman’s hair away from her neck and revealed two small puncture wounds. She looked up at Buffy. “What is this?”

“We believe that this is how the killer drained her,” Buffy said.

“Hmm.” Anita inspected the tiny holes more closely. They were approximately two inches apart. What weapon or tool could create such puncture wounds? Why not take a large intravenous catheter? Two puncture wounds didn’t make sense. Had the other dead women had the same kind of puncture wounds, and she’d overlooked them in the autopsy reports? She had to go back and read them again. Something wasn’t right.

She looked up and noticed that Cooper and Buffy were watching her intently.

“Do you have any idea what could have made these puncture wounds?” she asked Buffy.

“I’m afraid I don’t know. Even Maya is baffled,” Buffy said.

“Maya?”

“Our physician,” Cooper said quickly. “She did the autopsy.”

“Can I speak to her?”

“I’m afraid she’s on the nightshift.” Cooper nodded to Buffy. “Thanks, Buffy. You can put her back in the refrigeration unit.”

“Sure thing.”

Anita allowed him to lead her outside into the hallway. There they stood, and Cooper put his arms around her.

“You were right when you guessed that she would show up here,” he said. “I’m sorry. For your sake, I wish it wasn’t her, but now we know who she is, and it will help us find her killer.”

Anita lifted her head from his chest. “I know that. But I was so close. And still, I couldn’t save her.”

“That’s not on you. You went out of your way to find her.”

“I have to make some calls.”

“To her husband?”

“Yes, and to the sheriff.”

“Let’s go to my office. It’s quiet there. You can make your phone calls. Ask the sheriff’s department to email us photos of Janet so we can use them when we canvass the city for any sightings prior to her death.”

“I have a photo of her.”

While she dreaded both phone calls she had to make—the one to Janet’s husband, and the one to her father—Anita was glad to have something productive to do rather than beat herself up about her failure to find Janet alive.

At the same time, the odd puncture wounds on Janet’s neck puzzled her.

The only time she’d ever seen anything of the sort was in a movie.

A movie about vampires.