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A blonde between twenty-six and thirty years old who’d died twenty years ago. Finally, she could narrow her search a little more.
“There’s another fact we found interesting,” Preston said.
When the medical examiner paused, Cassie prompted. “Which was?”
“The victim was wearing a maternity dress.”
Cassie’s brow dipped. “She wore a maternity dress?”
“Yes. We didn’t note any signs of the baby. If she was pregnant, she must have had the baby before she died.”
A woman didn’t usually wear a maternity dress unless she was pregnant.
“We didn’t find any sign of the baby on the woman or in the room where she was found. The label on the dress read handcrafted by Alice Carter. That may or may not be significant, but every detail could count.”
“We’ll look into the label,” Cassie said. “If it was handcrafted, it might be from a local artisan.”
“Like I said,” the medical examiner continued, “a report will come your way in the next fifteen minutes. Let us know if you have any other questions, and good luck identifying her.”
The medical examiner ended the call.
Cassie stared at the notes she’d taken, excited to get started with more filters to use in her sort.
Pregnant. That ought to narrow her search significantly.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. Almost six. Her date would be at the tavern by now. Cassie was supposed to meet Drake there for dinner rather than eat at the office for the third night straight.
With this new data, she couldn’t walk away from the computer. This could be the breakthrough she’d been waiting for.
Cassie sent a text to Drake.
M.E.’s report is in. Staying at the office.
She didn’t ask him to join her and wouldn’t expect him to if he didn’t want to.
A moment later, a text popped up on her screen. Be there in fifteen with dinner.
Cassie smiled. The man knew how important this case was to her and didn’t begrudge her the time she needed to work through the data.
With a smile on her face and warmth in her heart for the Navy SEAL, Cassie dove into the databases with the information she desperately needed to narrow her search.
Twenty minutes later, a sharp knock sounded on the door in the front lobby.
Cassie leaped to her feet and ran to let Drake in. He carried a large bag filled with to-go boxes. The scents emitted made her belly rumble, reminding her she hadn’t actually eaten lunch on her lunch break hours earlier.
She took the bag from him, leaned up on her toes and kissed Drake full on the lips. “You’re a life-saver.”
“You’re cute.” He cupped her cheek and deepened the kiss.
For a moment, Cassie forgot about the food, the data and the fact she was standing in the sheriff’s office. The world faded away when they kissed.
When Drake lifted his head, the world rushed back in. Holding the big bag in one hand, she used her other to grab Drake’s arm. “Come. Sit. I’ll fill you in.”
He followed her into the little office and pulled a chair up to the desk where she’d been working before dropping into it.
Cassie told him what she’d learned from the M.E. and showed him the search parameters she’d used on the Montana Missing Persons Database. “I’m going to start with Montana and then expand outward to a two-hundred-mile radius.”
While Cassie worked over the computer, talking through what she was doing, Drake laid out the meal he’d brought.
