A First Love to Die For

Chapter Eleven- Past and Present

(Josie's POV)

I got in my car and glanced at my rear-view, immediately looking away. The lighting in my car was extra harsh and unforgiving this morning. Day two of being back and I looked and felt like shit. I had woken up bleary-eyed and incredibly horny after having dream after dream of Lincoln. It pissed me off to no end that my body still craved his when my mind knew that he wasn't worth it. I would never be able to trust him again. So, it was pointless.

I took a sip of my to-go cup of coffee, waiting for the caffeine to pump into my veins. I needed to be ready for human interaction. I was meeting Lincoln at the grave site. We had decided to meet at the conservation area parking lot and then hike in.

He had mentioned yesterday that they couldn't figure out how the killer had gotten the bodies there other than bringing them in on an ATV. He wanted my thinking on it because how would someone not notice a person riding around on an ATV carrying a dead body. 

As I drove, my phone rang. Lucy's name flashed on my screen. "Morning Lucy!"

"Morning, I ran the information you asked me for. There have been 10 similar, unsolved cases of Rohypnol drugs being used in Fenelon over the last ten years, I am not including our murders in there. If we count them, we're talking about 17 because each one of our girls had trace amounts of roofie in their systems."

"You think it's our killer?"

"Maybe, I think it's interesting that none of these cases have been sexual assaults. When we take into consideration that all our murdered women also were not sexual assaults, it would align. Officers in Fenelon have investigated each case, but never found anything."

She paused for a moment and then added, "You could be onto something with them being our killer, pre-escalation. Or possible abduction attempts?"

It aligned with my own thinking, "Anything else?"

"The other things of note were that two of the cases were men, all were younger than 35 and in none of the cases did they catch the perpetrator. If you are thinking that the night fifteen years ago was a drugging, it appears that might have been the killers first. Then they've been sporadic ever since."

I felt foolish that this was the first time I had considered the fact that it had been a drugging that night. It was an odd way for my past to meet my present and I was worried that our killer had been at it longer than we knew. I planned on talking to Lincoln today to see what he thought about it. 

Lucy was on a roll, "It's appearing like our serial killer is asexual. If not asexual, there is something there for sure. We know 70% of serial killers have some kind of hang-up about sex and I sense that this killer is no different. It's absolutely got to be relevant that every single one of our victims was tortured but not one was sexual in nature. I would say we have a killer who likes the knife, who enjoys torturing victims, but I don't think we have a sexual predator."

I pulled into the parking lot for the entrance to Victoria Rail Trail and raised a hand at Lincoln who was leaning against his truck.

"Okay, I just pulled in. What are you working on now?"

"I'm starting with the filed missing person reports on each of the women and then heading into their financials. Make sure to take pictures of the site and send them my way."

"Sounds good. Let me know if you find anything." I clicked off and grabbed my sunglasses and my backpack as I hopped out of the car.

As I made my way over to Lincoln he turned around and grabbed a coffee off the hood, asking as he handed it to me. "Still take it regular?"

I nodded. Silently scolding myself. So what, he remembered how I took my coffee. He was trained to remember details.

It doesn't mean anything Josie.

I took a long, delicious sip and said, "Thanks" as he grabbed his own backpack.

I tried to not notice how his muscles rippled as he moved or how his legs looked as thick as tree trunks.

Nice to know that he hasn't been skipping leg day.

I blinked my eyes twice, trying to refocus my brain. The shitty sleep and his sheer masculine beauty were working against me. It was taking everything in me to keep my professional façade and not let my eyes trace his muscles.

I grimly told myself to get my shit together as he pointed towards one of the trails and I followed him.