Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Regardless, they still didn’t have enough hands on deck, and crimes continued to roll in, unrelated to this killer, that still needed the attention of law enforcement. Sienna remembered what Ingrid had said about the choice to approve her transfer being made easier by the staffing shortage, but she hadn’t realized the extent of the department’s desperation. Well, at least she was needed, if not initially wanted.
As if her thoughts had summoned him, the young intern, Xavier, came hurrying in. “I might have something here,” he said, “about the teacher you wanted me to look up? One who might have gone missing and it was later found had child porn on his computer?”
“Yeah? What have you got?” Sienna asked, a trill of hopefulness reverberating. The last installment had been decidedly . . . sad? Was that the right word? Could, or more to the point, should one be sad for a killer who commits brutal murders? Probably not. But, well, that was a moral quandary to ponder at a later date. Right now, they just needed to catch this guy so he wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
He handed her a couple of computer printouts. “Okay, so Sheldon Biel, a science teacher at Copper Canyon High School, went missing twenty years ago.”
Kat came up beside Sienna and perched herself on the edge of the desk. “Twenty years?”
Sienna looked up at her, feeling an internal click as though a puzzle piece had just slid into place. “That would jibe with the state of the mummified body we just found,” she said before looking back at Xavier. “Great work. Anything else?”
“Look at the printout behind that one,” he said, pointing to the papers in her hand. Next to her, the phone rang, and Kat turned away from them as she took the call. Sienna looked down to what Xavier had indicated. On top of the stack of papers was a photo of the school he’d just mentioned. Underneath that was the “missing” poster that had been created in the wake of Sheldon Biel’s disappearance. He was a reasonably good-looking man with what appeared to be a genuine smile. But a feeling of deep distaste came over her as she looked from his buttoned-up shirt to his wire-framed glasses, the description “Danny Boy” had provided of his abuse running through her mind. She glanced over the rest of the information on the poster and then moved it behind the third printout, which was a news article detailing an update on the case. The photo that accompanied it was from a press conference when the man had first gone missing. In it, a woman stood in front of a microphone, a police officer on one side of her and a little girl on the other. The girl appeared very serious, if not frightened. Solemn eyed. Sienna’s heart tightened. The article detailed the unfortunate fact that child pornography had been found on the missing man’s computer. The investigation was taking another turn, and police were questioning whether his disappearance was related to his illegal proclivities. The words from the writing she’d recently read about the case stalling came back to her.
Whether that was due to a lack of leads or because the police quietly decided the world was better off if he stayed missing, I didn’t know. All I cared about was that my “tutoring” sessions had ended.
The final printout was a photo of Sheldon Biel standing with a small group of students. The tagline beneath the photo identified them as the Copper Canyon High School Chess Team. He was wearing khakis, a button-down shirt, and a sports coat with patches on the elbows.
Sienna felt that trill again, though stronger.
Kat hung up the phone and turned back to them. “That was Art, the medical examiner,” she said. “He’s only given the body a precursory glance but can confirm that there are what appear to be knife marks on the bones.”
“That fits too,” she murmured, thinking of Danny Boy’s description of Mr. Patches’s violent murder. Sienna held the pictures she’d just looked at up for Kat to see.
Kat took them in before her gaze met Sienna’s. “Well, hello, Mr. Patches,” she said.
Sienna looked at Xavier, who was watching them expectantly. He was a cute kid, tall and kind of awkward, with smooth brown skin and watchful eyes with long lashes that curled upward. “I pulled everything I could find on him,” he said, “but there might be more.”
“Keep looking, if you don’t mind,” Kat said. “But you might have just broken this case wide open. Excellent work.”
The way the kid’s smile burst forth made Sienna grin as well. “Sure. Okay, yeah, will do,” he said, turning and all but skipping back to the small metal desk he’d been designated over in the corner of the room.
“Sheldon Biel, you dirty, dirty man,” Kat murmured, looking more closely through the printouts Sienna had just handed her.