CHAPTER 79

       The guys from forensics were already examining the scene by the time Dylan got there. She saw Kenny standing near the place the dead girl's body probably was so she headed over there. She flashed her badge before any of them could stop her. Having a police uniform was good since everyone could identify you. Being a detective didn't need her to wear the uniform and that meant she had to identify herself everywhere she went especially since she was still new in the department but it felt hella  awesome. Seeing people step away and let her proceed once she had identified herself made her feel important. She smiled wickedly realizing that she might find herself turning into one of those detectives she wrathed,the ones who acted that they owned the world but no,she was way above that. There wasn't any way she could stoop that low. Being a detective meant helping people not looking down on them.

            "Jeez,are you crazy? You seriously aren't smiling on a murder scene," Kenny said approaching her. She wiped off the smile she hadn't realized was still spread across her face and focused.

               "Did you just say murder?"

               "Yeah,one bullet to the head. Come on and see for yourself." She followed him and stopped beside him overlooking the body of the girl who had been identified as Maisie Williams. She was dressed in a rather exposing outfit only worn by hookers. She was tall,very beautiful even in her death which meant it hadn't occurred too many hours ago. Her body had been dumped in a marsh near a river where as she was told,a teenager had seen the body while passing. There didn't seem to be any mutilation on any body part but that didn't conclude anything. They would find out more after the post mortem had been conducted. For now, they would have to stick with random theories about her death. She looked around the place. There weren't any residences there. The first home was quite a distance away from the river and anyone standing outside wouldn't have seen anything this far out. There was a road running from east to west. It would either lead to town or away into the country side. She moved. Taking a closer look around the area, she noticed some disturbance on the ground. She squatted down and took a closer look. The grass seemed to have been treaded on in a clear path leading towards the road then something caught her eye.

                 "Tire tread marks."

                   "Where?" Kenny asked and joined her on the ground. She pointed to a patch where no grass had taken root.

                  "Someone must be really trying to cover something up because to me,it appears like this girl was first killed in whatever place then was brought out to be dumped here."

                "Do you think all the girls who have disappeared might be in the same place?"

                "I've got a feeling they are."

               "Abducted and forced into something?"

                "That's my best theory but they could have gone on their own free will too. I mean, same school,same age? Who knows if they decided to leave school and start working." 

              "As hookers?" Kenny asked focusing his gaze on Maisie Williams on the ground.

             "It's a paying profession,don't act so surprised. And a girl has got to pay her bills." She stood up, "Let's go to the precinct and try and see if we can gather something from their piles. Also I think it's our duty to visit the girls family and let them know that their girl is no more." She felt a painful lump form in her throat as she said the words.

                "That's the part I find most difficult in our line of work."

 She sighed,"Tell me about it. It's our first,we can't mess up."

Kenny nodded in agreement, "Okay,let's go."

    Dylan arranged the photographs of all the girls who had been reported missing in that district in the last couple of months starting with Maisie's side by side with their missing reports. They all dated to as far as two weeks ago. She compared the dates written on the files and immediately noticed the intervals. Two had disappeared on the same weekend while the others at exactly one week intervals. That wasn't enough to decide which theory was most probable so she went ahead to study them. Kenny was across the desk on a computer checking their profiles in order. She read silently, Maisie Williams, Miranda Moore,Marlene Sanders,Maryrose Rollins,Mirabelle Jenkins. She frowned.

                  "Hey,have you noticed anything weird about these girls? I mean what are the chances that their names start with an 'M'?" she said.

                 "A couple of things are weird. Not only do they have similar first initials but also the same hair colour."

  She quickly glanced at the photographs. She hadn't noticed that they were all blonde but different shades. 

              "Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed. "You think some self possessed pervert is hunting for blondes and using them for some kind of business?" She asked deciding ruling out that they had disappeared of their own free will was safe. There was no way these girls had just agreed on this. The pattern was too clear that it was abduction without any doubts. "Have you got the location of Maisie's home yet?"

                  "Yeah,it's right here. Ten minute drive from here."

   She stood up and grabbed her caught.

               "Let's go. We might find out something there that will give us a base to start with. If all these girls were taken against their will,there is no guarantee that they won't end up like Maisie. We need to act fast."

 Kenny followed her out of the building to the parking lot which was as deserted as the inside of their work place had been. Only a few people worked on Sundays and that excluded their captain. She started the car even before Kenny was inside. It was so painful seeing a girl she could have saved had she gotten onto this case earlier die at such a young age. She had a whole life ahead of her and that had been blown up to the ground with just one bullet. She owed it upon herself to find the others and return them home before the same fate befall them.

              "I wonder why no one noticed the obvious relation between the girls," Kenny commented as she sped down the road towards Maisie's home. He had said the exact thing that was going on in her head. 

            "Ignorance, treating it like just any other case where college girls ran away from home thinking they would return. Now one of them is dead because of that ignorance," she replied bitterly and swerved around a car that was driving slowly in front of hers.

                "Hey,it's not your fault. You couldn't have prevented her death,we had no idea where to start but now since we do,we can work towards making sure the others don't end up like her."

  She nodded knowing what he was right. It took the death of one for them to open their eyes. That wasn't right but she would have to work with that.

             "Up this drive," Kenny instructed pointing towards the left. She made a turn an drove on for several more minutes. "Right here." She stopped in front of a one storied house with a well kept lawn and a car parked outside. She looked up at the front then noticed someone part the window curtains. She led the way up front though nervously and knocked. The door was opened by a woman probably in her late forties to early fifties. There was a striking resemblance to Maisie. She swallowed. How was she going to break the news to this woman who definitely wasn't aware of her current happenings.

              "Mrs Williams?" she said guessing Williams was her surname.

               "Yeah?" she replied looking between them in confusion. They weren't in uniform and they hadn't taken a marked car so she was obviously questioning who they were. She took out her badge and Kenny did the same.

               "Detectives Lewis and Watson with the LAPD. Is it okay if we come in?"

   She immediately became alert after their identification and appeared fully at the door. She was dressed as if she had just gotten back from somewhere because she still had high heels on. Either that or she was about to go somewhere since no one stayed indoors with those kind of shoes.

               "Is this about my daughter?"

Kenny immediately nodded,"Yes, we have some news-"

              "Oh my God!  I have been waiting for ages for something like this. When I first reported her disappearance they all dismissed it saying that she would show up and I believed them because that wasn't the first time she had disappeared."

               "It wasn't?" she asked.

              "Yeah. She always came back but this time it has been over two months and I haven't seen or heard from her and I'm beginning to get worried." They looked at each other,each of them willing the other to break the news to her. "Come on in," she stepped aside.

 They were barely seated when she accosted them with questions.

             "Have you heard from her or seen her? Is she okay?"

She swallowed. Kenny didn't seem to be in a position to answer so she took it upon herself.

               "Mrs Williams, we found your daughter's body earlier this morning. That's why we are here."

               "What?" They both remained silent for a while to let her process the news before they could say anything else. "Maisie is gone?"

               "I'm really sorry."

The woman's face transformed from kind to angry and pained as tears welled up in her eyes shaking her head in disbelief. Her tone changed from welcoming to pure hatred. She took a long while to let out the words she was struggling with in her mouth.

               "It's all your fault. If you people had taken this seriously and looked for my daughter she wouldn't be dead. What kind of people are you?"

                "Mrs Williams, both of us weren't even-" she stopped Kenny before he could finish his statement. That wasn't going to help anything. If there was one thing she had noticed about Kenny,he didn't ever want to be blamed about anything. But this was work. They took blame for things they couldn't even control. This woman wouldn't understand who was to  blame. He would have to get over it with time. She knew it wasn't probably the right time to say what she said next but she had to. It was what was required of them. She took out the photographs of the other girls and placed them in front of her.

              "I know this is overwhelming for you but we need your help." She pointed at the photographs. "These girls disappeared at a time before and after the day your daughter disappeared. We need to look for them and we need you to tell us if any of them was friends with Maisie."

The woman sniffled and looked at her,"Tell me,is that going to bring my Maisie back?"

               "No but it might help with finding the other girls before something similar happens to them."

             "You think I care about that? I just found out that my  daughter is dead. All I care about is that so could you leave me to mourn in peace?"

               "Mom? What's going on?" They all turned to the voice behind them. A girl older than Maisie maybe by two years appeared at the stairs. She came over to them and stopped behind her mother. One look at all of them she immediately understood what was going on. She looked at the pictures on the table then looked at her. "What happened?"

             "She was murdered," she replied but only because the girl seemed to be a little stronger than her mother. The mother broke down and sat back on a couch. "You are her sister,right?"

                 "Yeah," the girl replied but was clearly fighting back her tears. "Do you know who did it?"

              "That's what we are trying to figure out." She decided to take that opportunity to see if she could get anything out of them. "We need your help. Do you recognized any of the other girls in the photographs?"

She observed them and pointed to one of the girls.

               "Mirabelle Jenkins was a close friend of hers. They used to hang out all the time."

                "Alright, thank you for this. We are going to make sure the one who did this to your sister is brought to justice."

                "You better," the girl said sternly. They both stood up to leave. She looked at them and could literally feel their pain. She had been there but they were lucky enough they weren't the ones to discover the body. It didn't make it less painful though.

                "Again I'm really sorry," she said once again before they took their leave.

                "Show us by bringing my sister's killer to justice." She nodded once and joined Kenny who was already walking towards the car.