Free Alone (A Bone Secrets Novel) by Kendra Elliot

the morning with dead girls, and it was invigorating to see teenage eyes that blinked instead of staring foggily at the ceiling.
    Victoria didn’t like to judge by appearances, but she appreciated that Trinity didn’t dye her hair pitch black or have multiple piercings in her eyebrows. Her blonde hair was neatly pulled back, her chin was up, and she didn’t wear makeup except a light layer of mascara. Victoria hoped detectives saw a solid kid in spite of the hell she’d been through.
    “We tried to contact Brooke’s parents,” Lusco started kindly. “No one is at the house. Any ideas where to find them?”
    Trinity shook her head. “Maybe they left for the weekend. They don’t usually leave Brooke home alone, though… of course they thought she was spending the night at my house.” Her gaze dropped to her hands clenched in her lap. Victoria noticed she’d bitten her nails to the quick. One outward signthat the girl’s emotional state wasn’t as calm as she projected. She did a good job keeping herself in control. Her eyes were red, but her gaze was steady.
    “Dr. Peres said your friend was meeting a guy in Forest Park?” Callahan asked.
    Trinity nodded. “I never met him. He’s a photographer. I’ve seen some of the pictures he’s taken of Brooke. And some other girls, but I didn’t know them. She posted them on her Facebook wall and texted me one.”
    “What kind of pictures?” The detective tensed and exchanged glances with Lusco. Victoria remembered their case last summer that involved pictures of small children and a sexual predator.
    “The pictures were beautiful,” said Trinity. “They were good enough to be in fashion magazines. Or hung on someone’s wall. They were light and airy with an overexposed look to them. The girls wore white dresses that sorta faded into the background. It put the emphasis on their faces. I can show you.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped on the screen. “I gave this photo to the lady out front along with the form I filled out on Brooke.”
    Callahan took the offered phone and stared. Victoria had already seen the photo. It was a stunning picture. Everything was white except for the girl’s black hair. Her eyes were closed and she reclined on a white couch in the center of a golden field. There was nothing improper or sexual about the picture. She saw Callahan’s chest relax a degree.
    “Do you think she was one of them?” Trinity whispered.
    Callahan blinked and pulled his gaze away from the picture. He handed the phone to Lusco. Trinity looked nauseous. “I’msorry, I don’t know,” Callahan said. “They all had similar hair like this. I just can’t tell.”
    Victoria watched Ray study the image, and his expression suddenly blanked.
Ray thinks he recognizes her.
From her brief time with the bodies, Victoria thought two of the dead girls could possibly be Trinity’s friend. It was hard to tell. A body loses much of its character in death. She’d purposefully not tried to compare the picture to the girls. That was up to Dr. Campbell.
    “Do you know how your friend met the photographer? Or who else might have been meeting them that night?” Lusco asked.
    “I think she met him through Facebook.”
    “What?” Victoria felt ill. How many horror stories had she heard about girls meeting in person with someone they’d met online?
    “He was shooting someone else she knew… I don’t know who… I think she went to a different high school. But when Brooke said she liked the photos, her friend put her in contact with him through Facebook. At least I think it was Facebook. Maybe it was Instagram.”
    “My daughter has an Instagram account,” said Lusco. “I get on there and snoop around occasionally.”
    Callahan looked at Lusco and raised a brow. “I don’t know the ins and outs of Facebook or Instagram. My son keeps telling me to get an account so we can share photos.”
    “I’ll get the cyber guys to look into it,” said