Free Loves Redemption by Kimberly Kaye Terry Page B

to work with.”

    “No it’s not, I understand what you’d like to gain from me, and I’ll do my best to help in
    any way. When I return to Imani House today, I’ll begin my quest to find out any information I can. I’ve already begun asking questions as to Ally’s last place of residence, as well as who she’d been associating with.”

    “Great. This is the best way to dig up leads, Dr. Richardson,” the lieutenant encouraged
    her with a half smile.

    “I do have one other question before we continue. You mentioned that Ally had been
    found within a week of her death. How long between time of death and discovery for the others?
    I don’t know about the other victims, but the last two had families and people that would miss them. Does this play a factor in your investigation?”

    “We’ve uncovered the majority two to three weeks from the time of death. Based on the
    coroner’s report, our victim last night had been killed within the last 48 hours, which is the soonest,” Mark interjected.

    “Why was this victim’s discovery sooner?” Maya asked, giving Mark her full attention.

    “A jogger and her dog discovered the body. This is important information. Because as
    you say, if our victims had close families, and based on what type of lives that the men led, they’d be reported as missing as soon as they didn’t show up when they were supposed to. Your sister didn’t have a report filed on her and neither did the greater majority of our other victims, including Kross, our man from last night. If the slayer is stalking loners or men without family members, which was our original thinking, it would be easier to see some type of pattern. This in turn makes life easier for us, because the closer you come to completing the pattern, the closer you come to finding the offender.”

    Jordan, who’d remained silent for most of the meeting, added, “Either she’s changed her
    mode or it never was her mode. We assumed based on the type of victims targeted that maybe
    she had been scouting out her victims, choosing them based on their anonymity. The only victim with a missing report filed, had it filed by his employer.”

    “Which leads us to the question: is our killer watching and then targeting certain men,
    and if so why did she kill both Kross and Clemens? Because neither one fit the type of her
    previous victims. And what, if anything, is the connection with Allison?” Mark questioned.

    “At this point, let me suggest we go into more of Dr. Richardson’s expertise if we may,
    because as we’re all aware she is here despite a busy schedule,” Lieutenant Hernandez rerouted the conversation.

CHAPTER 10

    Maya glanced at her watch and was surprised to see the time. “I hadn’t realized it was so
    late. Are there any questions for me?”

    Jordan spoke up. “You work with women who’ve been in prostitution for a lot of
    different reasons. It’s got to be hard for them to leave prostitution on their own; it almost seems like a drug.”

    “In the time I’ve worked with these brave women and men, I’ve found that most come
    from abusive homes where there was no father living in the home or the father that was present was abusive physically and or sexually to them or another family member. In an attempt to
    escape the abuse, they run away.” She gave the handsome detective her full attention.

    “You said that it seems like a drug. In a way it is. Drugs find their way into a person’s
    bloodstream, destroying anything in their path. Prostitution is a behavior that does the same thing. At Imani House we treat it for the ‘drug’ it mimics. We know that it takes more than finding a 9 to 5 job to reclaim their lives.”

    Maya had strong feelings for the women and men who came to her, trying to recapture a
    life that had been stolen from her. Although she’d directed her response to Jordan, she could feel the collective stares of Mark and Lieutenant Hernandez.

    Lieutenant Hernandez shook her