Free Dead End by Mariah Stewart

most likely early childhood.”
    “Semen?”
    “Not in or on any of them. Both guys wrapped up first.” She rolled up the paper towel and tossed it into a nearby trash can. “It will be interesting to see what we get back from the lab, don’t you think?”
    “I’ve asked the chief to okay a transfer to the FBI lab, just to speed up the process. Our county lab is way behind and just isn’t willing to expedite this case over any others in the pipeline.”
    “That would be Jeffrey Coogan.” She named the head of the lab and made a face. “He’s not much of a team player. You’ll never get him to put one case aside to work on another. He’s so goddamned anal. Everything in strict order.”
    “He’s not happy about giving up the samples, but the chief leaned on him good and hard. I suspect the D.A. might have made a call as well.”
    “Sometimes you just have to talk tough with the assholes, Crosby.” She grinned. “Anything else I can do for you?”
    “You could get me a copy of the autopsy report on our latest victim.”
    “As soon as Mary Ellen out there finishes transcribing my tape, it’s yours. I’ll have her call you and you can stop back and pick it up.”
    “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
    “And you’ll get me a copy of the lab results as soon as the FBI gets them to you?”
    “Absolutely.” He hopped off the desk and started to the door.
    “Sounds like a deal.” She smiled and turned to answer her ringing phone. “Oh. There was one more thing. Our unidentified girls all had tattoos on their left hips.”
    “Tattoos?”
    “Little stars. Somewhat crudely made, but they were definitely stars. Three tiny stars, right below the waist at the top of the hip on the left side. What do you make of that?”
     
    “Stars?” Annie asked.
    “Right. I’m faxing you a photo right now. Can you see if it matches up with anything in the Bureau files? I tried to scan it into our computer, but once again, the computer is giving me the finger. Some glitch in the firewall, they’re telling me.”
    “Go ahead and fax it down, let me take a look.”
    “It should be there any minute.” Evan paused, then said, “Dr. Jenkins agrees that we’re dealing with more than one killer.”
    He reiterated the gist of his conversation with the medical examiner.
    “Prostitutes? Fourteen-, fifteen-year-old prostitutes?” She thought for a minute, then said, “Well, that would make sense, wouldn’t it? Maybe they were tattooed by whoever is putting them out. Then again, they could be gang members. That’s just as likely, don’t you think? Maybe the stars identify them as a member of a specific gang. Or maybe they mark them as the property of a gang.”
    “It’s worth looking into, but I have to tell you that I haven’t heard of anything like that around here. I’ll check with Philly, Trenton, Scranton, Camden, Newark, New York—maybe someone will have seen this before.”
    “If they were prostitutes, it would explain why you haven’t received missing persons reports. If it’s a gang thing, though, you might still have parents involved somewhere. The girls would most likely live at home. If that’s the case, someone should be looking for these girls, Evan. Still no calls?”
    “None. And we’ve told the dispatchers from every community to call us the minute anyone inquires about any one of these kids, but there’s been nothing. I’ll put out inquiries up and down the East Coast, though. See if someone, somewhere, is looking for them.”
    “I think the tattoos might help us track them.” She bit at a cuticle, something she almost never did. “I just can’t help but think that somewhere, someone is crying their eyes out over these girls. Someone has to have missed them. These kids have names, they have families somewhere.”
    “Well, maybe one of us will get lucky and we’ll find out where that somewhere is.”
    “Let me make a call or two and get back to you.”
    Annie was searching her desk drawer