Free The East Avenue Murders (The Maude Rogers Crime Novels Book 1) by Linda L. Dunlap

validation or forgiveness from her. After all the years she might have wanted to see and hear about his change of heart, she just didn’t give a good crap now. He had waited much too late.
    Coffee and a cigarette had started Maude’s day. She never cared much for breakfast unless it was tacos or a piece of pecan pie. Grace had always made the best pies, the crunchy pecan topping hiding the true delight of the sweet insides.
    Maude decided on a protein bar to begin the day, knowing there would be little time later for lunch. She had to get to the station and report her last two days to the boss. The little notebook in her pocket was about full and needed transcribing into a couple of reports. It all came down to the paperwork.
    The information on her desk concerned the recent murders, and the individual pages were stacked in order of their arrival. Fingerprints and dental were on the bottom of the stack with the rest on top. Maude glanced at the lab reports, interested in seeing them even though she knew what was written there; extensive dental work had been done on one of the women, but nothing was recorded in the United States. Records with requests had been sent to Interpol using FBI contact information. Maude hoped for something to come from her requests. Her big fear was that the federal men would put two and two together, and try to take over her case. If there was even a hint of a connection with Chicago, they would grab it and Maude would be left in the background.
    The clerical staff in the Ho micide Division had two clerks, one named Alice who was a friend of Maude’s. The other was an older man who didn’t like anyone especially Maude. Several times during her friendship with Alice, Maude had requested her help in a report that needed finessing. She knew that Alice would be discreet when the request for help from Interpol was put on her desk. She hoped there were no bells sounding when the fingerprints and dental records were received.
    Alice had knowledge of the fine-line between a request for help in an ordinary situation and an emergency cry from an organization in trouble. That morning, Maude had asked her to make it an ordinary request for information, to keep a low profile. Cops and staff were pretty much in line about their feelings of doing all the legwork, then having the federal cops strut their stuff, and claim the glory when the case was solved. Alice was glad to help out.
    The coroner ’s report was short and to the point. The cause of death appeared to be a six to ten inch blade with a slight curve near the end. The wounds on the victims’ necks were curved, not straight. The breasts had been removed with a six to ten inch tree saw blade, or other large serrated edge use for cutting hard wood or metals. The finding was due to the ragged edges of the cuts on the victims’ bodies. The extensive decay to the skin and tissue at the breast cavity made it difficult to be more definite about the type of weapon used, but a tree saw was named as most likely. The autopsy would show more in-depth information on the victims possibly adding evidence that was needed to find the killer or killers.
    Maude was hoping to have an identification of the victims soon. Somewhere someone might have cared about the women. That was always the worst part of the discovery of a dead body. The family had to be told of the death and then questioned. No cop liked that job but it was necessary, and sometimes proved to be enlightening. Many times the victim was killed by a family member, either accidentally, or because of quick violence brought on by any series of emotions.
    Maude had been part of a family notification after her brother was found dead of a drug overdose soon after their mother died. During the grieving for her mother she was told the sad news of her only brother’s fall into drug usage and the eventual overdose. Police had not suspected foul play or suicide as a reason. It had appeared to be an accidental death,