Free Jane Doe's Return by Jen Talty Page B

cleaned, as if he is trying to get rid of any traces of rape. Or maybe cleanse their souls.” He scooted to the edge of his seat, riveted by her instincts.
    “The same killer wouldn’t change his MO,” she commented, pausing, biting her thumbnail. “But what if it everything hinges on whether or not the girls were virgins?”
    “Not easy for a dead girl to tell us her past sexual history.”
    “I take it you have already thought of that?”
    He’d never seen her bite her nails before. Something about this conversation made her nervous, which in turn made him nervous because she was the most confident woman…no, FBI agent he’d ever met. “I once presented it to one of the other agents when I first started. I was informed that it would have to be perceived virginity, since it is possible for the hymen to be broken other ways.”
    “Perceived virginity could be the key though.” With a shaking hand, she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
    “What’s going on inside there?” He tapped her forehead, hoping she’d open up to him. She had a theory, or an idea, and he wanted her to share it.
    “What if we approach this as two different killers? At least, how we present it to the task force. I think there’s enough to link the two hotel cases together.”
    Travis held up his hand. “Too many years between them.”
    “Don’t you see?” Her voice cracked.
    “We need a bigger connection, before we present this, to make it more than a file we are continuing to aide the police on. You are on to something, though; we just need to dig a little deeper, like find Jane Doe.”
    “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found,” his mother said, standing directly behind him and breathing down his neck. “Maybe she wants to forget and move on with her life. Like you should.”
    Avoiding his mother painful stare, he said, “I can’t get over it, and neither can you.” He clenched his fists.
    “I’ll always miss my Marie. If I could’ve changed places with her, I would have, but I’m not going to let some psycho dictate what I do. She was my only daughter.” A tear dripped down his mother’s cheek. “If I could bring her back, I would.”
    “Putting the jerk behind bars will certainly make me feel better.” He looked out over the lake, trying to find some calming aspect of his surroundings.
    “They already put one behind bars.”
    “The wrong man, Mother.” The small plastic table knocked over as he leapt to his feet, sending his soda can spraying down the stone path.
    “Well, he was guilty of something and belongs in prison.”
    “So does the man who raped and killed Marie,” Travis said.
    His mother let out a long slow breath. “Are you prepared to bring an innocent young girl into this? She may not believe they caught the wrong guy. Do you want to ruin her sense of security? Don’t you think she has been through enough?”
    “If that monster is still out there, she’ll never be safe.” The wood railing shook with his trembling hands. He struggled to keep his anger from igniting an all out war of words. “I just want to protect her,” he said behind clenched jaw.
    “If she believed he was still out there, don’t you think she’d come forward?”
    “Not if she’s smart.”
    “Oh, that’s right. She’d stay hidden because she knows her attacker is out there,” his mother said. “I loved Marie as much as you did, but you have to move forward. Live your life, not live in her memory.”
    “I don’t want to argue.”
    “Then drop it. I don’t think you see what you are doing to this family. Now if you would excuse me,” she said softly, and went back into the house.
    “Your mother’s right,” Shauna said.
    Travis’s pulse increased. “What the hell does that mean?”
    “I might be out of line, but your world seems to wrapped up in the past.”
    “One, you’re out of line. Two, didn’t you just think we should present all this to the task force?”
    “Yes, but not under the pretense