Free SpareDick by Sarina Wilde Page A

disappears
under similar circumstances…and with some striking similarities in physical
appearance.”
    Kevin scowled, his blue eyes narrowed on where the forensics
guys were still collecting evidence and snapping pictures as they bagged and
tagged what they gathered. “Sergeant, are there any other similar cases?”
    “Good question, Ramsey. I don’t know. I remember this one
because it occurred right after I made detective. I’d say that’s something to
check into.”
    The sergeant got back into his unmarked sedan, leaving Kevin
and Adam to watch. Kevin’s hooded gaze tracked the team working around the
body. “How long do you think it will take them to make a positive ID?”
    Adam jammed his hands in his pants pocket. “Not long’s my
guess. The file on the other missing girl said they had DNA samples in addition
to dental records. We should know something PDQ. Meantime, I think we go on the
assumption it’s her. Want to grab something to eat before we start?”
    Kevin scraped his hand back through his dark hair. “I should
call Jill.”
    “Whoa, dude. After how we had to leave things today, calling
is not what I would do. You need to be face-to-face.”
    Kevin raised worried blue eyes to him. “Shit, Hell. She
looked so…hurt. I never meant…Fuck. Maybe I would be better off giving her time
to cool off. She’s levelheaded, always been logical. Maybe if I give her some
space…”
    Adam wasn’t sure who Kevin was trying to convince, him or
himself. But Adam could still picture her expression when she’d looked at him
and realized who he was. He had a bad feeling Kevin was in a whole lot deeper
shit than he’d ever imagined.
    They ran through the nearest fast-food biscuit joint’s
drive-through, loading up on carbs and caffeine, and headed in to the station.
After they pulled into the garage, Adam glanced at his partner.
    “You going to be able to handle this?”
    “Work? Yeah. Jill? I don’t know, Hell. I’ve really fucked
up.”
    “Well, you’ve got work right now. Let’s see what we can
start piecing together.”
    They decided to split the duties. While Kevin compared
similarities between Addy and Heather Stevens, the cold case, Adam put in
search parameters to help him identify any other possibilities.
    After a couple hours, Adam had narrowed his list of
possibilities to two. One was from twenty years ago with the girl still listed
as missing, the other was from fifteen years ago. Five years after her
disappearance, hikers had discovered her shallow grave off a trail in Umstead
State Park.
    “I’ve got two possibles,” Adam said. “What about you?”
    Kevin ran his hand around the back of his neck as if it
ached. “Same basic physical descriptions, very different economic backgrounds,
but here’s the kicker—same high school.”
    Adam didn’t lend that much credence. Since they’d both
disappeared from the same general area, the same school was a distinct
possibility. He looked at his files and shifted his attention to the one from
fifteen years ago.
    “What’s up, Hell? You’ve got that look on your face.”
    Adam set the older missing person case to the side, scanning
the Umstead body details more intently. “Jesus, Kevin, this girl the hikers
found also had physical similarities…and she was a student at the same school.
Maybe there is a connection.”
    “Let’s take a look at the faculty. It would make sense,
Hell. No signs of a struggle with Addy, which fits if her abductor was someone
known to her.”
    “Known and trusted.” They stared at each other.
    “Were faculty interviewed in your body found?”
    “Yes. Here’s the list.” Adam reached over to the printer,
grabbed the sheet that had printed out and shoved it across the desk to Kevin.
“Any matches?”
    Kevin snorted. “This must be the most stable school faculty
known to man. Even the principal’s been there most of his career. There must be
at least fifteen matches across all three cases. All the faculty