Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

checked his cell phone. No new messages or texts. ‘I called Carter an hour ago, but I haven’t heard back. If he doesn’t call me by ten, I’ll send the list to JD and Grayson and let them run with it. Now I’ve got to go. They’re having Tuzak’s wake at his house tonight.’
    ‘They don’t have the body, like, there , do they? In the house?’ Alec asked.
    ‘No. This is for Tuzak’s friends and family. We’ll just tell stories and remember him the way that he was.’ He stood up and tightened the knot of his tie. ‘I wanted to talk to Alyssa before I left, but she’s not back from talking to Kimberly MacGregor’s roommate at the dorm and I can’t wait any longer. Tell her to call me when she gets here, okay?’
    He was in his car when Alyssa pulled up beside him in hers, her driver window next to his. ‘I’m sorry, Clay. I hit traffic.’
    ‘It’s okay. Did you find anything?’
    Alyssa lifted her brows. ‘Doug likes it rough. Really, really rough.’
    Clay grimaced. ‘Could you not say those words again?’
    ‘Hey, you asked me to find out why Kim’s roommate didn’t like Doug. The first few times they went out, Kim came back to the dorm bruised and barely able to walk.’
    ‘That is rough.’
    Alyssa nodded. ‘The roommate said Kim told her that Doug really liked to be in charge. And he liked to hurt her. Roomie told Kim to run away, fast. Kim just laughed and said they were both getting something out of it.’
    ‘Sexually or revenge?’ Clay asked.
    ‘Good question. Roomie said that Kim liked to “punish herself”. Usually denial of food or an activity. But sometimes she hooked up with angry boys. That’s why her roommate was surprised when she took up with Ford. He was too nice for her. Too respectful. She said that in the last few weeks Kim had blossomed, that after one of their dates last week, Kim said she’d never had any guy be as good to her as Ford was. And that seemed to make her sad.’
    ‘Because she was planning on betraying him,’ Clay said acidly.
    Alyssa grimaced. ‘I hate to say this, but I hope Ford practiced safe sex. That Kim is a skank. He’s going to be devastated when he finds out, but I’d rather have him be alive and devastated than dead with his pride intact.’
    ‘Well said. I have to go. Call me from your home phone when you get in.’
    ‘Home phone, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Alyssa grumbled. ‘I will. See you tomorrow.’
    Wheeling, West Virginia, Wednesday, December 4, 8.10 P.M.
    Room 602 was an empty patient room that the charge nurse was allowing Joseph, Deacon, and the locals to use as a meeting room. Joseph wasn’t sure why the others had come back here and not gone straight to the precinct with whatever they’d found. He guessed he was about to find out.
    Deacon was sitting on the bed, computer on his lap, legs stretched out, his feet bare. His wet socks were draped over the bed rail to dry. He was typing at fever speed, frowning at the screen.
    Wheeling PD Detective McManus stood at the window, reviewing a stack of papers, and Agent Kerr from the Pittsburgh field office was gone.
    Joseph knocked on the doorframe. ‘You rang?’
    Deacon looked up, his eyes more intense than usual. ‘We found something. Come in and shut the door.’
    ‘Where is Agent Kerr?’
    ‘Setting up a search,’ Deacon said, ‘after he took what we found to the lab.’
    McManus handed Joseph an envelope that had been sealed, but no longer was. ‘I stopped by the precinct on my way back here. Junie Bramble found the report you asked about in the archives.’
    ‘We read it already,’ Deacon said. ‘Where do we start?’
    ‘What did you find, Deacon?’ Joseph asked calmly and Deacon drew a breath.
    ‘The kid’s backpack, or at least the one he was carrying. McManus had figured all the roads that would lead to that WMA.’
    Joseph wished he’d stopped for a cup of coffee. ‘WMA?’
    ‘Wildlife management area,’ Deacon said. ‘We got two teams of dogs to search, using the coat Ford was wearing when he was found.’
    ‘Which wasn’t his coat,’ McManus said. ‘It was a size too small and smelled like skunk. The scent led us to the backpack. It was off the road in a snowdrift.’
    ‘It held some beef jerky, three knives, a dead flashlight, and this.’ Deacon swung his legs over the edge of the bed and angled his laptop so that Joseph could see.
    It was a photo of a purse, the kind with a wrist strap. The hairs on Joseph’s neck lifted. ‘And inside