No Mark Upon Her

looked at her, his gaze sharp now. “If this is his pattern, I’d stake my life he’s a repeater. You and Becca Meredith can’t have been his only targets.” He leaned across the table and gripped her fingers so hard she winced. “What would you have done, Gem?”
    She thought it out, as repugnant as it was. “I wouldn’t have had anyone to turn to, no one I at least thought I could trust, the way Becca did Peter Gaskill. And I’d have known, like Becca, that it would end my career if I went public, no matter the outcome. But I’d have wanted—something—something that might one day give me the power to—to damage him.”
    She thought of other women, police officers with husbands or children, with careers they’d worked hard to achieve, or just paychecks that put much-needed food on the table. “What if some of the others—and I think you’re right, we have to assume there are others—what if they filed rape reports, but listed the assailant as unknown? Then there would be a record, and DNA on file, if there was ever a chance to use it against him.”
    And if any of the women had done so, had they lived in silence afterwards, for months? Years? Would the lie have corroded the very fabric of their lives?
    Inspiration struck Gemma. “I could ask Melody,” she said. “She’s working with Project Sapphire. We could check the files. Unsolved cases. There would be a profile, and more than just his targeting of female police officers.” Gemma shifted restlessly in her chair as she thought it through. “If a woman lied about something like that, she’d put as much truth in the report as possible. It’s human nature, the easiest way. So there would be similarities in the reports, if you knew what you were looking for.”
    Kincaid nodded. “You might turn up something. Would Melody be willing to keep this confidential? This is one occasion when I’d just as soon we went outside channels.” His expression told her that his disagreement with Denis Childs was not going to be easily dismissed.
    “But we’re making one really big assumption here,” he went on, “which is that Craig only targets police officers. If he operates outside the box, we’re talking needle in a haystack.”
    “Oh, God.” Gemma thought of other women, more lives tainted, ruined. Then she shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. He has to have leverage. It’s the job that gives him that. And he’ll look for it.”
    She closed her eyes, trying to recall the details of that evening in the pub, four long years ago. Her mates had been teasing her about being newly and officially single. Craig could easily have overheard. And by asking a few innocent questions, he could have learned that she’d just been promoted and was ambitious about her job. But apparently no one had mentioned Toby.
    Something occurred to her. “He was playing a bit close to home, wasn’t he, with Becca Meredith? And I don’t mean just geographically. She was a DCI and less likely to be intimidated by his threats. I was only a lowly sergeant when he meant to try it with me, and just barely that. Maybe, with Becca, he was getting too comfortable.”
    “Or pushing the envelope, more likely,” Kincaid said. “Needing more risk, more stimulation. And if he was matey with Gaskill, he must have thought he was home fr—” His phone rang. “Damn.” He fished it from his jeans pocket and checked the caller ID. “It’s Singla, the DI from Henley. I’ll have to take it.”
    She watched his face as he listened to the tinny voice issuing from the phone speaker. The crease deepened between his brows. He glanced at the kitchen clock, then back at her, nodding even though his caller couldn’t see. “Right. I’m on my way,” he said. But when he ended the call, he sat and stared at Gemma, looking puzzled.
    “What’s happened?” she asked. “Have they arrested Atterton?”
    “No. No, he’s fine, as far as I know. But it sounds as though someone’s just tried to murder one of the SAR team.”

Chapter Twelve

Low areas collect scent, just as they do water. As with looping, a scent pool may produce an alert that the dog cannot work to its source because of shifting winds. These alerts must be marked on both the handler’s and the Control maps.
—American Rescue Dog Association
Search and Rescue Dogs: Training the K-9 Hero

    T avie and Ian managed to get Kieran as far as the lawn of the next-door cottage before the engine began pumping a jet of