Chapter Forty DAWSON

Chapter Forty

D AWSON

Friday, July 19, 2024

4:00 p.m.

Dawson drove to the house where Sandra’s body had been found. He ducked under the crime scene tape and paused at the front door. The seal was broken. Someone had been in the house. Drawing his weapon, he walked inside.

His footsteps echoing in the empty house, he moved toward the kitchen. The bricks still lay in the haphazard pile fanning around the fireplace. He tried to imagine Tanner standing here a decade ago. He’d taken the time to wrap Sandra’s body tight and carried her lifeless form here. How hard had it been to shove the body into the small place? He peered into the narrow space.

He pictured Sandra suffering in that basement while he was at this construction site interviewing Tanner. Shit. He’d known Tanner was slick. The smile was too easy. He was so helpful.

Tiffany’s body hadn’t been wrapped in plastic, but her purse and identification had been with her remains. Two victims had died a decade apart. Notes from the forensic techs told him Tiffany had also been struck on the back of the head like Sandra. The cases were connected. Lynn. Scarlett. The mysterious Della.

His phone rang, the sound echoing in the house. “Dawson.”

“You’re going to owe me,” Dr. Malone said.

“My favorite medical examiner. I’m so far in debt to you, I’ll never dig out,” he said, smiling.

“Thank your partner. She can be very persuasive.”

He was only just realizing that. “What do you have?”

“As you know, I extracted DNA from Sandra Taylor’s back molar. I was able to match Taylor’s DNA to her biological mother’s, which was still in the penal system. I can confirm her identity.”

“Tell me what I don’t know.”

“I also found dark-brown hair strands on Sandra’s body. These fibers were clutched in her right hand.”

Tanner’s hair had been military short and black and Scarlett’s ice blond. “Okay.”

“The fibers are old, but the tech at the lab has many tricks up her sleeve, but it’s going to take more time, assuming there’s a DNA match in the system.”

Would DNA from the hair prove Della’s existence? “Hair clutched in her hand ... as if Sandra were fighting,” he said more to himself.

“Or reaching for help,” Dr. Malone said. “It’s not uncommon for victims to grab anything, hoping to save themselves.”

Dawson’s mind wandered to Scarlett’s painting of Della. Dark curly hair. Had Sandra been reaching to Della for help or fighting for her life?

Lynn Yeats had also had long dark hair a decade ago, but hers was straight. The DNA profiles would tell him who’d been near Sandra at her death or handled her body. And if Della was Margo ... shit.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“June bugs.”

“What?”

“I found a June bug under Miss Taylor’s blouse. They tend to hatch in Southern Virginia and North Carolina in May and June. Not a hard date, but something.”

Sandra had last been seen in April. Dr. Malone’s discovery of a June bug indicated that Sandra could have been alive in May or June. If that held true, she would have been in Tanner’s house the same time as Scarlett. And there was also the bracelet engraved with an SC found with Sandra’s body.

Dawson rolled his neck from side to side. “What about Tiffany Patterson? Was her phone ever found on her body?”

“Not that I know of.”

“What about any DNA?”

“Light-colored hair strands. Also off for testing for a match.”

Basically dead ends. “Thanks, Doc. Keep me posted.”