Before the Dawn(82)

Anthony grunted.

"I didn't plant evidence. I didn't kill Red. I tried to save him." Tucker's shoulders rolled back. "The real killer is out there. And by focusing on me, you're just wasting time."

* * *

IT WAS COLD in the coroner's office. Dawn shivered when she walked inside. "Julia?" Bowen was a few steps behind her, a shadow she couldn't seem to shake.

Dawn heard the murmur of voices, and when she rounded the corner, her gaze fell on Julia, clad in her white lab coat. Julia wasn't alone, though. Macey was at her side, and they were both hovering over a sheet-covered body. 

"You shouldn't be here." Julia's eyes immediately filled with worry. "Dawn, I'm still working on the autopsy for Jinx. You don't want to be here."

Jinx was under that sheet?

Dawn stilled.

Julia pulled off her gloves, tossed them into the trash and then hurried toward Dawn. "You don't want to be here," she said again.

Dawn couldn't pull her gaze off the sheet.

Julia touched her arm. Dawn flinched.

"Let's go outside," Julia said quickly. "We can talk out there-"

"She suffered." The words were out before she could even think. "I saw-when I opened the freezer...he'd cut her." Marks that matched Dawn's. Or at least, that was what she'd thought at the time. "Were the marks...the same?"

Macey had come up behind Julia. Like the coroner, she was wearing a white lab coat and gloves. She took off her gloves and Dawn saw her gaze jump to Bowen.

"They were the same." Julia's face showed her sorrow. "I'm sorry."

"She worked so hard to cover up my scars." Her heart squeezed in her chest. "And he just marked her to match me." Why? "Did you hear...the FBI has a partial DNA match? They think the killer is someone related to Jason Frost."

Julia licked her lips. "I...heard that."

"Have you found any evidence to back that up?" Or, more important, any evidence to discredit that idea?

"I recovered skin cells," Julia murmured. "Just a few moments ago. From beneath Jinx's fingernails. Even though she was bound, she fought her attacker."

Jinx had always been a fighter. Once more, Dawn's gaze went helplessly to that white sheet.

Jinx is here. Heather is here. Red is here. And even that kid-Rowan-he's dead, too. So many dead.

"Macey, can we talk outside?" Bowen's deep voice asked.

Macey gave a quick nod, and they walked away. The lab doors swung shut behind them. Dawn's shoulders sagged a bit. Now, alone with Julia, she could lower her guard. "I hate this so much," Dawn whispered.

Julia nodded, swallowing.

"I need something to help me find this bastard. He's out there, hunting, and the cops took Tucker in for questioning." Her chin lifted. "He didn't do this. I know it."

"Sometimes, we don't know people as well as we think."

"I know him." She wouldn't let fear control her again. She'd just found her way back to Tucker. She wouldn't lose him again. "Those cells you found-they are going to prove his innocence."

Julia bit her lip, but didn't speak.

"The killer is someone that Jinx was seeing, romantically. Malone told me that she had a boyfriend-this was the guy. Tucker couldn't have been down here seeing Jinx. He was working cases with the FBI."

"Maybe he slipped away..."

"No." She was adamant. "It didn't happen." She was certain of this. "Jinx knew how I felt about Tucker." Because one drunken night she'd told her. Why was it that too much wine could always make secrets come out? "There are some lines that friends would never cross."


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Julia glanced back toward the covered sheet. "You're so sure her lover and her killer are one and the same?"

No, she wasn't. Damn it. "Have you done Red's autopsy?"

Julia shook her head. "Not yet. It took so long to carefully thaw Jinx that-" She broke off. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"The killer attacked Red quickly. He didn't use the Iceman's MO. It was all about a fast kill with him. Since it was so fast, maybe he made a mistake. Left more evidence. I mean, if skin cells were found on Jinx, there has to be evidence on Red."

Julia paced toward her desk. "I'll check him, Dawn. I'll be as thorough as possible. You know how seriously I take my job."

Yes, she did. Julia was the best there was. If evidence was on him, she'd find it.

"I do know..." Julia tapped a manila file that sat on the edge of her desk. "Based just on a visual look at the wounds, I think that Red's killer was left-handed."