A silly smile twitched the corners of her mouth as she took a seat at the table. Maybe she wasn’t as messed up as she sometimes thought.
The table, where the files still sat stacked like a reminder, although it seemed to her that Cade might have been looking through them again this morning. “Find anything?” she asked.
He glanced over his shoulder. “In the files? No, and that started me thinking. Give me a minute to finish the toast.”
A short time later he put a huge stack of toast on the table along with their coffee. Two jars of jam and butter followed. She reached for a slice, picked up her knife and began to spread it with butter.
He set a mug of coffee in front of her, then sat in his own place. His hair was still mussed from bed, but he looked good enough to eat in a blue sweatshirt and jeans. Damn, she had to get her mind back on track.
“Okay,” he said, spreading his own toast with raspberry jam, “the thing that struck me was how little I found in the autopsy reports. Something is missing.”
She froze with the toast halfway to her mouth. “Missing?”
“Missing. You read them. Slow asphyxiation, proximate cause the plastic wrapping. No signs of strangulation, and minimal signs of a struggle against bindings.”
She nodded slowly. “But these were just terrified kids. They might not have been able to fight hard. Maybe they were too scared to fight.”
“To a point, that’s possible. Asphyxiation inside a bag takes a long time, though, and usually induces a hell of a fight. But did you see a tox screen in there? For any of them?”
Her head jerked a little. “No. Fill me in.”
“It’s speculation, but think about it. They go with him willingly. Maybe he even turns his little plastic handcuffs into some kind of game so they don’t fight too hard. Maybe they don’t fight at all. At least not until they realize something bad is happening. But apparently that didn’t last too long. Abrasions were actually minor, given the circumstances. I’d have expected raw skin from a violent struggle, especially once their faces were covered with plastic. Some evidence of a blow or two. But it’s not there. Just like the toxicology isn’t there.”
She was beginning to see it but wanted to hear his scenario. “Tell me.”
“Okay, our perp establishes himself with the kid. Friendly. Nice. Someone they can talk to, whatever. Regardless, he gains their confidence. At some point they go off with him. He creates a game for them that gets them to acquiesce to the cuffs. With a kid that age it wouldn’t be hard. Maybe part of the game is wrapping them in plastic up to a point.”
“I can’t imagine a game like this.”
“We don’t really need to, although I have some ideas. Just keep in mind the age of the victims. God knows how he got them to go as far as they did, but it’s apparent from the autopsies that there was very little violence or struggle. So just accept the premise for a moment. All these kids were reaching toward adolescence, becoming sexually aware and maybe even active to a point. He could have promised them the best sexual experience of their lives. I don’t know. Just stick with the point—he got them bound before they knew they were in trouble.”
“Okay.” She nodded. She tried to take a bite of toast, but finally put it down. “You’ve mentioned toxicology twice.”
“Because it’s missing. My scenario is that he gets these kids to cooperate until nearly the last minute. Then, like your spider, he stings them.”