As the FBI jet lifted off from Quantico, Riley felt sure that she was on her way to face yet another monster. She was deeply uneasy at the thought. She had been hoping to stay away from killers for a while, but taking this job had finally seemed like the right thing to do. Meredith had been clearly relieved when she'd said she would go.
That morning, April had left on her field trip, and now Riley and Bill were on their way to Phoenix. Outside the airplane window the afternoon had turned dark, and rain streaked across the glass. Riley stayed strapped into her seat until the plane had made its way through rough-and-tumble gray clouds and into clearer air above. Then a cushiony surface spread out beneath them, hiding the earth where people were probably scurrying about to stay dry. And, Riley thought, going about their everyday pleasures or horrors or whatever lay in between.
As soon as the ride smoothed out, Riley turned to Bill and asked, "What have you got to show me?"
Bill flipped open his laptop on the table in front of them. He brought up a photo of a large black garbage bag barely submerged in shallow water. A dead white hand could be seen poking out of the bag's opening.
Bill explained, "The body of Nancy Holbrook was found in an artificial lake in the reservoir system outside of Phoenix. She was a thirty-year-old escort with an expensive service. In other words, a pricey prostitute."
"Did she drown?" Riley asked.
"No. Asphyxiation seems to have been the cause of death. Then she was stuffed into a heavy-duty garbage bag and dumped into the lake. The garbage bag was weighted with large rocks."
Riley studied the photo closely. A lot of questions were already forming in her mind.
"Did the killer leave any physical evidence?" she asked. "Prints, fibers, DNA?"
"Not a thing."
Riley shook her head. "I don't get it. The disposal of the body, I mean. Why didn't the killer go to just a little more trouble? A freshwater lake is perfect for getting rid of a body. Corpses sink and decompose fast in fresh water. Sure, they might resurface later on because of bloating and gases. But enough rocks in the bag would solve that problem. Why leave her in shallow water?"
"I guess it's up to us to figure that out," Bill said.
Bill brought up several other photos of the crime scene, but they didn't tell Riley much.
"So what do you think?" she said. "Are we dealing with a serial or aren't we?"
Bill's knitted his brow in thought.
"I don't know," he said. "Really, we're just looking at a single murdered prostitute. Sure, other prostitutes have disappeared in Phoenix. But that's nothing new. That happens routinely in every major city in the country."
The word "routinely" struck an uncomfortable chord with Riley. How could the ongoing disappearance of a certain class of women be considered "routine"? Still, she knew that what Bill was saying was true.
"When Meredith phoned, he made it sound urgent," she said. "And now he's even giving us the VIP treatment, flying us directly there on a BAU jet." She thought back for a moment. "His exact words were that his friend wanted us to look into it as the work of a serial killer. But you sound like nobody's sure it is a serial."
Bill shrugged. "It might not be. But Meredith seems to be really close to Nancy Holbrook's brother, Garrett Holbrook."
"Yeah," Riley said. "He told me they went to the academy together. But this whole thing is unusual."
Bill didn't argue. Riley leaned back in her seat and considered the situation. It seemed pretty obvious that Meredith was bending FBI rules as a favor to a friend. That wasn't typical of Meredith at all.
But this didn't make her think any less of her boss. Actually, she really admired his devotion to his friend. She wondered …
Is there anybody I'd bend the rules for? Bill, maybe?
He'd been more than a partner over the years, and more than even a friend. Even so, Riley wasn't sure. And that made her wonder-just how close did she feel to any of her coworkers these days, including Bill?
But there didn't seem much point in thinking about it now. Riley closed her eyes and went to sleep.
*
It was a bright sunny day when they landed in Phoenix.
As they got off the jet, Bill nudged her and said, "Wow, great weather. Maybe at least we'll get a little vacation out of this trip."
Somehow, Riley doubted that it was going to be a lot of fun. It had been a long time since she'd taken a real vacation. Her last attempt at an outing in New York with April had been cut short by the usual murder and mayhem that was such a big part of her life.
One of these days, I need to get some real rest, she thought.
A young local agent met them at the plane and drove them to the Phoenix FBI field office, a striking new modern building. As he pulled the car into the Bureau parking lot, he commented, "Cool design, isn't it? Even won some kind of award. Can you guess what it's supposed to look like?"
Riley looked over the facade. It was all straight, long rectangles and narrow vertical windows. Everything was carefully placed and the pattern seemed familiar. She stopped and stared at it for a moment.
"DNA sequencing?" she asked.
"Yep," the agent said. "But I'll bet you can't guess what the rock maze over there looks like from above."
But they walked into the building before Riley or Bill could hazard a guess. Inside, Riley saw the DNA motif repeated in the sharply patterned floor tiles. The agent led them among severe-looking horizontal walls and partitions until they reached the office of Special Agent in Charge Elgin Morley, then left them there.
Riley and Bill introduced themselves to Morley, a small, bookish man in his fifties with a thick black mustache and round glasses. Another man was awaiting them in the office. He was in his forties, tall, gaunt, and slightly hunched. Riley thought he looked tired and depressed.
Morley said, "Agents Paige and Jeffreys, I'd like you to meet Agent Garrett Holbrook. His sister was the victim who was found in Nimbo Lake."
Hands were shaken all around, and the four agents sat down to talk.
"Thank you for coming," Holbrook said. "This whole thing has been pretty overwhelming."
"Tell us about your sister," Riley said.
"I can't tell you much," Holbrook said. "I can't say I knew her very well. She was my half-sister. My dad was a philandering jerk, left my mom and had children with three different women. Nancy was fifteen years younger than me. We barely had contact over the years."
He stared blankly at the floor for a moment, his fingers picking absent-mindedly at the arm of his chair. Then without looking up he said, "The last I heard from her, she was doing office work and taking classes at a community college. That was a few years ago. I was shocked to find out what had become of her. I had no idea."
Then he fell silent. Riley thought he looked like he was leaving something unsaid, but she told herself that maybe that was really all the man knew. After all, what could Riley say about her own older sister if anyone asked her? She and Wendy had been out of contact for so long that they might as well not be sisters at all.
Even so, she sensed something more than grief in Holbrook's demeanor. It struck her as odd.
Morley suggested that Riley and Bill go with him to Forensic Pathology, where they could take a look at the body. Holbrook nodded and said that he'd be in his office.
As they followed the Agent in Charge down the hall, Bill asked, "Agent Morley, what reason is there for thinking we're dealing with a serial killer?"
Morley shook his head. "I'm not sure we've got much of a reason," he said. "But when Garrett found out about Nancy's death, he refused to leave it alone. He's one of our best agents, and I've tried to accommodate him. He tried to get his own investigation underway, but didn't get anywhere. The truth is, he hasn't been himself this whole while."
Riley had certainly noticed that Garrett seemed to be terribly unsettled. Perhaps a little more so than a seasoned agent would usually be, even over a relative's death. He'd made it clear that they weren't close.
Morley led Riley and Bill into the building's Forensic Pathology area, where he introduced them to its team chief, Dr. Rachel Fowler. The pathologist pulled open the refrigerated unit where Nancy Holbrook's body was being kept.
Riley winced a little at the familiar odor of decomposition, even though the smell hadn't gotten very strong yet. She saw that the woman had been short of stature and very thin.
"She hadn't been in the water long," Fowler said. "The skin was just beginning to wrinkle when she was found."
Dr. Fowler pointed to her wrists.
"You can see rope burns. It looks like she was bound when she was killed."
Riley noticed raised marks on the crook of the corpse's arm.
"These look like track marks," Riley said.
"Right. She was using heroin. My guess was that she was slipping into serious addiction."
It looked to Riley like the woman had been anorexic, and that seemed consistent with Fowler's addiction theory.
"That kind of addiction seems out of place for a high-class escort," Bill said. "How do we know that's what she was?"
Fowler produced a laminated business card in a plastic evidence bag. It had a provocative photo of the dead woman on it. The name on the card was simply "Nanette," and the business was called "Ishtar Escorts."
"This card was on her when she was found," Fowler explained. "The police got in touch with Ishtar Escorts and found out her real name, and that soon led to identifying her as Agent Holbrook's half-sister."
"Any idea how she was asphyxiated?" Riley asked.
"There's some bruising around her neck," Fowler said. "The killer might have held a plastic bag over her head."
Riley looked closely at the marks. Was this some kind of a sex game gone wrong, or a deliberate act of murder? She couldn't yet tell.
"What did she have on when she was found?" Riley asked.
Fowler opened up a box that contained the victim's clothing. She had been wearing a pink dress with a low neckline-barely respectable, Riley observed, but definitely a notch above a streetwalker's typical trashy attire. It was the dress of a woman who wanted to look both very sexy and suitably attired for nightclubs.
Nestled on top of the dress was a clear plastic bag of jewelry.
"May I have a look?" Riley asked Fowler.
"Go right ahead."
Riley took out the bag and looked at the contents. Most of it was fairly tasteful costume jewelry-a beaded necklace and bracelets and simple earrings. But one item stood out among the rest. It was a slender gold ring with a diamond setting. She picked it up and showed it to Bill.
"Real?" Bill asked.
"Yes," Fowler replied. "Real gold and a real diamond."
"The killer didn't bother to steal it," Bill commented. "So this wasn't about money."
Riley turned to Morley. "I'd like to see where the body was found," she said. "Right now, while it's still light."
Morley looked a bit puzzled.
"We can get you there by helicopter," he said. "But I don't know what you expect to find. Cops and agents have been all over the site."
"Trust her," Bill said knowingly. "She'll find out something."
