Page 95 of Night Hawk
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Clay tapped his foot under the conference room table as Trent wrote the suspects’ names on the board. But Clay couldn’t concentrate. Not with the way he let Toni down. Everything tasted sour in his mouth. He was desperate to know what she was doing—if she was okay. Sure, Drake would do his best to keep her safe, but safety could depend on more than just one person having her back. Because Hibbard was still on the loose, and he—along with any number of men he assigned—could be out to kill her.
Please keep her safe.
Trent finished printing Sheldon Sharkey, Rich Hibbard, Jason Rader, and Fritz Rader in sharp red letters, then grabbed a black marker and added Naomi Dawson under Fritz Rader’s name.
Trent tapped on her name. “The girl Kelsey identified from the high school. Her photo was also found at Rader’s place.”
“How did Kelsey find the girl’s ID?” Clay asked.
Trent faced the group. “After Kelsey dated the bones, we searched that timeframe for missing girls and narrowed it down to two girls. DNA officially confirmed the identity.”
“Do we have any information on her?” Aiden asked.
“She’s a runaway from Portland,” Trent said. “I talked to her parents last night. A typical scenario. Naomi was troubled and acting out after her parents’ divorce. She wanted to live with her dad and fought with her mother. Mom said no. Girl took off three years ago.”
“Can we see her picture?” Brendan asked.
Trent unclipped a photo from his folder and handed it to Brendan. He studied it carefully, then shaking his head, he passed it on to Erik, who took a quick look and gave it to Clay.
“She’s definitely one of the girls in Rader’s pictures,” Clay said. “I remember the scar by her eye.”
“So now we know Rader had a connection to this girl.” Trent jotted Jason’s name with a question mark on the board. “I need to push Jason harder to see what he knows.”
“I keep thinking about Rader’s wife,” Aiden said. “Maybe she found out what Rader was up to and split before she got in trouble with the law.”
“If so, wouldn’t she have taken Jason with her instead of leaving him with a horrible father?” Trent asked.
“The kid couldn’t have been involved then, could he?” Clay asked. “He was only sixteen.”
“He does have a juvenile record for misdemeanors, so he was often on the wrong side of the law,” Trent said. “But he was never even on the radar for trafficking.”
Clay looked at Trent. “When you arrested Jason, did you look for the mother?”
He shook his head. “Didn’t seem relevant.”
“Not sure it’s relevant even now,” Blake said. “Unless she’s one of the bodies buried out back.”
“She’s not.” Trent wroteSix deceased girlsunder Rader’s name. “None of them fit Ursula’s build, and none have borne children. Kelsey said she would provide specifics for each girl by the end of the day. Age, height, hair color, et cetera, and hopefully an approximate time of death.”
“How does she do that?” Clay asked. “The time of death, I mean.”
“She’ll have to give you all the details, but she said she factors in the temperature and the humidity over the years to make her determination. And she said another element she uses is animal bites on the bones. Like bites from squirrels and rats.”
“Rat bites?” Erik shuddered.
“Yeah, apparently rats like greasy bones and tend to chew on the ends to gain access to the marrow. Squirrels prefer drier and more brittle bones. She said the squirrels use the bone’s calcium to ensure strong litters. To get dry bones, they would have to be fully exposed to the elements at some point.”
Clay didn’t want to think about these young girls and scavengers. “Hopefully we can match the DNA to the list of missing girls you provided us.”
Trent nodded. “Kelsey took samples yesterday, and one of Gage’s guys flew it to Veritas to deliver to your wife.” Trent looked at Blake. “Emory said she’d get back to me later today. But here’s the problem. We don’t have DNA for the girls who’ve been missing the longest, except for Lisa. So if it’s one of them, we’ll have to find a different method to make an ID.”
“And I’m assuming cause of death will take some time to obtain,” Blake said.
Trent nodded. “Kelsey has to transport the bones to her lab. She’ll review them and get the info to me as soon as possible, but she said that could take weeks.”
Trent turned back to the board and wrote the wordphotounder Sharkey’s name. “Naomi is also in the photos we found at Sheldon Sharkey’s house.”
