Don't Look Back by Lynette Eason Page A

her attention to her right. A shadow? The moon moving behind the trees causing the light to play tricks with the corners of the room?
    No time to dwell on it. He returned five minutes later, the iron fiery red once more. “Don’t speak.”
    She’d ignored him and pleaded, “Stop. Don’t do this!”
    The sizzling iron touched her arm.
    “Jamie? Jamie?”
    She blinked.
    Dakota’s hand rested on her upper arm, covering her white knuckles that had been clenched around her own brand hidden by her long-sleeved white shirt under the lab coat.
    “Who is she?” Jamie demanded. “I need to know who she is.”
    Serena’s BlackBerry beeped. She punched a button, then looked up. “I think I can help you out there. Jazz just emailed me. Her name is Lisa Dupre. Nineteen years old, she disappeared just after New Year’s last year.”
    “And died a few weeks? months? later,” Jamie muttered. “If she died only four to six months ago, he kept her a long time.” The thought nauseated her.
    Dakota blew out a sigh. “Connor, you want to take the family?”
    “I want to be there,” Jamie ground out. No, she really didn’t, but this girl’s poor family . . . what they must be going through.
    “What?”
    “I need to be there for them. In case they have any . . . questions. Unfortunately, they won’t like the answers.”
    Dakota and Connor exchanged a look. “Jamie, they don’t need to know what their daughter suffered.”
    She chewed her bottom lip. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. They’ll know she had a bad ending, they don’t need to know the extent of it.”
    “Will you give them my card? Tell them to call if they need to? I’ll be . . . careful with my answers to whatever they ask.”
    Dakota paused, then held out a hand. “Sure.”
    Jamie pulled a card out of her lab pocket. She kept some in there just in case. Dakota took it and slid it into the back pocket of his khakis.
    Connor pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll give them a call and let them know. They may want to see her.”
    Serena shook her head. “They don’t want to see her like this. I’d try to talk them out of that.”
    While Connor did the dirty work, Jamie studied the slash on Lisa’s throat. Once again he’d used enough force to hit the bone. “So much anger,” she whispered.
    Serena looked at her. “Why do you have the answers?”
    Jamie let a deep breath slip out between her lips. “Because whoever killed her tried to kill me eleven and a half years ago.”
    The woman blanched, her classically beautiful features twisted with shock. “What?”
    “It’s a long story.”
    “Care to share?”
    “Not really. Maybe sometime. Does she have any broken bones?”
    Serena studied Jamie but didn’t push. Instead, she gestured to the wall where she’d hung x-rays. She pointed to the wrist. “Broken in three places. But healed back pretty well.”
    “He put a cast on her.”
    Not bothering to ask Jamie how she knew that, Serena moved on to Lisa’s leg. “Here. A broken leg. The bone split in a couple of pieces. This part looks like it healed nicely, but there’s a chip missing here.”
    Studying the x-rays, Jamie felt a chill move up her spine. She could have been looking at her own. “He used a baseball bat on her legs. Just enough force to break the bone, not shatter it.”
    A swiftly indrawn breath from behind her made her look over her shoulder. Dakota’s eyes pierced her. “A baseball bat?”
    Shoving all of the emotions that wanted to bubble to the surface deep down into a safe place, Jamie nodded. Dakota winced and Connor’s jaw went rigid.
    Serena continued. “See this? The ulna. Broken in two places.”
    “She fought him.”
    Connor stepped forward. “Can you find any prints on her skin?”
    Serena shook her head. “No, but I’ve scraped her for some trace evidence. I’ve also gone over her clothes with a fine-tooth comb.”
    “Find anything?”
    “Nothing yet. We’ll see.”
    Lila stuck her head in the door.