Ruthless by Debra Webb

were already shepherding most back to their respective addresses. Lily and Blake would have to wait a little while longer.
    In the middle of the front porch the evidence techs settled the box onto a trace sheet so all the contents could be inspected. Portable lights had been set up to ensure they could see what they were doing. Jess, decked out in shoe covers and gloves, crouched down to have a look first. Deputy Chief Black had arrived and was waiting outside the perimeter with Burnett.
    The news hounds who monitored the police band were already on the street, and camera crews were waiting for an opportunity to get a clip or a sound bite on the story. Jess hadn’t seen Gina Coleman in the growing mob, but she would show eventually.
    “Ma’am, would you like me to start?” Harper asked.
    Jess shook off the surrounding distractions and refocused on the package. “Go ahead, Sergeant.” That way he and the evidence techs wouldn’t have to see her hands shake. She hoped her stomach settled soon. That peanut butter and banana sandwich she’d scarfed down after she got home was reappearing in a most unpleasant manner.
    The box, a plain old brown cardboard one, about twenty by twenty inches square, found any day of the week at Walmart for a couple of bucks and sealed with shipping tape, had been opened by the bomb tech. As before, plastic, burlap and newspapers swathed the items inside.
    Human remains.
Bones.
    Again.
    As the small bones were removed from their wrappings, an ache tugged at Jess. Another family who had waited so very long would finally be able to stop wondering. But dear God, what kind of answer was this?
    Unless this victim’s remains showed otherwise, there was no clue as to cause of death. No way to know what this child may have suffered before dying.
    Then again, maybe the parents didn’t really want to know.
    Was it better not to hear the horrific details?
    Was it enough to simply have some sort of closure?
    Jess had reviewed photos of all the victims over and over, knew them by heart. Was this the cute little blonde-haired girl with the curly locks and the big gap-toothed smile, or the dainty child with the long brown pigtails that hung all the way to her waist?
    If she were pregnant… the lump in her throat expanded… would she have a little girl? How could she possibly hope to protect her from evil like this? Before she could stop herself she glanced to where Dan waited. Would their little girl have dark hair and blue eyes like her father?
    “You all right, Chief?”
    “Of course.” She tried again to clear that damned lump from her throat. “It’s just hot under these lights.”
    “Here we go.” Harper gently removed the small plastic sleeve she’d been looking for from between layers of the burlap. “Looks like we have a pattern, Chief. He wants us to know who he is.”
    Harper placed the protected newspaper clipping in her open hands. The plastic sleeve was a common four-by-sixphoto protector—the multi-pocket kind that came in sheets. He’d cut the photo pockets apart to use them individually. The newspaper article was folded in such a way to display the missing child’s photo. The little blonde girl with her big gap-toothed smile.
    Emma James.
    A blast of outrage propelled Jess to her feet.
    Harper stood as well. He passed the preserved article with the photo to an evidence tech. Jess had to walk away.
    “Do what you have to do,” she heard Harper instruct, “but let’s get the remains ready to move as quickly as possible. We don’t want this to drag out and have the families of victims showing up here.”
    Those were directions she should have given. Instead, she’d had to take a minute to catch her breath. Her head was spinning; her stomach was twirling and teetering like a drunken ballerina. Somehow she had to find her footing here. Then she’d make sure her sister was okay and head to the morgue herself. Sylvia Baron had the necessary dental records; she was overseeing