All the Pretty Faces Read Online Free Page A

more closely. Bruises marred her torso as if he might have knelt on her to hold her down. “This stab wound was quick, to the point. Straight into the aorta.”
    “He knew what he was doing,” Dane said. “So he could work in the medical field.”
    Dr. Wheeland shrugged. “True, but anybody with basic knowledge of the human body would know that a wound like this would cause death.”
    Dammit, the medical angle could have narrowed down their suspect list. “What else can you tell from the body? Sexual assault?”
    Dr. Wheeland examined her thighs and lower extremities. “I don’t see bruising or visual signs of rape, but I’ll know once I do the autopsy.” He lifted her hands to look at her nails.
    The medical examiner used a tool to pull back a small layer of skin around her areola where the killer had slashed her skin diagonally. “She has implants.”
    Dane narrowed his eyes. “Those cuts aren’t deep, maybe a quarter of an inch.”
    “They have nothing to do with cause of death,” Wheeland said, his voice laced with disgust.
    “So he was just playing with her, inflicting pain,” Dane commented, a picture of a sick man forming in his mind. Sadistic eyes, a wild, crazed look. “You think he intentionally wanted to expose them?”
    “Could be.” Dr. Wheeland took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, then put them back on. “We can use them to ID her.”
    The wind picked up, shaking the trees and raining brittle leaves down on the ground. One landed on her cheek, sticking to the dried blood.
    Dane picked it off. He wanted to know more about her. “Considering the film people descending on the town, she might be one of the actresses or part of the crew.”
    “You can start there,” Dr. Wheeland said. “Meanwhile, I’ll run her prints and DNA.”
    The CSI team arrived and introduced themselves, then began to comb the woods behind the motel for evidence. Dane surveyed the area surrounding the body as well.
    “Any security cameras?” Dane asked the sheriff.
    Sheriff Kimball shrugged. “Naw, owner said he’s been meaning to install some but hadn’t gotten around to it.”
    Dane shook his head in disbelief. Hopefully CSI would find the woman’s purse and ID or a cell phone.
    His phone buzzed, and he checked the number. Josie DuKane’s name popped up.
    What did she want? Another interview? Hell, even though Cal had run the investigation, he’d talked to her about his surveillance on the Yonkers man.
    Yonkers’s sister, Candy, was one of the three Thorn Ripper victims. The man not only owned a pet crematorium, but he was weird as shit.
    He had fit the profile of the Bride Killer. He collected those damned dead animals Billy Linder preserved with his taxidermy skills. He’d also suffered a traumatic childhood and watched his family fall apart after her murder.
    His mother became depressed, and Yonkers wound up taking care of her. Like Linder and his mother, Yonkers’s mother was ill at the time the Bride Killer struck. Yonkers’s mother also pressured him to find a wife.
    Dane’s phone buzzed again. Josie was persistent.
    Damn . . . she’d stirred something in him that he hadn’t felt in forever. Lust? Hunger?
    Things he didn’t have time for.
    She was too damn tempting. Despite the fact that she was held hostage and had nearly died at the hands of the Bride Killer, she was gutsy and faced the horror with a brave face.
    He had to respect her for that. Which made her even more dangerous. Because he liked her.
    She made him want things a man like him didn’t have a right to have.
    If he got involved with her, he might lose focus.
    There was no way in hell he’d do that and let his sister down again.

    The awning of the diner provided a safe retreat while Josie studied the picture of the dead girl. Her hand trembled as she gripped the phone. She probably should have called the local sheriff, but she didn’t know Sheriff Kimball very well, and she’d dealt with Dane before. He was good at what he