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tell anyone And even if he is innocent I still don’t knohat happened to my mother I let this mess sit for thirty years No et this done or die trying”
“But Puller, this could take a long ti to let you indefinitely—”
He barked, “To hell with the Ar solved”
She looked to be about to make a response but then seemed to catch herself She took a breath and stepped out of the room to make the call
Puller went back into the bathroom and looked out the
Where did you go, Mom? Where?
She just walked down the street and disappeared
Puller looked down at his phone He and his brother and father had left Fort Monroe shortly after Jackie Puller disappeared He had been back to the post a few times on official business, but never for more than a few hours at a time
He did a search on his phone The relevant search terms were “crime,” “disappearance,” “inia”
The search did its thing and Puller gaped at the result
The first item said it all
Police suspect serial killer in inia
The story was from the same year and month his mother disappeared
And Willia was thirty minutes from Fort Monroe
Son of a bitch!
Chapter
24
KNOX WALKED BACK into the rooot the ball in motion on the phone call and we’ll see what they can find”
She stopped because Puller was hunkered over his phone and hadn’t even looked up when she had spoken
“What’s up?”
“Give me a sec”
He finished reading the screen and put his phone away He quickly explained what he’d found
“Serial ?” she said, her eyes wide in amazement
“Sa is only about a half an hour from here”
“But we can’t know that they’re connected”
“And we can’t know that they’re not,” he retorted
“Why’d you even think to look into so like that?”
“First rule of investigating a cold case: Were there other criht be connected to yours? I should have done it a long tio”
“So a serial killer gets on a military installation, kills your mother, and, what, carries off the body?”
“I don’t know I just know that there’s a possible lead there And yes, it was an active military installation But at that time of year when my mother left, it was already dark And there were never many people on the streets The officer quarters weren’t always full and there weren’t a lot of young kids ould be out playing My dad was an exception He got married later I can’t think of many one-stars with really little kids They tended to be older The fact is this area was pretty isolated and away from the busy part of the post And back then soed into one of theht not seem that a killer could strike here, but he could”
“But hoould he get on the post?”
“He ht have already been on the post”
“You mean in uniform?”
“There were lots of people orked at Fort Monroe that were not in uniform But yes, he could have been in uniform”
“I take it the serial killings in Willia were never solved?”
“They never even found a suspect to charge Four murders All women”
“And the bodies?”
“Found scattered around the area, raves”
“But if your mother was killed her remains were never found”
“No But if he did kill her heof her body”