“Perhaps I can interest you both in a drink, and possibly dinner? Tomorrow night?” Jack offered. “I think we ought to compare notes. Because, ladies, you need to hear my side of the story. What I know. This latest discovery doesn’t make me surprised. It makes me concerned.”

“We’d love to join you,” Gwen responded.

Val didn’t say a word.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” said Gwen.

“It’ll get us fired for a start,” exclaimed Val. She wanted to kill Gwen. Talking with Jack outside their professional capacity of the medical examiner’s office was grounds for immediate firing. “Thomas and Jack aren’t official investigators. Discussing details with either of them is no better than talking to the media when we’ve been told not to.”

Though Val would do anything to put Julia’s killer behind bars, she couldn’t afford to rock the boat with Dr. Blythe. He was out to get her, that was obvious, but Val didn’t want that lynching to happen as early as tomorrow. If he was going to fire her, he’d need just cause to do so. Her inappropriate involvement in this high-profile murder case would be all the cause he needed. The way she saw it, if she talked to Jack outside of work, she’d only be giving Blythe the rope to hang her with. And if Val was fired, there was no way she’d be able to help Julia. She needed her position at the medical examiner’s office for that.

Gwen was adamant that they were doing the right thing and after Val finished lecturing, got the opportunity to explain why—Dr. Blythe might need to have the boat rocked.

“They found another skull, but he didn’t seem interested in it at all. In fact, he was being really dismissive about the whole thing,” Gwen said.

“How do you know this?”

“I overheard him talking about it. I don’t know Val, something isn’t right. The teeth were all missing and he didn’t seem concerned.” Gwen added, “I was concerned and I have nothing to do with this investigation.”

“Then you should talk to Detective Gavin, and not Jack Styles. Another victim could have a big impact on this case.”

“Detective Gavin knows about it. That’s who I overheard Blythe speaking to.”

Val heard the words but they didn’t make sense. “What did he say?” she asked. “He must have challenged Blythe.”

“No. He didn’t. In fact, he agreed with him. Dr. Blythe was so convincing that I’m not surprised.”

“You must have misunderstood.”

Gwen shook her head. “The post-mortem interval on this skull is well over a year. This person died long before the murders of Jeanne Coleman, Francine Donohue and Julia DeHaviland; too long to be part of this case. He thinks it’s not connected.”