No thanks echoed around the room before Alyssa moved everyone back to the missing girls.

‘Now that we’re all here, let’s get started. Someone out there has to know something; someone had to have seen something. The idea that these girls simply went poof into thin air – one minute there, gone the next – is absurd.’ She took a step back, forehead furrowed in concentration. She tapped Rachel’s name. ‘Rachel Otis attended a frat party with a friend who we only know as “Anna.” No one seems to know who she is, and so we can’t locate her. What happened to this girl? Are she and Rachel together somewhere? Has anyone reported a missing girl of eighteen or nineteen that fits her general description?’ Despite already knowing the answer, her gaze swept around the room, waiting for everyone to shake their heads in the negative. If any of them had heard of a report, she would’ve been the next to know.

‘Both Rachel Otis and Jersey Andrews disappeared in the UNM area’ – she tapped the map – ‘here and here. Katelyn Phillipson’s items were located in Noreste Park here.’ She angled her body away from the map so everyone could see. Then, using a different color sticky note for each girl, she tacked the names onto the spot where each girl lived, including Rachel’s dorm as well as her home on Rio Grande. As she pushed Jersey’s name into place, she swore. ‘Damn it!’ This was the something that had been bothering her last night as she drove from Katelyn’s home to Stephanie’s.

She grabbed a highlighter and drew four circles, connecting them with lines. ‘This is the Phillipson home, Katelyn’s best friend’s home, the place Katelyn’s belongings were discovered, and this is where Jersey Andrews lives, half a mile away.’ A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach made her lightheaded, but she pushed it aside. Keeping her voice steady, she turned to Hal. ‘Let’s check the registered sex offenders in the area, see if any of them have a residence nearby.’

‘I’ll check into that as soon as we finish up in here. And before I forget, Channel 13 is running the sketch of our Jane Doe like we discussed last night. She may or may not be related to these other disappearances, but with a little luck, someone will recognize her and give us a call.’

Cord jumped in. ‘Either way, we need to find out who she is and what happened to her. Someone out there has to be missing her, and they’re going to need closure of some kind, even if it’s knowing they no longer have to search for her.’ There was an unnatural gravelly tone to his voice, and Hal, Tony, and Joe darted curious looks his way.

‘Along those same lines…’ Alyssa exchanged her yellow highlighter for a neon pink one. ‘Like Hal said, we don’t know if our Jane Doe case is related, but here’s the frat house where Rachel was last seen; within a quarter mile is the duck pond.’ As she spoke, she circled the locations. ‘And here,’ she added another circle, ‘less than a mile and a half away is where our Jane Doe was discovered.’ She caught the eyes of everyone in the room. ‘That’s a little too close for me to take as coincidental. Add in the proximity of two of the girls… I don’t like what my instincts are screaming at me.’ She forced herself to say the rest. ‘Especially in light of the fact that just last month, we were on the hunt for a serial killer who targeted young women.’