“They’re real, if that’s what you’re asking,” said Dr. Peres.

Trinity closed her eyes. How had they removed the flesh so fast?

“Oh, honey!” Dr. Campbell kneeled and tried to look Trinity in the eye. “These aren’t the girls! These are some old skeletons. Dr. Peres thought you might like to help lay them out. She said you were interested in anthropology. I should have warned you!”

Trinity exhaled. Of course. They wouldn’t have cleaned the bones already. “I’d like to help… I think.” She lifted her head carefully, expecting to see black shadows rushing her vision again. All seemed clear. Both doctors examined her with concern.

“Maybe another time,” Dr. Peres said. She took stock of Trinity’s face and frowned. “I can find you a magazine and let you know when the police are ready to talk to you.”

“No, really. I’m fine. It was just a shock. Those girls have been on my mind for hours and to step in and see…” Trinity scanned the room again and tried to get a grip on her breathing. She could do this. A distraction would be good. One of the skulls faced her, appearing eerie without its jaw and lower teeth. Could she handle touching the bones? It couldn’t be much different than the plastic skeleton in her anatomy class. She was interested to see if she could fit the pieces together. It’d be like a giant puzzle.

“Who are they?” she asked.

Dr. Peres turned to study the tables. “Women. They were found in Forest Park several decades ago. In a similar position to how the girls were found last night.”

“What?” It’d happened twice?

“There were six, just like last night. But with these women no one ever figured out who three of them were,” answered Dr. Peres.

“How can that happen? How can no one be looking for them?” Shock roiled through her, and her personal fog cloud vanished.

Dr. Campbell spoke up. “I suspect someone, somewhere missed them. I don’t know if back then they were able to get the word out well enough. They didn’t have the immediateness of the Internet to inform the world. I wonder if the story ever went beyond the Northwest.”

Trinity looked at the skulls in a new light. Had families been wondering for years what happened? “You have to figure it out. You have to let their families know,” she said to Dr. Peres. “How old are they?”

“They were young women. Late teens or early twenties.”

Alarm raced up Trinity’s spine. “What do the police think?”

Dr. Campbell gave a sad smile. “I don’t know what they think, yet. Dr. Peres is going to assess the remains and see if she can find any indicators for who these women were.”

The importance of Dr. Peres’s responsibility rendered Trinity speechless. What was it like to have such an important job? She studied the tall woman. The doctor didn’t look stressed or upset. She looked ready to get to work. Trinity’s budding desire to be a fashion designer suddenly seemed trite.

“Why, Victoria,” said Dr. Campbell. “From the expression on Trinity’s face, I’d say we have a future forensic anthropologist on our hands.”

Dr. Peres pulled her gaze away from the closest skull and studied Trinity. Her eyes were warm and a rare smile curved her lips. “It’s not a job for everyone.” She tilted her head as she considered Trinity’s face. “But I think you might do.”

A new path to her future rolled out in front of Trinity.

Victoria saw Trinity was wary as she studied Callahan and Lusco across the table. Victoria had snagged a small meeting room at the medical examiner’s office for the detectives to have a private talk with the teen. Her foster mom was on her way and had given permission for the men to talk to Trinity as long as Victoria was present.

Trinity had good reason to be suspicious of police; her background was a sad one. Her birth mom had been in and out of jail multiple times for drug use and theft. Trinity had lived with her grandmother part of that time until the state realized Grandma had sticky fingers, too. The mother and grandmother ran a resale business out of their home with the items they stole from local stores. They were as busy as a Walmart. The locals knew where to buy cheap batteries, cigarettes, and skin care; they didn’t care if the products were tagged with the grocery store’s security sticker.

Callahan and Lusco watched the girl with careful eyes, and Victoria wondered if they saw the same thing she did. Trinity Viders felt like a breath of fresh air in the medical examiner’s office. Victoria and the detectives had spent the morning with dead girls, and it was invigorating to see teenage eyes that blinked instead of staring foggily at the ceiling.

Victoria didn’t like to judge by appearances, but she appreciated that Trinity didn’t dye her hair pitch black or have multiple piercings in her eyebrows. Her blonde hair was neatly pulled back, her chin was up, and she didn’t wear makeup except a light layer of mascara. Victoria hoped detectives saw a solid kid in spite of the hell she’d been through.

“We tried to contact Brooke’s parents,” Lusco started kindly. “No one is at the house. Any ideas where to find them?”

Trinity shook her head. “Maybe they left for the weekend. They don’t usually leave Brooke home alone, though… of course they thought she was spending the night at my house.” Her gaze dropped to her hands clenched in her lap. Victoria noticed she’d bitten her nails to the quick. One outward sign that the girl’s emotional state wasn’t as calm as she projected. She did a good job keeping herself in control. Her eyes were red, but her gaze was steady.