Victoria fumbled for the right words. “It’s a long story.” She ran a hand over her hair.

The dentist sighed. “I get that. And it’s safe to share with me. I won’t abuse it.”

Victoria studied Lacey’s face. She was serious. Everything she knew about Lacey Campbell told her she could trust her with innermost secrets. Victoria simply didn’t know how to get the words out. She didn’t know how to confide in another woman. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last woman she’d admitted a secret to. Her mother? Her roommate in college?

“He dumped me,” she blurted out. “He dumped me for another woman he’d gotten pregnant. She was an old girlfriend who he’d believed had a baby with another guy. Turns out he was the father, and she didn’t tell him until Eden was seven months old.”

Lacey’s mouth opened slightly. “How shitty for you.”

“Tell me about it.”

“You were dating when he got the news he was a father?”

“Yes. We’d been talking of living together. I really believed there was a future there.”

“You were in love with him,” she stated.

Victoria held her gaze. “Deeply.”

Sympathy flashed in Lacey’s eyes, and Victoria cringed. She hated pity from someone she respected.

“You haven’t seen him since then?”

Victoria pressed her lips together and moved her gaze to the box with the 3 on it.

“Oh. You have! What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Lacey, but—”

“It’s okay. You can hold off on that part. For now.”

Victoria looked at her. “Thank you.”

“I’ll expect details later.” Lacey smiled warmly at her. “I’m impressed you shared as much as you did. I know it wasn’t easy for you. And that was a really crappy thing to have happen to you at that age. To be a college student and believe the world is showing you a nice neat, happy path, and the most important person in your life drops a boulder in your way.”

“Exactly.”

“I suspect you bounced back nicely. You’re kind of like me. I brush off my knees, cry silently inside, and push on, hoping no one saw me trip. Then I promise not to let anyone hurt me that way again. But another man comes along and you open yourself up to be mauled again.”

Victoria winced, thinking of her ex-husband.

“You risk getting hurt, but it just takes the right person to make it worth it.” A dreamy look entered Lacey’s eyes. “The first time I saw Jack, I knew he was special. There’s that sense of everything clicking into place, you know? You feel the world shift slightly as it adjusts to lay out your new path with the right man.”

Victoria froze. It’d been that way with Seth. Each time. When she’d first seen him at school, when they crossed paths at that conference, and again the other night. So why was the universe being so difficult?

“It’s okay to admit you’ve had your heart broken. Most people have, a time or two. It acknowledges that you are human. Some of us like to think we’re superhuman, but we’re not. We bleed. Whether it’s from a vein or the pain in our heart that no one can see.” Lacey gently lifted the skull from the box and smiled at the empty face. “Ohh. I think this is definitely our girl. Let me see the picture.”

Victoria turned to the lab computer, thankful for something to do to get out of Lacey’s spotlight. Lacey had a point. Why did she pretend she wasn’t human? Victoria pulled up the image from her email.

Lacey held the skull next to the image. Even Victoria could see the odd front teeth matched. Her gaze went to the eyes and brow ridges of the woman in the photo and then back to the skull. Yes, she could see Lucia in the skull. The DNA tests would make the final call.

Lacey set the skull back in the box. “So pretty,” she said softly. “You haven’t done a full work-up on this one yet?” she asked Victoria.

She shook her head. “Just some prelim photos and a quick look. I knew when I saw the photo of those teeth that I’d seen them before.”

Lacey studied the contents of the box. “There’s so much I don’t know. I can’t see what to look for in a bone. It reminds me of the first time I looked at dental X-rays. All I saw was a weird image in black and white. Now I can judge at a glance what’s going on in an X-ray.”

“Well, that’s why bones are my job, not yours. Go back to school if you want to learn more.”

“I’d rather keep watching you.”

“Armchair anthropology?”

Lacey lifted out the pelvic girdle and turned it over in her hands, studying the elegant structure. “Why not? You’ll show me the important parts, right? Skip all the boring book-learning stuff,” she said with a wink.

“And you can show me how to drill decay out of a tooth. I don’t need to learn all the technical parts, right?”

“Touché.” Lacey smiled.

Victoria smiled in satisfaction. “I’ll let the detectives know we have a preliminary match.”

Two more to go.

Victoria sipped at her coffee and stared out the break room window at the gray skies. The remains of number three were firmly named in her brain as Lucia. Even if the DNA test came back as not a match, she’d still think of the woman as Lucia.

It was easier sometimes when the bones were nameless and she was still searching for their identity. There was something about knowing the identity of this woman and the knowledge that she’d sat abandoned for decades in a box that was deeply depressing. Would they ever learn why the women had died? Callahan had told her that the decades-old investigation had never found a solid suspect. The only links between the identified women had been their transient status. He’d suspected the remaining three were also a long way from home. He’d discovered that Ted Bundy had been asked about the circle of women. Bundy’s admitted murders had started six years after the circle was found, and he’d claimed to know nothing about the Oregon murders. Callahan said the previous investigators hadn’t completely ruled out Bundy; he was a known liar, but the circle didn’t fit his MO.