Chapter Three
A woman's cries of anguish reverberated through the hallway of the morgue as Iris approached. Her heart sank. The door was open as an older Hispanic couple slowly came through, the woman leaning heavily on the man. She was sobbing and nearly hysterical, while the man's face was etched in a mask of grief. Max followed behind them and waited for Iris. The identification had been positive.
"Hang it, we gotta get this creep, Max!" Iris cried, biting her lip.
"Her birthday was to have been next week and they were planning to give her money to start college with." Max remarked with a sad tone.
"I don't want to see number seven, eight, and nine and so on. Look, I'm going to call the Albertson's Rosa worked at and find out if they had security cameras set up for the parking area." Iris said firmly, her chin shifting sideways twice, her trademark expression for thinking hard or being resolved.
Max slowed her by taking her arm, she was always walking so fast, like a little wind-up toy dog he thought. She looked up with wide dark eyes. He cleared his throat. "Iris, your first name makes you a possible target, ever think of that? I want you be extra careful from here on out. How are your shooting scores?"
"They're fine and I last practiced about a week ago at the gun range. Yes, the thought crossed my mind but I'm certainly older than the age range of the previous victims by at least 10 years or more. No pattern beyond the women having the first name of a flower or the general dumping area being in the north Dallas area. Just wonder how the killer has the way to access information on them, where they work, where they go." Iris concluded.
"The Internet is a big plus, I'm sure, or maybe has access to database information, or maybe one of those gifted hackers?" Max speculated.
Iris nodded absently, removing Max's arm at the same time, noting his irritated look at her. He countered it then with a slight smile.
"So when's the day?" Max asked, coaxingly.
Iris's raised eyebrows were her only reply.
"To go out, silly girl, for dinner and a movie or walking or whatever you want to do." Max teased her.
"I'll think about it and if so, as friends, okay?" Iris said slowly.
She watched as Max's face flushed slightly and his jaw jutted out. "Okay, Iris, fine by me but one day I won't settle for just friends."
The Albertson's store manager was polite and cooperative. The store did have outside surveillance tapes and were in the process of getting them sent to the DPD. Iris took this as a good sign as she was anxious for Angie and her to review the tapes and see if the killer might have erred in showing himself when approaching Rosa.
The flower petals had been identified as a coming from a tiger lily, causing concern the next victim would be named Lily. The police chief was nearly ready to begin making it known the name of the next potential victim and to warn young women throughout the Dallas area whose name the flower was. The past decision to not make it general knowledge via the media was out of concern for causing panic but with the FTD killer's growing boldness, there was no choice but to now begin making his intentions known in the hopes it would somehow interfere or deter the serial killer.