On the Street Where you Live by Mary Higgins Clark

crumbling, had kept the skeletal remains intact.
    â€œAre you going to talk about the finger bone, sir? That’s gonna really stir up a hornet’s nest.”
    Pete Walsh had just been promoted to the rank of detective. He was smart and he was young. He also couldn’t wait to get his two cents in, Tommy Duggan thought sourly. It gave him a small measure of satisfaction to hear the boss tell Walsh to let him finish, although he felt like a louse as Walsh’s face turned beet red.
    He and Osborne had been back here at dawn. They had gone over every detail of O’Brien’s completed autopsy report and rehashed every detail of the case.
    They didn’t need Pete Walsh to tell them the media would have a field day with this one.
    Osborne continued: “In my statement I will say that we never expected to find Martha Lawrencealive; that it is not unusual for the remains of a victim to be found buried near the place where death had occurred.”
    He cleared his throat. “I will have to reveal that, for some bizarre and twisted reason, Martha Lawrence was buried in contact with other human remains, and those remains are over a century old.
    â€œAs you know, four and a half years ago, when Martha disappeared, The Asbury Park Press dug up the old story about the disappearance of nineteen-year-old Madeline Shapley in 1891. It is very likely that the media will jump to the conclusion that the finger bone found with Martha belonged to Madeline Shapley, particularly since the remains are on the Shapley property.”
    â€œIs it true that the new owner of that property is a descendant of the Shapleys?”
    â€œThat is true, yes.”
    â€œThen can’t you check her DNA against the finger bone?”
    â€œIf Ms. Graham is willing, we can certainly do that. However, last night I ordered that all available records of Madeline Shapley’s disappearance be examined and a search be made for any other cases of missing women in Spring Lake around that time.”
    It was just a blind stab, Duggan thought, but we hit the jackpot.
    â€œOur researchers found that two other young women had been listed as missing at around that same time” Osborne continued. “Madeline Shapley had last been seen on the porch of the family home on Hayes Avenue when she disappeared on September 7, 1891.
    â€œLetitia Gregg of Tuttle Avenue disappeared on August 5, 1893. According to the police file, her parents feared that she might have gone swimming alone, which was why that case was never classified as suspicious.
    â€œThree years later, on March 31, 1896, Letita’s devoted friend Ellen Swain disappeared. She had been observed leaving a friend’s home as dusk was settling in.”
    And that’s when the media starts screaming about a turn-of-the-century serial killer in Spring Lake, Tommy thought. Just what we need.
    Osborne glanced at his watch. “It’s one minute of eleven. Let’s go.”
    The briefing room was packed. The questions thrown at Osborne were rapid and hard-hitting. There was no way he could argue with the New York Post reporter who said that the finding of the two skeletal remains on the same site could not be a bizarre coincidence.
    â€œI agree,” Osborne said. “The finger bone with the ring was deliberately placed inside the plastic with Martha’s body.”
    â€œWhere inside the plastic?” the ABC crime reporter asked.
    â€œWithin Martha’s hand.”
    â€œDo you think it was a coincidence that the killer found the other remains when he dug Martha’s grave, or could he possibly have chosen that spot because he knew it had been used as a burial ground?” Ralph Penza, a senior reporter from NBC, asked quietly.
    â€œIt would be ridiculous if I were to suggest that someone anxious to bury his victim and avoid possible detection would happen upon the bones of another victim and make the snap decision to place a finger bone