Where has the time gone? This Sunday the clocks will jump ahead for another year. Days will be longer with more light. The snow will melt and we’ll start thinking about another spring and summer in the shadow of COVID 19. At this time last year, the dreaded virus was just making an appearance. Now, the darn thing just won’t go away.
This week’s Tuesday tales are all based on the word BUG and are each a maximum of 400 words long. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia
Beth nodded. “Depending on when Rachel gave birth, there may be enough fetal DNA in her blood and brain to determine who the father is. It won’t do us much good until we make an arrest, but once we do, we may be able to match it. They’ll be no way he can get away with it.”
If Mitch’s suspicions were correct, and she hoped against hope they weren’t, they might have a partial match even sooner than that. She needed to tell Al as much as she could, but before they went off half-cocked, they needed to verify a few things and dig deeper into Rebecca.
“Son of a bitch.” Al ran his hand through his hair. “It might be the break we need, but what do we do? Bug a judge and order DNA tests on everyone working at the hospitals?”
“I doubt we could get a court order for that based on what we have,” she answered, in control once more. “Before we talk to anyone else, we need to find out Rebecca’s blood type. You said you had a cousin’s number? Do you think you can call her now?”
“Sure, but I wanted to go through the file first. I know we don’t have much, but…”
“We can always call back.”
Al nodded and brought up his contacts, punched in the number, and waited for the phone to ring. He put the call on speaker.
“Hello, you’ve reached Maddy. I’m out. You know the drill. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” The voice message ended and a mechanical voice replaced it. “At the tone, please leave a message or a callback number.” A buzz filled the air.
“This message is for Madeleine Winston. This is Lieutenant Al Foster from NYPD’s Missing Persons’ department. It’s imperative that I speak to you as soon as possible. You can reach me at this number. It’s my cellphone. Call at any time, day or night.” He ended the call.
Beth shook her head. “Well, if you wanted to scare her, that should do the trick.”
“As long as it gets her to call back quickly, I don’t care.” He smiled. “Right now, it’s after one, and I haven’t eaten since the take out last night. I’m in the mood for a burger and a beer. Any chance we can find someplace like that?”
That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales
Living the Dream 
You’re keeping me on the edge of my seat here. Can’t wait to find out who the killer is and see him get justice! And leaving a message like that? You might need smelling salts, too!
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LOL
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Wonderful excerpt!
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I like how he has reached the point where telephone etiquette and worrying about someone’s reaction can just go by the wayside because he is tired and focused on the need for an answer. The two of them deserve a good hamburger at this point!
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ooh, I Love it. Making progress on the case. And a burger and beer sounds richly deserved. JIllian
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I can’t wait to hear what the cousin has to say. And a burger sounds good! Great job!
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