All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1) QUOTES

1 " Sam grinned. “Probably an acrotomophiliac. You know, less is more.” Taylor wrinkled her brow. “What the hell does that mean? It doesn’t sound good.” “Means he’s sexually attracted to amputees. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

2 " She was autodidactic, and when she mentioned that, most of the college kids didn’t even know what it meant. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

3 " Forensics had a field day in the motel room. It was obvious that Christy had been repeatedly stabbed, and that blood added to the cast-off spray from the arterial cuts in her wrists created a gory miasma for the techs to comb through. The room hadn’t been wiped down, so there were many fingerprints, almost too many to take exemplars from, considering the number of people who had been through that room. Baldwin assumed the killer was wearing gloves, they hadn’t gotten a fingerprint from any of the scenes that they could place him at. For "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

4 " He noted the signs of death dispassionately. Blue lips, cyanotic. The hemorrhaging in the sclera of the eyes, pinpoint pricks of crimson. The body seemed to cool immediately, though he knew it would take some time for the heat to fully dissipate. The vivacious yet shy eighteen-year-old was now nothing more than a piece of meat, soon to be consigned back to the earth. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Blowfly to maggot. The life cycle complete once again. He "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

5 " A memory rose, unbidden, unwanted. Trite in its way, yet the truth of the statement hit her to the core. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Or became a woman. Her days of purity were behind her now. Taking "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

6 " Grimes’s phone rang, and he picked it up, listening intently to the person on the other line. He hung up and shook his head as if trying to clear the cobwebs, then dragged his eyes back to Baldwin. “Okay then, let me fill you in on what they’ve got. A whole bunch of nothing, to be succinct. Sheriff wants us to meet him over at the hospital now. They want to tow Marni’s car to the impound lot, but they kindly agreed to wait for us. I know you like to look at your scenes in situ.” Baldwin nodded at him. “Great, that will be a big help. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

7 " Taylor and Fitz pulled up to Baptist Hospital’s emergency entrance and parked. Making their way through the emergency-room throng was an adventure. Taylor counted six patients that had blood streaming from various places along their bodies. The fluorescent lights made the blood look orange. She swallowed back a moment of distaste. The last time she had come through these doors was on a stretcher, her own blood threatening to spill onto the linoleum floor. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

8 " I asked you if we could move her.” It wasn’t a statement but a challenge. “Tell me something, Sergeant,” Baldwin said quietly. The man glared at him as if Baldwin had murdered the girl at their feet. “Was she posed, or was she dropped here?” The man scratched his head. “Weel, it’s pretty obvious that she was posed. Don’t they teach you that kind of stuff where you come from, Mr. F BEE EYE agent?” Baldwin "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

9 " Do you have anything from the geographic profile yet?” “No, it hasn’t finished running. I was looking at the map myself, I think you’re onto something. Problem with this software is it takes at least eight points to be accurate. So whatever it coughs out is going to be incomplete at best. I’d plan on working without it.” “Right. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

10 " The day was stifling, humidity in the high nineties, a threat of rain on the horizon. Though it was full light, the sun was not shining. A thick miasma of haze blanketed the sky, turning the blue to gray. Nashville in the summer. The "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

11 " Taylor nearly came undone, imagining that worm in her own mouth, and mistakenly took in a deep breath through her nose. She winced and turned away for a moment, watching the activity around her. Usually the death greeters would swarm like their own type of insect, but no one was in much of a hurry today. Fitz was ambling back toward the crime scene control area, he’d taken a cursory look at the body, covered his mouth and politely excused himself. She could see Marcus and Lincoln conferring in the distance, waves of heat shimmering around their bodies. Crime scene techs carried brown paper bags to their vehicles, patrol officers kept their backs to the body. The scene stirred, listless, the entire group indolent in the heat. Except "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

12 " He strangle her before or after he cut her up?” “There was some clotting in the knife slashes on her face, so I’d have to say it was perimortem. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

13 " Betsy Garrison, the tough, feisty head of the Nashville Metro Sex Crimes Unit, was sitting up in the hospital bed, a huge white bandage covering the left side of her head. She looked beaten up and tired but gave as genuine a smile as she could muster. “Taylor, Fitz, c’mon in. Join the party.” Taylor took up residence on the opposite side of the bed from Post, who was scowling possessively at Betsy. That’s interesting, she noted. Looks like Post has more than professional concern for his partner. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

14 " She leaned over and gingerly gave Betsy a hug. Fitz leaned against the door to the bathroom, looking distinctly uncomfortable. He was an old-fashioned kind of guy, didn’t like to see ladies in distress. Betsy picked up on it immediately. Her voice croaked as she spoke, still rough from the anesthesia. “Fitz, I see that your chivalrous sense of justice is piqued. Why don’t you take Brian here and get him a cup of coffee. He’s been mothering the hell out of me. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

15 " I’m pregnant,” she whispered. Sam didn’t miss a beat. “So you’re sitting here trying to get in your cups. Excellent way to manage the stress, Taylor.” Taylor started shaking her head back and forth, a pendulum of distress. “Noo, that’s not it at all. I’m...” “You’re at a complete loss. You’re not ready to have a baby. You haven’t told Baldwin because you don’t know how he’s going to react. You don’t know what to think, how to behave, what to do. That about sum it up?” Taylor gave her a dirty look. “Well, leprosy cases are on the rise, too. Besides, you’re supposed to be encouraging me here. Not—” “Not what? What do you want me to do? You’re a big girl. You can make decisions for yourself. Did you want me to toss the beer over the railing and lecture you? I’ll do it if you want. But I don’t think that’s why you wanted to talk to me. So get drunk and talk.” Taylor "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

16 " With implicit instructions to step up the pace of the investigation, Lincoln Ross and Marcus Wade were chasing down leads and rumors as fast as they came. The most important was interviewing the previous Rainman victim, the one who had intimated to Betsy that she knew who her attacker was. Lincoln "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

17 " When Baldwin and Grimes arrived in the community-hospital parking lot, Baldwin could see a passel of men standing in the northeast corner. Waves of heat shimmered off the black asphalt. Grimes pulled up a few slots away and got out, went immediately to a large dark-skinned man with commanding shoulders and a shaved head. He held himself ramrod straight, and Baldwin pegged him as military from twenty feet away. He followed in Grimes’s path and stuck out his hand for the requisite introductions and posturing. To his surprise, the sheriff flashed him a big smile. He was younger than he initially looked, and Baldwin breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes the locals just weren’t thrilled to have the FBI involved in their cases, and sometimes they were. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

18 " They sat at a metal table covered by stained and cracked Formica laminate. A huge woman with shoulder-length braids pranced over. Baldwin couldn’t believe how lightly she moved considering her bulk. Her waitress uniform was spotless, and Lurene was stitched in fancy black embroidery above her ample left breast. She slapped down two cups, filled them with strong black coffee and gave the men a look. “Good morning,” Baldwin said. “We’d like—” “Let me guess, sugar. The works.” She yelled back over her shoulder to a rheumy-eyed black man with grizzled hair who could be seen in the kitchen. “Eugene, two full plates.” She turned back to them. "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

19 " You’ve put things back in order then? Matches the Polaroids?” “Yes, ma’am, this is pretty close to how we found it. We came in, saw the blood, backed out and started taking pictures. Then we took all the samples. It’s not as much as it looks, and the biologicals were desiccated. Been there for at least a day. Dusted the bed and side table for prints, came up with a few. We’ll get it all into the system, let you know. Soon as you’re ready we’ll finish bagging and cart it out.” Taylor "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)

20 " A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort and command; And yet a Spirit still, and bright With something of an angelic light.” Baldwin scribbled and nodded, murmuring to himself. “Wordsworth. Okay, who’s next?” “Jeanette Lernier. Here we go. “A creature not too bright or good For human nature’s daily food For transient sorrows, simple wiles Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.” Baldwin smiled. “Another stanza from the same poem. What was found in Jessica’s dayrunner? "

― J.T. Ellison , All The Pretty Girls (Taylor Jackson, #1)