The Blood

by Nancy Jackson

  “So set the stage for us. How did it all start and why?” asked Randy.

  “Jack was a good husband the first ten or so years we were married. But as each year came and went, he grew increasingly hungry for money and power. As that hunger grew, so did his anger.

  “It was common when something did not go as planned for him to take it out on me, even though I had nothing at all to do with it. He likes control, absolute control. As the ranch grew, the need to depend on others and relinquish control to them also grew.

  “He knew he couldn’t do it all himself, so he stepped back. The problem is though, that to Jack, no one can do anything as well as he would have done it. He flies into fits of rage at whatever human target is in front of him.

  “He trusts Pinky. That’s the one and only person he trusts to this day. But even Pinky has to delegate as large as the ranching operation has gotten. Jack drank from time to time when he was younger, but as the stress of running the ranch and trying to maintain control grew, he drank more.

  “His drinking has gotten to where he passes out right after dinner. When he is awake, he wants nothing to do with me except use me as someone to vent to and use as a punching bag.

  “It’s a lonely life.” June looked down at the table before continuing. Both Carrie and Randy gave her a moment to compose her thoughts.

  “After dinner, I often go for walks around the ranch. It’s beautiful as the sun is setting. The hands are often outside the bunkhouse playing horseshoes or a game of cards on the bunkhouse porch.

  “Pinky and I would sit and talk for a long time. He’s loyal to Jack, but he knew what I was going through.

  “Then one evening a few weeks ago, I honestly don’t know the exact date, as I was sitting out there watching them, Justin came over with two bridled horses and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. I hadn’t been on a ride in a long time, so I agreed.

  “When I was young, I rode all the time. I actually competed at Barrel Racing until I married Jack. When the kids were smaller, I would often go riding with them. But they are grown and gone now.” June reached for the water and took another drink. Honestly, it felt good to confess all this to someone else.

  “It began as a regular thing, Justin and me riding. He made me laugh, and I felt young again. It grew into more. One day we had ridden to the far northeast pasture, and we were walking our horses. As we were talking, he held me and then we kissed.” A tear slid down June’s cheek and she wiped it away.

  “Jack was so caught up in his own world of running the ranch and drinking, I never thought he would find out. We were careful, but there were a few times when we would wind up behind the big equipment barn.” June was riddled with guilt and shame. How had her life come to this, she thought? How had she sunk so low?

  “If you are wondering if I killed Justin, the answer is a definite no. I cared deeply for him. I am so ashamed of what we did, but knowing him and being with him was a life raft thrown to a drowning woman.” June was now looking at her hands resting in her lap, her mind far away.

  Carrie asked, “If Jack is as angry and controlling as you say, could he have found out about the affair and killed Justin?”

  Before Carrie finished her question, June was shaking her head, “No, he didn’t know, not until today, that is.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Carrie asked.

  June looked up at Carrie. “If he had found out, Justin wouldn’t be the one dead, I would be.”

  The remainder of the interview revealed nothing of substance that could help their investigation. Other than possibly Jack, they had no idea who would have killed Justin.

  Chapter Nine

  Randy’s phone rang as he headed into the office the next morning. “Hello,” he answered.

  It was Carrie already at the office. “Got a call this morning. A developer north of the city broke ground today on a new development. The land was dense with woods and as they began to bulldoze trees and brush, they found something that looked like a body, so they stopped and called the police.

  “There were five bodies in all, and at first glance it appears that all five died from having their throats cut,” Carrie waited for Randy to process what she had just said.

  “Are you saying that these bodies could be tied to Justin and Keith’s murders?” asked Randy as he continued to process what she had just told him.

  “It looks like it very well could be,” replied Carrie.

  “That means we have to rethink everything we’ve done so far. If those deaths are tied to the same killer, then this likely has nothing at all to do with the Big Horn Ranch. The killer could have just chosen their victims at random based on convenience.” Randy wiped his hand across his face in frustration. “I’ll be there in a bit and we can start from square one. He hung up the phone and hit the steering wheel with his fist.

  In ten more minutes, he had arrived at the office and was making his way to his desk when Carrie met him in the hallway and said, “Let’s go. The bodies are all at the Oklahoma County Morgue. We need to see if they can shed some light on whether we are dealing with the same killer.”

  Since they were at their OSBI headquarters in Oklahoma City, it was only a fifteen minute drive to the County Morgue. Two detectives from the OKC Police Department and the medical examiner were waiting on them to arrive before starting the review.

  Detectives Morris and Brown greeted Randy and Carrie. They had worked a case together a year prior with a successful outcome. Carrie looked at Detective Morris’ balding head and thought that, in the year since they had worked together, there was even less hair there than there had been. Was it the job or hereditary, she wondered, or both?

  But Detective Brown was the one who had Carrie’s real attention. She had been attracted to him since the day they had met. He was everything the magazines say you should like, tall, dark, and handsome; and he was single which was always a plus.

  Henry Bloom, the medical examiner, hated to break up the sweet little reunion, but he had things to do. Five bodies lay on five separate tables in the room. They were in varying degrees of decay.

  “As you can see we have five bodies all disposed of at various intervals. They are all male and have marks indicating that their throats were cut. There was no blunt trauma otherwise that I can see. We are running a full toxicology screen to determine what drugs, if any, were in their systems.

  “I saw no signs of ligature marks on the hands and legs. The rate of decomposition is varied. The heat we have experienced this spring would have sped up the decay once they thawed from the cold, winter months. Of course, the bodies were dumped at random times so some were only out there during the spring. As I get more into my examination, I will be better able to tell dates and times of death.

  “For now, I have the bodies laid out in the order I believe they died.” Henry moved around the tables to stand at the first table on the left. “The oldest I believe died between ten and eleven months ago. The newest one I believe died between two and three months ago,” he said as he pointed to the table on his far right.

  Detective Morris explained to both Carrie and Randy as well as to Henry, “The bodies were dumped, not buried. The woods were thick and almost impossible to walk through. The trees were growing very close together and the sharp bramble vines were thick. They were growing all along the floor of the woods and up the tree trunks and in the branches of the trees.”

  Rick continued, “I can’t see anyone carrying a body through that mess. We searched the perimeter of the dump and we could barely get through. The dozers, though, tore up the path we think the killer used to access the area. The foreman of the site said it didn’t look to him like there had been any tracks or activity before they dozed, but he couldn’t be sure.”

  “Could they have used a small ATV?” Randy asked.

  “Possibly, but they would have still had to cut a path to go in very deep unless the trees were less dense where they dozed. The trees we saw were so thick that Chubby there h
ad to go in sideways,” Mike winked at Rick.

  “Ha Ha. Very funny,” said Rick. “But he is right, that was one heck of a dense area. The bodies were just thrown down and fell where they could. Some weren’t even flat on the ground but leaning up against the trees.”

  “And there were scavengers. Apparently coyotes and birds don’t mind the sharp brambles,” Mike concluded.

  “We have been working the two bodies we’ve had in Kachina. Until now we were under the impression that the killings could have been personal. This changes everything,” said Randy.

  “We will give you all we have,” said Mike. “I think we should see about forming a joint task force to try to get to the bottom of this.”

  They all thanked Henry and left with his promise to expedite any medical or forensic findings.

  They made plans while walking out, to coordinate information and plan for a task force, if their supervisors approved. They couldn’t imagine that they wouldn’t, given the gravity of the situation.

  On the drive back to their office, Randy and Carrie were processing all they had learned and were attempting to readjust previous theories.

  “Well, the dead end we thought we had with Jack McGivens seems to be just that. What on earth have we stumbled into?” asked Carrie.

  Randy slowly shook his head, thinking. “I have no idea. When we get back, let’s talk to Bracket about a task force. We need to call Darren in Kachina to let him know as well.”

  Carrie sat, quietly remembering the first day they had started this investigation and how she had wondered if this would turn out to be another serial murder. She felt sick. She had to muster up the stamina and fortitude that solving a serial case would take. Then, she felt a new determination to find this killer, before they could do any more damage.

  ~~~

  Back at the office, Randy and Carrie quickly met with their Supervisory Special Agent in Charge John Bracket, and succinctly gave him all the information they had just received.

  Bracket readily agreed that a task force was necessary and agreed to assist in forming it. He led them down to a seldom-used room, large enough to hold the large conference table already in place, and as many white boards, computers, and chairs as they needed.

  Carrie went straight to retrieving the files from the Kachina killings that she and Randy had been compiling. So far, there were two cardboard banker's boxes. While she was walking back, carrying the boxes, she could feel her phone buzz in her pocket, but with her hands loaded she refrained from answering.

  “Here are the two boxes we have so far,” Carrie said to Randy back in the war room, which it would now be referred to until no longer needed by the task force.

  “Okay,” Randy said. He was rearranging the room for a more efficient setup.

  Carrie pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the missed call. It had been Mike Brown. Her stomach did a flip before she realized he was probably only calling about their case.

  Mike answered the phone with a quick hello and dove in, “Our Lieutenant is in agreement on the task force. I am assuming you and Randy are already setting up a place. We will gather what we have and come on over.”

  “We have. Randy is arranging things now. I saw a few emails in my in-box I need to check. I think one was from the techs who are tracing the calls on Justin’s and Keith’s phones. Both Justin and Keith received a call from the same number right before each of their deaths. I know it is too much to hope for that it isn’t a burner phone, but you never know.”

  “Well, we are headed that way. See you in a few.”

  Carrie went back to her desk and pulled up the email from the tech department. The phone was a burner phone and was now off and untraceable. “Of course,” Carrie mumbled out loud.

  She continued to answer emails and finish up paperwork while she waited on the two detectives to arrive. She disliked paperwork more than any other part of this job, but she knew it was important to get every detail recorded. You never knew what tiny item might jump out at you later when more evidence had been gathered.

  “Hey there, gorgeous!” A voice came thundering through her thoughts as she typed. She looked up to see Mike’s smiling face.

  “Hey there yourself,” Carrie grinned. She couldn’t help be a little flirtatious with Mike. She stood up and found herself standing very close to Mike, but he didn’t move.

  “I am going to like working with you again,” he said. A dark curl accentuated his comment by dropping onto his forehead at that very moment.

  “Maybe you will and maybe you won’t,” she replied, letting the double meaning hang in the air. She wanted to readjust that curl back where it had come from, but knew there were multiple sets of eyes on her, so she didn’t.

  “I was going to call after that last case, but you know how it is, I got busy,” said Mike backing away from Carrie as she pushed him away with the tips of her fingers.

  Carrie just looked up at him with a coy grin and led the way to the war room. “Here you go. Randy has set up all we have. Where’s Rick?”

  “He got a call in the car. He’ll be right up.”

  Mike and Randy worked to lay out the victims on the white boards. For now they used gray silhouettes with a question mark overlaid for the five unknown victims. Just above their pictures, they had written the names of Justin and Keith while leaving the other five blank. Below each picture, they wrote the date and time of death, leaving room for the remaining five.

  Rick bounced into the room out of breath. “Sorry about that. It was our Lieutenant with last-minute info. They had Sylvia run these victims against possible missing persons. She is sending us a few possible matches. You guys got a computer I can use?”

  Randy got him set up with one they intended to use in the war room and Rick was soon logging on. Sylvia had sent twelve possibilities. They printed out a detail page for each, including a picture. They placed them on a separate white board until they determined who, if any, of these were their victims.

  They spent the next hour going over details of the Kachina cases with Mike and Rick. They asked some great questions, but none that Randy and Carrie had not already asked themselves and either answered or tabled, hoping for more info.

  The forensic team had taken molds of all the horse's hooves on the Big Horn Ranch but none had matched the prints found at Crown Rock Park. Without a direction to go, they set that aside. There were hundreds of horses in Oklahoma, everywhere you looked, so it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, and may not even be connected. If they did come up with a suspect though, and they had a horse, then they could compare their horses' hooves to the molds.

  Speculation on how the killer was able to leave no footprints or other forensic clues, was foremost in their conversation. They all agreed that bull-dozing the woods where the last bodies were found was a decided setback. The suggestions came up, though, that they interview the equipment operators and surveyors for the development to see if they could remember any details about the area prior to dozing.

  The next detailed focus was to dig into the backgrounds of the twelve missing men. They wanted to have as much info as possible when the coroner came back with their report. The more info they had to compare it to, the easier it would be to make a match.

  “I’ll work on getting dental records from the missing,” said Carrie. “We also need medical info such as surgeries, implants, or other similar physical characteristics for comparison.”

  They agreed on one thing as they parted: They wanted to find this killer before there was another body.

  ~~~

  Last night's conversation with Blake kept playing over and over in Senna’s mind as she worked. She thought she was getting more comfortable with Blake and that it was becoming easier to talk with him. Usually by the end of their conversations she had relaxed enough to enjoy it.

  The stories Blake told of his life growing up and going to college fascinated Senna. He was a natural storyteller and as he told of his life; it wa
s as if she were reading a really good book, only better because it was Blake. She smiled as she thought how he would become animated as he told tales of he and his brother going fishing and rafting down the river.

  Senna thought of the crinkles next to his eyes when he laughed at his own tales, and how his hands would motion to demonstrate some unseen episode. She remembered just how sore she had been from laughing so hard; it was a new experience she couldn’t wait to have again.

  Little by little, day by day, she felt herself coming alive. The feeling of fear still crouched nearby, but she was driven by a determination to overcome it. No longer would the shackles she had been bound by hold her back. The more of life she experienced, the less the fear from her father’s dictatorship held over her, but she felt anger creeping in and taking its place.

  The urge to throw the stacks of books surprised her. But she stopped, shut her eyes and attempted to stuff this new feeling of anger down.

  How could he have done this to me? Was a constant thought ringing through her now. How could he have stolen my life from me? She felt anger rise up again within her and flush through her body. When this would happen she would tamp it back down as the old fear would rise up to challenge and overtake the anger. Fear of dishonoring her father. Fear of the consequences of not obeying all the strong dictates that had been constantly pounded into her for her entire life.

  Senna was working alone since Andrea had called in sick that day and had not come into work. For a moment she was wondering how her friend was. She thought she would call her on her lunch break, which she would take there in the library, but then reconsidered. If Andrea was sick, she would not want to be disturbed.

  Senna knew her life was changing, for the better she thought. But if that were true, then why did she not feel more at peace? She was pushing forward to break free of invisible emotional and mental restraints, but there seemed to be even more turmoil than before. She constantly felt the fear and anger seesawing inside of her, replacing the previous complacent fear, which had only left her feeling dull and flat.