By the time the wheels that churned, had churned out the hospital release paperwork, Randy had arrived with a beautiful pair of purple sweats.
“Really?” said Carrie when she looked in the bag. “Are you kidding me? Purple?” She looked at Randy and she thought she almost saw a smile creeping in.
“Never mind, I would wear a pink tutu just to get out of here.” She was heading to the bathroom still shuffling a bit. Soon, she emerged like a purple gumdrop.
“Don’t say a word,” she warned Randy.
“I say nothing,” he said as he moved his fingers across his lips mimicking a zipper.
“I’m just going to wear these rubber bottomed socks out of here. My boots are a mess and I’m not sure they go with my outfit,” Carrie smiled back at Randy. “I’m ready; let’s go.”
The euphoria of being released from the hospital gave her the strength she needed to ride down to the car in the wheelchair and get into Randy’s car. She wanted to will herself to be at one hundred percent, but she just couldn’t.
She knew she’d made considerable progress when she thought back to when she was first injured. That was only four days ago. In another four days, she would be even better.
Randy drove her to the pharmacy to fill her prescription and then straight home. She didn’t want to admit it, but the jostle of the car ride was rough on her. Randy helped her into her house and got her settled on the sofa in her living room. She popped a pain pill without water and gently laid herself down.
Randy nervously looked around not knowing what to do next. “What can I do for you before I leave?” he asked.
“Sit down and let’s talk about the case.” Carrie was raring to go, but she knew right then all she could do was talk.
“Nope. I’m going to leave and you are going to rest. I promise that after you’ve rested, we can talk. You aren’t fooling me. The car ride was hell and you need to rest.”
“Well, I’ll call you when I wake up,” said Carrie. “Wait, I don’t have my phone. Did you guys try tracking my phone?”
Randy tilted his head at her with his eyebrows raised. “Really? You had to ask? It was dead. No signal and no trace.”
“What about the last place it showed it was on?” Carrie was eager to hear.
“The cabin,” said Randy. “I’m guessing he busted it or took out the card and tossed it in the woods on his way out. I bet if we go looking we’ll find it out there somewhere.
“The forensic team went out on Monday and went through the cabin getting fingerprints and bagging anything they felt might be a clue.” Randy had not told her that until now. He knew what her reaction would be.
She groaned. “Oh, no. I don’t want them out there!” She was distraught. “Randy, there are going to be so many fingerprints, it will take them decades to go through. I don’t want everyone knowing all about my life.” She wanted all this to stop.
“Too late. They’ve already come and gone.” His matter-of-fact attitude irritated Carrie.
“Found the car yet?” She raised the elbow that she had slung over her eyes to look at him.
“Not yet,” he said. “You really kept that hidden from everyone.”
“For obvious reasons. A law enforcement official on a government salary driving that.... Not only would I have never heard the end of it, but Internal Affairs would have been all over me wondering where the money came from.”
“I get it.” And he did. He was antsy to leave though. He was excited about the new leads and wanted to pow-wow with Mike and Rick, and even Darren. He felt they were finally really getting somewhere.
“Okay, well, I’m out of here, if you’re sure you don’t need anything else.” He stooped down and awkwardly planted a kiss on her forehead. “Please don’t get up and do anything stupid.”
“I will.”
“You will do something stupid? Or you will not get up?” Randy asked.
“I will take it easy and rest. I promise,” she said.
“Oh, hey,” Carrie suddenly remembered, “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon at three. Do you mind taking me?”
“Nope, not at all.” Randy gave her a wink and headed out the door. Carrie watched him leave and heard his car pull out of her driveway. She should’ve asked him to bring her laptop to her, she wanted to order a new phone, but she also wanted to do some research. She was just as eager as Randy to learn more.
Resigning herself to lie where she was for the time being, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep. The facts of the case were floating in the back of her mind and a face drifted by, and then she was out.
~~~
“Did you have a good lunch?” asked Andrea when Senna came back. Blake had called her the minute he was back at his office. He had described to Andrea what Senna had said and the changes in her. He’d been devastated. Andrea would have liked to say she had been shocked, but from what she had seen that morning, she wasn’t.
“It was fine.” Cool and aloof. Andrea had absolutely no idea what to say or do. Her gentle offering of friendship had worked before. Maybe she would just slide back into her bubbly self and win Senna over again.
“What did you think of church on Sunday?” Andrea asked. She held her breath waiting for a reply. She had told herself she would stay away from that topic but she couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Honestly, I won’t be going back. They have an intoxicating way of manipulating people's emotions with lights, music, and an eloquent delivery. I saw right through it.” Senna was working at the counter looking at the overdue book list.
Andrea just stood looking at Senna. From what she had witnessed on Sunday she couldn’t fathom that Senna felt that way. What Andrea had seen was a genuinely emotional outpouring from a broken woman. What on earth could’ve happened to her that day? pondered Andrea.
“I’m sorry you feel that way. I’ve attended that church for years. I know most of the people who go there. It would break their hearts if they knew someone felt that they were being manipulated. I know their hearts and they have a genuine love and concern for people,” Andrea was choosing her words carefully.
Senna turned her now cold eyes on Andrea and said, “How can you know anyone’s heart—truly know?”
It left Andrea speechless. She simply shook her head and walked away. It was true, how could anyone truly know what was in the heart of another person.
~~~
When Carrie awoke, she felt much better. She’d slept for over two hours on the sofa. It felt like more rest than she had gotten in several days. She had the urge to check her cell phone for messages, but of course no phone, no messages.
She slowly got up from the sofa, went to the bathroom and then realized she was hungry. She decided to order a pizza online with her laptop. Pulling the chair out at her desk she sat down and turned on her computer. The first order of business was to order a pizza, then a new phone. The confirmation code said her phone would be delivered the day after tomorrow. Good enough.
She was interested in the castration knife that was on the list of stolen goods from the Big Horn. She’d known what ‘working cattle’ was, but there were several tools used in castration. Her grandfather had always used a Newberry-style castrating knife. That type of knife was a tong type apparatus with curved ends, one side with a sharp blade pointing in towards the other curve. The other side had a slim v-shaped end for the blade to slide safely into when cutting. It certainly wasn’t something that could easily be used to slit a throat with.
After researching and reading for the next thirty minutes her doorbell rang. It was the pizza delivery. Her wallet had been in the car, but she kept some cash stashed at home, thank goodness. She ate almost half the pizza ravenously. It tasted so good after eating hospital food that she had no restraint.
Carrie could feel herself getting antsy. She wasn’t exactly house-bound; she had her old Honda Civic which she drove to the office each day, but her doctor had said no driving. Honestly, she didn’t feel like leav
ing, anyway.
She wanted to call Randy and felt very frustrated that she had no phone. For lack of anything better to do, she sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. She flipped channels until she found a movie and settled in to watch it and wait for Randy.
The movie finished, and he still hadn’t come by. Tired of the TV noise, she shut it off and laid back down on the sofa. Her mind was clearer than it had been in days and she was eagerly analyzing the facts of the case.
The missing ranch-hand could be victim number five. If that was true, then he was not the killer. Maybe victim number five was not the missing ranch-hand, but just another victim and the ranch-hand was the killer of all seven.
So if the thief was the victim what could have happened? He stole the stuff and then it was stolen from him? Someone had him steal the stuff, and then they killed him? Someone paid him to steal the stuff? What was the most likely scenario?
She heard a car pull up and realized it was Randy. Thank God he was back. She’d thought she would go stir crazy.
“Do you want some pizza? I got pizza,” Carrie offered.
“Sure,” Randy replied.
They sat in the living room and Randy pulled a slice of pizza out of the box which was still sitting on the coffee table. “That’s so good, even cold. I’m starved.”
“So what have you got?” Carrie just couldn’t stand it anymore.
Randy attempted to chew the huge bite of pizza he’d just bitten off and swallow it down. “Okay. Okay. Got anything to drink?” he asked.
“A beer in the fridge,” Carrie half-heartedly motioned towards the kitchen. She let him settle back down and finish the slice he had started. She was forcing herself to be patient when it was the last thing she wanted to do.
Randy wiped his hands on a paper towel he’d also retrieved from the kitchen. He sat back in the chair and took a long swig. “None of the other ATVs panned out. As of right now, the Big Horn Ranch’s stolen ATV is the closest bet.
“The missing ranch-hand slash thief’s name is Anderson Cooper. They called him Andy. We have requested his dental records and they’ll be here by tomorrow. He was thirty-nine years old, about 5’ 10” tall and 160 pounds. He was slight of build just like Justin and Keith.
“I took the knife to the medical examiner and Henry said he felt strongly that knife or one just like it could have been the murder weapon. He still has it and is doing further tests, but on initial examination, he felt like it would be a match.”
Carrie was filing away each detail mentally as Randy gave them to her. Her mind was categorizing them with great efficiency. Then something occurred to her.
“Randy we’ve been searching for a male killer all this time. We’ve assumed that because men were the victims that it would’ve had to have been another man to move the bodies.
“But if the men were slight of build and a woman was strong and fit, she could’ve nearly had as much strength as a man. It could also be possible she could devise ways to move a body.”
Barely slowing down, she continued, “What if a woman enticed the man to drink with her in a remote place where she already had the blue poly-tarp, let’s say the top of Crown Rock Mesa. Then when he passed out in the car seat from the ketamine, she could place the tarp on the ground outside the passenger door, open the door, and tilt the body out onto the tarp.
“Once on the tarp, she could use the castration knife to slit his throat. Then she could roll the body up like a burrito, blood and all inside, and move it to the edge of the cliff. Holding the edge of the tarp, she could unfurl it tumbling the body to the ground below.”
“Okay,” Randy was listening. “What about the first body we found? There was no tarp. The body was killed right where he lay.”
“I’ve thought about that. Why move the body at all there? It was a remote area and maybe she had to improvise. Maybe it was spur of the moment and she didn’t have the tarp with her.”
“In that case she could’ve left the body on the top of Crown Rock,” said Randy.
For a few minutes they both sat thinking. “Let’s go back to the first five bodies. They were all five done the same, from what we can tell. I’m guessing she used a tarp, rolled them up and then used a wench on the ATV to drag the body up onto the bed in the back. She then drove out to the woods and dumped it with the lift on the bed. That model has a hydraulic bed which can be used to dump dirt, gravel, and such. Easy peasy.” Carrie snapped her fingers for added impact.
“How did she cover her tracks at the two scenes in Kachina?” asked Randy.
“I don’t know. You have to figure part of this out,” Carrie said with a wink.
“It still could be a man,” said Randy.
“Could be, but to me it feels like a woman. She could entice a man to do about anything she wanted if he was drinking. Trust me, I know.”
Chapter Eighteen
It was the day for the book fair and the library was closed with a sign on the door. There had been little time for Senna and Andrea to talk while carrying books and setting up tables.
Andrea wasn’t sure what to say, anyway. She felt, for now, it was best they just work together as cordially as possible, while hoping that Senna would recover and feel better about things, eventually.
“I forgot to tell you, I have another appointment this afternoon with Dr. Specter,” declared Senna, matter-of-factly.
“Oh, that’s good,” Andrea replied. “What time do you need to leave?”
“I’ll leave at two o’clock.”
There was no courteous request or asking if the library would be staffed, just a simple statement of what she was going to do. Andrea tried to not get angry.
“I thought you would be seeing her on Fridays,” said Andrea.
Senna looked at her and said, “Why would you think that?”
“Well, because your appointment last week was on a Friday. I just assumed...,” replied Andrea.
“That was because there had been a cancellation.” Andrea had never heard Senna be so condescending. “She’s decided her best available spot for me is on Thursday afternoons at three o’clock.”
“Thank you for letting me know,” Andrea couldn’t help showing her frustration. She was seething.
The book fair ended at one o’clock and Senna and Andrea loaded the leftover books into the boxes and drove back to the library. Neither one spoke a word the entire time.
Once the books were unloaded, Senna grabbed her purse and said, “I think I will leave now.”
Andrea looked at the clock. “But it is only one thirty. I thought you weren’t leaving until two?”
“I know, but I thought I would leave a little early.” Senna was so flippant that it stunned Andrea yet again. She watched Senna walk out the door and wondered what on earth could have caused this drastic change in her?
As she went back to unpacking the books and getting ready for the after school group to arrive, Andrea’s heart was heavy. The only one she felt she could confide in about Senna and what she was feeling about all of it was Blake. She decided that when she could, she would give him a call. She knew he was hurting even more than she was and maybe she could be a comfort to him as well.
~~~
Arriving early to the medical complex where Dr. Specter’s office was located, Senna decided to sit in her car for a while. Something had changed inside of her and she had no idea what. Less than a week ago she’d been happy, really happy. She’d pushed Blake away, and she was pretty certain that she’d pushed Andrea away as well. She had hurt them both deeply and yet couldn’t seem to stop herself.
Senna hoped that seeing Dr. Specter today would help her sort some of this out. It would be nice if someone could just flip a switch and everything be fine, back the way it had been last week. She knew, though, that recovery was always slow. She had felt such hope with the progress she’d made, but now she felt like she had digressed to a worse state than she’d originally been in. She felt discontent, irritable, angry, and unstable.
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Her car was parked near the entrance of the complex with the front door only a few feet in front of her. The man and woman walking toward the entrance caught her attention. She knew that woman. She recognized her face but couldn’t remember from where.
The woman was looking straight at her, and it made her feel uncomfortable. Seeing recognition on the woman’s face, she realized that the woman knew her, too. She diverted her eyes to her lap and slid down slightly in the seat. She did not want her coming over to the car.
Randy had picked Carrie up for the doctor’s appointment and they were right on time. As they were walking up to the door Carrie spotted the woman she’d seen in the hospital. She knew that woman and suddenly she remembered where she knew her from.
Once inside the door, she motioned for Randy to move to the side out of direct view of the lady’s car. “I know that woman out there in the car,” said Carrie.
Randy was looking at her waiting for more. He dipped his head slightly and raised his eyebrows hoping to prod her along, “And so...”
“She was the woman two doors down from me in the hospital,” Carrie paused.
“And once again, so...” Randy didn’t want to be impatient, but he knew he was certainly missing something.
“It’s been bugging the thunder out of me to try to remember where I knew her from. Yesterday right after you brought me home when I was falling asleep on the sofa, I was thinking about the case. All the clues and people were rolling around in my mind, and I was trying to make sense of it all. I remember now right before I fell asleep that her face came to mind,” Carrie was speaking low, but her voice was excited and urgent.
“I know her from the Darkside, she was there almost every time I was there. Boy was she a player, too. She had the men pawing all over her. I saw her leave with a different man each time I was there and she never left without a man. I thought it odd. I never saw her with the same man twice.
“I never told you, but I found the Darkside a long time ago and have been going there off and on for over a year.” She paused to let that sink in, waiting for a reprimand.
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