Missy dried the cups. "How did it happen, mom? Was she? Did they?" Missy hesitated.
"Oh, I didn't tell you. She was stabbed. A knife wound to her chest. And dad said she was fully clothed, so they don't think she was molested or anything like that. I don't think from what he said that she suffered much. The stab wound was directly to the heart. What scares me is it must have been someone she knew I would think, to get close enough to stab her like that. So just be patient if I seem to be walking on your heels until this is cleared up."
* * *
Tired as much from emotional stress as by the hour, Cas tried to be quiet coming in. But Connie heard him and looked at the clock.
Twelve fifteen. She wondered if he'd taken time to get anything besides fast food to eat.
Sliding her feet into her slippers she went down to the kitchen where Cas was making himself a cold supper.
"Hi, want a chicken sandwich?" Cas waved the loaf of bread in his hand. He had shed his boots and was padding around the kitchen in his socks.
"No, but I'll fix us some chocolate." She stole a glance at his tired face as she got out the pan and measured sugar and cocoa. "Missy says it's a wonder you can still get chocolate without a prescription."
Cas didn't answer and Connie stirred the chocolate as she talked. "And there are chocolate chip cookies in the jar over there."
Cas worked on his sandwich from the array of pickles and other things he had laid out on the table with the chicken.
"The hamburger I had didn't even last long enough to get the preliminary paperwork done on the teenager we found."
He looked up. "I guess you and Missy discussed it over chocolate?" He teased her about their well known fondness for chocolate as Connie poured herself a steaming cup too.
Cas went on, his voice tired. "Did Missy know Denise? I figured she might be a little younger than she is."
"Yes, she knew her. But only the way everyone here knows everyone else. She told me Denise was invited to the slumber party she went to. Said Denise didn't go because she wasn't feeling well, or that's what someone at the party said."
"That's interesting. I felt Missy would know who she was." He gave his head a little surprised shake. "Being invited to the same party is closer than I thought."
"No, I still wouldn't call it close. It was just one of those things where everyone in the same age group is invited. Some of her, Denise's, friends were there, too."
"I didn't know who she was when we found her. Rhodes knows the family and was going with me to tell them. But when we got back to the office they were there waiting for us."
"They were?" Connie tilted her head, surprised. "How did they know?"
"They didn't know. They only knew she was missing. They thought she was still upstairs in her room this morning at breakfast time. Her mother checked on her about bedtime last night and thought she was asleep. Then this morning when she still hadn't come downstairs by nine o'clock her mother went up to wake her, and she was gone."
"Gone? And they didn't know she'd left?"
"That's right. She put two pillows under the cover and slipped out the window."
"But," Connie puzzled. "I thought you said her room is upstairs. Is there a tree by the window? How did she get out without their knowing?"
"I asked about that. Her aunt said she had done the same thing about a year ago. The roof is low on the far side of the carport. She climbed out the window, walked over the roof to the lowest side and jumped down. Must have been easy. They just didn't think about her doing that."
"And they didn't know or miss her until nine o'clock this morning." Connie shook her head at the things children and teenagers could think of to outwit their parents.
Cas nodded, talking between bites of his sandwich. "They thought she might come in, so they waited. They called some of her friends to see if she was with them or if they had seen her. When she hadn't come back by four o'clock, they tried driving around looking for her at the mall and other places. They also called Fort Craig to see if she might have decided to visit a cousin there. But they hadn't found her or heard from her. That's when they decided to come and report her missing and see if we could help find her. Dispatch made the report as we were approaching the Roadhouse. Then of course we reported finding the girl's body. Her parents were waiting for us when we got back."
Connie had met Denise's aunt at school and Muriel Davis at the courthouse. She pictured Denise's mother and her aunt looking for her. Cringed at the anxiety of looking for a lost child.
"I feel so sorry for them. How awful. Do they have any idea who might have done this? No," Connie answered her own question. "How could they? How could anyone think anyone we know could do such a terrible thing?"
"They both said they don't know of anyone who would want to hurt Denise. They're as much in the dark about it as we are. I told them if they remember anything, no matter how small or unimportant they think it is, to call me."
Cas poured milk into his empty chocolate cup, his face grim. "The only break we've got is we found her so soon. If those hooligans hadn't raised such a row at the Roadhouse because they wouldn't serve them beer with their barbecues, we might still be looking for her."
Glancing toward the door Cas asked, "Did you tell Missy everything about the stabbing?"
"Yes, I told her everything you told me. She heard the phone ring and came in while I was talking to you."
"It's just as well. Everybody in town will be talking about it tomorrow anyway. At least the victim wasn't beaten or raped."
"And her mother and her aunt don't know of anyone who might have been mad at her or envious, or any other problem?"
"No. We don't know a thing yet. We'll start on the leg work and see what we can turn up. Maybe it was panic," Cas mused. "She might have done something, or known something the person who stabbed her didn't want known. Young people are hot blooded and see situations as more desperate than they are sometimes."
"Do you have the thing, the weapon?" Connie shrank from the picture that word brought to mind.
"Yes, we've got that. It was still stuck in the wound. Stuck fast. Whoever did it did it quickly and with a lot of force to drive it in like that. There weren't any prints on it, of course. And it's a hunting knife like you can buy at any hardware store around here. I can't see anywhere to start except to begin asking questions. Right now, I've got to get my head on a pillow before my eyes close."
He paused at the stairs. "Did you tell Missy you're going to quit your job in Fort Craig and stay home?"
"No, what with the slumber party, cookies, and now this awful thing, I haven't. I don't know how she'll take it yet."
* * *
Rhodes Cromwell was getting into his patrol car as Cas pulled into the parking lot Monday morning. Rhodes was a dead ringer for Ichabod Crane and Cas waited until all six foot two of his spare frame settled comfortably behind the wheel before bending down to talk to him.
"Anything new I should hear about?"
"No, been a quiet night. There's a couple of routine reports, I put them on your desk. Haven't got anything that might help on the Davis case but since I sort of know them, Muriel Davis and her sister, we called to express my and Mary's sympathy. I also said you would be calling on them soon in your investigation."
Cas nodded approval. "Good, I'm glad you did."
"After offering our condolences I asked Muriel to make you a list of Denise's friends. I asked her to write their names along with anything she might know about any of them which is in any way unusual, or might have any bearing on this case."
"That should break the ice a little for me. I was going to call before going over there. I dread it, Rhodes. This is one part of the job no one gets used to."
"I know what you mean. And it's always worse when it's a little one or a youngster." Rhodes started rolling up the window. "I'll be calling in."
Cas went inside and stopped at Gladys's desk to pick up his mail.
"Morning, Boss." Gladys pushed se
veral envelopes across the desk.
"Good morning, Gladys, do you have any calls for me? Did Clint call from the coroner's office?"
"No to both questions, but the mail's light. I hope the Davis case Rhodes told me about will soon be cleared up. It's hard to believe we've got a murderer loose right here in Maryvale."
Gladys was nearly sixty but that wasn't known for certain outside that little drawer behind her with the Personnel label on it. She liked her job as much as Cas did his and being healthy, she didn't figure on being put out to pasture as long as she could be of help. Her eyes took on a hopeful gleam.
"There's no chance whoever did this could be a stranger, is there?"
Cas shook his head. "Not much."
He smiled as he dashed her hopes. "We're too far off the beaten path to have many strangers passing through to blame everything on." He picked up his mail and turned to go.
"Anything I can do to help, I'll be glad to. Extra errands or man the phone longer or anything else." Gladys volunteered to Cas's back.
He turned at the door. "Thanks, but I don't know of a thing right now. Might need something typed up for the file later on."
As if he had anything to type up. Feeling gloomy, his bottom hit his chair like a dead weight. The little he had at the moment could be handled very well by his own slow hunt and peck system. He groaned at the lack of any lead or idea where to start as he pulled out the flat file he had set up.
Laying out the pictures taken at the scene he paused, glancing at the handwritten notes. Spreading them out like a hand of cards he set about getting them in order while it was still a little job.
Something not quite right nagged but eluded him until he closed the file. With a sigh, he glanced up at the clock and picked up the phone.
"Gladys, I'm going back out to the scene in this Davis case. Get hold of Doug Freeman for me. Tell him to get a camera in case we need it and some plastic bags in case we find something that was overlooked before. And tell him I'm waiting for him."
While he waited he mentally went over again what he had put in order, still haunted by the uneasy feeling. It wasn't long before he heard Doug speak to Gladys on his way in.
"I'm ready," Cas called, pushing his chair back.
He settled in the car with Doug and the equipment he brought. "Maybe when we get out there and I can see the place again without all the excitement and milling around, I'll know what's bugging me about the pictures we got."
Doug nodded. "It was such a shock, that didn't help." Doug remembered his own feelings.
They drove out Harper's Road then turned and followed county highway 220 to where the deputies had gone into the woods to get to the back of The Roadhouse.
Cas looked around as they parked.
"Is this about where you parked that evening?"
"Yeah, pretty near. We didn't want to pull off very far because it was muddy."
Cas opened the car door, examining the ground. "Be careful when you get out, we'll look for tire prints."
Doug found the place where both cars had stopped and pointed it out to him. "Easy to see. They're the only ones, and plain."
"That's some encouragement. If our car made prints that good, there must be others somewhere here too. This mire doesn't dry up very fast. It's the only good thing I can think of for swampy conditions."
"Yeah, you'd have to be a mosquito to appreciate this much standing water and humidity." Doug's eyes were already searching the side of the road nearest them.
Cas straightened up, pointing. "You go that way and I'll go the opposite direction. If we don't find anything here we'll look on the other side. But I'd bet my shirt on this side unless he stayed in the road."
It was slow work. They were thorough, but had found nothing by the time they got several car lengths away from each other. Cas waved Doug to the other side of the road. Taking their time, they bent to study every irregularity closely but found no tire tracks or anything suspicious.
Moaning, Cas put his hands on his lower back as he stood up straight.
"I'm going to sit in the car a minute," he said, rubbing his aching muscles. "No cracks about old age, please."
"It's not old age, it's the position. I didn't find anything either." Doug sounded as discouraged as Cas felt. They sat in the car, resting, Cas thinking out loud.
"Here is this murderer, or would-be murderer, his victim beside him. He couldn't have found a more likely, deserted place to kill." He shook his head. "He wouldn't have left the car in the road."
"Maybe he told her there was something wrong with the car and conned her into getting out that way. Then he might have left it on the road."
"I don't know,." Cas frowned. "Car trouble is a stale old line for this smarted-up generation. Let's go and look at the scene again. That's the main reason I came out here."
Doug took the lead and was several feet ahead, almost to the tree line. They were angling back towards the scene and had a way to go to where the body was found. Cas slowed his pace as they got closer, looking carefully at the ground and undergrowth as he went in hopes of finding something that might have been overlooked. It would take a lot of tramping around to make a difference in the healthy crop of weeds. The undergrowth here had to be cleared often. There was only a faint visible path and there was nothing unusual until they came upon some of their own tracks near the marked off area.
Both of them stood gazing down in silence at the place the body had rested when it was photographed. Doug swallowed and looked away. The only good thing he could think of was the girl probably didn't suffer.
"Peaceful out here," Doug ventured.
"Yeah." Cas stood listening to mocking birds in the trees and the murmur of water up ahead where a small brook ran into the little branch of the river. He squatted down by the area of flattened weeds. Doug squatted beside him, remembering when he had spotted the body and pointed it out to Raines.
"I couldn't believe it, or maybe it was just that I didn't want to believe it. I just stood there a minute before I pointed and Raines saw her too."
Cas nodded, "I know now what bothered me about those pictures." Cas tilted his head as they both rose. "It was the position of the body. It looked like it had been dropped instead of falling in a natural position. It was turned at an odd angle, on its back, you follow me?"
"It does make sense she would have had her arms out to break her fall or clutch at the knife, now that you mention it. Or maybe to fight her attacker off?"
Doug gestured toward the distant murmur. "You think whoever killed her might have already done it and been carrying her body? Heading for the river to dispose of it?"
"The water's so close that might have been what he had in mind. That would explain why there were no signs of a struggle here. No blood either. But there might not have been much, with the knife still in the wound."
Cas considered the possibility the victim was already dead. "But there should have been some blood, going into the heart the way it did. It seems to me if this is where she was killed there should have been that and signs of the struggle too." He looked up, jerking his head toward the sound of the water. "And remember, that little branch up ahead there, little or not, is a branch of the river."
"I know it's part of the river. It's deep enough in places if he wanted to sink the body. You know, weight it with something to hide it. But, my dad and I came out here a few times to fish for crappie and there's not enough of a current to carry it away."
"Yeah," Cas admitted. "He's got to have known it would be discovered soon. Let's go back to the road, I've got an idea."
He moved faster than he had going in. Doug was panting by the time he caught up with him. He passed the car and went on to where the shoulder was asphalt and was wider. Doug watched for anything unusual as he followed.
Cas stopped, stooping to see something better. He beckoned Doug to him.
Where he stood the asphalt went beyond the wettest part of the shoulder but there were tire prints in the dryer, s
andy soil made by the front tires of a small vehicle.
"Must be one of those toy utility trucks or something like them," Doug guessed.
"It looks like he pulled off as far as he thought was safe, it being dark."
Cas squinted up the road. "If he came up 220 instead of Harper's Road he might have pulled in here, trying to stay on the asphalt. The underbrush doesn't start till farther back. It would be a good place to go in toward the stream."
"There's not too many places he could have come from out that way." Doug hesitated, scratching his head. "Assuming it's one of our local people."
"I know. These prints could also have been made by someone just turning around. But we'll take them on the off chance this is our bird."
He called in from the car, motioning Doug to sit down and rest.
"Gladys, we need someone to get casts of some tire prints we've found out here at the scene. Is there anyone there right now?"
"Yes, sir. Rhodes came in just a few minutes ago."
"Good, let me talk to him."
Rhodes had come to the door and stood listening. He took the phone.
"I'm here."
"Rhodes, we've found the prints of a small vehicle out here not too far from where Doug and Haines parked when they found the body. Looks like our killer may have come up the highway instead of from Harper's Road like we thought. Then again it may have been someone turning around and has nothing to do with this. We'll get casts of them just in case. I'm going to leave Doug out here to ride back with you. I've got something to do. Put Gladys back on."
"Yes, sir, I'm on my way. Here's Gladys."
"Yes, sir?"
"Gladys, I'm going by to see Muriel Davis before it gets any later. Call that number on my desk in there and tell her I'm coming."
Chapter 4
Cas saw the car in the driveway as he approached the address Muriel Davis had given him. Late model, well kept. The house had a homey air about it, the place and the car were about what he expected. He pulled over to the curb and parked in front feeling sad he hadn't made any more progress on the case. Bracing himself, knowing this was part of his job and not to be shirked. He started up the steps.
The Devil in Maryvale Page 3