by Unknown
Her smile was fleeting. “As a matter of fact.” She’d bought the Electrostatic Dust Lifter for her dad a couple Christmases ago. They often exchanged forensic tools as gifts because law enforcement resources were chronically limited. “Danny had exterior cameras mounted on all sides of the cabin. Unless they’ve been deactivated, I should have feed on the computer.”
She went to the coffee table in front of the couch and turned on her laptop. While she waited for it to power up, she strode to the security panel next to the front door and punched in the code. The alarm was abruptly silenced. But its echo pounded in her ears. Keira used the radio on her belt to contact the deputies. “All clear in here. See you in the front.”
When she and Finn went out the front door, meeting the two men as they rounded the house. “What’d you find in there?”
“Aside from the human ear in my refrigerator, not much.” Phil’s profanity was ugly and imaginative. “I didn’t expect to see you.”
Fascination bloomed as the older man hunched his shoulders, looked away. “Happened to be nearby, that’s all.”
After a moment, comprehension bloomed. “Betty Lawler lives near here.” The woman had been Dr. Ressler’s nurse before they’d both retired.
Phil glowered at her. “So what if she does?”
“Nothing.” Keira couldn’t prevent a tiny smile and Brody was grinning hugely. She didn’t put much stock in gossip, but apparently the rumors she’d heard about her undersheriff and the nurse were true. “Just an observation. I think the excitement here is over for the night. Hank will arrive shortly. No reason for you or Brody to stick around.”
The older man nodded. “We checked the cameras on the exterior of the house. All look intact.”
“Ballsy,” she muttered. “All right. I’ll update you tomorrow.” The two turned to go. Finn looked at her. “Let’s take a look at that feed while we’re waiting.”
Keira nodded. “My thought, exactly.” They re-entered the cabin and went to the computer, sinking down on the couch in front of the laptop. Overconfidence could lead to mistakes. It was time to see if her uninvited visitor had made one. Opening the security application, she quickly selected camera four, and the screen showed a dark picture of her back yard. She reversed the stream until she saw action on it. Then further to where the movement first started.
“Twenty-nine minutes ago,” the man beside her murmured. They watched intently as a person clad in black came out of the woods bordering the back yard holding something in one dark gloved hand. The figure approached the steps. Climbed them. Then he stepped directly to the window, cocked the object in his arm and swung. “What’d he use? A bat? A bar?” she wondered aloud.
“Too narrow to be a bat.” Finn leaned closer to the screen. “Maybe a stick or a metal bar.” The intruder broke out the glass around the perimeter of the window before setting the tool on the porch and climbing inside the house. The feed went dark again. They continued to watch the monitor screen silently until the back door opened and the figure stepped out of the cabin, picking up the weapon he’d left and headed back toward the woods from the direction he’d come.
“He was inside just over two minutes.”
He nodded. “Closer to three from the time it took to break in and enter. Knew exactly what he was doing and how he was going to do it.”
Keira checked the time stamp on the screen. “Seven forty-six PM. How does he know I’m not at home? Or doesn’t he care?” Switching screens, she brought up the camera from the front of the cabin and reversed the feed to examine the hour before the alarm sounded.
“Since you’re pretty sure you winged him the last time the two of you met face to face, I’m guessing he made sure you were away. It’s early enough that he wasn’t counting on catching you asleep.” Their gazes met. “Which means somehow he’s tracking your whereabouts.” His eyes were hard. Flinty. Or maybe it was a trick of the lighting because at that moment Finn Carstens seemed very far removed from the amiable scientist she’d met at Raiker’s compound a couple days earlier. He looked every inch a cop. “Your vehicle is the only SUV in the sheriff’s fleet, at least that I’ve seen. Easy enough to drive by and see whether it’s in the parking lot. It was equally visible in front of the restaurant.”
She nodded, frowning at the scene displayed on the screen until her phone pinged from an incoming text. After checking the message, she rose. “Hank’s here.”
“I’ll help carry the equipment around back.” They got as far as the front door before Finn turned to her. “You never mentioned…did you get an image from the cameras when the cooler was left on your porch?”
She grimaced. “I went out to ski. Was gone less than an hour. I’d locked the door but hadn’t reset the security system. The cameras and alarm are on the same circuit.” Keira had been kicking herself for the lapse ever since. The hyper-vigilance she’d practiced in Chicago had grown a bit more lax since she’d returned to her dad’s remote home, and that was a mistake she wouldn’t make again. “We should get a general idea of height and weight from these images, though.” He nodded and headed outside to the van, not giving voice to the obvious: had the cameras been activated last week, she’d have images to compare.
Not—she thought grimly, as she followed him—that there was much doubt that the trespassers were one and the same. The macabre ‘gifts’ left each time made that obvious.
They set what they would need on the back porch. Keira helped Hank wrestle the spotlight into place to angle its beam toward the window. Straightening, she leaned in for a closer look.
“What’d he use to break the glass,” Hank asked, surveying the broken panes. “Were you able to tell from the feed?”
“A club of some sort, no more than an inch wide. Approximately eighteen inches long.”
Finn squatted on his haunches and reached into the kit for goggles. Handing each of them a set, he settled another pair over his head before taking the alternate light source and sweeping it over the split log siding beneath the window. Keira realized that he was looking for a mark or remnant of some sort that would supply a clue about the object used. After a couple minutes he stood, playing the ALS over the window. The handheld device was equipped with various light bands to search for prints, fluids or trace evidence.
“What’s that?” She and Hank spoke simultaneously. Even before they got the words out Finn was bending nearer the object in question. A single dark hair was caught on a short jagged fragment of glass at the bottom of the casement.
“Bet he doesn’t know that he left something else behind.” He bent down and rummaged in the kit and rose with a pair of tweezers and a small coin envelope in his hand. Leaning in, he gently released the hair. Keira took the envelope to hold it open so he could place the short strand inside. Returning it to the kit, he switched the filter on the ALS device. Reading his intent, she squatted beside him and took out the fingerprint powder and brushes. Keira and Hank dusted around the bottom half of the window frame before leaning inside to repeat the action. Then, replacing the powder and brushes they got the tape and went flanked Finn as he played the ALS over the areas she’d dusted.
As expected, a mottled mess of prints showed. They painstakingly lifted the ones Finn pointed out. Danny had had all the windows replaced on the cabin a decade earlier. “I didn’t see a flash of flesh in the video feed from the cameras. The figure was all dark. The chances of him leaving a print out here are pretty slim.”
“Maybe we’ll have better luck inside.” Hank was affixing the latent tapes to individual cards. “He might have taken off his gloves there.”
Finn bent to take out the EDL. “Probably ninety percent of physical evidence collected is useless. The kicker is, you never know which piece isn’t.”
_______
It was after midnight when Hank Fallon pulled away from the cabin and nosed the evidence van down the drive. His taillights winked as the vehicle pulled around a curve and was lost from sight. They didn’t finish until after
midnight. It was only then that it occurred to Keira that she could have asked him to deliver Finn Carstens back to town.
She stopped on the second tread of her porch and pulled out her cell to call the investigator back, then hesitated. Turners wasn’t on the way to the courthouse. Once Hank returned the van to the courthouse, he’d have to log in all the evidence collected tonight including, thankfully, the item left in her refrigerator—to keep the line of custody clear. She’d give Finn a ride herself.
Continuing toward the front door, she shook off the waves of exhaustion waiting to settle. It would be a late night. Likely the first of many for a while.
Stopping short inside the doorway, Keira cocked a brow at the man who was currently looking very much at home in her family room. Finn had his stocking feet on the coffee table in front of him, a beer in one hand and her computer balanced in his lap. He’d turned on the fireplace, she realized, and the warmth had chased away the chill that had permeated the cabin since they’d returned.
She leaned a shoulder against the wall. “You really took that mi casa thing literally.”
Reaching for another bottle sitting on the table before him, he held it out. “Wanted to get a look at all the feed before we called it a night.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Keira crossed the room to take the bottle from his hand. She took a long drink before sinking onto the couch next to him so she could see the computer screen. “I didn’t have a chance to review it all,” she admitted, resisting the urge to nestle deeper into the overstuffed cushions. She tipped the bottle to her lips again.
“I retraced his steps while you were outside. Given the amount of time he was in here, there was no time for him to deviate from the path we found.” He took a drink, his eyes never leaving the computer screen. “So you don’t have to worry that he was anywhere near the upstairs.”
Annoyance flickered. “I’m not worried.”
“You should be.” Now his gaze did leave the screen to fix on hers. “This is his game, and he’s decided you’re a key player. We don’t know the rules or what to expect from him next. But he’s targeted you twice. I’d say there are plenty of reasons to be cautious.”
“Switch to camera one,” she ordered, before seamlessly moving back to their conversation. “Caution isn’t the same as worry. I’ve already alerted the security company and they’ll be out to fix the window first thing tomorrow.” Hank and Finn had managed to tape cardboard over the opening. It was neither weather tight nor burglar proof. “And I realize I have to figure a way to have these cameras monitored twenty-four seven. We’ve missed him twice.” The words were released on a stream of frustration. The first time he had to have been watching the house. She’d left to cross country ski at first light. But tonight either he’d been following her, or he had someone else reporting on her whereabouts.
“I’m glad you’ve already considered the need to put a person on the security feed.” They both watched the video from camera one in silence for a minute. “There’s usually a way to log on to the feed from another computer as long as you have the password, so it would be easy enough to have someone at your office checking them round the clock.”
“Yeah right.” Broodingly she watched the screen, which currently showed the front of the cabin. “I’m already down an employee since I’ve got a jailer on medical leave with a broken leg.” An idea formed even as she said the words and took root. Monitoring live feed wasn’t a physical task. It might even be something that Chase Patten would welcome as a diversion from his forced inactivity. They could also use him to do phone interviews and follow-ups for the case if need be. She’d have to run it by the county’s human resource director, but it was a possibility.
“This guy is familiar with your property. He might be equally well acquainted with your routine. And he doesn’t care if he’s caught on camera because he knows he can’t be identified.” Finn pressed a command to speed up the video.
“Maybe not his face.” Whether it was the beer or the warmth from the fire, Keira felt some of the tension of the day melting away. She slouched a little lower on the couch. “But I’d peg him at five ten or eleven, one hundred eighty pounds from what we caught on camera. Unless he tried to disguise that, too.” There would be only so much he could do toward that end, she thought, and he might not have bothered. It’s not like an approximate height and weight were going to lead them to his door.
But maybe, just maybe some of the evidence they’d collected tonight would.
“If he dumps the body of his latest victim and it’s discovered, it’ll jumpstart the investigation.” Although the man beside her didn’t reply she sensed his dissent. “What?” She turned to face Finn more fully. “You don’t agree?”
“I don’t think he’ll dump the body. Wait.” Their attention fixed on the computer screen, as something in the image seemed to move in the trees in front of the cabin. “What?” Finn peered more closely. “That’s not a deer.”
“A moose. A cow, to be exact.” Delighted, Keira leaned forward as well. “I haven’t seen one around here since I’ve been back.”
The animal stilled as if alerting to some unseen danger, before bounding back deeper in the woods. “There are advantages to living out here, surrounded by nature,” he decided. “The quiet, for one. In DC, it’s never really silent. To truly leave behind the buzz of traffic you have to get quite a ways out of the metro area. And it’s sprawling outward more every year.”
Her gaze went to the wall of windows to their right. The shades were drawn now, but they opened to a breathtaking view of Lake Superior. The home had been designed to enjoy the surroundings, from the wrap around porch to the large windows that punctuated the split log walls. “My dad loved this place. I can’t imagine him anywhere else.” And try as she might, Keira couldn’t picture her mother here at all. It was far away from the crowds and stores and the constant bustle that Lisa Brockton loved most. She’d hated everything about this area from what she’d told Keira, and had despised Danny’s job. Which meant she’d never been happy with the career that her only child had chosen. Lisa was not shy about sharing her opinion on that, and on every other aspect of Keira’s life.
Thoughts of her mother had her lifting the bottle to her lips again. “You said he wouldn’t dump the body. Why is that?”
“He didn’t exactly dump Danny’s. He didn’t hide it. Maybe because he thought the animals would do the job for him. Or because the place was remote and he didn’t think it would be found. Or possibly because your father wounded him and he was unable to move a body.”
Her head snapped around to look at him. “I’ve wondered…two shots fired from Dad’s rifle, no brass found. There was always the possibility…”
He sped up the feed. “And we may never be certain. The killer has to know that he’s leaving clues every time he brings something to you. I think that’s intentional, part of this contest he’s begun. He’ll allow you to see so much and no more. That way he remains in control of what you learn. At least he’ll think that.”
“He’s made me part of this.” It was easier than it should have been to sit here and talk to Finn, a man she’d met less than three days ago. More times than she could count she’d sat just this way with Danny, discussing details of cases long into the night, shadows from a fire flickering on the walls. It was too easy to lower her defenses and give voice to fears that had up to now been kept private. “Why am I part of this? Was it about me from the beginning? Or about Danny?”
“When we have more details we can put a file together for one of the profilers on Raiker’s staff and maybe he—or she—can answer those questions. We know the killer has chosen you now. Either because you’re next on his list, or because he wants to engage you in a battle of wits.”
She nodded. Some of what he was saying dovetailed with half-formed theories she’d wrestled with in the long months since Danny’s death. And it was curiously liberating to be able to discuss her fears and conflicting ideas about he
r father’s murder with someone who wasn’t personally involved. Phil and Doc Ressler—heck, all of Danny’s friends—had been battling their own grief. And much too concerned with comforting her to want to spend much time discussing theoreticals.
“He thinks I’m a tool.” Her gaze went past the computer to the fireplace beyond, and she watched the gas flames hypnotically. “I’m not necessarily a target, at least not yet. But what’s the point of leaving me clues if I’m not going to be around to put them together? He needs me to play, or there’s no game. And maybe that’s how he started with Dad, too.” She examined the idea; decided it had merit. “Maybe he was the first participant.”
“I assumed you’ve looked at cases that were being worked by the office at the time of your father’s death.” The low tones of Finn’s voice coupled with the dim lighting and fire, wove a false sense of intimacy to the scene. False, because she didn’t know the man. Not in any way that mattered. Frowning slightly, Keira set the half-full bottle on the table in front of her. Exhaustion could cloud thinking. She didn’t need to compound the effects with alcohol.
“There wasn’t anything that stands out.” Because they were sitting close enough for their shoulders to touch, she moved surreptitiously away to widen the distance between them. “I’ve gone through everything in Danny’s home office, and I can’t see that he was working on anything in his spare time, either. He’d do that sometimes. Puzzle over a cold case, or work on finding patterns between current ones. Still, I’d been here for nearly three months before he died. He never mentioned a thing.”
Finn looked up in surprise. “You were living here?”
She nodded. The memories that threatened were bittersweet, and not to be dwelt on now. “After he called and told me he had cancer I did some checking. Talked to the doctor in town, who was also a family friend. Found out that dad was downplaying the prognosis, which wasn’t surprising, knowing him. I took leave a few days later and headed back here.” It had taken only a couple weeks for her to come to the realization that she wouldn’t be returning to Chicago. There had been nothing left for her there, even if it had taken her over a year to recognize that. “Danny wasn’t happy about having a nursemaid, but he wasn’t about to kick me out. Especially after I sub-leased my apartment.” Keira smiled slightly. If she’d listened to her father, she wouldn’t have had those precious last few months with him. The time seemed like a gift.