“No. Ontario.”
He glanced at her. “The mountains can be deceptive.”
“This is your vehicle?”
A quick nod was his only answer. Ahead, a few cars lined the side of the road, and Nolan pulled over and parked.
The ground crunched beneath Ashlyn’s feet as she followed Nolan along the road. It was like thin ice, the pressure of each footfall cracking the early winter shell, except most of the road wasn’t slick. She hadn’t realized how much colder it could be after such a short drive up into the mountains, but she was glad it hadn’t warmed up enough during the day for the ground to thaw completely because they would have been walking through mudholes. As it was, it had warmed up enough in some places for water to pool, and she guessed there’d been a fair bit of rain recently because the puddles looked deep.
A uniformed officer waited by the side of the road opposite from where they’d parked. “Nolan,” he said. The man offered Ashlyn nothing more than a quick glance before he turned and led the way into the bush.
“I assume you told Rick there’s no hunting in national parks,” Nolan said.
“Yes.”
“Was Rick surprised?”
“No, I was. He pulled out a map and argued over boundary lines with me. I didn’t realize this part of the mountain wasn’t part of the park.”
“That makes two of us,” Nolan said.
“He’s got a permit.”
“Guess that means he’s got a legitimate reason to be wandering around in the woods in the middle of nowhere with a gun,” Nolan said.
“Guess so.” The first officer ducked under a tree that had fallen but remained elevated because its tip was caught in the crook of a branch on another tree. Ashlyn wondered how secure it was as she ducked underneath and glanced up at the tree providing support, a distraction that caused a split-second delay in her reaction as she turned and saw too late that a branch was swinging back toward her.
It caught her on the cheek and cut into the skin. Without reaching up she knew it was bleeding, because she could feel the trickle of blood racing toward her chin. Tears welled in her eyes from the sting, but she kept her focus on fishing through her pocket for a tissue so she could wipe her face.
Underfoot, the terrain wasn’t what she’d describe as inviting. Although much of the ground appeared to be in the process of freezing, in some places where the earth dipped water had pooled. The ground on the sides of the small hills was soggy.
It was fall, and in the mountains that meant winter weather wasn’t far away.
There were more patches of snow between some of the trees, but they were sporadically scattered, with no rhyme or reason that she could determine.
Nolan had said something to her, but she hadn’t heard him.
“What?” she said, just as she put her right foot down and it began to sink into the earth.
Nolan turned and grabbed her arm, giving her enough leverage with her left foot to pull the right one free.
“I said to watch out for the hole.”
“Sorry.”
She looked down at her mud-caked shoe.
“You’re going to need some boots,” Nolan said.
She felt her face grow warm. “I have boots. I just haven’t had a chance to unpack anything.”
When she looked back up, she realized they were there. Three men were gathered in the woods at no place in particular, joined now by the uniformed officer who still hadn’t introduced himself, herself and Nolan. She scanned the area. Nothing but trees and a gentle slope up the side of a hill before them, a slope down to the right. The area to the left looked as hilly as the ground they’d just covered.
It wasn’t hard to tell who Rick was. He had a stocky Labrador by the collar with his left hand, and with his right he had a firm grip on his shotgun.
The other two men were park rangers. One had deep lines in his weather-worn skin and a weight in his gaze. The younger man had a wide-eyed look. While his partner carried a solemn burden in his bearing that made Ashlyn think if he’d had a hat he would have taken it off out of respect, the younger man bristled with an energy that reminded her of her nieces and nephews on Christmas morning. He was curious.
Neither spoke, but the older man nodded toward a hump of earth approximately half a dozen feet away,
Nolan walked toward the disturbed dirt and then stopped, still as a statue. From where Ashlyn stood, she couldn’t see anything, and when she glanced at the rangers, the older man had turned his gaze toward the ground. The younger man glanced at her, then his partner, then looked away. The only one who didn’t avert his gaze was Rick. His expression betrayed nothing, but his eyes were black as a moonless night and had a magnetic pull that kept her staring back for a moment before she looked away.
After a glance at the officer who’d escorted them to the scene, who was also focused on the ground, Ashlyn moved beside Nolan.
God.
She was glad she had her back to the men so that they couldn’t see the look on her face.
Nolan turned back to the group. “Who else has seen this?”
Silence.
“Getz?”
After a tiny hesitation the voice of the officer who’d escorted them cut through the quiet. As far as he knew only the six of them had been to the site.
“Okay, first things first. Rick, you’ll have to give a proper statement. Constable Getz can take you back to the station and get that down on paper. I want you to tell him everything. If you saw a scrap of fabric on a branch two miles from here, you be sure to mention it and draw me a map. I know you’re capable.”
Rick nodded.
“Did your dog have any contact with the corpse?”
“Yes.” The voice was unexpectedly soft and soothing.
“Then we may need to take some samples. If we try to identify suspects based on animal fur found on the victims we want to be sure it’s from the killer’s dog and not yours.”
“You saying this is a murder?” A different voice. Ashlyn could guess which of the men had spoken. The high-pitched tinge of excitement betrayed the younger one, but despite her desire to glare at him, she still didn’t trust herself to turn around. She’d found a place on the ground, to the right and up from the open grave, where she could stare while she forced herself to take deep breaths.
“How good a look did you take, Gordy?”
“I…I didn’t. I just saw the pit and was about to step forward, but he stopped—” Said with a tinge of defensiveness. As though he was trying to prove he was manly enough to handle it. That he hadn’t held back out of fear.
“Good,” Nolan said. “Walk over to that tree and stay there. Henry?”
The voice of the older ranger matched the deep lines in his skin that hinted at years of working in the sun. It had a weathered tone and was filled with the weight of experience. “I saw.”
“Right. Go stand by that tree and wait for me.”
What followed the sound of fading footsteps was an eerie silence, then a low growl from Rick’s dog and a man’s voice as he told it to behave.
Ashlyn turned as Nolan slid something into his pocket and walked away from Rick. He went to the older ranger, Henry, first. She could only see Nolan’s back, and after a few minutes he slid something out of his pocket, but it was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand and she couldn’t make out what it was.
Should she be doing something?
She glanced at the officer—Getz—and he quickly looked away. Whatever Nolan was doing, Ashlyn felt certain he’d resent any attempt on her part to get involved.
After a few minutes, Nolan turned and walked toward Gordy. He went through the same process of slipping something out of his pocket. Ashlyn still couldn’t make out what it was, but she had a better view and this time saw Gordy step back for a moment and bend down before straightening up. Nolan seemed to stare at the ground before looking up at Gordy and nodding as he slipped the object back into his pocket.
Gordy bent down
again, then stood. They appeared to talk in low voices for a few more minutes before Nolan turned and led Gordy back to where Officer Getz stood.
He turned to Henry. “You’ll both have to go with Getz as well, and wait at the station. We’ll need to take shoe impressions.” He looked at the uniformed officer. “Getz, get photos and make a list of everything they’re wearing. And if I find out that any of you said anything about what you’ve seen here, I’ll make sure you’re charged for interfering with a criminal investigation. Don’t even whisper it over your mother’s grave or tell a priest at confession. You tell no one. Clear?”
There were murmurs, followed by the sound of a twig snapping and bush pulling against fabric as the men moved away.
Ashlyn glanced at the grave and turned back as the last man—Rick—disappeared under the fallen tree, his dog following faithfully.
She took a breath. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to send them back?”
Nolan glared at her. “Take a look around. You think we’re just a few miles from the nearest CSI lab and Grissom’s going to show up with his little kit and get everything we need to find the killer? We aren’t equipped for this. The closest coroner’s office is a two-and-a-half-hour drive away.”
“We haven’t even identified her as one of our missing girls.”
“Which is hardly important at the moment,” Nolan snapped. “You think the press will care about that when they hear we’re starting to recover bodies only a few miles from where the task force is based? By this time tomorrow, we’ll need security just to get in and out of the station without being mobbed by reporters.”
“But if none of them talk…”
“Are you really that green? You think one of them has to talk for a reporter to break this story? Rick called the park rangers. They called the RCMP. The way the press has been all over this case lately, Sullivan isn’t taking any chances. He already called for a coroner to come to the scene. By this time tomorrow, the reporters may not know all the details, but they’ll know that there was a report of a body found in the woods.” Nolan glanced toward the unearthed grave. “I can live with that. I have to. But that’s what I want them to keep reporting. The longer we can keep the truth a secret, the better.”
“We’ve already been criticized for failure to act. When the press finds out what we’re holding back—”
He pointed at her. “You disagree with me, Hart, you feel free to take it up with the sergeant, but until then you keep your damn mouth shut. You’ve been on this case less than a day. Of all the people involved with this investigation, you should be the last to question what’s being done or what isn’t being done. What do you think the press will do to you when they find out an inexperienced officer was put on her first plainclothes assignment to work on this task force? Have you even worked a murder before?”
A branch snapped a few feet down the trail they’d come up on. Ashlyn turned to see Tain approaching. He didn’t say anything but continued walking until he stood close to Ashlyn, his gaze fixed on Nolan.
She decided not to point out the technicality, that she had done some work in plainclothes before. Asserting that her previous work was a legitimate claim would convince him she wasn’t just green, she was an idiot. Deep down, she knew she’d been assigned over her head, but that wasn’t her fault. She wanted to work the case and to learn, but in a moment of frustration, her partner’s attitude had come shining through, and she knew she’d have to work twice as hard as anyone else assigned to the team just to hold her own.
Tain glanced at her before looking back at Nolan, his face was unreadable.
“Coroner’s on the way?” he asked.
Nolan nodded. “Sullivan called.” He looked at his watch. “About an hour ago now.”
“Right. You two can head back to the station.”
“We’ll handle it. If you think we don’t need all three of us here, you go back to the station.”
“I have my reasons for staying. You two can go.”
“So you can screw this up and make a mess of the scene?” Nolan said.
“How could I screw this up any more than you already have, Nolan? What happened to holding the witnesses here, taking the statements and getting the physical evidence? You sent them back. Getz had Rick and the dog, but those park rangers had to take their own vehicle. Plenty of time to get their stories straight, make a call on their cell phone, maybe even change their shoes. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Oh, yeah, you’re going to lecture me about following procedure. You be glad you didn’t do worse to Kurdy or you’d be facing charges for assault right now.”
“So that makes your laziness okay?”
“It’s not me who’s lazy, Tain. I’m doing the best I can with a rookie for a partner, and every time I turn around you’re AWOL or up to some bullshit like this morning.”
Confirmation of what Ashlyn had suspected. Nolan had ditched her to keep an eye on Tain.
“You’re fighting the good fight against affirmative action,” Nolan said. “Deadweight in a uniform.”
Tain’s hands balled up into fists as he took a step forward. “You better watch your mouth, Nolan. You have no idea what you’re dealing with here.”
“And you do? Enlighten me. This ought to be good. You can’t be bothered reading the files, following up on leads, attending meetings or filing reports, but you’ve got some keen insight into the case.” It was Nolan’s turn to take a step toward Tain. “You’re useless.”
“Back off, Nolan. I’m warning you.”
“Or what?” Nolan’s mouth curled into a snarl. “You’re going to pin me up against a wall and give me a good talking to?”
“For once you have a good idea.”
“Stop it!” Ashlyn stepped between the two men. “This is a crime scene. What the hell is wrong with you two?”
For a moment the only sound she could hear was her heart hammering in her ears. Then the low whistle of soft wind cutting through the trees. Nolan’s jaw unclenched, and some of the color in his face faded.
Tain still bristled with anger, but he took a step back and turned away. That was when he took his first look at the grave and what was inside. The hostile posture gave way to a stoic stance.
Nolan was staring at Ashlyn with a look she couldn’t quite read, and as she glanced away from him she thought about what she’d seen in the grave and everything that had happened since she’d arrived at the station that morning and felt her stomach twist into a knot and pull tight.
She wasn’t sure she was ready for this.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Eighteen months ago
Sullivan stood not far from where Ashlyn had been when she’d stopped beside Nolan. He remained silent as he looked down at the grave.
When he turned to look at them, there was a weight in his face coupled with a wide-eyed stare. The horror of what they’d all seen was going to haunt them, and if Ashlyn had thought otherwise even for a second, the look on her sergeant’s face erased any doubt.
“The coroner’s on the way,” Sullivan said in a hushed tone, and glanced at Tain, then Nolan. “Where are we on this?”
“Getz is taking statements from Rick, Gordy and Henry. I also told him to get shoe prints and to photograph their clothes and take samples from Rick’s dog because there was contact with the victims.”
Sullivan frowned. “You trust him to handle that?”
“I—” Nolan began.
Tain cut him off. “I think he should go back to the station and handle it himself. This should be looked after by the task force.”
“She hasn’t been identified yet,” Nolan said.
“Hardly the fucking point. Once the press hears about bodies in the woods—”
Nolan took a step toward Tain. “They aren’t going to hear about bodies. At least, not from me. I already warned those men to keep their mouths shut, and I told them if they said anything, anything at all, I’d have them charged with jeopardizing a criminal inves
tigation.”
“Shame we can’t do the same to you.” Tain turned to Sullivan. “He sent them from the scene. Three men and a dog, with one uniformed officer. Nolan didn’t follow procedure—”
Sullivan stopped him. “Sometimes we have to make the best out of the situation, Tain. These are hardly normal circumstances.”
“And not every constable is the son of a sergeant. Some of us have to do our jobs, not just show up.”
Nolan’s face reddened. “You’ve got some nerve, especially considering—”
Sullivan held up his hands. “If you’ve got a legitimate complaint, I’ll hear it, but it better be good.”
“Fresh reactions. No time to overthink the story or the details or start drawing conclusions. Procedure’s there for a reason. They should have been questioned by a member of the team, and considering the distance from the station, they should have been questioned here.”
Ashlyn looked away for a moment as she tapped her notebook against her hand. When she turned back, Nolan was looking at her.
She thought back and replayed what had happened before the witnesses left.
“They were.”
Sullivan looked up, and Tain spun around to face her.
“Nolan questioned them all, individually.”
Tain scowled. “And what did you do, take notes?”
Her chin jutted out. “Don’t make me the issue. The point is, they were questioned before they were sent back. Nolan also took a sample from the dog.”
Sullivan turned to look at Nolan. “Is that true?”
Nolan reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag and a small digital camera. “I also took photos.” He put the camera and plastic bag back. “Gordy didn’t see the bodies. Rick keeps to himself, has no love for the press, and Henry knows the job. He won’t talk.”
“Well, gee, I feel so much better now that you’ve vouched for him.”
Nolan stiffened. “It’s no secret we have a leak in the department—”
“Which is exactly why someone from the task force should have handled formal statements and collecting physical evidence. Every person outside the team who’s involved makes it harder to figure out who’s leaking what.”
Lullaby for the Nameless (Nolan, Hart & Tain Thrillers) Page 10