by D. K. Hood
34
Monday, week two
After finishing his workout with Jenna, Kane headed out to the stables to tend the horses. He inhaled the satisfying smell of fresh hay. It reminded him of his childhood and his misspent youth in a small country town before joining the marines. He smiled at the memories. Both animals had settled in well overnight and snickered in greeting at his arrival; they had accepted Duke as well, which was a bonus. He rubbed the horses’ silken noses and spoke quietly to them before moving them out to the corral.
He was mucking out the stalls when he heard Jenna’s voice calling his name. “I’m out back.”
He pushed the wheelbarrow toward the barn and met her. “Something wrong?”
“Yes, very wrong. Jane died overnight.” Jenna’s mouth formed a thin line. “The doctors have no idea what happened. She was fine when the nurse gave her meds at bedtime.”
He rolled the wheelbarrow into the barn then removed his gloves and dropped them onto a table. “Who was with her? Any signs of a struggle?” He wiped sweat from his brow with his forearm.
“Not that the doctor noticed. She died in her sleep, or so it seems.” Jenna stood with one hand resting on her service weapon. “It sounded suspicious to me so I sent Wolfe to take a look at the body. If he thinks a post is necessary, we’ll have to get her parents’ permission for an autopsy.”
He nodded in agreement. “It does sound suspicious, especially as we’d planned to interview her again soon. Problem is, who would kill her? The vigilante is killing the pedophiles not the victims.”
“The thought crossed my mind as well.” Jenna worried her bottom lip, turning it rosy-pink. “Although, from what the vigilante has told us, the men involved murdered a lot of kids—maybe one of them killed Jane?”
Kane met her gaze. “Yeah, but only we know what she told us. If she was murdered and her killer knows anything about hospital procedure for traumatized patients, he would assume Jane would need a doctor’s clearance before we interviewed her.” He rubbed his chin. “He would also need access to the hospital at night.”
“Yeah, which tells us it’s more than likely one of the men in the pedophile ring works at the hospital.” Jenna flicked him a worried glance and started toward her house. “Get ready. I want to get to the hospital, and we have to visit Angelique Booval in Blackwater today. We’ll go in your car.”
The memory of her exhilaration the last time she drove his car drifted across his mind. He gave her a long look. “Do you want to drive?”
“What, me drive ‘the beast’?” Her lips twitched into an almost smile. “As much as I’d like the chance to put the pedal to the metal on an open road, I’m not sure if your nerves could handle it.” She eyeballed him in almost a challenge. “She is your baby, after all.”
He lifted his chin. “My nerves are fine.”
“I’d rather have your mind on the case than my driving.” She turned to go then stopped and looked back at him. “I’ll fix breakfast. Can you be ready to eat in fifteen minutes?”
The idea of a cooked breakfast made his stomach rumble; of late he had settled for cereal. He smiled at her. “Yeah.”
After breakfast, Kane drove to the office and Jenna was unusually quiet. He glanced at her to see her chewing on her lip, a habit she had when deep in thought. “Problem?”
“I’m just going over the cases. Jane dying is too coincidental. She managed to survive just fine chained to a damn wall, and the moment she is safe she dies in her sleep? I’m not buying it, not at all.” She glanced at him. “The problem is if foul play was involved, the crime scene would have been destroyed by now. There would have been nurses and doctors all over the room.”
“Not necessarily. Wolfe is very good at his job.”
“Yeah, I know, but it took a lot of convincing to persuade the doctor to leave the body in situ.” She flicked him a glance. “I insisted we regard any death involving a crime as suspicious, and he finally agreed to seal the room and wait for Wolfe to arrive. He’ll be there by now, so will have some answers by the time we get there.”
“He’ll know if it looks suspicious.”
“Another thing.” Jenna turned in her seat to look at him, filling the air with her honeysuckle fragrance. “I have a gut feeling this vigilante is involved in more than we give her credit for, and I’m sure it’s a woman. The blood on your doorstep, the phone call. The more I think about it, it just seems like the actions of a vengeful woman.”
Kane cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m sure too the profile fits a woman. She wanted to give her motive for murder and send a warning to back off from interviewing the women. What else do you have?”
“I think she is playing us like a chess game.” Jenna leaned toward him with an excited edge to her voice. “Think about it. She is giving us clues and telling us these men are guilty of murder as well as being in a pedophile ring, but by doing this, she is directing our investigation. She must know that after we read those newspaper articles we’d be talking to any women who have been molested in the last ten years.” She threw both hands in the air. “We are heading out of town today—why? Because we need to follow up on Angelique Booval, who is a prime suspect. But what if Angelique had nothing to do with the murders and the vigilante is just getting us out of town so she can kill again?”
Kane shrugged; she did have some valid points. “Maybe, but assuming Jane died as a result of homicide, if the vigilante was watching the movements of the men concerned, why didn’t she stop Jane’s murder?”
“I don’t know, but if my theory is correct, both the other men on her list live in Black Rock Falls.”
“I think that’s a given.” He turned the vehicle onto Stanton Forest Road and headed toward the hospital. He glanced at the forest with the mountains towering in the distance and found it hard to believe such a beautiful vista could hide so many crimes. Since his arrival in Black Rock Falls, the seemingly harmless little town had revealed a bottomless pit of secrets, none of which so far had led to anything but death.
Kane dragged his thoughts back to the now. “It’s a nuisance that we have to go back into town to open the office; it will add more time on our trip to Blackwater and I said we’d be there before two.”
“I’m way ahead of you.” She flopped back in her seat and her attention moved away from him. “Rowley is in charge of the office today, I called him earlier.” She cleared her throat. “Have you noticed how big he is getting? He asked me if I could supply bigger shirts. Of course, I ordered them at once. He must be working out. Do you have the time to show him some of your unarmed combat moves?”
“No need.” He slowed the car to make a bend then glanced at her. “He works out at the gym in town and has joined a martial arts dojo.”
“Why the sudden need to build himself up? He is a very capable deputy.”
Kane bit back a grin. “He is seeing someone and women bring out the best in men.”
“Oh, I see.” Jenna’s cheeks pinked. “I guess he is still dating Alison Saunders?”
Kane drove through the hospital gates and parked in a reserved space out front beside Wolfe’s cruiser. He met her gaze. “My lips are sealed.”
35
The smell of the hospital surrounded Jenna as she walked with some trepidation toward Jane’s room. Outside in the hallway, her brother Adam sat on a chair with his face buried in his hands. She moved to his side and laid one hand on his shoulder. “Mr. Stickler, I’m sorry for your loss. Is there anyone I can call for you?”
He lifted his pale, tear-streaked face and looked at her then shook his head. His expression held so much pain, Jenna’s stomach cramped.
“I just want to see her.” Adam scrubbed at his eyes. “Why won’t they let me see her?”
Jenna gave Kane a nod to go ahead and speak to Wolfe. As the Black Rock Falls County Coroner, Wolfe would have to make the call to allow him to view her body. She sat down beside Adam and swallowed the lump in her throat. “It was so strange for her to die in
her sleep. I thought it best for our coroner to take a quick look just to make sure no one hurt her.”
“I have the awful feeling someone did.” He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “She was just fine when I left her last night, really happy. She wanted to live here in town with me.” His bloodshot eyes blinked and his gaze moved over her face. “One of the men who kidnapped her has killed her. She told me they threatened her and said if she said a word to anyone they would kill everyone she loved.”
Astonished that Jane had spoken to Adam about her ordeal, Jenna took the opportunity to push him a little more. Any information she could discover would be a bonus. She stood and went to the coffee machine a few feet away and purchased two cups of coffee. After handing one to Adam, she sat down. “I hope you like it white with two?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Adam clutched onto the cup as if it were a life preserver and glanced at her. “I hope the assholes come and try and kill me.” His head turned and he stared straight into her eyes. “Jane told me what they did to her. I can’t believe she survived eight years with them. They chained her to the wall, for Christ’s sake.”
Jenna held his gaze. “We know there were at least four men involved and two of them are dead. Did she give you any clues about the others? I know they wore masks but any small clue might help us to track them down.”
“One had green eyes.” Adam snorted in anger. “When they first took her, she said she thought he was a fairy because he had fair hair and his eyes were green, emerald green.” The nerve in his cheek twitched. “And a spider tattoo in the web of one hand. From what she told me he was a mean son of a bitch, cruel and merciless. She was terrified of him.”
Wanting to keep him talking, Jenna put down her cup then took out her notepad and jotted down a few details. “Anything else you can remember?”
“I’ll never forget what she said to me last night.” He rubbed a hand over his face and blinked as if still seeing her. “She said since you found her, bits of memories have been coming back. She thinks there could have been four men. Two were of similar build but one of them was real quiet. The others teased him but she did remember something significant about him.”
Pen poised above the notepad, she leaned toward him, anxious to hear every word. “Which was?”
“He had a scar on his knee like mine.” Adam placed his coffee cup on the chair beside him and rolled up one leg of his jeans to display a long scar running up the center of his knee. “I came off a horse when I was a kid and crushed my knee so bad it had to be replaced. My father’s health insurance covered the surgery but Jane said these men always appeared to be short of money. They argued about putting in money to pay for her upkeep. So the fact he had such expensive surgery has to be important.”
Jenna let the facts roll around her head. A rodeo rider came to mind then a thought hit her. “He could have been in a car wreck.”
“Exactly.” Adam rolled down the leg of his jeans. “A big claim like that would still be on record with an insurance company.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She said they all wore masks and latex gloves but she could see the tattoo through the glove.” He swallowed hard and looked away. “She said they took photographs. Disgusting freaks.”
Jenna winced at his aggressive stance and stood. “Okay, thanks. I promise you, we will find these men.”
Relief flooded over her at the sight of Kane coming from Jane’s room. When he waved her over, she looked down at Adam. “It won’t be long now. I’ll go and speak to Deputy Wolfe.”
“He looks tense. Problems?” Kane raised one dark eyebrow and led the way into the room.
“He is angry and does not believe for one second she died in her sleep.” Jenna moved to Wolfe’s side and stared down at the emaciated figure of Jane Stickler, trying to ignore the scent of death hovering in the room. “Have you come to a conclusion?”
“Yeah.” Wolfe moved the overhead light so it illuminated the corpse. “She has needle marks in her arms but they could have been during administration of drugs by the nurses. So usually a full toxicology screening wouldn’t be necessary but I figure someone overdosed her. I have the list of what the hospital gave her during her stay and nothing could have killed her.”
Jenna shot him a glance. “A hunch isn’t homicide; you must have found something else.”
“Look here.” Wolfe moved the light so it shone on the top of Jane’s head. “See the bruising? That is fresh and not in the initial report. I had reason to believe someone dragged her by her hair, so I checked the room and found many of her hairs under the bed and by the door. I suggest checking the hallway for hairs and dusting the nurses’ station and the elevator control panel for fingerprints.”
“Okay.” She glanced at Kane. “Grab Wolfe’s kit and get me some evidence.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jenna moved her attention back to Wolfe. “What else have we got?”
“Jane’s socks look brand new but are soiled as if she was walking around.” Wolfe’s gray eyes narrowed. “She has a bundle of new socks on the chair over there. Why wear dirty ones to bed? Then there is this…” He flicked back the sheet and pushed up the girl’s nightgown to display red marks on her knees. “Classic friction marks. She was dragged face down.”
A wave of apprehension hit Jenna and she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do you believe she tried to run away from her killer?”
“Yeah, he could have chased her down and subdued her then dragged her back by her hair. Sometime during the struggle, he administered a hot shot then put her back to bed.”
Jenna’s head spun with the news. “How the hell did someone kill her in the hospital? Where were the nurses?” She paced the room, shaking her head in disbelief. “I want answers. Do they have CCTV cameras on each floor?”
“No, they are at the main entrance and the emergency entrance.” Wolfe covered the body. “I already asked.”
“I’ll have to speak to the nurse and everyone on duty in the wards last night.” Jenna headed for the door just as Kane came back in. “Find anything?”
“Nope, the nurse on duty said the cleaners did this area before the body was discovered but I did find out something interesting. One of the nurses used the water from the hot water urn for tea in the break room and passed out cold. She is still asleep and the doctor thinks someone put sleeping pills in the water. I told her to make sure no one touches the urn so we could get a sample.”
“You mean someone drugged the entire staff last night?”
“On this floor and the two below, yes. It makes sense they did—apparently, the night shift on those floors usually take a short break to make coffee or whatever at eleven thirty, and it’s rare to have more than one nurse on duty overnight. If anything happens to a patient, she only has to call down to emergency to get assistance.” Kane leaned his wide shoulders against the wall. “Whoever did this knows the shift times and when the nurses take a break.”
Jenna scratched her head. So much to do and time was running out. Delegate. “Wolfe, if you’re taking blood from the people on duty last night who could have been drugged, can you question them as well and see if they noticed anything unusual?” She sighed. “This is way too big for us; we’ll have to call in the FBI again to carry out a full investigation. I want to know if the pills we found on the victims and the drug used on the staff came from this hospital. You can trace packaging and the batch numbers from missing inventory out of the hospital pharmacy can’t you?”
“Yeah, not a problem, I’ll contact them. I’m going to be hanging around for hours waiting for documents to be processed. The hospital has to complete a ton of forms before they’ll release the body.”
She let out a long sigh. “I’m convinced it’s an inside job. It’s obvious a member of the pedophile ring works here or knows someone who does.”
“Unfortunately that doesn’t help much.” Kane cleared his throat then gave her an apologetic look. “Anyone who spent time in here as a patient for any length of time
would be used to the shift changes as well.”
“I’ll speed things up a bit by taking blood samples from the nurse on duty last night and we’ll need to go confiscate the urn.” Wolfe rubbed his chin, making a rasping sound over his blond stubble. “I’ll have to do an autopsy.” He pushed a gurney closer to the bed then threw Kane a pair of gloves. “Help me get her onto the gurney. It stinks in here. I’ll put her in the room next door for her brother to see her.” He flicked a glance at her. “Can you distract her brother for a few minutes? He is in her file as next of kin. Obviously, her parents gave him the honor. Get him to fill in a permission form. There is one in my kit.”
“Sure, but before I forget… Did Price or Dorsey have a scar on their knee? It would have been significant, maybe the same as knee replacement surgery.”
“No, they had nothing unusual apart from the scar on Dorsey’s stomach, and the birthmark on his neck Zoe identified.”
“Then the one with the scar on his knee is still out there.” She looked at the girl with deep compassion. “I have to find her killer; she deserves justice.”
36
Jenna waited as her two deputies used the sheet to lift Jane onto the gurney. She noted the way Wolfe covered her with a fresh sheet and almost reverently smoothed her hair.
“If you take Adam down to the nurses’ station to sign the forms, we’ll move her.” Kane rubbed at the black stubble on his chin and glanced at her with a look of detachment. “He might refuse to sign the permission forms.”
“He’ll sign.” She bent to search the pockets of Wolfe’s bag. “He wants to know what happened to her.”
After collecting the required form, she headed out the door. She found Adam Stickler in the same position and touched him on the shoulder. “I’ll need you to fill out a few forms if you don’t mind? Come down to the nurses’ station with me.”