“At the risk of sounding cliché,” Drew spoke before Ty had a chance, “there isn’t much to tell. We were on a morning walk, the same walk we’ve been doing since we got here three days ago, and we came around the bend and saw her,” he said with a nod toward the body. “Ty then checked to see if there were any signs of life, and when there weren’t, he placed the call to the police and I came down to meet you.”
Again, it struck Carly as curious that Drew seemed so matter-of-fact about coming across a dead body. There was no horror, no panic, nothing to indicate that finding the body of a woman was anything other than a minor blip in his day. Maybe corporate America was more cutthroat than she thought.
But that icy assessment wasn’t entirely true, Carly conceded. When she looked at his eyes, really forced herself to look at them, there was something there. Maybe regret, maybe sorrow. There was no shock, but there did seem to be some emotion there.
“Did you see anything else or maybe hear anything? A car or vehicle on the road?” she pressed.
Both men shook their heads. Which wasn’t a surprise. There were only three other properties this far up Churchkill Road before it dead-ended at the Kirby farm. Two of those were weekend homes and the third was empty and for sale; it was not a high-traffic kind of road.
“And about what time did you find her?” Carly asked. As the question came out of her mouth, she realized that perhaps she should be more circumspect. It was the right question to ask, of course, but was it possible they hadn’t just “found” her but put her there, too? Her gut said no, but her intellect knew she’d also have to pursue that line of questioning.
“About eight thirty or so, right before we called,” Ty answered.
“And if you’re wondering,” Drew spoke, “we were all at Kit’s house last night, all five of us, all night. She has an alarm system that tracks when doors or windows are opened. Feel free to check it.”
Carly didn’t miss the assessing look Ty gave his friend or the challenge in Drew’s expression as he held her gaze. In this, it was easy not to be cowed; this was her job.
“It’s interesting that you would offer that information,” Carly commented.
“It was going to be your next question, wasn’t it?” Drew countered.
Carly inclined her head. “It was. But in my experience, most people are surprised when asked to provide their whereabouts or an alibi. Have you been through something like this before?”
A ghost of a smile touched his lips at her not-so-subtle inquiry into his past. “Not this specifically, but I’ve been involved in more than my fair share of investigations.”
She held his gaze as she let his enigmatic statement sift through her brain. She briefly considered asking several of the follow-up questions that popped into her mind, but just as quickly, she dismissed that strategy. The truth was, she no more thought he was involved than she was; and somehow, instinctively, she knew that if she pressed him, she’d get nothing other than more oblique answers until she was frustrated and, potentially, flustered. And she had no intention of letting either of these men put her on the defensive. She gave a curt nod and let it go for now; she’d send Marcus to the house for any follow-up questions later.
“Thank you, both,” she said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear some vehicles on the road and suspect the support team is arriving. I’m going to go up and meet them. You’re both welcome to head back to Kit’s; if we need anything more, we know where to find you.”
She didn’t wait to hear their answers but strongly suspected that neither man would leave for a good long while. Making her way up the hill, she stepped onto the road just as Marcus came into sight in the police SUV. Standing off to the side, she watched as he pulled up, followed by Vivi in the medical examiner van, Ian in his sheriff’s truck, and two state trooper vans carrying the evidence response team.
When everyone had gathered around her, she gave them the details of the situation. She looked to Ian to put a plan into place, partly because he was the senior officer, but mostly because he loved his plans. But Ian simply stared back at her, making it clear that he expected her, the responding officer and deputy chief, to make the decisions. She knew it was Ian’s way of mentoring her, of encouraging her to grow professionally—something he’d been doing since they’d first met—and that she should be grateful for the opportunity, but as it was, she felt more resigned than anything else as she issued orders and delegated tasks.
Having sent Marcus down the road to check the two areas where a car would have most likely turned around, Carly watched Vivi and her assistant, Daniel Westerbrook, make their way down to the body, careful of where they tread.
“You doing okay?” Ian asked, coming up beside her.
She lifted a shoulder. “Yes, it’s fine. I mean other than that poor woman, of course.”
“Of course,” Ian murmured in agreement. Carly was aware of the evidence collection team starting their work. They were always a buzz of activity—a systematic buzz, but a buzz nonetheless. However, even as they moved around the scene—taking pictures, placing markers, and making notes—she and Ian watched Vivi and Daniel.
“It’s hard to believe he’s the governor’s son, isn’t it?” Ian asked, speaking of Daniel.
Carly let out a little laugh, “I would say yes, but after seeing how hard he worked on that first case we worked together, it’s hard to see him as anything other than a dedicated forensic anthropologist.” Carly didn’t need to go into detail about just which case she was referring to—it was one neither she nor Ian would ever forget. A serial killer had landed in Windsor and set his sights on Vivi. It was also the case that had brought Vivi and Ian, now married, together over two years ago.
“This should be your case, you know,” Carly said after a short silence.
“And I’ll be the officer of record, but there’s no reason you can’t lead the charge. After all, that’s what good managers do, right? Manage down,” he said with a grin.
Carly all but rolled her eyes at him. He wasn’t doing this to manage down, he was doing this because he thought it would be a good opportunity for her. And even though she might not be entirely happy about embracing the opportunity, she knew he was right. Glancing at her former boss, she found herself wishing, not for the first time, that Ian hadn’t left the Windsor Police department after his short stint as their deputy chief of police, the position she now held. Of course, she knew why he’d made the move and become the county sheriff, and she honestly believed it was the best move for her friend and mentor, but still, she missed having his daily guidance and support.
“Fine,” she said with a small laugh. “Why don’t you go manage the evidence team then? I’m going to join your wife at the body. Whoever she is, I hope we can figure out what happened to her, and quickly.” She paused for a moment, letting the sounds of the scene filter through her mind. “No one deserves to be treated that way,” she added quietly.
“It does speak of carelessness and maybe even some depravity,” Ian added with a nod.
And that was the part she really didn’t like, the thought of such depravity in Windsor. She knew that with 7,000 people, they would have their fair share of good and bad. But for the most part, crimes committed by residents of Windsor were pretty minor. And there was some measure of comfort in that knowledge.
But even as she approached the body and caught a few of Vivi’s words as they were faithfully documented by Daniel, she knew that comfort was an illusion. Crime, even murder, could happen anywhere there were people. And today, it just happened to land on her doorstep.
“Rough time of death appears to be somewhere between eight and ten p.m. last night,” Vivi reported without preamble as soon as Carly came to a stop a few feet from the body. “Female, obviously,” she continued. “No ID in the pockets I can reach. Hard to say age without a closer examination, but judging by her hands and what I can see of her face, I’d say well into her forties. I won’t know cause of the death until we get her bac
k to the lab for an autopsy, but I can tell you now, it wasn’t a natural death.”
After working with Vivi for more than two years, Carly knew she shouldn’t be surprised by what the medical examiner could determine so quickly with such little information, but she was. Of course, she’d suspected it wasn’t a natural death, but to hear Vivi pronounce it was entirely different.
“How do you know?” Carly asked.
Vivi glanced up, ignoring the crime scene tech who was busy snapping pictures of the body, the flash going off at regular intervals in the tree-shaded area.
“See here and here?” Vivi asked, pointing to an area on the woman’s jeans and another on her sweater. At first Carly saw nothing, but as she looked closer, she saw small spots of dark discoloration.
“I see the spots, but what are they?”
“Blood,” Vivi pronounced as she sat back on her heels. “There are several areas like that on her clothing, areas where blood has seeped through, staining the fabric.”
Carly was silent for a long moment, as was Vivi. No doubt, they were both wondering just what Vivi would find when she removed the victim’s clothing back at the lab.
“How many areas?’ Carly asked.
“Seven, so far,” Daniel answered. “And we haven’t turned the body yet,” he added.
“Any idea what caused them?” Carly asked.
Vivi shook her head. “And I don’t want to lift her sweater to look while we’re out here in the woods, I’d rather do that back at the lab.”
“Of course,” Carly murmured. “Are you almost ready to turn the body?” she asked, wanting to get a look at the face of the woman they were all focused on.
“I need a few more minutes and then we’ll be ready,” Vivi answered. Carly nodded her assent, though Vivi and Daniel had already turned their attention back to the woman, then took a few steps up toward the road and caught sight of Ian talking with one of the evidence techs. With a wave, she got his attention, then gestured for him to join her with Vivi and Daniel.
Once Ian had made his way to her side, Carly spoke. “Vivi is going to turn her in a minute, and I want you here to see if you recognize her. There hasn’t been any obvious identification found yet.”
He nodded in response.
Even though, recently, she’d been living in Windsor longer than Ian—she’d moved to the area five years ago, and he’d only returned from the Army about three years ago—Ian had grown up in the small town and still knew quite a few more people than she did, or at least he could recognize more than she could.
When Vivi and Daniel indicated that they were ready, Carly watched them brace the body. Taking care not to disturb anything more than necessary, the pair rotated the woman until she lay prone on her back.
Unexpectedly, Carly experienced a moment of hesitation. She didn’t want to see the woman’s face, she didn’t want to know if it was someone from the community who had been tortured and killed—at least not yet, not until she’d had a moment to really brace herself for that option. And so her eyes went first to the woman’s feet then slowly traveled up her legs. Now that she knew what to look for, Carly could see more signs of bleeding through the light blue denim of the jeans. Tracing her gaze upward, the rose-colored sweater had been hiked up enough to reveal a thin strip of flesh at the woman’s waist, but it also looked like parts of the knit top were stuck to the victim’s skin—perhaps from dried blood—leaving the general shape of the garment skewed.
It was when her eyes caught on a thin gold chain around the victim’s neck that Carly’s hesitation turned swiftly into a sense of foreboding that settled surely on her shoulders. Whatever had happened, it hadn’t been a robbery gone wrong.
For reasons Carly didn’t understand, she felt a sudden urge to turn and run. And for a moment, her instincts warred with her intellect—all she wanted was to be away. Far away.
“Carly?” Ian asked at her side.
Using him as a reprieve, she looked away from the scene and at her former boss. “Yes?”
“Do you recognize her? I don’t. Vivi?” he added.
Carly turned her attention to Vivi, who was shaking her head.
“No ID that we can find, either,” Daniel added, having concluded his preliminary search of the jeans pockets.
Knowing she had to swallow the irrational fear that had gripped her, Carly took a deep breath. And looked down.
Years ago, a dentist had prescribed Carly a painkiller when an infection had developed after she’d had her wisdom teeth extracted, and she would never forget the moment when it had kicked in. She’d been beyond grateful for the pain relief, but as the medication had washed through her body, she’d felt a disconcerting numbness spread from the top of her head down to her toes. She knew there were people who liked that feeling, but to her it had felt like the life, her life, was being drained from her own body, leaving nothing behind but a confused, emotionless, and empty shell. And that wasn’t something she’d ever wanted to experience again.
But looking down at the face of the woman who had mostly likely been killed, then dumped, not ten miles from where Carly lived and worked was giving her that exact same feeling. Numbly, she stared down at the body.
“Carly?”
Dimly, Carly was aware of Vivi’s voice saying her name once, then a second time. And then she felt Ian’s hand on her shoulder. That touch, that solid, real touch, a touch that was meant for comfort, was just the reminder she needed. A reminder that there were special protocols she needed to follow now—protocols that had nothing to do with processing the crime scene. No, the rules and procedures that came flooding back to her were ones that no one around her could know about.
“Carly?” Ian said.
She took a deep breath and pushed the memories that were crowding her brain back into the shadows.
“Yeah?” she answered, stepping away and looking at him.
“Do you know her?”
Carly glanced at the face again, then frowned. “No, she doesn’t look familiar to me,” she forced herself to answer. Carly didn’t spare a glance for Vivi, knowing the trained forensic psychologist would pick up more than anyone else would.
She let her gaze linger on the woman long enough to appear as if she was giving what she saw some consideration. “Can you tell us anything else, Vivi?” she asked. And only when she was sure Vivi had turned her attention back to the body did Carly look at her friend.
“No—no more than what we already know, but I can add that her face seems to confirm my original impression that she is well into her forties.”
As Vivi spoke, movement to Carly’s left caught her attention and she looked up to find Drew and Ty still leaning against the fallen trunk. Ty’s eyes were on the body and Carly had little doubt that, as an ex-vice cop, he was probably asking himself all the questions cops ask—who, what, why, when, etc.
But not Drew. Drew wasn’t looking at the body. No, he was watching Carly, as if the dead body at her feet were of no consequence and his only interest was in her. She held his gaze, wondering if he’d seen her reaction to the woman’s face. Wondering if he thought that the sight of a body had been a shock to her relatively inexperienced eyes.
But his face held no judgment, and it certainly didn’t hold any compassion. No, as he stood there, still leaning against the trunk with his arms crossed over his jacket, he looked to be calmly assessing her. When he continued to watch, heedless of the fact that it was rude to stare, she began to wonder if his intent was to make her nervous.
She didn’t know why he would want to unnerve her, but if that was what he was trying to do, he wasn’t going to succeed. With a small, dismissive smile, she simply turned and walked away. She felt his eyes follow her, or perhaps it was her imagination, but she pushed his image from her mind and made her way up the hill back toward Churchkill Road.
As she climbed up, she was able to tamp down her initial shock. She was halfway to the road when one of the crime scene techs stopped her to ask a question.
After that, she directed another tech to take some extra photos of an area on the side of the road that looked a bit more disturbed than the others. Before she’d even gotten up to the road, she’d slipped back into her role as deputy chief of police.
Up by the vehicles, she paused for a moment and watched the activity. It was easier to focus on the tasks at hand than face what she knew she would ultimately need to face. She forced back a wave of sadness; now was not the time or the place. She knew that if she let the sorrow even so much as crack open a door, it would leave an opening for the fear, panic, and utter confusion Carly knew was hovering in the far reaches of her brain, clamoring to be heard.
“Hey, Carly,” Marcus said as he approached her, carrying a tire cast he’d presumably taken from one of the turn-out areas she’d sent him to scout. “I got one impression, but who knows if it will turn into anything useful. I hear the victim was cut up pretty badly, or it appears that way. One of the techs mentioned it to me on my way back. Any ID?”
Carly looked at Marcus, newly back on the job, almost back to his old self. She didn’t want him here. But then again, she didn’t want him anywhere else. He was the one person who would know exactly what it meant when she told him what she was about to tell him.
“Carly?”
She turned her gaze back to the primary scene. From where she stood, she could see the tops of heads—Vivi’s, Daniel’s, and Ian’s—along with those of a few techs moving around the hillside. A brisk autumn breeze touched her face and lifted her hair; the sun now hung high in the sky.
It was a beautiful day to find a body.
“It’s Marguerite,” she said.
OTHER BOOKS BY TAMSEN SCHULTZ
A Tainted Mind: Vivi DeMarco is a woman running from her demons, but now she's facing the worst demon of all; a twisted mind that leaves behind a string of bodies that all look suspiciously like her.
The Puppeteer: A CIA agent and an ex-SEAL-turned-detective uncover a global web of manipulation that will force them to risk not just their fledgling relationship, but their very lives.
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