by D. K. Hood
“You have experience with cases involving sixteen-year-olds?” Kane filled three cups and returned the pot to the heat and then sat down.
“Happens I do.” Rio sat back down, ignored the fixings, and blew on the hot brew. “My brother and sister are twins, they just turned sixteen. I don’t remember life being so complicated at that age. It’s as if they’re at war with the world.” He glanced at Jenna. “They just took off and I found them at a soup kitchen three days later.”
“Did they have a problem with their grandma?” Kane added cream and sugar to a cup and stirred slowly.
“Yeah, she has a tendency to run down my folks and believes everyone is useless.” Rio sighed. “That’s water under the bridge now. They are happy at Black Rock Falls High School and have settled in well. I was expecting it to take longer but I figure they appreciate the chance to start fresh.”
“That’s good to know.” Jenna smiled as Kane pushed the cup toward her and then tended to his own. “But this girl broke up with her boyfriend, we’ve spoken to him and the other guy she apparently liked was—”
“Cory Hughes.” Rio waved a hand at the board. “He had her phone but wasn’t the last person to see her alive.”
“Yeah and he doesn’t drive a Chrysler sedan, his ride is a GMC pickup.” Kane thumbed through statements Wolfe had taken the previous evening. “He was very cooperative. Wolfe has the phone, and he’ll be able to check the phone records and we’ll have a list of her contacts.”
“Hmm.” Rio looked at Kane. “So. Someone unknown bumped into her, she dropped her phone, took it to Hughes and when she came out someone had tampered with her car.” He narrowed his gaze. “I know zip about engines. How long would it have taken someone to disable her truck?”
“If the person knew how to lift the hood, no time at all, but how many people would know the technique? I only know because I worked on one as a boy.” Kane looked thoughtful. “Assuming people were still leaving when Laurie returned to the gym, no one noticed anyone tampering with her pickup.”
Jenna’s mind was working overtime, and she’d replayed the scene in her head repeatedly. “I figure Laurie’s abduction was planned.” She looked from one deputy to the other. “The tampering happened during the training session. Her friend Vicky stated that someone in the crowd bumped into Laurie and knocked the phone out of her hand. That could’ve been a set-up. It was common knowledge she had the hots for Hughes, so who else would she go to for help? They all said he fixes everything including phones.”
“Yeah that makes sense.” Kane sipped his coffee.
Jenna could see it as clear as day. “Laurie goes to speak to Hughes. He can’t fix her phone so she heads back to her pickup. During this time Hughes leaves so when Laurie realizes her vehicle won’t start, she’s stuck. Hughes has gone, she has no phone so she heads home on foot. Whoever picked her up must have followed her and then driven up and offered her a ride home.” She stood and added notes to the whiteboard. “She knows the person driving the Chrysler and climbed in without fear. What we need to find out, is what happened next.”
A knock came on her door. It was Emily. “We have a body!”
Ten
A sinking feeling dropped over Jenna and she stared at Emily in disbelief. “Female?”
“Yeah. A linesman found her out at the old mine. She’s naked and cut up some from what the man said. Here are the coordinates. The guy is still on scene. His name is Al Watson.” Emily’s face showed no emotion as she passed Jenna a slip of paper. She had mastered the concealment an ME must have to cover their inner emotions. “I’ll call Dad.” She turned in a toss of her long blonde hair and vanished down the hallway.
“Is she the trainee medical examiner?” Rio looked after Emily with obvious interest. “She doesn’t seem old enough.”
“Well, like you, she’s some years ahead of her time.” Kane smiled. “She still has years of study ahead of her, but with Wolfe to guide her, she’ll make a fine medical examiner.” Kane swallowed his coffee and stood. “I’ll call Rowley and let him know we’ll be locking the office.” He strolled out the door with Duke on his heels.
Jenna stood. “Sure, thanks.” She looked at Rio. “Do you have your cameras with you?”
“Yeah they’re always in my truck.” Rio smiled at her. “It’s a hobby.”
Jenna nodded. “Great, then follow us to the location. You’ll be recording the scene.”
“Sure, but what about Rowley?” Rio looked genuinely concerned. “He’s my superior and I don’t want to be treading on anyone’s toes.”
Astonished by his concern, Jenna met his gaze. “I’m your superior, Kane is deputy sheriff but we work as a team. I need Rowley here to hold the fort while we are recovering the body and I’ll need you to record the scene.” She smiled. “It’s horses for courses, Zac, and that’s how we roll around here.”
“Okay.” Rio finished his coffee and smoothed down his hair before pushing his Stetson on his head. “I figure I’m going to enjoy working here.”
They headed out in a convoy, moving through town trying hard not to attract too much attention. The last thing Jenna needed was the media destroying evidence at a crime scene. As the media’s attention was on the search parties, by the time they left town and headed for the industrial lowlands that spread out between Black Rock Falls and Blackwater they’d left the media vans far behind. The GPS led them along an old uneven road. Mounds of dirt and rocks long covered by weeds dotted the surrounding grasslands. Cabins long deserted had plants growing from the gutters and sat in general disarray. The exhausted gold mines had recently been sold to a mining company, who’d returned favorable assays and planned to reopen the lucrative industry. New mines meant prosperity for the town and work for a ton of people. A good source of energy was vital and new electricity lines had been erected over the last six months.
The white paint of a vehicle sparkled under the morning sun and Jenna made out the lineman’s truck parked beside one of the new electricity posts. “That must be our guy.”
“If he’s working alone it would have been a shock finding a body way out here.” Kane pulled up beside the truck. “I wonder what he was doing over by the mine shaft, it looks like it’s some ways from here?”
After scanning the area, Jenna unclipped her seatbelt. “I guess we’re going to find out.”
Behind her, Rio slowed his vehicle and stopped but like Wolfe, he remained inside. Jenna smiled to herself. It was a sign of a good detective to wait and not enter the crime scene before invited. Once they approached the body, Wolfe would take the lead. An ME’s investigation took priority at the crime scene and she valued his knowledge. She opened the door and her boots hit the hard soil. By the time she rounded the hood, Kane had coaxed the man out of the cabin of his truck. She walked up to him. “Al Watson?” She made the introductions. “Where did you find the body?”
“Over there.” Watson pointed to the right. “I was making repairs to the connection and seen something so I drove over to look.”
Jenna nodded. “Did you get out the truck or touch anything?”
“No, ma’am.” Watson’s faced paled. “I turned right around and hightailed it back here and called 911.”
“You did the right thing.” Relieved, Jenna glanced at Kane and he went to speak to Wolfe. She turned back to Watson. “Did you see anyone hanging around or driving by this morning?”
“Nope, not a soul.” Watson ran both hands down his face. “It was a shock seeing a young girl like that.”
Jenna understood the feeling. “Will you be okay?”
“I guess.” Watson swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He was sheet-white. “Is she the missing girl that’s been all over the news?”
“I have no idea at this time.” Jenna had to keep him from informing the press. “I must insist you tell no one about this until we establish who it is and notify next of kin. The press will be all over it and it would be a terrible shock to the family if they he
ar about it on the news. Plus, crucial evidence could be destroyed if they come here and stamp all over the crime scene. Do you understand, Mr. Watson?”
“Sure.” Watson’s gaze drifted over to Wolfe’s van. “I’ll call in sick and go home. I’m done here for now.”
“That would be for the best.” Jenna walked him to his truck. “We have your details and will contact you if we need any more information.” She handed him her card. “Call me if you think of anything else.”
“I will, thank you.” Watson climbed into his truck and drove away.
Jenna walked back to the Beast and climbed inside. “He spotted the body from up the pole and went to look.”
“I was hoping we’d find Laurie Turner alive but after discovering someone disabled her truck, I wasn’t optimistic.” Kane drove to Wolfe’s van and parked in a patch of long dry grass.
As she picked her way with care around Wolfe’s van, she caught the smell of decay. She pulled out a couple of facemasks and handed Kane one. “From the smell, she’s been dead since Saturday night.”
“What have we got?” Kane stood beside her on the perimeter of the scene as Wolfe processed the body.
“Female approximately the same height, age, and hair color as Laurie Turner but her face is too damaged to make a visual ID.” Wolfe peered at them over his facemask. “I’ll let Rio finish capturing the scene and then Webber will take the stills before I examine the body but I know the killer inflicted the stab wounds post-mortem by the lack of blood loss. She wasn’t killed here. The livor mortis, the bluish-purple discoloration under the skin of the legs and buttocks due to gravitation of blood after death, indicates she was in a sitting position for hours before being moved.”
A solid weight settled in Jenna’s stomach at the sight of the body. The girl had welts around her neck and multiple stab wounds over her face and chest. It didn’t take too much insight to see the rage behind the attack. Multiple stab wounds and to the face was very personal. Whoever did this, hated this girl. She turned to look for Kane, and found him checking all around the scene, walking back and forth. As he came back to her phone in hand, she went to his side. “Find something?”
“Yeah.” Kane indicated behind him. “Someone sure went to the trouble of covering up any tracks, they swept the area.”
A prickle went down Jenna’s spine. “Show me.”
“Someone dragged those dead bushes over there and pulled them over their tracks. The bushes are heavy, which means they’re strong, so I’d say male with muscle bulk.” He snapped on a clean pair of surgical gloves. “I tried pulling them together and it wasn’t easy.”
“Hmm. Interesting.” Rio came to her side. “I’ve captured the scene. I’ve used a grid filter on the images so it’s easier to identify evidence when we leave the scene.” He frowned. “That woman wasn’t murdered here. Her body is clean, no defensive wounds that I can see, no blood. It’s a dumping ground but there are scuff marks beside the body, something the unsub missed. It looks as if they kneeled beside the body to inflict the wounds. Small puncture wounds, like an icepick or similar.”
“Unsub?” Jenna looked at him. “I heard Jo using that term, what does it mean?”
“Unknown subject.” Rio regarded her with a surprised expression. “You’ve worked cases with the FBI. It’s a term they commonly use now, I guess to soften the word ‘killer’ because, in truth that’s who it usually refers to. It’s common with law enforcement.”
Impressed, Jenna regarded her new deputy with interest. Have I been out of touch, that long? “Okay. Go on.”
“So, if the girl wasn’t killed here, there’s a primary crime scene out there somewhere.” Rio glanced at Kane. “I noticed you checking the ground. It looks like the killer covered their tracks.”
“Yeah, sure does.” Kane regarded him closely. “What else did you get from the attack?”
“Hate.” Rio’s mouth turned down. “They wanted to make sure the victim was dead, which makes me believe the unsub is known to the victim.”
“I figure that fact is well established by Mrs. York’s description of Laurie getting into the Chrysler.” Kane shook his head slowly. “From her account, Laurie appeared scared and was pleased to see the person in the vehicle.”
The too familiar feeling of dread crept over Jenna, she hugged her chest and stared at the body. “This person is living among us. We must find the Chrysler sedan. Starting with the CCTV footage from town to see if it went by and when. From the high school to here they would’ve driven through town.”
“Maybe.” Kane rubbed his chin. “If he’s local he’d know where the CCTV cameras are situated and take the backstreets. He seems a mite too careful to risk being caught on film.”
Eleven
Wolfe examined the area around the victim. Even without blood loss, such a violent attack produced bodily fluids spatter and he kept everyone at a distance until he’d taken samples. The tin doorway to the shaft yielded a clear result, and he made sure Webber took shots of the pattern. From what he could see it was a frenzied attack with attention made to the face and eyes of the victim. It happened post-mortem, and might have been an afterthought to cover evidence or the killer had an underlying mental problem. He would discuss his findings with Kane and even call in Jo Wells, the FBI behavioral analyst, to look at the victim.
“Did you see this?” Kane indicated inside the roof of the mine entrance. “That’s spatter from something being tossed and tumbling, throwing out a pinwheel pattern.” He pulled out his Maglite and scanned the sandy bottom of the entrance. “No footprints or brush marks.” He turned to Wolfe and smiled. “I figure he threw the murder weapon down the mine shaft.”
Wolfe moved closer. “You don’t say?” He examined the marks. “I concur but how far does this cave go before it drops into oblivion?”
“The main shaft would be covered.” Kane edged inside keeping to the wall. “It’s for safety reasons and they blocked them off, when the place was sold. With luck we’ll find the weapon inside.”
Intrigued, Wolfe followed close behind, searching the ground with the beam of his Maglite. “There’s a fresh chip out of that beam, it must have ricochet off and be close to you.”
“Found it.” Kane crouched and shone his light over a screwdriver. “Do you want soil samples from in here as well?”
Wolfe slipped the screwdriver into an evidence bag, labeled it, and waited for Kane. “This is vital. I sure hope we find prints on it.” He made his way back to the body. “Add it to the chain of custody book for me and there’s a milk crate in the back of my van. Drop it in there with the soil samples.”
“Sure.” Kane took the evidence bags and strode out the mine.
Wolfe went back to the body to examine the wounds. He had little doubt they’d found the weapon. He leaned in closer and spotted something in the victim’s mouth. He turned to Emily. “She has something thrust inside her mouth. I’ll open her jaw for you to pull out the object.” He looked at Webber. “Open an evidence bag, we don’t want any contamination.”
He opened the jaw and it moved easily—rigor had come and gone. Now he made out a ball of fabric and as Emily lifted it from the victim’s mouth using tongs, he shook his head in disbelief. “Get that bag sealed.” He turned to Jenna. “The victim has a pair of men’s briefs in her mouth. This means something to the killer. It’s significant.”
“What do you think, Kane?” Jenna turned and stared at him.
“I agree.” Kane moved closer. “This entire scene is weird. I’m not speculating until Wolfe has her on the table. I see strangulation marks as well. Nothing makes sense here.”
“Weird is right.” Rio shook his head. “I’d like to know what was going on inside the head of this killer.”
Wolfe looked at Jenna. “We’ll need Dr. Turner’s DNA for comparison but mitochondrial DNA would be better. Can you contact her mother? When you speak to either of them, I would advise they not view the body and leave the identification up to me.”
>
“Her mother works at the beauty salon in town.” Jenna’s expression was troubled. “I really won’t enjoy giving her the bad news. I know we can’t confirm anything but we all know this is Laurie Turner. I’ve seen enough here. I’ll go by the salon and see if we can find her mother. Will you be conducting the post this afternoon?”
Intrigued by what he was seeing before him, Wolfe nodded. “Yeah. There is so much here to process. I’ll be starting on the preliminary examination as soon as we return to the morgue.” He frowned. “She’s well into decomposition. I’ll be able to get a TOD for you when I get her back to the lab but I’d say from her temperature and state of rigor she died around the time she climbed into the vehicle.”
“So maybe strangulation?” Jenna rubbed her temples.
Exasperated, Wolfe raised his eyebrows. “You know darn well I can’t give you a cause of death until I’ve completed the autopsy. It’s obvious she received some type of restriction to her neck from the bruising but from the lack of it as well, it appears to be what I’d usually see from a cord tightened from behind.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.” Jenna kicked a clump of grass and looked at Kane. “It’s just that, she was in the vehicle and from what I’m seeing is bruising way up under the neck, as if someone was in the back seat and strangled her from behind.”
“Yeah.” Kane moved in closer. “Or more likely attacked her from behind when she climbed out of the vehicle. Mrs. York has a pretty good recollection of the event. She doesn’t mention Laurie looking in the back seat, and people usually acknowledge another person in a vehicle. Why would the second person be in the back seat? It’s a sedan, most friends would ride shotgun.”
Wolfe looked from one to the other. “Until I determine the cause of death, this discussion is a waste of time.” He nodded toward Rio. “Are you coming to the autopsy as well?”
“Sure, if I’m not needed elsewhere.” Rio glanced at Jenna. “Would you like me to relieve Rowley?”