Chapter 17
Seventeen
Black Rock Falls
Monday
Late June mornings in Black Rock Falls were glorious.
Sunlight filtered through the trees, leaving zebra patterns across the landscape, and in the distance the mountains rose black against a brilliant blue sky that went on forever.
Each morning they’d done their chores, let the horses out into the corral, and worked out for an hour before Jackson and Tauri came bounding out of their bedroom.
Since Jackson’s birth, anytime that Jenna left the house, even for a second, she took the baby monitor with her.
They had Raya, their live-in housekeeper, to watch them but usually the boys slept until seven.
Just before eight, she climbed into the truck with Kane and they headed for the office.
They’d decided to leave Duke behind today.
He liked to stay home with Jackson, and they would be driving all over today, maybe even riding out to examine murder scenes, and Duke wasn’t getting any younger.
They couldn’t expect him to keep up with them all day.
She turned to Kane as he accelerated along the highway.
“We have quite a few things to get through today. I’m really anxious to see what was written in the journals and I’m keen to know who was doing what at the ranch on Thursday as well, but I need to concentrate on one case at a time.
When we get to the office, I’ll work out a plan of action.
Carter is going to call Beth and Styles this morning and ask if they want to join him at the ranch. ”
“I’m sure having two FBI choppers parked there will be a topic of conversation for a few days.” Kane smiled at her. “One thing, whoever is murdering people will likely stop with the FBI hanging around.”
Jenna collected her long dark hair and tied it behind her neck, fastening it with a hair tie she wore around her wrist. “Maybe a few rats will desert the sinking ship. Then we’ll have a list of suspects without doing the grunt work.”
When she arrived at the office, she ushered everyone into the conference room: Chief Deputy Rio, and Deputies Rowley and Raven.
Deputy Johnny Raven, their K-9 handler, a medical doctor, and chopper pilot, usually worked when they needed him.
The rest of his time was taken up with training dogs for protection, most of which he collected from the local dog refuges.
Many dogs that became problems for their owners because of their size or activity were perfect specimens for him to train to be K-9s or personal protection dogs.
In any case, if they passed with flying colors or not, he guaranteed he would find them good homes.
Once everyone was assembled, she set up her laptop to display the files on a flat screen opposite the long conference room table.
“As these journals will need to be carefully analyzed by Wolfe, we took images of everything so that we could begin the investigation immediately. Yesterday we went and visited the place Rhett’s parents perished in a fire.
There was no investigation into their deaths, not by the fire department or anyone else to determine what caused the fire.
The people we spoke to mentioned there’d been a bad storm that afternoon and they assumed the cabin was struck by lightning.
When we examined the remains, we discovered a key in the lock on the outside of the front door.
The door had been opened and pushed back against the wall.
I assume this was done to remove the bodies.
To me, that is a sign that someone set fire to the cabin and locked them inside. ”
“What about the windows?” Rio’s brow furrowed. “If they couldn’t get out the door, wouldn’t they have climbed out the window?”
“I’m assuming this refers to a small cabin used for either fishing or for storing items needed on a ranch to save the hands returning to the main buildings during the day. Am I correct?” Raven leaned forward resting his clasped hands on the table.
“Yeah, I couldn’t see windows wide enough for a man to crawl through and they had bars as well.
” Kane doodled on a legal pad. “Too much time has gone by to do any testing, but from the fire pattern that I could see, I can assume that some type of accelerant was used. I took some soil and Wolfe has it for analyzing. You’ve all seen how fast those cabins catch fire if the forest is ablaze and I’m not buying the storm explanation either.
If they’d been struck by lightning, yes, the cabin would have caught fire, but they’d likely have time to get out, and if it was a storm as bad as they say, it would have been doused well before it burned to the ground. ”
Jenna cast her gaze around the table. “We’ve all read the letter Rhett’s father left with the lawyer.
It didn’t give any information about the reason he was in fear of his life.
We found the journals locked in a safe with an old cassette recorder, which will likely give us more details.
I’m anxious to get this investigation moving, but due to the murder victim we discovered yesterday, I’ll need to hand this investigation over to you.
I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that these murders are connected in some way.
What I need from you is to discover who was at the ranch twenty-two years ago and who is still at the ranch now.
We have all the records that Rhett supplied.
I uploaded everything he gave us on a thumb drive to the server last night.
The hard copies are in the back of Dave’s truck.
I need you, Rio, to get a search warrant to cover past and present employment records for Lawson’s Ridge.
You can mention that the owner is cooperating.
You have two reasons: the recent murder and the suspected murder of Christopher Lawson.
Get the warrant and then you can collect the hard files after we get back from the autopsy of a woman we believe is Marie Reyes.
After we’ll be heading back to Rhett’s ranch to continue the investigation into her murder.
I can give him the warrant then—so don’t mention to the judge that we already have the files, not that we’ve opened them yet.
With the recent homicide, Carter is on scene now and Kalo will arrive shortly, as will hopefully Beth and Styles. ”
“Okay.” Kane took control of the laptop and the images flashed up on the screen.
“We’re anxious to know what’s in the notebooks, but unfortunately, we won’t be able to go through everything today with you.
I’m sure you’ll be able to correlate everything and proceed with an investigation.
Let’s start with the items we found inside a tin box.
On first inspection, you would consider them to be serial killer trophies, but I believe the entries in the notebook and this map will explain them. ”
The first pages had lists of female seasonal workers with small descriptive notes beside them.
Lawson had mentioned where the people worked and certain character traits.
On a few of these he’d left asterisks with the dates they’d arrived and the dates they’d left.
As they went through the pages, they discovered four women’s names with asterisks that he’d tied directly to the items he’d collected. Each had a little note beside it.
Fabric: I found this piece of fabric beside the fence line in the north paddock. It’s the same pattern as the shirt I last saw Sofia wearing when she came to the office to collect her check.
Earring: I recall Camilla wearing these earrings. They have a distinctive pattern. If she’d lost one, wouldn’t she ask around about it before she left so suddenly?
Hair tie: I found this hair tie in the mud near the north fence. It was still wet when I picked it up. Luciana always wears bright orange hair ties. This must belong to her, but where is she?
Driver’s license: Belonging to Paloma Cortes. I found this near the fishing cabin by the river.
Jenna turned to Kane. “Bring up the map.” She waited until the hand-drawn map flashed onto the screen.
“See here, he marked where he picked up the items. There are other places on there as well. The old well, a burn pit, and a cabin he included with a disused root cellar.” She stood and walked around the table and used her pen to point at the map.
“See here, he mentions this as an area where I assume he heard something that concerned him and he’s labeled this area with the caption ‘don’t dig.
’ We need to look into all of these and see if anything about them is mentioned in the journals.
The map alone is useless. I know it’s going to take time but there is one entry that caught my attention as we were copying the books.
Lawson mentions that he was afraid to hand them into the sheriff because he suspected the sheriff was involved with the missing women.
I believe this is an account of everything he saw over a period of time, maybe not enough to identify the perpetrator but enough for him to become suspicious.
I don’t believe anyone goes to this much trouble if there isn’t something really disturbing within these pages. ”
“It sounds to me like he saw something he shouldn’t have.
” Rowley leaned back in his chair frowning.
“I feel sorry for the guy. If he believed the sheriff was involved or had connections to the perpetrator, it’s no wonder he made his will and left a letter for Rhett to read to get down to the truth. ”
“I wonder why he didn’t tell the lawyer.” Rio tapped his pen on the table. “He trusted him with the letter and the will. If he really believed his life was in danger, surely that would be someone he could tell?”
“Obviously not.” Kane went back to the laptop and displayed an aerial image of Lawson’s Ridge.
“We know they were heading toward the river when they took shelter in the cabin for whatever reason. I have a theory. We know they sent Rhett to his grandparents. Maybe it was getting a little too hot around the ranch, and rather than pack up their bags and leave, Lawson decided to make as if he had to go and check the fences and his wife went along for the ride. Where they were heading is the only bridge across the river for some miles. On the Lawson’s Ridge side, there’s a locked gate, likely installed to prevent cattle from wandering across the bridge.
I figure he planned to escape on horseback with his wife.
He’d have known there was a storm brewing and likely planned to use that as a cover.
Everyone back at the ranch would assume they took shelter in the old cabin. ”
“So how did they get trapped inside?” Raven leaned back in his chair, making it creak under his weight.
Jenna looked from one to the other. “I figure someone followed them and took them by surprise. They could have drawn down on them and ordered them inside the cabin and locked it. Setting fire to it would have been easy enough. It’s miles from the ranch and a bad storm was on the way.
No one in their right mind would ride out in one. ”
“Hmm, intriguing.” Rio rubbed his hands together.
“This case has good bones. Do we have any information on the hands still working at the ranch from back then? I recall Rhett saying that some of the hands had been there since his father was in charge. I’ll need to make a list.” He turned his attention to Jenna.
“If someone is still on the ranch murdering women, a list of those people might be crucial to discovering the recent killer. I’ll get on that right away. ”
“I noticed other things on that map.” Rowley looked Kane. “Can you get it up again?” He pointed. “Look at the key at the bottom. It says ‘hair clumps found here’ and ‘footprints in mud.’ I figure the journals are a terrified man’s attempt to document a crime he didn’t fully understand.”
Nodding, Jenna checked her watch and collected her things from the table.
“I agree. We’ll leave this investigation in your capable hands and go and attend the autopsy.
We won’t be coming back to the office today, we’ll be hunting down clues and doing interviews with Rhett’s employees out at the ranch.
You know the drill. Keep us in the loop by uploading everything you find onto the server, and call if you get a breakthrough.
I agree with Rio. It’s more than likely there’s a link between the cold case and the current one. So watch your backs, everyone.”