Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Waiting for results was never fun. Jenna sat in Wolfe’s office listening to the men in the room discussing guns and motorcycles.
Styles had left to take a call and she glanced up as he entered the room.
When Bear whined and went to his side, she took in Styles’ strained expression. “Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s all good.” Styles explained the call from Beth. “She’ll ask Rio to give her a ride.”
“She didn’t see his face?” Kane frowned. “Yet she could see everything in his cart?”
“So it would seem.” Styles dropped into a chair. “He had his hat low and wore shades. At the cabin, he had a bandana tied around his face and took precautions not to leave any trace of him behind.”
Jenna chewed on her bottom lip. “Same as the cabin Zoe escaped from, no evidence until now.”
She recognized the need to rush out to see the cabin as a kneejerk reaction. The chances of the killer returning there until he had a victim would be remote. They needed to make careful plans, discover the name of this man, and follow his every move. “Okay, throw me some suggestions.”
“All the Lawson’s Ridge trucks have GPS and we can track where they’ve been quite easily.” Kalo raised both eyebrows. “The moment I get back to my laptop I can start working on them. I assume we have access to them without needing a warrant?”
“Rhett has cooperated with us all along the line. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” Carter rubbed Zorro’s ears.
“My first instinct would be to head out and place trail cams around the cabin.” Kane leaned forward in his chair staring at Jenna.
“The motion detectors will alert us if anyone goes into the cabin. I believe that’s a sound plan.
The only problem with it is that we don’t have any transport right now apart from marked patrol vehicles. ”
Jenna smiled at him. “We can use Raven’s black truck.
All the decals are magnets and the flashers are inside the front grille.
If you recall, his last vehicle was damaged and we replaced it.
It was quicker for us to get the magnets than have it out of service for the time it takes to add the sheriff’s office logos.
” She pulled out her phone. “I’ll send him a message. ”
“We have plenty of camouflage gear at the office.” Kane met her gaze. He glanced at the others. “Who wants to go and climb a few trees?”
“I figure the four of us will be enough to get in and out as fast as possible.” Carter looked at Kalo. “I want you to stay with Jenna.”
“That works for me.” Kalo looked relieved. “I don’t do tree climbing.”
The door opened and Wolfe entered. Jenna looked at him expectantly. “We’ve had an update in the case, so I hope your results clarify a few things.” She explained Beth’s call.
“This makes the results even more confusing. First, we found matches to Bonnie Jacques and Paloma Cortes from the teeth found in the pigpen. This means the Larkins were involved with their murders and links them to Lawson’s Ridge, as both women disappeared from there.
” Wolfe sat down behind his desk and turned on his computer.
“I have the results of the Zoe Carpenter case DNA samples.” He indicated to the screen.
“The results took longer than usual as one of the swabs Kane collected from the outside catch on the meat locker came up as unknown. I researched this further using all the DNA databanks at my disposal and found a match in a very unusual local case.”
Jenna leaned forward. “Who is it and what local case?”
“From before your time, Jenna.” Wolfe’s calm voice held everyone’s attention.
“It’s an interesting twist to the Carpenter case.
Five years ago, a man showed at the ranch and informed Ms. Cutter he was Wade’s son.
She refused to believe it, but the young man insisted on doing a paternity test. He wanted to find his real family.
A sample of Branch’s DNA was collected for comparison.
The test proved he wasn’t Wade Cutter’s son, but whoever left the blood trace in the food locker is a paternal match to Branch.
” He turned to look at them. “As the man has been dead for the last twenty-odd years, I ran the test again and it’s correct.
” Wolfe opened his hands. “This isn’t proof of life.
It’s proof he came in contact with the meat locker at one time, but as the sample is degraded, in my opinion it might mean his body was stored there for a time. ”
This revelation put an incredible twist on the case.
Jenna stared at him in disbelief. “Are you saying that someone kept Wade Cutter’s body in a meat locker and inflicted the same punishment on him as he did on his victims?
Or was he a victim too and his killer has been under our noses all this time?
I can’t believe it, but it makes sense.” She swallowed hard.
“I can’t say, Jenna.” Wolfe opened his hands wide. “Somehow, a degraded sample of his blood was inside the meat locker. That’s all I can tell you.” He sighed. “I found no trace of him in the cabin.”
“Then I’d say our killer is one of the old-timers who has worked on the ranch for years.
” Carter popped a toothpick into his mouth and moved it across his lips.
“He would know that place like the back of his hand. He’d also know how to access the vehicles.
One thing we know about the hands, is they do pretty much what they want when it comes to using the vehicles on the property.
There is no checking in or checking out.
No logbooks. It seems to me no one really takes any notice when a vehicle is removed from the parking lot. ”
“I have relevant information on the Cutters.” Kalo scrolled through his tablet and then lifted his gaze to Jenna. “The Cutters are related by marriage to Larkin.”
“How so?” Kane narrowed his gaze.
“The wives are sisters.” Kalo shrugged. “At the time it didn’t seem relevant.”
Jenna allowed the horrible truth to fall into place.
“So Cutter was killing for years. Rhett’s father got too close, so he killed him.
Larkin had been helping him for years by disposing of the victims. That couple is as twisted as Cutter.
” She frowned. “So does this point the finger at Branch? Has he taken up his father’s hobby?
He has relatives to cover for him. The new murders must be him. ”
“That makes more sense than you realize.” Kane nodded slowly.
“The moment the Larkins were arrested, the pig body-disposal system failed and the killer, Branch or whoever, needed to bury the next victim in the cattle grave. It all makes sense. He was likely disturbed and that’s why he hurried the burial. ”
“Then who took Marie Reyes to the bus station?” Beth walked in the open door and dropped a bag of takeout on Wolfe’s desk and straightened to look at them.
“We have the footage to show that a Lawson’s Ridge truck drove there and returned, so someone was covering their tracks, but when no one came forward to say they noticed her leaving, they kept their mouth shut. ”
Everything made sense to Jenna. “The ride to the bus station was a way to get her into his vehicle. He must have disabled her on the way to the bus station, covered her, and then made it look as if he’d dropped her there and then returned.
If he’d been seen leaving with her, he knew the CCTV footage would indicate he left moments later without her in the vehicle.
Even his GPS would show a round trip with no stops. ”
“Yeah, typical serial killer smarts.” Beth took out her phone and scrolled through the screen.
“There, I’ve uploaded the images I took at the cabin.
Check the server.” She paused as Wolfe opened the files displaying the images.
“This guy is creating a kill room similar to the place Zoe escaped. As you can see, the images don’t show an old man.
Look how smoothly he gets up from the floor.
That’s a younger man, not a man in his late fifties.
So it’s not one of the old-timers as you suggested. This man could easily be Branch.”
Nodding in agreement, Jenna looked at her team. “I figure you set up the trail cams to watch the fire road and the trail to the cabin.”
“Yeah, well that was the idea.” Kane rolled his eyes. “We have completed similar missions with success.”
“Do you mind if I head off soon?” Beth turned to Jenna. “I’m getting a ride back to the ranch with Rhett.”
“I’ll drop you by the office.” Raven smiled. “What about you, Jenna?”
Jenna shook her head. “No thanks, I’m staying here with Kalo and the dogs.
” She turned to Carter. “When you get back to the Lawson’s ranch, I want you to take a stroll and place trackers on all the Lawson’s Ridge trucks.
Take Rhett with you as if he’s giving you the tour.
The GPS is great, but I want to know when any vehicle moves from the moment the engine starts. ”
“That’s a good idea. This guy is smart and if he spotted a trail cam close to the cabin, he’d be off.
We’d never catch him.” Beth took a sandwich from the paper sack and sat down sighing.
“I can set the trackers to alert our phones if the trucks move out of the radius of the ranch and add something similar to the trail cams. I can adjust them so your phones don’t alert you when a bird flies by. ”
“He won’t see the cameras.” Kane shook his head and glanced at Carter’s grin with obvious annoyance before returning his attention back to Beth. “Have you seen the size of our surveillance cameras now? Trust me, we need a device to locate them to remove them.”
“I can design an app for your phone.” Beth smiled. “I can be useful as well as annoying, Dave.”
Jenna smiled. She enjoyed having a tech-smart woman on her team—but she missed Jo. Thinking of her, she looked at Carter. “Have you heard anything from Jo?”
“Oh, yeah.” Carter smiled and waved his phone at her. “Pictures of her and Jaime at Disneyland come through daily. She is having a ball.”
Jenna smiled. “That’s good to know. I miss her. Hopefully she’ll be here for Jackson’s birthday on the Fourth of July.” She turned to Beth. “Great work, Beth, but I wish you’d called it in and asked for backup.”
“I used to work alone all the time.” Beth flashed a white smile. “It’s all good. I told Rio where to find the poor man’s truck I commandeered.” She looked at Jenna. “I guess, he could press charges. I didn’t ask him. I just took it.”
Impressed by Beth’s nerve in an emergency, Jenna shook her head. “It will be fine, and if it isn’t, I’ll talk to the man. I’m sure if he knew an FBI agent took his pickup in the pursuit of a murder suspect, he’d cooperate.”
“I figure you’re getting off lightly.” Styles gave her one of his looks, the kind he gave to suspects he interrogated.
“Oh, don’t be so hard on her.” Carter winked at Beth. “I’d have done the exact same thing.”
“Hmm.” Beth smiled broadly and then chuckled. “That’s good to know.”