Chapter 14
Fourteen
Wolfe spent a few moments at the side of the road scanning the immediate area for any tracks.
He walked slowly toward the victims’ truck parked alongside the road and peered inside.
Two to-go cups sat in the middle console and takeout wrappers littered the floor on the passenger side.
He pulled on examination gloves, opened the door, and peered inside.
He found no signs of a struggle. Skid marks on the grass alongside the highway indicated the truck hit the brakes before stopping.
He turned to look at Jenna. “Where did y’all see the apparition? ”
“Can you make out the tree stump some ways back? That’s where I first noticed her.” Jenna pointed toward the perimeter of the forest. “She walked for about ten yards and then turned into the forest and followed a trail.”
He stared in the direction she pointed to and chewed on the inside of his mouth. “You mentioned that the fog was exceptionally thick and billowing almost like waves? How did you see a girl in a white dress with blonde hair? Could you make out the trees or the edge of the forest?”
“No, not really. I couldn’t see two feet in front of the truck.
” Jenna blinked and stared at the forest as if trying to rationalize what she’d seen.
“I know it doesn’t make sense, but I saw her.
She kind of glowed and moved, well almost floated along.
She stared back at me and beckoned me to follow her. ”
“I figure it was a projection.” Kane moved to her side.
“There’s a good chance the perp left evidence behind if he needed to leave in a hurry.
Jenna doesn’t recall seeing the vehicle here the first time, so whatever happened occurred during her drive back to Aunt Betty’s and when she came back with the others. ”
“That gives us almost an exact time of death.” Emily moved to Wolfe’s side. “That would concur with the body temperature that Raven took on scene last night.”
“You didn’t attend the crime scene to recover the bodies?” Kane looked at Emily with his eyebrows raised. “Why is that?”
“It was my call.” Rio took examination gloves out of his pocket and pulled them on without looking at him.
“We had a situation and no idea if the killer was still close by. There was no one at the office to accompany Emily. Raven had been working with her at the morgue and came straight here and Webber had already gone home. We had Raven to do the preliminary examination with us and he is more than capable of processing a crime scene and retrieving bodies.”
“I agreed.” Jenna nodded. “This guy isn’t choosy about who he kills. We stuck together the entire time to watch our backs. It was the safest thing to do under the circumstances.”
“I’m fine with that. I just like to know the details.
” Kane scanned the immediate area and then turned back to look at Jenna.
“I’ll leave you to process the scene and go and see if I can discover any evidence that he used a projector.
I figure he would have needed to tie it onto a tree somewhere and use a remote to turn it on and off as needed.
” As vehicles flew past along the highway, some of them slowed down to look at the sheriff’s trucks and the medical examiner’s white van before moving on.
He gestured toward the highway. “This road is used frequently and it wouldn’t take a stretch of the imagination to believe he hung out here for a while waiting for someone to drive by. ”
“Watch your back.” Jenna squeezed his arm.
“Always.” Kane’s lips curled into a half smile as he walked along the tree line.
The cold October air brushed Wolfe’s cheeks as he stepped under the crime scene tape.
Although the bodies had been removed, violence still hung in the air so thickly he could almost cut it.
He turned slowly on the spot, allowing his gaze to scan the immediate area, looking up and down.
Pools of blood set ten or so yards apart stained the forest floor, but it wasn’t the congealed patches that interested him.
He centered on the patterns of blood written in droplets and arcs across the trees.
Most of the blood spatter was over six feet from the ground.
The droplets told a story. He turned to Emily, who had the previous evening’s images displayed on her tablet.
“I assume the first victim was found there?” He indicated to the first pool of blood.
“Yes, I would say the older man led the way along the trail. They found a flashlight on scene.” Emily examined the images on the screen. “He went down and the younger man ran.”
Wolfe nodded. The first decapitation was textbook, and all the blood spatter trails indicated one blow.
The arterial spray pattern and pool of blood was consistent with the position of the older man’s body.
He moved along the trail and stopped at the blood spatter marking the trees.
“The second victim received the first blow here.”
“Yeah, the blood trail on the trees would indicate that.” Emily bent to examine the blood spatter.
“Medium-velocity impact spatter. I believe the back strike happened here. The victim was running. He staggered a few feet after the blow, was hit again, and then was decapitated”—she stared into the trees—“in only one blow, which is consistent with the injury sustained.”
Wolfe examined the droplets. Each one was elongated, with the tails pointing to the right.
He could almost see the killer swing the ax high in the air using one hand.
He turned to Emily. “From the spatter height and angle to the body, he is taller than the victims. He is strong and in control—there’s no hesitation, no thought, just the need to kill. ”
He walked to the second pool of blood. The forest floor was soaked, with pine needles plastered together in a sticky mass.
He turned slowly, examining the surrounding trees with care.
Arterial spray covered the trunks in pulsing arcs.
Wolfe nodded, constructing the scene inside his mind.
“I disagree with you, Em. In my opinion, he used both hands to swing the ax. I can’t see any bone fragments scattered around, which tells me he severed the head cleanly and knew exactly where to cut. ”
“It was a high-energy event.” Emily pointed to the underside of the nearby cottonwood leaves where pinpricks of blood covered each one. “He must have swung hard to create that pattern.”
Wolfe took a step back to examine the higher branches. “Can you make out the castoff from the backswing? See here, the trails are linear? There’s no doubt he is right-handed and used the same ax for both victims.” He turned to her. “Get images of the blood.”
“From looking at the bodies, I agree.” Emily nodded. “The injuries are of consistent width and the blows delivered with the same intensity.” She used her tablet to take the images.
Wolfe followed the blood spatter trail from the ax and his attention settled on a cut in the bark of a pine.
“Tissue transfer. He overswung and hit the tree. We’ll need to record that and take a sample.
” He looked down at a small indent in the forest floor filled with blood.
“He rested the ax here to view his work. Then he carried the heads back to where you found them. The blood trail is slow, so he wasn’t in a hurry.
He’s deliberate and efficient and he knows how to handle an ax.
” He turned to look at her and nodded to Jenna, standing some feet away.
Raven and Rio stood in the forest, scanning for any movement.
“This tells me he was likely to have been here when you returned, Jenna. Y’all didn’t search for a projector, did you?
He would have switched off his equipment and waited until you’d left before removing the evidence. ”
“Do you believe he’s done this before? I mean in another county or state.” Jenna’s hand rested on the handle of her weapon, her gaze flitting back and forth.
Wolfe took in the blood spatter arcs. This killer was confident and used an ax with precision. He nodded at Jenna. “Yeah, and I figure if he’s this confident, he’s just getting started in Black Rock Falls.”