Chapter 11
Parker
Isat on the loveseat in the cabin with my laptop in front of me as I waited for the sound of a car engine to arrive.
I could have gone to the main house to have breakfast, but after the experience at dinner, I wasn’t eager to face Gage again anytime soon.
Luckily, there were options in the stocked pantry and refrigerator.
I had already finished my banana and bagel, with a cup of rapidly cooling coffee sitting in front of me.
While waiting for my ride to the police station, I started going over case file notes again.
I had a feeling we were missing something important that was already in the files while we were still waiting for forensics reports.
Before I could dive too deep, I heard an engine outside.
Putting everything away for now, I chugged the remains of my coffee, then quickly rinsed the cup in the sink.
Grabbing my bag, I walked out the front door.
I stopped on the top step when I saw a man talking to Detective Nakamura through his car window.
The man was tall, with a darker olive skin tone.
His black hair was pulled back into a knot on the back of his head with several strands hanging loose and falling into his face.
I wondered if he was the same man who I had disturbed last night.
When he seemed to feel my eyes on him, he turned slightly.
As soon as he saw me, his back straightened, immediately going rigid.
Without another word to Ry, he turned to head off toward the gate that led into a field that had several goats running around.
I watched as he walked, a slight hitch in his step, and wondered if he’d hurt himself.
I remembered the sight of the damaged skin on his face, though I didn’t see it in the light of day, with the way he kept his face turned away from me, I knew it had to be him.
My shoulders drooped. After what happened the previous night, I wanted to apologize.
He probably thought I had gasped at the sight of his burns.
I felt bad for making him uncomfortable.
I was the last person who would judge someone for their scars, and didn’t want him to think that I was.
With a sigh, I headed down the steps and walked over to the waiting SUV. As I climbed inside, I glanced at the detective. “Good morning,” I said softly. I still felt uncomfortable after the way dinner had ended.
“Morning, Parker,” he replied, a smile on his handsome face. He saw where my head had turned as I watched the retreating back of the man I’d offended. “That’s Dante. He doesn’t talk much, don’t take it personally.”
“Hmmm.” I continued to watch as he bent down to scratch behind the ears of one of the goats as they crowded around him. Then kicked a large ball, and several of the goats immediately ran after it in excitement.
“He’s a good guy. We were in the military together,” Ry continued as he pulled away and down the long driveway. “It’s not my place to discuss injuries, but you should know that what happened to him affected him pretty deeply.”
“Okay,” I murmured. Something about the man called to me, making me want to know his story. It was as if his pain spoke to my own. Though as much as I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding last night, I wouldn’t push myself on him.
As we drove down the road, both our phones began ringing almost simultaneously. We both eyed each other, then Ry tapped the button to answer the call as I lifted the phone to my ear after seeing it was from SSA Walker.
“Yes, sir?” I answered briskly. I tuned out Ry’s call while listening to my supervisor.
“Another body was found this morning. I’m sure Detective Nakamura is getting the same call you are. Make sure he heads straight to the dump site. I’ll see you there in a few minutes.”
My breath caught as I heard the news. “Yes, sir. We’ll head there now.”
“Good.” The call ended abruptly, and I turned to Ry. We both had grim expressions. Without saying another word, we drove forward. I was unfamiliar with the area, so I had no idea where we were headed. We drove for several minutes down a back road, moving farther from town.
Finally, as we rounded a bend in the road, we came up to a spot where several vehicles were parked along the shoulder of the highway.
Several of the vehicles had their lights flashing.
It was brutally obvious that we had found the crime scene.
Ry parked the car at the end of the long line of already parked cars.
We had driven in tense silence the entire way, and that continued as we both stepped out of the SUV.
As we walked toward the group of people who were standing outside the yellow tape marking off the dump site, I spotted my supervisor and co-workers.
SSA Walker saw me as I was walking up and broke from the group to come towards me.
He was eyeing me up and down as if inspecting me for some hint that I had done something he wouldn’t approve of last night.
His perusal, along with his stern, disapproving look, irritated me.
Then his eyes focused on something behind me, and his eyes narrowed.
I glanced over my shoulder to see that Detective Nakamura had been joined by his partner, Detective Morris. When Detective Morris saw me looking at him, he returned my glance with a sneer. It had me clenching my fists. I was starting to get really frustrated with the men around me.
“Sir,” I nodded my head, acknowledging my supervisor.
“You made good time,” he commented. “We actually just got here ourselves.”
“So, you haven’t seen the crime scene yet?” I asked. His grimace told me that he had at least had a chance to glance at it.
“We haven’t been able to inspect it yet,” he replied. “The crime scene techs are still working. They’ve taken pictures already and are now going over the area for any possible evidence.”
I nodded my head. It could take a while for them to be satisfied that they had retrieved any bit of trace evidence on the body as well as in the area.
All we could do was wait until they allowed us near.
Knowing that the killer had been very careful so far to not leave anything that could be used to help the case, I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
“How bad is it?” I asked. “Are we sure it’s the same killer?” I watched as SSA Walker clenched his teeth as he eyed me. “What is it?”
“We’re certain it is the same person.”
I just eyed him because his reaction was off. He let out a long, frustrated breath, then pinched the bridge of his nose as he shut his eyes. It looked like the man was fighting off a
headache already. “Listen,” he began, “there’s something different about this body.” I stiffened, waiting for him to continue. “This one is more… tortured than the others that were previously found.”
“Tortured, how?”
“Exactly what I said.” He shook his head and turned to walk back towards the waiting group outside the police tape.
“The body has the usual signs of being held for at least a week. Starvation, most likely, but also bruising that is yellowed from beatings that were several days old. Cuts that were starting to heal. Basically the same as the previous victims. But it appears that something changed last night.”
He stopped speaking and stared off in the direction where I could see several crime scene techs working.
One was scraping under her nails, while the other was taking samples from the body.
From previously found victims, I knew that there wouldn’t be much to find.
The killer was meticulous about cleaning the bodies when he was done with them.
All evidence collected was carefully sealed and labeled before being placed in a case for transport. From the distance we were standing, I couldn’t get a good look at the victim’s body, but I didn’t need to be closer to see the raw wounds.
“He’s escalating,” I muttered.
“Yeah, he’s certainly doing that,” SA Monique Hanson said from beside me. “That poor woman was sliced and diced. We are going to need her fingerprints, DNA, or dental records to identify her.”
I turned to Monique, trying to hold back my shock. “He’s never harmed a face before. That we are aware of, at least,” I admitted. There could be bodies at dump sites we haven’t found yet. “Wait a minute,” I frowned. “How was this site found so quickly?”
I glanced around at the remote location on the side of the road. I realized that since we’d arrived, I hadn’t heard a single vehicle drive by. It was a state highway, but it was obviously rarely used. “Who called it in?”
I eyed every person standing around, spotting Ry and Detective Morris a few feet away.
There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t in some way related to law enforcement or medical.
It’s a known fact that killers will often watch a dump location to see everyone’s reactions to finding their handiwork.
I shook my head, then looked back at my co-worker.
“There was an anonymous tip called in from an untraceable phone number about an hour ago.”
“A burner phone?” I asked.
SSA Walker nodded his head. “Most likely a prepaid cell phone. We might be able to check which tower the call came from, but finding the owner will be next to impossible. I will still want every store in town checked for any recent purchases.” He eyed the team.
“I want the information no later than this afternoon.” We all nodded our agreement.
“We can ask the Police Chief for help on this. The local guys will know better who sells them.”
“We found a hair on the body,” a technician called out.
We all moved closer, the five of us ducking under the yellow tape and stopping just outside the area where the body was lying. It was my first real look at the victim, and I couldn’t hold back a gasp.
The poor woman had been filleted down to the bone in several areas, including her thighs, arms, and her cheeks. Her stomach had been sliced to the point I was surprised her entrails were still inside her body. It was obvious that she had been killed recently since rigor mortis was present.
“She was killed sometime late last night,” I said quietly. It took around twelve hours for a body to fully stiffen and would stay that way for another twelve hours or so before slowly loosening up again. I looked at my phone. “It’s nine thirty. She doesn’t look fully stiff yet.”
One of the techs looked up at my words. “Body temperature is 85.7 degrees. It’s been in the sixties. That puts the time of death between 11 pm and 1 am. If she’s been out here the whole time.”
“He washes them first.” I looked at SSA Walker. “That would take at least an hour or two before she was placed outside. Time of death could potentially be moved closer to 12 am to 2 am if she was in a warmer environment before being dumped.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t help us at this point.”
I could see the frustration on everyone’s faces. “What kind of hair did you find? I asked the technician, who looked up at me with a smile. “Looks human. Small. Curly. Kinda thicker than head hair. Of course, we won’t know for sure until it’s processed.”
I shuddered at the thought of what a short curly hair would mean. I was already aware of what the killer did with the women he kidnapped, tortured, and killed. It was every woman’s worst nightmare. Being sliced up was bad enough, but that?
“Alright, we’re done here.” The crime scene technicians each stood up and backed away, evidence bags sealed and secured in a case for transportation. A large man with a long gray beard and a round stomach stepped forward. I assumed he was the coroner who would take possession of the body.
My team also moved forward, along with Ry, who came to stand by my shoulder. “Damn,” he muttered under his breath, and I had to agree with him.
SSA Walker was right. The victim was definitely different from the previous ones.
Her body type and hair still fit the profile.
She still had a fit, athletic build with dark blonde hair that could almost be called brown.
I couldn’t see what color her eyes were, but I could take a guess that they were either blue, green, or a lighter hazel.
She was posed, similar to how the other five women had been, only instead of one hand used to conceal or protect her intimate areas, both were used to display her openly.
One leg was pulled up, her hand resting on her thigh as if she were holding herself open for viewing.
The other hand was just under her breast, almost as if the killer wanted us to imagine her cupping it in offering.
I clenched my hands and took a deep breath to calm the rage I felt brewing inside.
It wasn’t enough to beat, torture, and rape.
The killer had chosen to debase her even in death.
I thought of the previous poses that seemed almost sensual, as if they could have been used in a boudoir photoshoot.
This was nothing like that. There was no attempt at protecting her dignity.
It was an extreme escalation, and I couldn’t stop my mind from racing, wondering what had set him off.