Chapter 12
TWELVE
Crooked Creek Police Department
Ellie called a quick meeting with her boss, Captain Hale; Deputies Shondra Eastwood and Heath Landrum; and Sheriff Bryce Waters to fill them in.
“Cord was called about a possible suicide at Midnight Ridge. A witness, an older man named Roman who appeared homeless, radioed it into SAR.” She placed a photo of the man’s makeshift house onto the whiteboard.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of him.
While Cord and I were analyzing the scene where the girl died, he disappeared. ”
“You said he was homeless?” Captain Hale said. “Did you get his last name?”
Ellie winced. “I’m afraid not.” She should have asked him for his full name and taken his statement before evaluating the scene.
But she’d wanted to see the girl and hadn’t considered that he might leave.
A big mistake. One she wouldn’t make again.
“Cord looked for him but couldn’t find him.
He reported it to the ranger station and asked them to call if one of them found him. ”
Deputy Eastwood cleared her throat. Her gold turban looked stunning today with her gold earrings. Ellie admired her individuality and style and they’d become friends through work. “Do you suspect him of hurting the teenager?” Shondra asked.
Ellie considered it again. “Cord and I discussed that, but the man walked with a limp and looked frail. It’s doubtful, even if she was unconscious, that he would have had the strength to carry or drag her body to the top of the ridge and push her off.
And if she was conscious and fighting him, the odds are even less.
” She attached photos of the rocky area and the stream where the girl had landed, then a photo of her sneaker in the bushes and the close-up of the blood spatter on the rocks onto the board.
Shondra’s face paled and Deputy Landrum scrubbed a hand over his chin. Bryce growled an obscenity. “Man, she’s busted up good.”
Ellie nodded. “Her face is completely crushed. Unrecognizable.” Ellie’s stomach clenched. Such a shame for a young girl to die like that. “Dr. Whitefeather estimated her age to be around fifteen to seventeen. She’s conducting the autopsy today.”
Ellie struggled to erase the gruesome images from her mind and focus. “She also found a suicide note in the pocket of the girl’s clothing.” Ellie added a picture of it to the board and read it, watching the expressions in her team’s eyes turn from stoic to alarmed.
“She has a child?” Shondra said as the truth dawned.
“Apparently so. A daughter named Iris, although we don’t know her age or whereabouts yet. Hopefully the mother left her with someone to keep her safe, but search teams are looking for her in the woods now.”
“What if she abandoned her or hurt her?” Bryce cut in, his tone full of disgust.
Ellie’s heart raced. “The note indicates she loved Iris.”
“You said it’s a possible suicide. That note confirms it was,” Deputy Landrum said.
Ellie held up a finger as if pressing pause. “It does. But the witness claimed he heard voices as if someone was up at the top of the ridge with her.”
“You think he’s reliable?” Bryce asked.
Ellie shrugged.
“If it happened during the night, it would have been dark. He could have heard an animal or the wind,” Deputy Landrum added.
Ellie tilted her head to the side. “That’s possible.
But Cord searched the top of the ridge and found things that raise suspicion.
First, an empty bottle of booze, which she could have used as liquid courage.
Her body did reek of alcohol. But there were also signs of a possible struggle.
” She added a photo of the scuffed toe marks on the edge of the ridge.
“Could have been her hesitating, or if she was inebriated, she staggered and was losing her balance, or she could have dug her toes in to keep from falling if someone pushed her.” Next, she added the picture of the man’s boot prints then the hair strands caught in the brush on the path to the ridge. “This could also suggest a struggle.”
Bryce frowned. “Or if she was drunk when she was walking on the trail, she lost her balance and fell into the bushes.”
“All possible. Although there was no car at the scene, so if someone else drove her to the ridge, which would fit with the witness’s account of hearing another person with her, he left before Cord answered the call.”
Puzzled looks met her statement as the team considered that fact.
“You didn’t mention her cell phone?” Deputy Eastwood said.
“So far we haven’t recovered one. But it could be in the woods somewhere.”
Ellie’s phone buzzed on her hip and she checked the number. “It’s Dr. Whitefeather.” The room grew silent as she connected. “Detective Reeves. Putting you on speaker, Laney.”
“Copy that,” Laney replied. “I haven’t had time to complete the autopsy, but I do have an ID on the dead girl.”
“So quickly?”
“Her prints were in the system on a DUI charge.”
That fit with the alcohol at the scene. And maybe Ellie would get an address from it. “Go on.”
Computer keys clicked in the background. “Her name is Minnie Benton. She’s seventeen years old and from Chattanooga.”
Ellie rolled the name over in her head. Now she had a name, she could get a photo to add to the murder board. “Thanks, Laney. Let me know what else you find.”
“There’s something else,” Laney said. “There were deep bruises on the back of her shoulders.”
The image of Minnie’s body flashed behind Ellie’s eyes. The fact that she was lying face down was consistent with a jumper. “Then she got bruised in the fall going down?”
“I don’t think so. These are different. They’re handprints. You can clearly see the impressions of fingers in her skin. And the imprints are deep. Forceful. And very recent.”
Ellie’s chest tightened. “Handprints, indicating she might have fought with someone or it’s possible she got them if she was pushed.”
“Right.”
“Thanks for the ID,” Ellie said. “We’ll locate her family then circulate this on the news.”
Hopefully that would lead them to the little girl Iris.