Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Vance
Claire Hawkins was going to drive me crazy.
She sat in my office, legs crossed, fidgeting and twitching like the pent-up energy inside her was going to explode if she didn’t let it out.
It made it impossible to concentrate.
I looked up from my computer and gave her a pointed expression. “You don’t have to sit in here, you know. You’re welcome to go work at your own desk.”
She ran her hands up and down her thighs. “Sure. What do you want me to do?”
I stared at her, realizing she had absolutely no idea where to start. I leaned back and put my hands behind my head, narrowing my eyes at her. “Is this your first investigation?”
“Of course not,” she said, bristling.
I cocked my head and gave her a skeptical look .
“Well, it’s my first homicide investigation,” she admitted. “But I’ve investigated, you know, other things…”
“Reading Nancy Drew as a kid doesn’t count.”
She bristled again—but the flush on her face told me I was right.
Annoyance tugged. Sheriff McGrath should have assigned one of the others. He’d admitted she was their newest deputy, and it was clear she was also the least professional. I didn’t have time to hold her hand and teach her where to start.
On the other hand, if he hadn’t assigned her, I’d likely have been stuck working with Sergeant Collins.
He would have stuck to me like glue with continual compliments and attempts to make me feel like we were buddies.
I also didn’t fully trust him—he’d taken credit for identifying that bracelet at Katelyn’s even though everyone else I’d talked to said it was Wendy James and Deputy Hawkins who’d made that connection.
Hawkins was probably the better of the two—if I could get her out of my hair.
“I know you think this is Katelyn, but until we hear from the medical examiner, we need to consider all possibilities,” I said.
“I need you to identify other potential victims. Your background is SAR. Check for unresolved SAR cases in that area or ones where the search radius was close enough to the campground that the victim could have legitimately made it there.”
“There aren’t any,” she said. “At least not from the last ten years.”
“You have them all memorized?” I asked, skeptical.
“Yeah.”
When I didn’t say anything, she sighed. “Don’t you remember every one of your cold cases?”
Those shadows filled her eyes again. There was pain there. Guilt and frustration for the people she hadn’t brought home.
I understood that. Respected it.
“Point taken,” I said, giving her a nod.
“Check for older ones. Just in case. When you’re done with that, compile a list of missing persons within a two-hundred-mile radius.
Narrow it down to females age twelve to thirty, height of five four to five seven.
See if any of those reports mention a charm bracelet. ”
“Got it.” She stood up, looking as relieved to get out of my office as I was to get her out of there.
While Deputy Hawkins worked to create a list of possible victims for us, I kept my focus on Katelyn Brown.
It would take time to get an official ID.
The bones had been scattered, showing markings from where predator animals had scavenged and feasted.
Only a few scraps of clothing had remained.
None of them matched what she had been wearing when she left town, and there was no wallet or ID found at the scene to make things easy.
We would have to wait for DNA to be extracted from bone or get a positive match on dental records.
Both of those things took time, no matter how many strings I pulled to get to the head of the line. And I’d pulled every string I had.
Our best clue was the bracelet.
I studied the photos of it that Wendy’s assistant had taken at the scene and compared them to the photographs of Katelyn. The same charms, in the exact same order.
It wasn’t proof, but there was no way it was a coincidence.
A few hours later, when I was deep into Katelyn’s social media presence, I got a call from the crime lab.
“Are you about to make my day?” I asked.
The cheerful voice on the other end laughed. “I’m not a miracle worker. But we’re working on the DNA. I don’t even want to know what you had to do in order to get pushed to the front of the line.”
I grinned. “All I did was ask nicely.”
“Right.” I could practically hear her eye roll through the line. “I’m hoping I can have that for you tomorrow, but no promises. I do have something else in the meantime.”
“What’s that?”
“Preliminary cause of death.”
I pumped my fist in the air. “Lay it on me.”
“The victim’s hyoid bone was broken, meaning she likely died of strangulation.”
“Homicide then.”
“Exactly.”
I frowned, remembering how Sheriff McGrath had mentioned the slope and a possible fall. “Is there any way a fall down a difficult slope could have caused that?”
“No. There were no other fractures noted that would indicate a fall or other trauma. Just the hyoid bone and the damage associated with scavenger animals.”
“Got it.”
“I have something else for you, too.”
I sat forward, hearing the change in tone. “What is it?”
“We pulled a fingerprint off the bracelet. It’s a match for Katelyn Brown. Considering the size and age of the skeleton, I’d bet money the DNA is going to match, too.”
“Thanks. Call me as soon as you know for sure.”
“I will.”
I hung up the phone and stared into space. Katelyn Brown had left Laramie on her own, saying she was never coming back. She’d ended up here, of all places. Why?
Wildwood wasn’t the kind of place that was on most people’s radars. Either she’d had a connection here…
Or she had come here to hide.
Someone rapped sharply on my office door.
“Come in,” I called.
Deputy Hawkins poked her head inside. “I have those lists for you.”
I glanced at the clock. “That was fast. What did you find?”
She walked in and plopped a file on my desk. “The only unresolved SAR cases that correspond with that area are a forty-five-year-old man who went missing on a hiking trip in 1988 and an eight-year-old kid who wandered off from a campsite in 2010.”
“Neither of which is our victim.”
“Exactly. But there are some potential matches on the second list you asked for.”
I picked it up and flipped through it. It was thorough. She hadn’t simply compiled the list from a database. She’d done her homework and made a serious attempt at matching up possible missing persons with our remains, making notes about why some of them were more likely than others.
“Good work,” I said, glancing up at her. “I don’t think we’re going to need it after all though. We got a print back on the bracelet.”
She sat down and leaned forward. “Is it Katelyn?”
“The print belongs to Katelyn, yes,” I confirmed. “And the preliminary exam says we’re looking at homicide by strangulation.”
She sank back, sighing. “Damn. Part of me still hoped it was an accident.”
“I know.”
“So, what’s next?”
I glanced at my watch. “Nothing for now. It’s almost five, and I need to check into my cabin.”
“Cabin?” There was a change to her voice, a heightened pitch of anxiety that was completely unlike her usual tone.
“Yes,” I said, giving her an odd look. “I grabbed a room at the motel last night, but it doesn’t have a desk or the room I need for a homicide investigation. So I booked a cabin rental.”
She filled her cheeks with air and then blew it out the way she had when Sheriff McGrath had announced she was my partner.
An announcement that hadn’t seemed to make her happy in the least.
“Is there a problem?” I asked, suppressing the desire to laugh. I’d never met anyone who wore their emotions on their sleeve to this extent, who didn’t even try to play the game of politics with this job.
It was oddly refreshing.
She fidgeted with her fingers. “What, um, cabin did you rent?”
I glanced at the note I’d made about it. “It’s a guest cabin at some place called Falcon Ridge Ranch.”
Her face drained of all color. But then she leaned her head back and laughed out loud. “Of course it is.”
“Why?” I frowned. “Is it a bad place to stay? It looked great online.”
“It’s the best place to stay,” she said with a funny little smile on her face. “It just also happens to be my home.”
Ahhh. So that was the reason for her panic. “Your home?”
She nodded. “Yeah. My parents own the ranch and I–I still live there.” Her tone fell as she said the last few words, like she was embarrassed to admit it.
“Well, that will make things convenient.”
“Yeah.” She looked so glum I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Deputy Hawkins, if there’s a problem with me staying there…”
“No, it’s fine,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes.
“It’s great. Um, they’re doing a guest dinner tonight.
Campfire chili and cornbread outside. It’s included in your rental rate.
But, of course, if you’d rather have some privacy, you can’t beat Whiskey Creek.
It’s the best restaurant in town. The best. ”
I studied her. She obviously hoped I would turn down the invitation to dinner, yet she’d still felt compelled to make it. That was interesting.
I liked interesting.
“Campfire chili sounds great,” I said, grinning. “Why would I pass down an opportunity like that? Whiskey Creek will be there tomorrow, right?”
She flattened her lips into an awkward smile. “Right. Um. See you at dinner.”
With that, she fled my office.
She wasn’t very friendly. Guarded in some ways, but didn’t bother to hide her strong opinions. She was unprofessional and had no redeeming law enforcement experience to actually add to this investigation. She couldn’t sit still to save her life, and she’d driven me nuts while I was trying to focus.
I had no idea why I found myself grinning at the thought of eating dinner with her.