Chapter 17
Seventeen
Nobody said much in the truck on the way back to town.
The last couple of days had been horrific and Jenna believed it disturbed everyone’s thoughts knowing that another threat had chosen their beautiful forest to wreak havoc.
She turned in her seat to look at Rio. “I’ll leave you to put out a suitable media release.
I don’t want everyone in the town scared stupid, but they need to be warned that there’s a predator on the loose. ”
“I’ll come up with something suitable.” Rio shook his head slowly. “I thought I’d seen everything, but this beats all.” He gave her a long meaningful stare. “I figure we need to keep Rowley away from the crime scenes. He is a great deputy but anything too messy really upsets him.”
“He is much better than he used to be.” Kane smiled and shook his head.
“I figure being with Sandy when she had the twins cured him of most of his problems with blood. I have to admit that crime scene was nasty, but let’s not think about it now.
My mind is set on the specials at Aunt Betty’s. ” His stomach gave a long growl.
As they drove along Main, Jenna admired the Halloween decorations being set up everywhere.
A tour bus parked alongside Aunt Betty’s Café caught her attention.
It took up four or more of the nose-in parking spaces.
As she waited on the sidewalk for Kane to let Duke out of the back of the truck, Raven came out of Aunt Betty’s, ducking his head to get through the pumpkin front door.
She turned to him. “Is something wrong?”
“Nope, but I’m just warning you…” A smile crept over Raven’s face and his eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Inside are D.K. Hood, her editor, Helen, and some members of her Readers’ Group who’ve come from all around the world to spend Halloween here.
They’re staying at the Cattleman’s Hotel and D.K.
will be holding a book signing in the town hall tomorrow evening. ”
Jenna blinked, trying to fit the name into place. “Oh, the author who writes all the books about our cases? I met her once before, years ago. Nice lady. She’s here in Aunt Betty’s Café?”
“She is.” Raven grinned. “She knew my name and everything. She’s very easy to talk to, not hoity-toity at all. You know, she might be able to shed some light on the homicide, if you can get a few spare minutes to talk with her. She did mention knowing about local myths and legends.”
Raising both eyebrows, Jenna exchanged a meaningful look with Kane. “Her knowledge might be useful, but I’ll hand in my badge before I take advice about crime solving from an author, no matter how lovely she is.” She followed Kane through the giant pumpkin.
“I’ve read her books.” Rio shrugged and walked behind them. “She follows our cases as if she is one of the team.”
“She’ll want to speak to us”—Kane’s mouth twitched up at the corners as he scanned the room—“and they’ve come all this way. They look like such a nice group of people. We can spend a few minutes with them, but maybe we should order first and then go and speak to them?”
A few minutes spent on public relations while they waited for their meals wasn’t too much of an imposition.
Jenna nodded and as they made their way to the front counter to look at the specials and order their meals, the noisy room fell silent.
Jenna turned to see a group of people looking at her.
They sat at tables that had been pushed together.
Finally, the conversation in the room started up again as Jenna turned to peruse the specials board and order her meal.
She lowered her voice to just above a whisper and moved closer to Kane.
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint them, but they’ve likely come to see you rather than me. ”
“They’ve already chatted with Rowley. He called and gave me the heads-up.” Raven grinned at Jenna. “It’s kinda nice being in the books. It makes us look like heroes.”
Jenna snorted. “Oh, stop it. Next thing, you’ll all be wearing capes.”
She had recognized the author and turned to smile at her.
Moments later, she walked over to the table with Kane, Raven, and Rio.
Everyone introduced themselves to the group and shook hands and took selfies with anyone who wanted them.
It was a very pleasant interlude in a tragic day.
When Jenna walked to her table, she smiled at Kane.
“What a wonderful group of people. I had no idea we had so much support from all around the world.”
“It’s good to know, isn’t it?” Kane dropped into a chair. “They wanted selfies with the dogs too. How sweet is that? I like them. They’re lovely.”
“They told me they might make it a regular trip.” Raven sat down beside Kane. “That series of books has increased tourism in the town. It can only be a good thing for everyone.”
The meals arrived and Jenna looked at her deputies. “Okay, back to work. What are we looking at here? Let’s break it down.” She pulled out her notepad and pen. “Dave, you got closer to him than anyone. How do we profile this guy and what can we give Jo to help her?”
“He moves with stealth, so either he is an experienced hunter or he has been trained in the military.” Kane lifted a spoonful of chili to his nose and inhaled before eating it.
“He is in control, which makes him dangerous. He had the sense to pull back and not confront me. He recognized me as a predator. I assume he was unarmed because if he wasn’t, I figure he believed he could attack me and get away before any of you discovered I was missing.
” He met Jenna’s gaze. “He enjoys the hunt, the fear, and the chase.”
Making swift notes, Jenna turned to Rio. “What do you make of him?”
“You might believe that everyone can swing an ax, but that’s not so.
” Rio placed his burger on the plate before him and looked at her.
“You need the correct ax for the job. Not every ax would chop off someone’s head so efficiently.
I’ve seen the victims and none of them were hacked to death.
This makes me sure he’s done this before, but when I searched all the databanks in the state, I couldn’t find any decapitations from less than ten years ago. ”
Glancing up from her notes, Jenna stared at him.
“Then we need to look farther afield. We have serial killers coming here from all over, and if this doesn’t look like his first kill, he must have been committing murder in many other places.
Although I have to admit, decapitation would be one of the rarest types of murder in the country. ”
“It might be a fantasy.” Raven dipped a fry into a pool of ketchup on his plate.
“How do we know that this guy’s fantasy came about after he stood in the forest chopping down trees.
Maybe he had an ax to grind with someone—oh, I’m sorry for the pun—and fantasized about chopping off their heads.
It only takes a trigger to set a psychopath on a murder spree. ”
Taking in all their suggestions, Jenna looked from one to the other.
“The logging camps are miles away. No one logs in Black Rock Falls, so this man can’t be employed in that profession here.
He might go out and cut down dead trees and bring them in for firewood.
There are a number of people who sell firewood around town.
We need to make a list of those and maybe go and see them.
Once Wolfe can give us an idea of the height of this man, it will be easier to eliminate anyone who is too small.
” She made more notes in her book. “I figure he would need some experience in using a projector. I, for one, would have no idea how to set one up so that it works on a motion sensor and projects on mist.”
“They are used in a multitude of settings.” Rio stared into space, allowing his incredible memory to work.
“Let me see: Backyard movie nights, camping, and off-grid use. Using projectors for sports watch parties in parking lots. Traveling, big-screen gamers, binge-watching TV shows, and then there’s artists.
They use them to project images on a wall for tracing or painting large murals.
Then we have what we often see here in town at Halloween and at Christmas.
People project spooky content onto windows during Halloween and Nativity scenes at Christmas. ” He sighed. “There must be more uses.”
“Yeah, it’s easy to set up presentations in small meeting rooms for business or in the military.
” Kane looked at Jenna. “It’s larger than a laptop screen.
Wolfe uses one often when he’s explaining autopsy findings.
They’re everywhere. This guy just used his imagination and projected a moving image onto thick mist. The way the mist undulates would make it more ghostlike. It’s ingenious really, isn’t it?”
Jenna shivered recalling her encounter. “Unless you’re on the receiving end.
It scared me, and those poor men believed they were helping a kid in trouble and then met a terrible death.
If I hadn’t just read about the girl in the bloody nightgown myth, that might have been my head on the log.
” She pushed both hands though her hair and stared at her uneaten meal. “How are we going to stop him?”