Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Heart pounding in her chest, Jenna moved her gaze over her team.
“Rio and Rowley, the coms aren’t working but our phones are okay.
Put yours on vibrate. We don’t want him to know we’re communicating by phone.
I want you to stay inside the cabin, lock the door, and protect Wolfe’s team. We’re going to hunt this guy down.”
“Won’t you need us?” Rio’s eyebrows raised in protest. “It’s impossible to see anything out there.”
“We need to find the bodies too.” Kane gave him a long look.
“He’s playing on our fear. If he comes out swinging an ax, trust me, I’ll take him down.
Likely that isn’t going to happen. This guy is smart.
He plans every move. He won’t risk being gunned down.
I figure he wants us out there to see the bodies. He’s making a point.”
Jenna pulled on a black woolen cap. “I’ll grab Duke out of the truck and leave him with you. He’ll warn you if a stranger comes to the door. Ask me a question he won’t know when we return before you open the door.”
“Don’t worry, Jenna.” Wolfe carefully placed one of the heads in a plastic bag. “We’ll be fine. Y’all watch your backs.”
She went with Kane to get Duke and take him back to the cabin.
Their dog understood the command to protect and they shut the door.
As they stepped back off the porch, their boots crunched in the crust of frost glistening on the grass.
The temperature had dropped again, freezing the condensation on the branches into tiny icicles.
She kept close to Kane, but behind her Carter and Raven had become like shadows.
Visibility had dropped and the trees loomed up without warning as if stepping in her way.
The strange otherworldly feeling was like walking in another dimension and within seconds fog had swallowed the cabin behind them.
“This way. The frost is disturbed and it’s recent.” Kane led the way along a narrow animal trail.
Jenna puffed out a cloud of steam as she followed him. She caught a glimpse of something ahead and Kane did too. She almost walked into him when he stopped suddenly. “Is he circling us?”
“No, he’s moving away and then stopping, like he wants us to follow him.
” Kane crouched to examine the trail. “No footprints, but what I can see is spread wide, so he has long legs and big feet.” He pointed to a narrow mark as if someone had run their fingers through the frost. “He’s carrying an ax and trailing it beside him.
” He stood. “Stay alert, he could be luring us into a trap.”
“Unless he’s plannin’ on goin’ down in a blaze of glory.” Carter moved closer, weapon drawn. “If he comes at me with an ax, I’m not asking questions first.”
A cold breeze bit into Jenna’s cheeks as they continued on, and all around her the pines loomed tall and skeletal, their branches heavy with frost. Snowflakes covered her arm as she held out her weapon.
As the snowfall increased, it bleached out the color of the forest, leaving them in a world of white, black, and gray.
Ahead of her the mist had curled around Kane’s legs, rising higher with each step.
A loud crack came from in front of them, followed by a faint rhythmic tapping.
Thud, thud, thud.
Freezing mid-stride, Jenna spun slowly, searching all around, peering into the eerie dim shadows surrounding them. “Where’s it coming from?”
“The fog and snow are muffling the sound.” Kane spoke in a cloud of condensation. “I figure he’s using the ax.”
“He’s toying with us.” Raven moved closer. “Ben knows he’s here. I’d let him find him but I figure he’d be cut to pieces.”
“Yeah, keep him with you.” Kane indicated with his chin to move on and after about ten yards stopped at a fallen log. “He’s been here.” He nudged the log with his boot and the thudding stopped.
Heart thundering in her chest, Jenna glanced past Kane. The strange eerie silence in the forest pressed in around them. She caught sight of movement. “Over there.” She aimed her gun. “What’s he doing?”
“He’s hunting.” Kane raised his weapon. “Which is pretty stupid, given our firepower. He must know we’ll take him down.”
They moved on slowly until the faintly metallic smell of blood drifted toward them. Jenna touched Kane’s arm and indicated to a tall silhouette between the trees. The next second it melted into the forest. Behind them, Carter let out a low whistle and they all turned.
“Zorro is indicating he smells something over there.” Carter’s face loomed out of the fog. “It could be an explosive. Watch my back. I’m going in.”
Glad to have an explosives expert along, Jenna walked back with the others, each of them staring in a different direction as Carter slid into the mist. Minutes ticked by and then Carter emerged. “Did he find anything?”
“Yeah.” Carter grimaced and met her gaze. “The victims.”
As they followed Carter, Ben whined and moved closer to her. Jenna glanced at Raven. “Is he protecting me?”
“Yeah, to him we’re a family.” Raven never took his eyes from the forest. “He protects his family. That includes my chickens and any dogs I bring home.” He stared after Carter and winced.
Jenna followed his gaze. Sitting up against trees, the two bodies leaned toward each other as if deep in conversation.
Snow had covered the grotesque wounds across their necks.
They’d been positioned neatly, as if the Axman had taken the time to place them with care.
Everything below the neck was intact. Their arms were folded across their chests and their legs splayed unnaturally wide.
She wanted to look away and rid herself of the sight, which would stay with her for a long time.
Behind her, Kane walked backward, still scanning the forest for anyone close by.
She glanced at Raven, who moved closer but kept far enough away to prevent destroying evidence.
“He staged them.” She pointed to drag marks.
“No blood spatter or arterial spray. He murdered them somewhere else. We’ll need to find out where and mark it so that Wolfe can process the scene. ”
“Stay alert.” Kane moved in behind her, his eyes darting back and forth, his gun swinging from side to side covering the team. “This distraction is all he needs to creep up on us.”
“I have crime scene tape.” Raven slid off his backpack and bent to dig inside. “We’ll need to mark it from the trail all the way back to here.”
“I’ll come with you.” Carter brushed past Jenna. “We’ll mark this area next.”
She looked at Kane. “I guess we follow the drag marks.”
“It will lead to an ambush area, so keep your wits about you.” Kane moved off, keeping to one side of the marks.
Jenna kept to the other side, walking alongside the narrow trail that led to a clearing.
She covered her nose and mouth as a wave of nausea hit her hard.
It was a bloodbath. A dark red patch of ice stained the ground and all around crimson frozen droplets splattered the spiky fir-covered branches as if they’d run down and frozen almost immediately.
Her attention moved to the long lines of blood, made when the killer had dragged the men to their resting positions.
“It looks to me like he dragged them by their feet to avoid stepping in the blood trail.” Kane glanced around.
“I can’t understand how we’re not seeing any footprints with this amount of blood.
” He indicated to the marks, slowly being covered by snow.
“Those are average-size men and he’s dragged them with ease.
This guy is strong or military trained.”
Jenna stepped with care, holstered her weapon, and then used her flashlight to examine the scene.
“I don’t figure they were killed at the same time.
” She understood about arterial flow and when someone was decapitated it would be an immense rush of blood.
The patches were apart by more than five yards.
“He killed the first one and dragged him out of sight. He likely had a phone stuck somewhere in a tree close by. If he was pretending to be a kid, he could be carrying on a conversation with the men or making noises to make them follow him.”
“Same as he did with us.” Kane frowned at her. “Do you have crime scene tape in your backpack?”
Jenna slipped off her backpack. “Yeah. I’ll wrap it around the trees. You watch the forest.”
“I sure hope he shows himself.” Kane followed her, scanning the trees. “If he does, I’ll show him how I can play games too.”