Page 29 of Only Girl Alive

First on their list was Luminol. The evidence had been packaged and delivered to the police department the previous day by Collin, Ray, and Bina. Spraying the Luminol on doors and walls would show a clearer picture of the crime. They had also lifted fingerprints from the home for comparisons with the ones taken at autopsy. The prints from the house were locked in the van along with the DNA evidence.

They sprayed room by room, beginning downstairs, where the only blood they thought they had found was on the front door jam. It was most likely a speck of ungodly dirt with no plausible explanation in the spotless house. When everything at a crime scene added up perfectly, there was a good chance it was staged. They were not dealing with that in this case. Too many dots did not connect.

The violence took place upstairs and the killer didn’t track the blood to the lower floor. That made sense, with evidence the killer took a shower. Taking the time to wash the blood off their body showed they were unworried about being caught in the house after the killings and that they didn’t want the evidence seen on them after they left. Chances were good that they had brought a change of clothes with them.

After meeting Howard Wall, a horrible thought nagged at Eve. What if he were the killer? They had so many unanswered questions. It left a ten-year-old girl in danger and they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that danger came from inside the Wall home. Eve was impatient to discover the truth. For Hannah’s sake, they had to solve this case.

They began spraying upstairs in the same order they approached the bodies. Bart’s bedroom door and frame had partials of bloody smeared prints once the Luminol lit them. The fluorescence caused when Luminol and the oxidant reacted to blood only lasted for thirty seconds. Eve had her camera ready with a long-exposure lens to catch the images correctly.

A blood trail went from the parents’ room to Tracy’s and then to Elijah’s. In the fluorescent blue glow, Collin, their blood spatter expert, saw a clear pattern. After Elijah, the killer had backtracked to Hannah’s room. The blood drops on the far side of the hall floor showed the progress along with longer smears of blood most likely from shoes or feet. It would have been nice to have a full shoe or footprint but they weren’t that lucky.

They followed the specks of blood straight to Hannah’s closet. The killer still carried the dripping knife and the Luminol made it easy to track. It also showed body fluid on Hannah’s closet door. The reddish-brown color, after the chemicals wore off, identified it as blood.

The killer was searching for Hannah. Because of her age, she would be the least likely threat. Her body size would also mean the sedative would make her sleep harder. The killer was not afraid of Hannah and took out their victims accordingly.

Shivers ran across Eve’s arms when she photographed the bright glow smeared on the sleeves of two of Hannah’s long dresses. The killer’s search made Howard Wall less of a suspect because he would have known where she was. Eve hoped Hannah was safe. Living in this community, she knew it wasn’t a good bet.

Luminol showed no bodily fluids in the unused bedroom. The killer knew which rooms were occupied, making it more probable it was someone who had once been a family member. Now Eve’s thoughts once more turned to the possibility one of the wives, removed from the home, killed them out of revenge. Maybe Marcella and Tracy, though they were mistreated too, helped Bart Tanner in his abuse. The fact women kept other wives calm during their first sexual encounter, though horrifying, made this less of a stretch than it should have been.

Once they had the list of names and addresses from Aaron, they would need to make contact with any prior wife who remained in the community. She needed her stepbrother to come through with that list.

They finished the bedrooms and hallway and moved to the bathroom. The spray showed blood on the floor, shower walls, and rim of the tub where fluorescent marking outlined the horror. The towels and shower curtain had been bagged previously for evidence and were already at the police department. The killer only seemed to care about removing the blood from their body and not the room.

Ray packaged Hannah’s dresses with the dark stains on them. They’d taken DNA the day before.

They saved the attic for last.

“We doing this?” Ray asked when he finished packaging the dresses and met them beneath the drop-down stairs in the master bedroom closet.

They knew the attic would be the worst room in the house. They’d all felt the evil in the walls and air. It wasn’t a scientific response but it was a human one. Eve had also chosen her team for their empathy. This wouldn’t be easy.

They removed the plastic and sprayed the stairs first. Blood showed on the steps of the ladder. Was it caused from the beatings? Eve had to clear her mind and focus on her job to continue. All their expressions were frozen by the time they climbed into the attic.

Spraying in sections made it easier for Eve to capture the needed photos. Luminol showed blood and other bodily fluids such as urine and semen. They didn’t need lab work to know sperm was mixed with blood and they were looking at a scene out of a horror film. They’d taken previous samples for identification and DNA and they were fairly certain what they contained.

The attic was a torture chamber of punishment and humiliation. It made Eve sick. Children suffered in this room. The wives suffered. Even to Eve, with what she knew of the church, this was unimaginable.

They had to wait on labs for positive DNA found where it shouldn’t have been on the bodies, but she knew Bart Tanner was responsible for this atrocity. He had absolute power over their household, which gave him an opportunity no one else had. There were six wives in the photograph from the drawer. Were four of them removed because of his actions? When the details of the case became public record, the media would have a field day. Marcella and Tracy were the two women not removed. Had they threatened to speak out?

So many questions but the biggest one in Eve’s mind: Was this reason enough for the church leaders to murder an entire family?

Seventeen

“I want to do a complete walk-through the scene. We need to mentally picture the crime as it happened and see if it leads to anything we’ve missed,” Eve told them after they finished with the Luminol. “We’ll grab lunch from the van first and I’ll print photos of the bodies as we found them.”

Bina, Collin, and Ray entered the van but Eve lagged in the courtyard. Clyde gave her a questioning look.

“I need a moment,” she told him.

“Do you want company?”

She nodded. He closed the van’s door behind the others and stood beside her. She rotated her shoulders, hoping to relieve some of the stress. The warmth from the sun helped. She was desperately trying to drive away the demons after what she’d photographed in the attic.

Her fundamentalist father from childhood referred to demons as unclean spirits that entered the bodies of women who did not obey men. Men carried the words of the prophet who carried the words of God. These unclean spirits were one of his favorite topics during his daily prayers and teachings. She remembered holding little Charlie in her lap as he squirmed through the hours-long monologue while her father looked at her as if she was the demon. At age ten, thoughts of her wickedness kept her from sleeping many nights as she lay there expecting God to strike her down or send men to kill her. Maybe her father.

Clyde remained by her side while her thoughts kept her from focusing on the case. He was always the solid force she could lean upon. He deserved more than a psychologically damaged woman with a past that kept her from moving forward in a relationship.

He touched her side for only a moment, his hand warm and grounding. She was no longer the little girl. She oversaw a team who battled the evil of the fundamental polygamists. Without a word, Clyde followed her into the van with the others.

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