Page 5 of Only Girl Alive

She mapped the killer’s probable moves in her head and knew her team were doing the same. Ray was mentally unwinding each scene. Collin was imagining strange theories that the others would never come up with. When things didn’t add up in Collin’s constructs, Ray cleared away the dubious details and got to the truth. Ray had the left brain and Collin the right. That was why the pair were invaluable in helping solve the crimes they handled.

Eve let the camera drop, causing a small pull at the back of her neck from the strap, and took another unimpeded look at the bodies. She blanked her mind and used her methodical investigative brain to examine the scene again. Taking the man out first would be how she would do it. The fact neither the man nor woman appeared to fight the attacker seemed strange but at the beginning of a homicide investigation, most things did. She started putting together a mental list of what they would need in the next twenty-four hours.

Eve had full access to everything the state had to offer. If they needed aerial photography, she had the authority to pull the strings to get it. Her team’s uniqueness was partially due to their forensic backgrounds. Hers was photography; Ray’s analytics, DNA and fingerprints; and Collin’s his artistic ability to draw a scene from memory and include the most minute details. He often mapped out floor plans with a ruler and his grid paper after one walk-through so they could divide work. Clyde held extensive knowledge that included years in SWAT. He trained them in advanced techniques to clear buildings and handle dangerous situations. Detectives were not known for their overall officer safety but Clyde made sure they stayed safe. Eve also had a fearless secretary. Tamm Mackity was not afraid to make demands on behalf of the team. She was on standby at their office waiting to crack her whip.

Once they completed their observation of the master bedroom, they moved into the hallway, again avoiding the small drops of blood. Eve pointed to the first door on the right. Collin entered, then Eve. It had three twin beds set in a U shape filling all but a six-foot square portion in the center of the room. Each bed had a medium blue comforter, the perfect match to the one in the master bedroom, though smaller. A single white pillow rested at the head of each. The room appeared undisturbed by the killer until Eve walked to the closet. There were two small, dark red stains on the doorframe, the outer edges black where they were completely dry. Both were slightly larger than a nickel. They may have started as fingerprints but they were now smeared. Her camera clicked, capturing the prints for close-up examination later.

Eve carefully pushed back the door to peer inside. A young girl’s dresses hung from the rod. Eve counted five. A lower shelf area held religious undergarments, known as holy garments. The clothing was worn next to the skin and defined modesty. It had to always be covered by outerwear when not in bed. A single pair of black dress shoes rested on the shelf along with a plastic bin that held dirty clothes that appeared to consist of one dress and undergarment. They would go through the bin when they collected evidence.

Eve looked at the beds again. This room was used by only one, female child and the girl wasn’t in here.

The size of the dresses in the closet did not indicate if she was old enough to be the daughter of the man in the other room. DNA would show the truth. The other option was the father may have had wives and children reassigned to other homes. If a man found disfavor in the prophet’s eyes, his wives and children, basically his property, were removed and given to other men. Once this happened, the women and children were told to forget the man who had once ruled them and accept their new husband or father as God’s reward.

Three bedrooms to go. Eve’s heart clenched again before they entered the room across the hall. She knew there were two more bodies and now she knew one was a young girl.

Four

Three beds similar to the previous room were next. None had bedding and the closet was empty.

The dead father, a middle-aged man, was not on good standing within the polygamist organization. Eve knew this because of his lack of wives and children. He only had a midsized home like those that could be found in any residential neighborhood throughout the state. One child did not get you into the highest of the three kingdoms awaiting good fundamentalist families after death. The celestial kingdom was what they all strived to attain. The terrestrial and telestial kingdoms were another two of the three degrees of glory awaiting those who didn’t perfectly align with God’s decrees. The rules could be mind-boggling to outsiders but they had been brainwashed into Eve from a young age. Thankfully she had eventually left the teachings behind after her removal, if not the memories.

Eve and her team moved on to the next room.

The woman’s body was in the double bed to the far left, her head tilted downward so her throat didn’t gape as the couple’s did in the master bedroom. Her chin rested on her fist, propped up by an arm on the pillow. The dark blood looked like a bib with its circled outline on her off-white undergarments. Her long, braided hair lay in two plaits uniformly on her chest, covered in thick blood that was still more red than dark brown.

This room differed from the last by its larger size and the three double beds. Chances are that the woman in bed with the husband in the master bedroom ordinarily shared this room with the dead woman here.

Clyde’s fist pounded his other hand in lieu of an expletive. The bodies were stacking up and they hadn’t discovered the one that would be hardest on the team. Moving as close as she could, Eve snapped the grisly images for the prosecution. The blood was mostly centralized beneath the body with a six-inch dark red area directly below the bed, on the carpet.

Clyde’s shoulder brushed hers once she let the camera drop and they simply stared at the horror of what one human could do to another.

No, the church would not have the outcome they wanted because this case would make national news. Privacy was one of the things most highly valued in the polygamist community. Four grisly deaths in one home would eliminate the possibility of keeping this under wraps.

Eve met Ray’s eyes across the room and he, too, did his best to contain his fury. It was the tight set to his jaw that gave him away. One man, two women, and one last horror waited that none of them could prepare for.

The women’s closet was larger than the previous one with multiple dresses inside and undergarments folded neatly on shelves. There were two sets of black dress shoes and two sets of mid-calf black boots. The clothing was evenly divided and separated.

The team moved on. Eve tried to prepare herself for what came next.

They stepped out and entered the last room. Same three-bed configuration as the girl’s room. That wasn’t what they noticed though. The body of a teen male lay on the floor, his head facing the door. Eve’s mind jumped to the young girl’s dresses in the closet but she reined herself back in so this scene was all she looked at through her lens. She gave her team a quick glance from the corner of her eye and knew they would also wait. They had to analyze this child’s death and figure out the discrepancy later.

She turned her camera back to his body. From his size, he had been maybe fourteen or fifteen years old.

He had fought for his life.

Unlike the girl’s room and the empty one, his had a small nightstand beside his bed. Several items had been knocked off: A box of tissues, a Book of Mormon, and a highlighter pen. Boys were taught to read so they could control their wives and children with doctrine. Girls had no need for books; they were regulated by men from the moment of birth. Blood saturated the sheets and blue comforter along with spatter, feet from where he lay. Eve caught it all in the lens and slowly prepared herself to grasp the horror of the scene without interference. This time, she kept hold of the camera once she had her shots and simply lowered it slightly. The heavy cold feel grounded her.

His attack started on the bed and moved to the floor where he died, the blood beneath him so deeply red it was almost black. One arm stretched above his head and the other clawed into the carpet where he may have tried to drag himself toward the door. He didn’t get far. In his final moments, his head dropped down face first. The garish laceration to his throat was only visible at the edges high on the back of his neck. The amount of blood spray on the carpet, bed, and walls showed how horrific his short battle was.

Eve left the bedroom and quickly walked back into the other rooms for another inspection. Clyde waited in the hall.

“Video camera off,” Collin told everyone.

Eve looked at Clyde and they both said the words at the same time.

“Where is the other child?”

Five

---