Page 50 of Only Girl Alive

“Thank you.”

The call ended and Eve sighed with relief. She finished downloading the SIM cards and started printing the pictures. She looked through them on her laptop and chose the best ones covering the entire area upstairs. She picked ones with and without Luminol. As they printed, she took the pillows off the bed and laid them on a chair so she had more room. She placed the photos in order, beginning at the stairs, as they rolled off the printer. She didn’t use any from the attic. Though it was part of the backdrop to murder, it was not where the homicides took place.

She could lay the entire scene out on her laptop but this larger visual was better. She often used their conference table back at the offices. Her phone chirped with the email from Tamm. Eve read then printed it.

Her brother had been his normal terse self.

0820 hours

County Attorney Owens: We have a murdered family discovered by local law enforcement. Your team is requested at the crime scene.

Detective Sergeant Bennet: How many dead?

County Attorney Owens: Four. One man, two women, one child.

Detective Sergeant Bennet: Witnesses?

County Attorney Owens: No.

Detective Sergeant Bennet: When did it happen?

County Attorney Owens: Sometime within the past twenty-four hours.

Detective Sergeant Bennet: Do you have a suspect?

County Attorney Owens:—HESITATION—No

Eve appreciated Tamm noting Aaron’s hesitation. She had asked a few additional questions but there wasn’t much more in the conversation. She placed the printed text in the top left-hand corner of the bed and stepped back. She stared at the photos and the timeline she’d written on index cards with a Sharpie. Her eyes traveled left to right, down, left to right. She took a step closer and did it again. Something bothered her, but she wasn’t sure what it was.

She read the timeline, which ended with the assault against her the evening before. Her eyes went back to the images. She lifted the first print from the bed, examined it closely, and went to the next. She was hoping whatever it was would jump out and scream “clue.”

She knew she was a good detective, but this was actually her specialty. Since her mother had gifted her with the first camera, images spoke to her and had always been what she relied on most in her career.

One after the other she picked them up, studied the smallest details, and continued until she came to the partial blood print on Elijah’s bedroom door. It was only a smudged remnant. This was the tricky part with prints: they had to be clear for the computer to identify a match. Something still bothered her. She finished examining each photo by lifting it for closer inspection.

She walked around the bed and reexamined the scene upside down. It did no good and she was growing frustrated that her brain wouldn’t click whatever was bothering her into place.

The images showed the drops of blood going to Hannah’s room. She lifted the picture of the bloody partial prints found at her closet door. Again, they were smudged and they didn’t have enough to make a match. She turned it sideways then upside down. Her eyes went back to the photo of the one on the master bedroom door-jamb. She lay them down, side by side, and reviewed them again. The ache in her head grew worse.

She picked the photos up once more and walked to the door. She stared between the photos and the hotel doorknob. The bright blue glow from the Luminol was caught perfectly in the camera’s lens for both images. She examined the Luminol’s contrast to the walls, floor, and carpet. Spray on the walls came from the actual murders. Blood drops on the carpet had fallen from the weapon and/or the person carrying the knife. Lower areas of the doorframes and doors themselves had the blood smears.

She had Collin’s video footage and she pulled it up on her laptop and watched the entire file. Again, her brain zeroed in on the blood prints on the doorframes. She shook her head in frustration because whatever was bothering her would not let go. She decided on an old trick showed to her by a professor in college from a crime photography class she took.

She placed the pictures back on the bed and examined all the photos in backwards order. She was prepared to walk around the bed and repeat the process upside down again. Then, she realized what bothered her. Eve’s heart dropped into her stomach, her mind not wanting to see the truth.

She reexamined three photos. Two were the smeared prints on the doorframes. One was spatter in the hallway. The pattern of the blood seemed to bother Collin and now Eve knew why.

It was more terrifying than she wanted to believe. She walked to the chair in the corner of the room and sank into it, rubbing her temples, trying to find a way out of the thought in her head. She wanted to dismiss the evidence. She wanted to scream. When she was able to stand, she stepped to the bed and chose another image of Hannah’s closet taken farther out.

She looked at it again with clearer eyes. The placement of the smears. She turned and looked at her hotel room door once more. She sat on the bed in the only empty spot available.

The partial bloody prints on the doorframes were low. Too low. The blood spatter in the hallway came from blood dripping off the knife approximately a foot from the floor.

She didn’t need to look at the photos again because they were now frozen in her head. Her stomach turned queasy and it wasn’t because of the assault.

The puzzle pieces clicked into place. She tried to deny what the evidence showed but she couldn’t. It explained so much. The case was screwed from the very beginning because the church had something major to hide.

Those in power knew who killed the Tanners. Aaron and the Walls knew. Hell, all her stepbrothers more than likely were in on whatever twisted plot the leaders had come up with to hide the truth. They were sent to stop her from discovering it. Maybe they were only supposed to scare her or maybe—she hated the thought—they were sent to kill.

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