Page 21 of Exposure of Murder

Adam and Rosie pulled up and secured the scene. Jimbo was right behind them.

Jane hadn’t moved from her spot on the side of the pond. Ethan walked over to her and could see the shock and horror on her face. She was shaking uncontrollably. He took off his jacket, placed it over her shoulders, and motioned for Rosie to come over. “Jane, why don’t you go up to the house with Rosie? I’ll come speak with you in a little while,” he said gently.

She looked at him with wide eyes, visibly shaken. “Oh. Okay.”

Ethan watched the women walk to the house. He turned to Hal and George. “Why don’t you two wait over by the old corncrib?” Jane had the old corncrib moved down to the pond a while ago to be a storage/changing room—so Tanner informed him. It was a clever way of repurposing unnecessary buildings. “I’ll have Jimbo take your statements in a minute.”

“Sure thing,” said George. “Do you think it’s going to take long? I’d like to get my truck out of here.”

Ethan shrugged. “Shouldn’t.” He pulled out his phone and called Ezra Jennings, the coroner, who promised to be there soon.

“What have you found so far?” Ethan asked Adam.

He shook his head. “Nothing—no tire tracks or loose pieces of paper. It’s like someone deliberately placed the body in the water without leaving any trace behind.”

“This was planned,” Ethan muttered. “I wonder who would have had a motive to do this?”

Adam thought for a minute before finally saying, “Well, for one, Jane.

“Thornton kept outbidding her. Maybe she was angry and solved the problem,” he continued.

Jane? He hadn’t considered she’d have a motive for killing Thornton. However, she was only about five feet two and a hundred ten pounds, if that. No way could she have taken down Thornton, who was over six feet tall and a hundred pounds heavier than her.

Although a small woman could have ambushed Thornton, shot him and then put the chains on him. But dragging a heavy body would be nearly impossible even if she did it.

Was she hoping his body would sink and never be found? Where did the heavy chains come from? They had to have been in the barn. He recalled Mr. Jenkins using them over the years.

Could Bucky have been involved somehow? Damn, he knew Jane was trouble from the beginning. Nothing of this nature had happened in his town until she arrived.

“Adam, why don’t you take pictures while I wait for the coroner,” said Ethan. His office didn’t have an official forensics photographer. However, Adam had taken several professional classes, and the department had bought a high-quality digital camera. With a nod, Adam began snapping shots while Ethan surveyed the crime scene, trying to imagine how this all happened.

“Ethan.”

A gravelly voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Ethan turned to look at the coroner, who had aged in the past couple of years. Ezra had been with Ethan’s dad before Ethan became sheriff. The gray-haired, slender man pushed up the glasses perched at the end of his nose.

“Tell me what you know,” he asked.

Ethan filled him in on what little information they had, which was sparse. Hal and George found the body that he identified as David Thornton. They hadn’t touched the body.

Ezra nodded. “Good. Let’s take a look.” He walked over to the edge of the pond and kneeled down to examine the body. “Definitely Thornton. Time of death is hard to pin down. But there’s blunt force trauma to his head and a shot through his heart. Somebody really wanted him dead. I’ll know more when I get him on the table.”

“How long do you think he’s been in the water?” asked Ethan. He stared at the swollen figure that had once been a living, breathing human. Now his skin, what hadn’t sloughed off, had taken on a pale, waxy appearance. Fish, or turtles, had nibbled at the exposed flesh—it was a ghastly sight and one he’d never seen before.

“A week, at least.”

Damn. A murder in a small town was bad for business. The merchants in town and the mayor were going to want him to solve this as soon as possible.

Ezra and his assistant prepared to move the body. Ethan turned to Adam. “After you finish taking the shots, why don’t you help Jimbo with statements from Hal and George?”

He took a deep breath. There was a lot to untangle, especially since Thornton had an iffy reputation and was downright nasty.

Ethan steppedonto Jane’s porch and lightly knocked on the kitchen door. Rosie opened it.

“Are you done?” she asked.

“Not yet. Help Adam with the statements, and I’ll meet you both back at the office.”

Rosie gave a quick nod and left.

---