Page 24 of Tears on Her Grave

“Someone with absolutely no empathy whatsoever.” Kane’s hand wrapped around her arm as he urged her back up the steps. “There’s nothing we can do for her. We should leave the processing of the scene to Wolfe and his team. Just being down here is contaminating the evidence. It looks to me like this guy wasn’t too careful by the number of footprints he’s left behind. It’s likely there’s trace evidence all over.”

Nauseous, Jenna moved slowly up the steps and staggered out into the barn. Scanning the immediate area, she aimed her flashlight across the ground in front of the trapdoor. “Look here.” She moved the beam over an unusual circular patch of blood on the ground. “What do you make of that?”

“The killer came up the steps and removed his clothes here.” Kane pointed to the bloody footprints of rubber boots beside an unusual wrinkled pattern on the floor. “Looking at this, after killing her, he stripped off. The marks on the floor are where he dropped his blood-soaked clothing. See the very fine drops of blood heading toward the white truck? I figure he bundled up all his blood-soaked clothes, removed his boots, and carried themover to where he parked his truck. If he planned this murder, it would make sense that he laid out something close by like a large plastic bag or similar to place his clothes in so he wouldn’t carry any trace evidence to his vehicle.”

Heartsore for the poor woman, Jenna nodded. She turned away and stared into the anxious faces of her deputies. She realized the horror from the root cellar must be reflected in her expression. Keeping moving on the investigation would clear her mind. Sticking to procedure helped and she had a list in her head to work through. That small modicum of rational thought helped her get through some of the most terrible crimes. She lifted her chin and composed her thoughts. “So I imagine Marissa arrived to meet an acquaintance and climbed out of her truck. Things took a turn for the worse, she tried to get away, and her killer chased her down in the stables. The initial attack must have occurred there.”

“Yeah, from what I can see, he was swinging an ax or a long-blade knife, maybe a machete.” Rio led the way toward the stables, carefully avoiding the drag marks on the floor. When they reached a blood-splattered stall right at the end of the line, he pointed out the chips of wood gouged out from the side of the stall. “That looks like ax marks to me, and look down here. I’m not one hundred percent sure but that looks like fingertips.”

Scanning the area, Jenna noticed clumps of hair. “So he incapacitated her here and then dragged her by her hair to the root cellar. I wonder why he didn’t just kill her and leave her here?”

“I’d say it was for the fear factor.” Kane folded his arms across his chest. “It’s dark, filthy, and disgusting down there. He wanted to make it as bad as possible, as if he planned to teach her a lesson. This is a very twisted individual. Just from the brief moment I looked at the victim, I could see he wanted to give her a slow death. This is a monster enjoying the thrill of the kill. Hisaim was to inflict as much pain as possible. If this is one of her friends, I’d hate to meet her enemies.”

Mind racing with the implications of another monster roaming Black Rock Falls, Jenna scanned the faces of her deputies. “It seems we have stirred up a wasps’ nest by investigating the cold case. We must be getting closer to the killer of those kids than we imagined. I figure the killer was concerned that Marissa was going to inform us about what really happened on the mountain that night. He’s sending a message to everyone involved to make sure they all keep their mouths shut.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

The moment Wolfe got the call about a murder at the Old Mitcham Ranch, he grabbed a generator and portable lights. Without his daughter Emily, who usually assisted him and was currently completing her residency at Black Rock Falls General, he only had his assistant Colt Webber. He called on his fiancée, Norrell, and her team to assist. Although Norrell and her team were forensic anthropologists, they were well versed in crime scenes since arriving in town. With everything packed into his van, they headed to the Old Mitcham Ranch. He’d worked on all the previous murders that had occurred at the cursed place and was fully aware of the dangers. He made sure every member of the team wore a liquid Kevlar vest and carried weapons.

As he arrived, Kane and Rio were in the process of moving their vehicles out of the barn. When Kane jumped out of his truck and waved him inside, he headed into the dim interior. Immediately the smell of blood and putrid flesh crawled up his nose. He jumped down and went over to where Jenna was leaning against a post. Her bleak expression spoke volumes. “What have we got?”

“Mutilation.” Jenna shuddered and wrapped her arms around her chest. “It’s not the worst I’ve seen but it comes close.”

Wolfe squeezed her shoulder. “I can take it from here if you like.”

“I would like to say yes, but I’m not leaving you or your team here without backup.” Jenna met his gaze. “When you see what happened to Marissa Kendrick, you’ll understand why we need to hang around.”

Nodding, Wolfe waited for Kane to walk over and raised his eyebrows. “Rio mentioned there were two crime scenes and we have only one body. Where do you want me to start?”

He listened as Kane explained what they’d discovered. He turned to Norrell, who had joined the group. “Can you process the scene in the stables and I’ll go down into the root cellar with Webber?”

“Not a problem.” Norrell turned to Jenna. “Do you have any suspects? I gather this is involved with the cold-case crime we are investigating. Marissa Kendrick was one of the people you spoke to recently, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, and now she’s dead.” Jenna’s brow wrinkled into a frown. “I have a list of possible suspects and I can assure you I’ll be hunting them down to find out exactly where they were when Marissa was murdered.” She straightened. “I’ll be in the Beast while you’re processing the scene. I’ve everything I need there to start the investigation.”

Once Wolfe had set up the lights, he sent Webber to video the entire scene and then take photographs. He stood to one side to absorb the scene in front of him. This murder had started in the barn and progressed to the root cellar. From the blood spatter and the angle of the incisions on the body, including the shattered bones, he identified the murder weapon as a long-handled ax. The swing from the ax had sent streams of blood spatter in arcs from the body across the ceiling and down the wall. The bloody arcs crisscrossed, which proved that the victim moved as the killer stalked her across the floor. The victimhad extensive defense wounds on her arms and legs. Marissa Kendrick hadn’t died easily.

Once Webber had finished taking the images of the scene and every footprint that they discovered, Wolfe bent to look more closely at the remains. To his surprise the face and neck had not been injured. Although blood matted the woman’s hair and covered one side of her face, the killer had avoided striking her head. He shook his head slowly, wondering if there’d been a conversation between the killer and the victim. From the precise pattern of injuries, the killer was making a statement. One thing for sure, this wasn’t a crime of passion. In those cases, men would often attack a woman’s face or breasts. He straightened and sighed. “Okay, I believe we have everything we need. I don’t see any fingerprints anywhere, so it’s obvious he was wearing gloves. We can only hope he’s left some trace evidence on the body. Let’s get her bagged up and back to the lab.”

When they finally carried the body up the narrow steps and loaded it into his van, he went to the Beast and removed his gloves and face mask. When Jenna buzzed down the window, he met her troubled gaze. “We’re done here. There are no fingerprints to process. I’ll be doing the autopsy tomorrow morning at ten as usual, if y’all want to drop by, but I figure I’ll be looking for trace evidence more than anything. At this point, I don’t have a cause of death, and with multiple injuries, it could be difficult to determine. When people are injured to this degree, they usually die from blood loss.” He gave her a long look as a doctor rather than a friend. “You need to get back to the office and put your feet up for half an hour or so. I know you’re tough, Jenna, but we all need to take a break sometimes and I figure the time is now.” He slapped a hand on her door. “Doctor’s orders.”

TWENTY-NINE

Josie’s heart pounded as the big black truck rolled into her yard and Sheriff Jenna Alton climbed out followed by Deputy Kane. After the call from Lily about her encounter with Jess, her mind had been reeling. She’d expected phone calls from some of the others, either offering support or giving her guidance about what she should do next. The guys seem to have everything under control and none of them appears to be particularly worried about what was going on. The idea of ignoring everything and just keeping their heads down seems to be working for them, but now Marissa was missing and the sheriff was heading for her front door. Panic gripped her as she stood in the passageway waiting for the knock on the door. She tried hard to compose herself as she reached for the door handle. “Is there any news about Marissa?”

“Yes, can we come inside and speak to you?” Sheriff Alton looked at her. Her face was pale and drawn.

Standing to one side, Josie allowed them to pass. “The family room is on the left. It’s warmer in there.” She followed them inside, but nobody took a seat. They just stood there looking at her. “Have you found her? Where is she? Is she okay?”

“Maybe you’d better sit down.” Deputy Kane took her arm and led her to the sofa. “It’s not good news, I’m afraid.”

Josie swallowed hard. “What’s happened?”

“We found the body of who we believe is Marissa Kendrick out at the Old Mitcham Ranch. We traced her truck there.” Sheriff Alton perched on the edge of the sofa beside her. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Overwhelmed with grief, Josie wrapped her arms around her stomach and rocked back and forth. Tears streamed down her face and moments later, Deputy Kane was pressing a glass of water into her hands. She stared at the water as it trembled, unable to comprehend what had happened. “How did she die?”

“The cause of death is unknown at this time but we’re treating the matter as a homicide.” Deputy Kane looked at her. “You might have information that will help us catch her killer.”

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