Page 4 of Tears on Her Grave

The door opened and Kane walked in with Duke on his heels. The bloodhound went straight to Jenna and placed his head in her lap. She absently rubbed his cold ears and turned to Rio. “We’ll use the media to assist us. It’s a mystery the news channels will love, so Rio, use your experience with the media and get them to run a story for us. With luck, you might not need to be in the library archives searching through years of old newspaper articles.”

“The families should still be around.” Kane slid into a chair and crossed one boot onto his other knee and leaned back, making the wood groan. “I figure what we need is college yearbooks from ten to twelve years ago. From what you mentioned to Jenna, the faces wouldn’t be recognizable.”

“No, they are kinda squashed and thin.” Rio swiped a hand under his nose. “They kinda look like leather. Wolfe believes they were desiccated, which is why they’re intact. If they were buried in dry sand, that could account for it.”

Jenna swallowed bile. “You mean mummified?”

“I do believe so, yeah.” Rio met her gaze. “I figure one was on top of the other because, as Jake mentioned, the jacket of the male and the front of the female’s coat are in good condition.”

“So their killer dug a grave and rolled them in on top of each other?” Rowley paled. “There are thousands of caves all around here. We’d never find it, not with rivers bursting their banks and landslides all over.”

Two people died and then the killing stopped, or did it? Jenna ran possibilities and scenarios through her mind. She moved her attention to Kane. “Motive?”

“With college kids, likely a lovers’ quarrel.” Kane shrugged. “Jealousy runs high in that type of scenario, or maybe it was a prank or dare that went wrong. We’re only assuming one person is involved in the murders. It’s not easy to dig a grave deep enough to prevent wildlife from eating the remains. It’s possible but multiple involvement is an angle we can pursue.”

As usual the think tank with her team turned up multiple ideas. “Okay, so we have a starting point. Rio, you get onto the media, and Rowley, you hunt down yearbooks from the local college going back about twelve years.” Jenna checked her watch. “When you’re done, Rio, contact the local newspaper and find out if they have any online archives available going back twelve years. I do recall their mentioning something about making the online archives available to the public for a small fee.”

“Do you want me to mention that we’ve discovered bodies in the media release, or do you just want to ask for anyone to come forward who recalls anything about college students going missing approximately twelve years ago?” Rio glanced up from his notes.

Jenna tapped her pen on the desk, thinking for a beat. “Maybe just ask for information at this stage as we don’t want the parents of these kids to find out through the media that their missing children have been discovered floating in the local river.”

“Gotcha.” Rio closed his notebook and pushed to his feet. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll get right on it.”

Jenna held up her hand. “Fine, but wait up. I’m going with Kane to the medical examiner’s office to view the bodies and get his determination on the age of the victims, and Norrell is going to give us some idea of when they were buried.” She stood. “I’ll leave you to handle things until we get back. If Cade and Piper want to help out on the hotlines again, I’d be very happy to have them back in the office.”

Rio’s twin siblings both had ideas of going into law enforcement but in different areas. Cade was pursuing a law degree and Piper’s career choice was to work in an area that protected abused men, women, and children. They usually welcomed any exposure to the day-to-day running of the sheriff’s office. Jenna paid them an hourly rate for their assistance, and as it was spring break, they were usually happy to drop by.

“I’m sure they’d love to help Maggie out again. Each time they work here, it’s more experience they can add to their résumés.” He turned to go. “I’ll call them.”

Jenna looked at Rowley, who was getting slowly to his feet. “Is there anything else you need, Jake?”

“No, I just wanted to share some good news.” Rowley blushed scarlet. “Sandy is pregnant. We’re very happy. We both always wanted a bunch of kids.”

“Maybe it will be another set of twins.” Kane grinned at him, jumped to his feet, and slapped him on the back. “I’d love to have twins but I’m very happy to be blessed with one.”

“Ah, well it’s too early to know yet.” Rowley collected his things. “She sends you both her love and she wanted me to tell you, Jenna, that she hasn’t gotten sick this time.”

Overflowing with happiness, Jenna went around the desk and hugged him. “Congratulations! That’s wonderful news. I’m so happy for you both.”

“Thanks.” Rowley took a step back and collected his things. “I’d better get back to work.” He hurried out of the door.

FOUR

Rain hit the Beast like gunshot as they drove to the ME’s office. The few people on the sidewalk hustled along, hunched over as they sidestepped puddles. Kane glanced toward the river. The muddy overflow had reached the edge of the park and engulfed the swings. “This doesn’t look good after all the drainage work the roads department completed after the last flood. It should have been able to cope with the melt.”

“Yeah, maybe if it had been just the melt, but the storms we’ve had over the last few days and the torrential downfall is unusual for this time of the year. It’s not just us. There is flooding all over the state. It’s what the media is calling ‘a weather event.’ It seems that no one will admit to global warming. Although Montana is doing its bit to reduce emissions, it’s pointless if other parts of the world ignore it completely.”

Kane slowed the Beast to drive through a river of water running across the road. He wouldn’t be foolish enough to drive into deep fast-flowing water, but this was less than a foot high and was overflow from a drain. He headed toward the back entrance to Wolfe’s office and pulled up in front of the awning covering the back entrance. “There you go, Jenna. Watch out for the overflow from the roof. I hope Wolfe has his chopper securedup there. I could feel the wind buffeting the truck and that’s unusual in the Beast.”

“I’m hoping Blackhawk is okay.” Jenna flicked him a worried glance. “I heard someone in Aunt Betty’s Café mentioning they’d had mudslides in the res.”

Their Native American friend and Tauri’s onetime guardian had become part of their family since the adoption of their son. He was a person who Kane respected and admired for his skills. He valued his friendship greatly. “I’m sure if they had been in trouble, they would have called for assistance. He knows he can rely on us to help out when necessary.”

“I sure hope so. When we’re through here I might give him a call.” Jenna slipped from the vehicle and dashed to the door. She scanned her retina and stepped inside, turning to hold the door open for Kane.

To the right of the back door there was a place to hang their slickers and leave their boots. The morgue always smelled the same: vanilla room freshener, chemicals, and a bouquet of death. No matter how hard Wolfe tried to disguise it, the smell of decomposition lingered like garlic after a visit to an Italian restaurant. They padded along the white tile passageway to Wolfe’s office. Their friend was inside at his desk working on his computer. “Morning, Shane.”

“There y’all are and right on time too.” Wolfe smiled at them. He was dressed in scrubs with a face mask hanging from one ear. “Nice weather for ducks. I’m seriously starting to worry if my house is in any danger of flooding and it’s halfway up a hill. When I look out of my window, I can see brown water all around. It’s a problem with the drainage.” He let out a long sigh. “The constant flow of water is picking up the forest floor, and all the pine needles, pine cones, and other debris are blocking the drains. I’ve never seen anything like it since I moved here. That last flood we had was just the river overflowing.”

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