Page 20 of Chasing a Kidnapper

Scavengers looking for food.

She swallowed hard, trying not to let her imagination run wild. Maybe the dumpster had been closed until now, leaving the bodies relatively intact.

One could hope.

“I’ll keep the vehicle running. Stay inside with Gabriel and Peanut,” West said, as he braked to a stop along the side of the building.

She wanted to protest, but after the recent attempt to snatch Gabriel, she nodded. Then rolled down her window, despite the chilly temps. “Please let me know what you find.”

“Trust me. You’ll know.” He pushed open his door and slid out. Then he raised his gold shield for the guy coming out of the gas station to see. “I’m Detective West Cole from the PCPD. Please stay back.”

“You got here fast,” the guy said with obvious relief.

“Has anyone disturbed the bodies?” West asked, as he pulled gloves from his coat pocket. “Touched or moved them in any way?”

“No way.” The guy looked horrified at the thought. “Eli threatened to quit after finding them. No one wants to be around that kind of violence.”

“Okay, thanks.” West caught her gaze, then headed to the back of the gas station. To his credit, he approached the dumpster cautiously, scanning the ground around it. A few feet from the dumpster, he went down on his haunches, clearly searching for clues or other evidence that may have been left behind by the person or persons responsible for dumping the bodies there.

She silently prayed he’d find something.

After what seemed like forever, West rose back to a standing position and stepped closer to the dumpster. The edge of the dumpster came up to his chest, which indicated to her that there would have had to be at least two people involved in the body dump. Hoisting one dead body up and over the edge would be difficult for one man.

Unless he was a body builder, like Stewie at the gym.

West stared over the edge of the dumpster, using a gloved hand to move something aside. Then he stepped away, glancing at her.

“Who is it?” she asked in a low voice so as not to wake Gabriel.

“Petey Pawners. He was one of the gunmen from last night. It’s likely the other dead guy is his accomplice.” West stripped off his gloves and reached for his phone. “I’ll call the captain.”

Her thoughts whirled. Whoever had killed Petey and his accomplice had either done so to send a message to other gun runners not to lose precious merchandise...

Or because they were tying up loose ends.

Most likely, both.

SIX

“Yeah, I recognize one vic as Petey Pawners,” West told Dan. “He and his accomplice were shot in the head and dumped here. No idea where the original crime took place.”

“You’re sure they weren’t killed in the dumpster?” Dan asked.

“Not enough blood or body fluids from what I can see.” West didn’t believe for a minute that the killer would have forced both men to climb into the dumpster so that he could shoot them. “The crime scene techs will be able to tell us more once they’ve processed the area. And the medical examiner will also be able to give us a time of death. I found one partial heel print, but we’ll need to rule out the gas station employees before we can consider it as possibly being left behind by the killer.”

“Yeah, okay, thanks for stopping over,” Dan said. “The ME is on his way, too. I appreciate you identifying one of the vics, but we need an ID on Pawners’s accomplice.”

“That would be nice.” West wasn’t sure knowing the second dead man’s name would help much, but it couldn’t hurt. He glanced at Trisha, still sitting in the SUV. “I have Trisha and her son with me, but I’ll stay here until you and the others arrive.”

“Thanks.” Dan disconnected from the call.

After pocketing his phone, he crossed over to the SUV. A quick glance at the baby confirmed Gabriel was still sleeping. Peanut lifted her head to look at him as if silently asking if he needed her expertise.

“We can head home once Dan and the crime scene techs get here.” He shook his head and added, “I don’t like knowing these guys were killed likely to keep them from talking.”

“Or in retribution for losing the gun shipment.” She frowned. “You don’t recognize the accomplice other than the fleeting glimpse we got that first night?”

“No. I’m hoping his prints will hit in the system. Or we can use facial recognition to get his ID.”

---