Page 6 of Whispers Left Behind

Sadness?

Her sole regret was that she had placed such a heavy burden on Noah’s shoulders. She had always considered herself a good person. One who always made the right decisions, exhibited high morals, and set high standards for herself.

Yet she couldn’t summon a single ounce of regret for pulling the trigger.

Staring down at her right hand in contemplation, she softly rubbed her thumb and index finger together. There wasn’t an indention or a mark to be found, yet it was there all the same. Whatever awaited her in the barn wasnotthe of Calvin Gantz.

He was at the bottom of Terrapin Lake.

After exiting her Jeep, Kinsley maintained a brisk pace across the packed dirt. She nodded toward Officer Blake. He wasstanding away from the others with an electronic tablet in his hand. He was undoubtedly entering her name into the log of individuals accessing the crime scene. After last year, everyone had gone to great lengths to ensure their jobs were done to the best of their abilities.

Officer Blake didn’t respond to the dispatcher coming through loud and clear over his radio announcing a domestic disturbance in one of the apartment buildings on the east side of town. One of the unassigned patrol units would respond to the call.

While most of the homicide cases were closer to the heart of the city, Kinsley and Alex had their fair share of investigations in the sticks. Most murders out this way were the result of domestic disputes. The vast stretch of farmland just inside the county line fell under Fallbrook's jurisdiction. The other homicide detectives preferred not to get their shoes muddy, though.

“Where’s your jacket? Or that thing you call a sweater?”

“Left it at the house.” Kinsley came to a stop in front of her partner. She kept her focus on the woman’s body lying on the ground in the middle of the barn. Alex would eventually come to the determination that dinner with her family hadn’t gone so well, and she wouldn’t do anything to convince him otherwise. “I’ll be fine. ID?”

“Maybe. While there was no identification on the body, Cooper recognized her right away—Rachel Hanson. Apparently, her grandfather owns a dairy farm up near Halliday.” Alex pointed toward the wooded area to the west. “There is a backroad that cuts about twenty minutes off the driving time from Fallbrook. I already sent Hendricks in that direction. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find her vehicle abandoned on the side of the road. Forensics is on their way, but they’ll have to wait until morning to canvass the area more thoroughly. There’s no telling how much ground she covered between there and here.”

Kinsley didn’t recognize the name of their victim. She turned away from the barn to examine the different routes Rachel Hanson could have taken to end up dead in a barn. If Hanson had been running away from someone in the woods, chances were she had spotted the lights shining from Lionel’s farmhouse and tried to seek safety.

“Everything go okay at dinner?” Alex asked warily after observing her for a moment. She could count the times she had caught him looking less than stellar on one hand. He took pride in his appearance, and there wasn’t a single black strand on his head that was out of place. “I know that Gantz is a sore topic between you and your father. Did you tell him that—”

“I didn’t tell him anything. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions, Alex.” Kinsley did her best to soften her tone, not wanting her partner to take her reply out of context. “Fallbrook is surrounded by farmland. There are bound to be murders with similar causes of death. I take it that her throat was cut?”

“That about sums it up.”

“What do we know about Hanson? Married? Single? Any domestic disturbances come up when you ran her name through the system?” She doubted that Alex had time to learn anything of significance about Hanson, but Kinsley’s inquires kept them off the topic of Gantz. “Criminal record? Drugs, maybe?”

Compared to larger cities, Fallbrook had low gang activity and a below-average crime rate. Out of the four hundred officers on staff, only twelve were dedicated to handling homicide cases. The rest were assigned to various divisions such as patrol, traffic, vice and narcotics, community service, and a range of other departments that focused on the two hundred thousand residents who called Fallbrook home.

“I only got here twenty-five minutes ago, Kin. Once I realized what we were dealing with, I called you before taking Lionel’s statement. Dispatch stated the victim had no outstandingwarrants.” Alex glanced down at his notebook before tilting it to the side. The headlights from the cruiser offered him better clarification. He rattled off an address, and it was located in one of the wealthier neighborhoods. “I’m waiting to hear back from dispatch for more details. We have a long night ahead of us. I’m guessing time of death occurred sometime late last night or very early this morning.”

“Last night?” Kinsley asked in confusion, turning her attention back to the body. Forensics would be on scene shortly to confirm Alex’s suspicion. They would set up a few generated-powered lights, photograph and tag anything of substance, as well as canvas the surrounding area at dawn. The barn itself would take hours. “Why didn’t Lionel call this in earlier?”

“Cooper had a doctor’s appointment this morning. When he was done, he stopped in at the Legion for a burger. The guys talked him into staying for a few hands of poker. It wasn’t until he was driving back up the lane that he noticed the barn door open.” Alex didn’t need to refer to his notes. He was a stickler for details. “He claims that he never leaves the door open. Thought that maybe a mountain lion or black bear was poking around. Anyway, about seven-thirty this evening, he made his way down from the house to find this shitshow.”

“That’s a lot of blood,” Kinsley murmured in agreement, grimacing at the carnage left behind. She noticed Officer Blake was no longer standing near his cruiser. He was busy conversing with the two other officers gearing up to canvas the rest of the property. She held her hand out toward Alex. “Give me your cell. I left mine in the Jeep.”

Alex rubbed the side of his jaw, indicating that he wanted to steer the conversation back to Gantz. She couldn’t very well reveal to him that Gantz was dead, which left her with little option but to consider his theory. She wasn’t fond of heights, and she hated walking such a tightrope.

“Kin, there are similarities that—”

“I’ll keep an open mind, Alex.” Kinsley finally met his gaze. “Phone?”

“I can do one better.” Alex reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small flashlight. She would have headed toward the body not stopped her. “Wait.”

Alex also pulled out a pair of gloves, as well as blue shoe coverings. She took them, grateful that he hadn’t roasted her over not being prepared this evening. She hadn’t planned on getting too close to the body to disturb evidence, but she would now that she had the proper gear.

Once her ankle boots were covered, Kinsley carefully edged around the dirt at the barn entrance. It was easy to recognize that some scuffle had taken place between their victim and her attacker. Even if Hanson had screamed at the top of her lungs, chances were that Lionel wouldn’t have heard her cry for help. There was simply too much distance between the barn and his house.

“Tell Blake to—”

“Lionel’s boots are already bagged and in the trunk of Blake’s cruiser. And let me tell you, Kin…the man has a thing about his boots.”

Lionel would have strolled right across the packed dirt without any idea that something worse than a mountain lion awaited him inside the barn. He had probably brought his shotgun with him, as most farmers tended to do when protecting their fields. In all likelihood, forensics wouldn’t be able to get much from the packed dirt at the entrance.

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