Page 7 of Scent of Death

“I told you, call me Griff.” Nobody in Wyoming used formal titles. When he glanced at down at the uncovered grave, his stomach clenched. The victim was a teenage girl; her face was bloated, and there were dark ligature marks around her neck. Still, he easily recognized Josie Allen. “Looks like she may have been strangled.”

“I would agree with that assessment, but we’ll need the ME to tell us for sure,” the deputy agreed. It was a cop Griff had never met, but his name tag identified his last name as Gordon. “There’s no ID on her body.”

Griff pulled out his phone. There was no cell service, but he was able to access his pictures. He thumbed through to find Josie and showed the image to Deputy Gordon. “I’m fairly certain the body is that of Josie Allen. Reported missing from Casper, Wyoming, ten days ago.”

“Casper, huh?” The deputy shook his head. “She’s a long way from there.”

He nodded, then waved behind them. “Alexis and Denali found another body about two hundred yards from here. Very possibly the first missing girl, Megan Riley.”

Gordon whistled. “That’s not good.”

No, it wasn’t. He turned to where the crime scene techs were standing off to the side, giving the ME room to work. “Will you both come with me? We found another victim.”

The pair of techs glanced at each other with concern. “You’re saying this guy is a serial killer?”

“It sure looks that way.” Griff knew it was only a matter of time before the news of a madman targeting young girls traveled across the state. A discovery like this would bring in the national media, too, something he was not looking forward to. That level of attention was exactly what this guy wanted.

And it would make his already difficult job that much harder. But there wasn’t anything he could do other than keep working the case.

“This way.” He gestured for them to follow. “I’ll show you.”

The techs hurried after him, bringing their box of tools. They had smaller trowels, brushes, and mini rakes to help expose a buried corpse. He didn’t believe this area was the actual location where the girls had been murdered. Having a third missing girl made him think the killer was keeping the victims in a van, cabin, or some other location where he could kill the girls without being seen or heard. Then he brought them there to bury them.

Did that mean his home was nearby? Some serial killers wanted to be near the location where they left their victims so they could visit and relive their kill. Although in this case, Alexis was right that the guy had quickly turned his attention to another victim.

The techs went to work, carefully removing the packed dirt from around the dead body. This one took more time as the body had been there longer. Megan had been reported missing a month ago from Jackson. She hadn’t worked in a bar like the others, but at a grocery store. If Megan was the first victim, it could be that the guy chose her on impulse.

Yet he couldn’t say for sure there wasn’t another missing girl somewhere. Maybe a victim who didn’t have friends or family to report her as missing. Griff had planned to scour the missing children database to see if there were other likely victims out there, but he hadn’t had time yet. Another reason to get additional resources here from Washington, DC, or maybe the field office in Denver or Phoenix.

He borrowed Alexis’s sat phone to make the call to his boss, who promised to relay the information up the chain of command.

“Griff? You want to come check this out?” Suzanne, the female crime scene tech, called him over.

He returned to the grave and slowly nodded. “Yes, that looks like Megan Riley. And like the other victim, she’s been strangled too.” He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “Two of three victims have been found. We really need to figure out who this guy is in time to save Wendy Evers.”

“We’ll ask the ME to come take a look here when he’s finished with the first victim,” Zack Hart, the second crime scene tech, said. He stared down at the dead woman. “I don’t like knowing this guy is out there walking the streets in our cities.”

Griff understood the tech’s concern. He didn’t much like it either. Before he could say anything more, though, he heard the rumble of a plane engine. Shielding his eyes against the sun, he watched as the small prop plane belonging to Logan Fletcher banked in a curve, likely looking for a place to land.

The mountain region didn’t offer much as far as plane landing sites. They’d likely have to use the two-track road back where they left their vehicles.

“Alexis, do you want to come with me to meet your brother?” He gestured to the second grave. “There’s nothing more we can do here.”

“Sure.” Alexis looked relieved at the thought of moving away from the gruesome finds. He’d heard she and Denali worked several disaster sites over the past year, but he was convinced that finding brutally murdered teenagers was different.

He stopped briefly to chat with the ME, then used his compass to retrace his path back to the two-track road. Alexis and Denali fell into step beside him.

“I hope we’ll be able to find a trace of this guy,” Alexis said. “It’s not like we have a great scent source to work from. Joel’s K9, Royal, might be able to hit on the scent near the graves, but there’s no guarantee.”

“We may have another source,” he said. “I passed what could have been the broken branch you heard.” He shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

“That could work. Especially if Royal can pick up the scent from both the branch and the grave sites.” She looked up at the trees overhead. “We should count our blessings. We have good weather and plenty of daylight.”

He grunted without saying anything. Two girls were dead, and one was in grave danger. There were no blessings here that he could see.

When they reached the fallen branch, he pointed at the tree trunk where it had broken off. “I’m thinking he accidentally hit it with his rifle. Maybe it was sticking out of a backpack or something.”

“Yes. Joel would know better than I would, but it looks recent.” She grimaced. “I’m not a hunter the way Joel, Shane, Chase, and the others are.”

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