Page 30 of In Her Fears
Jake nodded, glancing over at the forest service deputy still speaking with Grant Mosher by the fallen log.“Good.We’ll need all hands on deck for this one.”
Together they moved back toward the lodge where medics and police officers were already beginning their meticulous work around Alexis’s body—the first steps in unraveling whatever dark tapestry had been woven here among these ancient trees.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The chill inside the hunting lodge seemed to penetrate Jenna’s bones as she stepped back through the weathered doorway.Melissa Stark’s team had already taken Alexis’s body down from the rafters, laying her with clinical care on a black body bag spread across the uneven wooden floor.
The young woman’s limbs had been arranged with dignity, her pale blue sundress smoothed over her legs, but nothing could erase the horror of what had been done to her.Jenna forced herself to look directly at Alexis’s face—the server who had always remembered her coffee order, now forever silenced.
Jake stepped in behind her, his presence solid and reassuring.The team of technicians moved efficiently around the scene, photographing, measuring, and collecting trace evidence from the dusty floorboards.
“Sheriff,” Melissa called, beckoning Jenna closer to where she knelt beside Alexis’s body.“You need to see this.”
Jenna crossed to her, careful to avoid disturbing any evidence.The coroner’s latex-gloved hands gently tilted Alexis’s head to expose her neck.A thin, angry line encircled her throat, the skin abraded and discolored where it had been broken.
“This is what killed her,” Melissa said, her voice professional but tinged with unmistakable anger.“Strangulation with some kind of thin wire—the same wire, I believe, that was used to suspend her by the wrists.”
Jake crouched down for a better look.“So she was already dead when she was hung from the rafters?”
“Yes,” Melissa confirmed.“Livor mortis patterns confirm she died in a different position than how she was found.She was strangled elsewhere, then brought here and...displayed.”
Displayed, Jenna thought bitterly.Like an exhibit.Like a work of art.
“There’s something else,” Melissa added, carefully lifting one of Alexis’s hands.“Defensive wounds.She fought back.”
Jenna nodded, feeling a surge of grim pride for the young woman.She hadn’t gone quietly.
“Any new thoughts on the time of death?”she asked.
"My assessment hasn't changed.Between 10 PM and midnight last night, based on body temperature and livor mortis.I'll have a more precise window after the autopsy."
That aligned with when Alexis had last texted Ryan from her backyard.Whatever had happened had occurred shortly afterward.
Melissa looked up at Jenna, her professional demeanor momentarily giving way to curiosity.“Sheriff, what did you mean earlier when you said, ‘He’s making his masterpieces’?”
The question caught Jenna off guard.She’d barely realized she’d spoken that thought aloud.The coroner was watching her with shrewd interest, waiting for an explanation that Jenna wasn’t sure how to provide.
“I—” Jenna hesitated, calculating how much to reveal.
She knew that Melissa, like Colonel Spelling, had observed her unconventional insights too many times to dismiss them as coincidence.There was an unspoken understanding between them—Melissa never directly questioned how Jenna knew certain details about victims or crime scenes, and Jenna never volunteered that information.It was a professional courtesy that had served them both well.
“It’s just a theory I’m developing,” Jenna finally said, choosing her words with care.“Something about the staging feels...deliberate.Theatrical.”
Melissa’s eyes narrowed slightly.She opened her mouth to press further, but the lodge door swung open with a protesting creak, saving Jenna from having to elaborate.
Colonel Spelling stepped inside, his tall frame momentarily silhouetted against the morning light streaming through the doorway.His face, normally composed, registered a brief flash of shock as he took in the scene before him.
“Colonel,” Jenna acknowledged, straightening up from her position near the body.“Thank you for coming.”
Spelling's gaze moved from the body to the wires still hanging from the rafters where she had been suspended."Fill me in, Sheriff."
“Victim is Alexis Downey, twenty-three, waitress at the Sunflower Café in Trentville,” Jenna reported, slipping into the familiar rhythm of professional briefing.“Her roommate reported her missing this morning.The roommate initially assumed Alexis was staying with her boyfriend, but when she called him, he hadn’t seen her either.”
She gestured toward the rafters.“The body was discovered hanging there approximately ninety minutes ago by a hiker—Grant Mosher, insurance adjuster from Trentville, regular on these trails.He’s still outside with one of the forest service deputies if you want to speak with him.”
“Cause of death?”Spelling asked, addressing Melissa directly.
“Strangulation with wire,” the coroner replied, indicating the ligature mark on Alexis’s neck.“She was killed elsewhere, then brought here and suspended from the rafters post-mortem.”
