Page 35 of Their Haunted Hearts
“I examined the bite marks under a scanning electron microscope. It gives me extremely high-resolution microscopic images of bite patterns and potential sharp force trauma weapons.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “In my opinion the puncture wounds are too precise—too perfect to be animal bites. I found no tearing or irregularity you’d expect from a dog, for instance, with long canines. Whatever inflicted this damage I believe was artificial.”
Leaning back in her chair, Jenna considered the implications. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m very sure.” Wolfe tapped on his keyboard. “Just to be certain I used a forensic light source, which identifies bruising, saliva traces, and hidden injuries that might not be visible under normal lighting. I also discovered traces of metal residue embedded in the flesh around the wounds. I believe the killer used a modified hollow tool designed to mimic the bite of a vampire and has the ability to extract blood.”
Trying to get her mind around this well-organized psychopathic killer, Jenna raised both eyebrows at Kane. “So, we’re looking at someone who isn’t just obsessed with vampires—he’s engineered the means to make their killings appear real. Do you figure he’s doing this to scare everyone?”
“I have no idea what his motives are, but I can tell you the depth of the wounds suggests the device was very sharp and forcibly inserted but controlled. This would tell me he’s done this several times before and he knows exactly how much pressure to apply.” Wolfe could be heard filling a cup with coffee and adding the fixings. “Another thing of interest is, I don’t believe the blood was spilled—it was siphoned through a mechanism connected to the fangs. There’s no indication of a sucking motion that would bruise, so both victims were alive when they were drained.” He drew in a breath. “Both cases are identical. It’s ritualistic and he’s perfected his method. I figure he’s been killing for some time. Have you discovered any similar cases?”
Jenna shook her head as if he were in the room with her. “Not yet, but we’ve uploaded all the information we have to date and circulated it statewide. I’ll ask Rio to send it out to law enforcement throughout the country. If he’s been doing this for a time, bodies must be showing up each Halloween. My worry is what he’s been doing for the rest of the year.”
“I’m not sure I want to know.” Wolfe sighed. “If no one has caught him yet, he may be the smartest serial killer you’ve faced so far.”
“Did you discover any evidence on the locket?” Kane drummed his fingers on the table.
“It’s clean, as in washed-in-alcohol clean. Not even a trace of the owner. All I discovered was trace evidence from the pig. Nothing human.” Wolfe’s chair squeaked as he ran it across the floor. “I can find no reason why he placed the locket on the pig. This guy is an unknown quantity. Y’all stay safe out there.”
Jenna smiled. “We’ll do our best.” She disconnected and looked at Kane. “This guy is some scary freak.”
Kane stood. “You can say that again. I guess we give the bad news to the team.”
Jenna collected her tablet and followed him to the conference room. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the room and she noticed a plate of fresh donuts on the counter. The deputies had arrived before breakfast via Aunt Betty’s Café. She brought Raven and Rio up to date with Wolfe’s findings. “I hope the interviews gave us a prime suspect. We need a break in the case.”
“Yeah, we’ve spoken to everyone on the list now.” Rio stood and went to the whiteboard. “I figure we have three out of the four we need to look at more closely. Maybe investigate their backgrounds and see if any of them have the skills to make metal fangs.”
“Unless they got something from an undertaker?” Raven leaned back in his chair. “They use very wide catheters to pump the blood from corpses and then fill them with formaldehyde. He could have picked up something like that from a medical salvage sale.”
She led Kane to the whiteboard and they stood beside Rio as he added notes. “This looks interesting.”
“I figure the interview we had with Sly Goldman was the most interesting. He spoke to Bunny the night that she died as he was working alongside her, but he left a few minutes before she did and noticed someone in the parking lot. He described him as tall, wide, and wearing a long black coat and a cowboy hat. It’s the same description as the one we received from the server in the roadhouse. If it is, and he is the killer, we have him implicated in both murders.”
“Another interesting thing came from his interview.” Raven stood from the conference table and walked over to them. “Goldman visited the roadhouse on Sunday night around the same time as the man was seen in the roadhouse restaurant with Darlene Travis. He mentioned he went there for a meal after work, but he didn’t notice the man or Darlene.”
Jenna scanned the whiteboard. “How would you describe Goldman?”
“He fits the description of all the others in the killer’s profile. They’re all tall and broad in various degrees.” Rio leaned his hip against the desk. “When we spoke to McCulloch, the maintenance worker at the hospital, I found him to be very defensive. He moved around and appeared to be nervous, and when we started questioning him about Bunny, he got annoyed. The one thing of interest that came out of his interview was when he left he noticed Goldman outside the Triple Z Bar leaning against the wall and smoking.”
“Do you figure Goldman tried to throw the suspicion away from him and onto someone else?” Kane looked from one to the other. “Maybe he knew that he’d been spotted outside and decided to conjure up the suspicious man in the long coat?”
Running a scenario through her mind, Jenna nodded. “What if he’d been outside watching to see if a potential victim got off the last bus? He admits she went there after work on Sunday and there’s a clear view from the parking lot at the Triple Z Bar to the roadhouse. The bus station where the buses stop is well lit and so is the ticketing office. When you think about it, the wall outside the bar would be a perfect place to keep a watch on that area.”
“Which would mean that Goldman could be our prime suspect.” Kane folded his arms across his chest. “Although Cash and Withers are interesting guys. From reading the interview comments about Withers being charismatic and overfriendly, he fits into the mold as well. Although he doesn’t seem the type to be hanging out at the Triple Z Bar. Is it that he likes hanging out with his staff or he doesn’t have any friends of his own?”
“I figure he’s a rich guy who started off poor and prefers the company of cowboys.” Rio tossed the marker pen from hand to hand. “He’s charming. I guess women would see him as trustful. The charm is overpowering. I wouldn’t discount him at all.”
Jenna slid one hip onto the tabletop and frowned. “This guy Cash, who took Bunny’s bandana, he has priors in assaulting women and yet you haven’t red-flagged him. Why?”
“He appeared to be genuinely shocked when he knew that Bunny was dead.” Rio shrugged. “I searched his footlocker, and he carries a weapon, which is perfectly legal. I didn’t see anything there that would indicate he has any drugs. He answered all our questions and appeared a little angry we’d disturbed him. He believes we were there because of complaints against him from women. My thoughts were, we would need to keep our eye on him for any type of domestic abuse or attempted rape, but this isn’t the man that we are looking for, is it? Although he fits the description, his attitude doesn’t fit the crime.”
“Then we won’t dismiss him completely. We’ll just keep him on the list but consider the others as our prime suspects.” Kane moved over to the counter and poured two cups of coffee. “Has anything interesting come from the hotline calls?”
“Rowley has looked over them and hasn’t found anything of great interest, but he sent all the paperwork here so we can go over it.” Rio replaced the whiteboard pen in the holder and turned back to the conference table.
Jenna took a cup from Kane and sat down. “I figure we need to look more closely at these suspects. As Wolfe believes they’ve been committing murder for some time in the same way, we need to track their whereabouts over the last couple of years, if possible, especially around Halloween. If murders are reported in other counties or states and we can link them, we’ll know they’re involved. We can trace employment records. They all need to work, apart from Withers, so for him, maybe try to discover from his sales if he delivered any of his horses personally and where. There must be records of sales for tax purposes or whatever.”
“I’d like to search their homes and vehicles.” Kane sank into a chair making it groan. “But a hunch won’t get us a search warrant.” He glanced at Jenna. “This is going to be a long day.”
The door opened and Rowley came in carrying an evidence bag containing a large bulging envelope. Jenna stood and held out her hand. “You found something.”
