Page 12 of The Perfect Revenge
The abandoned warehouse was ten miles outside of Palm Springs.The temperature here today, in mid-July, was 114 degrees.The warehouse wasn’t air conditioned and the bodies had been rotting in it for about a week.They were only discovered when a guy searching for scrap metal came across the place.Hedidactually throw up upon discovering the bodies.Kat couldn’t blame him.
She was lucky to even be in town.It was just yesterday that Jamil Winslow, HSS's resident research genius, had informed her that Ash Pierce had been spotted on a Palm Springs traffic cam using a facial recognition program.Kat had left L.A.less than half an hour later.
That’s how she’d managed to be here when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department called over the police radio for a crime scene unit to be sent to the warehouse location.Something about the description of the bodies in the call piqued her interest.The first officers on the scene mentioned that there were signs of torture.
On her way to the warehouse, Kat had called Jessie to grease the wheels with local law enforcement.As a private detective, Kat didn't have the authority to enter a crime scene on her own, especially one well outside L.A., where her agency was based.But the famed Jessie Hunt could make it happen, and she did.
That’s why Kat was currently inside the sweltering warehouse, staring at the bodies of two people who were barely recognizable as human anymore.As a former Army Ranger in Afghanistan, she’d seen her fair share of dead bodies, including multiple fellow soldiers from her unit who were killed by the same IED explosion that left her with multiple facial burn marks and a long scar that ran vertically down her left cheek from just below her eye.
But this was something different.These weren’t the victims of the blunt force violence of war.Someone had used precision and care in eliminating these folks.It could just be a coincidence that at the same time that infamous hitwoman Ash Pierce was in town, these two people were seemingly tortured and then killed, but Kat doubted it.
“Tell me about the victims,” she asked of a squat, sweaty forty-something detective named Armorie, who was in charge of the case.
“Preliminary indications are that the female victim is Jane Croaten.She’s the wife of Harlan Croaten, the oil industry billionaire.The male victim is Larry Farmer.He’s a golf pro at the Palms Forever Country Club.”
"I'm guessing that the Croatens were members of the club?"
“That’s right.”
"And my understanding is that the coroner believes they were both tortured before they died?"Kat reconfirmed.
“It looks that way,” Detective Armorie said.“They each have multiple broken bones, including fingers, toes, kneecaps, and more.The coroner says the damage looks intentionally inflicted, not accidental.”
“And yet, there’s a gun next to Larry Farmer’s right hand and bullet wounds to both their heads.”
"Yeah, we think whoever did this tried to make it look like a murder-suicide."
“Only in the most perfunctory way,” Kat countered.
“What do you mean?”
Kat sighed.To answer the question was complicated, but she felt that she owed the detective something.Otherwise, he might never reach the right conclusion.
“The person who did this is very methodical.She rarely makes mistakes.You won’t find any physical evidence of her involvement.What she wants is to give law enforcement an excuse to close the case when you invariably run into investigative dead ends.But she’s not really trying to make you believe it was a murder-suicide.She’s just giving you an out.”
“You keep saying ‘she.’”Armorie noted.“Do you know who this is?”
“I’m 95% confident that I do,” Kat told him.“This is likely the work of a hitwoman named Ash Pierce.”
“The woman who escaped from custody at the L.A.courthouse a few months back?”Armorie was clearly stunned by the assertion.
"That's right," Kat told him."She was spotted on a traffic camera in the area, timestamped from three days ago.My guess is that she's been holed up in Palm Springs for the last little while."
“I thought she fled to Mexico.”
“She did.And to Ecuador for a while after that.But she was able to sneak back into the country about two months ago.She’s been bouncing around ever since: San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, even Joshua Tree.And now Palm Springs.She wants to stay close enough to L.A.to get there fast but far enough away that not every cop she passes will recognize her.”
“But why would she risk drawing attention to herself if she’s managed to sneak back into the country?”
“Two reasons.She’s likely running short on money.And she likes torturing and killing people.This solves both problems, at least for a while.”
“And you know this how?”
“Jessie Hunt didn’t tell you?”Kat was a little surprised.
“All she said was that you were a private detective who might have valuable information regarding this case and that you could be an asset.”
"I hope to be," she said before telling him what Jessie had not."The reason I know all this stuff, Detective, is because Ash Pierce tortured me too.In fact, she did it in the California desert, not too far from here.She intended to kill me and would have succeeded if I wasn't rescued by Jessie Hunt's younger sister, Hannah.Ever since then, I've kept tabs on the woman.When she escaped from prison the first time, I was on high alert, knowing that she would likely come for me and Hannah.She did.We were lucky to take her down that time as well.But after she escaped from prison a second time, I knew she'd make it her mission to come after me."
