Page 26 of Their Wicked Games

“For skinny-dipping, maybe?” Kane indicated to a towel draped over a branch. He squatted beside a rock and pulled out a purse. “Keys, cash, lipstick, and hairbrush.” He bagged the purse and frowned. “She lives alone with a dog. So she must have gone home to change and then headed here.”

“You’ll need animal control to go get her dog.” Carter walked into the clearing with Jo. “It’s a bullmastiff and it’s angry. No one is getting inside that house anytime soon. Want me to call someone?” He glanced around the clearing. “If you have her house key, we can get someone to collect the dog and take a look around the house. We have a forensic kit in the cruiser. We’ll suit up before going inside.”

Standing, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, that would be great but leave the car keys, Wolfe will want to do a forensic sweep.”

“There you go.” Kane extracted the house key from the bunch and handed it to Carter. “When you’re done, we’ll meet back at the office.”

“Yeah, but before we head home, I’d appreciate a steak at Antlers.” Carter stretched his back. “It’s been a long day and we can discuss everything over dinner.”

“I can’t.” Rowley shook his head. “Sandy will have dinner waiting.”

“Me neither. My housekeeper is making pulled pork.” Rio grinned. “And I need to be home for the twins or they’ll figure they can stay out to all hours.”

“I’ll be working late at the morgue.” Wolfe frowned. “Emily will come by with food. She always does if I’m working late.”

“I’d love a steak.” Jo leaned against a tree. “I’m exhausted.”

Seeing Kane’s eager expression, Jenna nodded. “That works for me. She looked at Kane. “Make a reservation for eight. We’ll eat and then head home to tend the horses. We can bring the files up to date tonight.”

“I’ll make it for seven-thirty, and then we’ll miss the dinner rush.” Kane pulled out his phone. “I know it’s early, but we have a ton of things to get through tonight and we’re all bushed.”

Jenna looked at her watch and nodded. “Okay, can you make it back to the office by six?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Carter grinned and led Jo back through the forest.

Jenna looked at the others. “Okay, let’s get at it.” She followed Wolfe to the edge of the rock pool and moved around slowly, searching the ground for evidence, but the rocky surrounds gave nothing away.

“No trace of blood in the water.” Wolfe held up a test kit. “I’m not surprised. The way the water is swirling around before rushing out the other side is similar to the action inside a washer. It’s as if it were designed to change the water frequently. We need to search around the rocks for any blood spatter. If we find anything at all, it will prove this is the murder scene.”

When Duke went to the edge of the waterfall, Jenna got Kane’s attention. “Has he found something?”

“What have you found, boy?” Kane moved to the edge of the waterfall, dislodging small rocks. Spray from the rushing water glistened on his arms as he moved dangerously close to the edge and peered over. “There’s blood spatter here.” He stood feet wide apart to balance and gripped a nearby sapling. “Hand me a swab, Jenna, and I’ll try to get a sample.”

Jenna could hardly hear him over the roar of the falls. The noise here was incredible. She removed a swab from the glass tube and handed it to him. She raised her voice. “It’s not worth dying for, Dave.”

“It’s all good.” Kane leaned forward and stretched one arm out, straightened, and then handed the swab back to Jenna. “I’ll need to take photographs. I can’t get my phone out and access the app while I’m holding on. I’ll need to use your phone.” He moved his attention to Wolfe, who was watching with interest. “It looks like bloody handprints. I think she tried to climb out of the pool to get away from her attacker.”

After accessing the camera on her phone, Jenna handed it to Kane and waited with bated breath as he hung dangerously out over the falls. With the phone safely in her hand, she reached out to steady Kane as he slid back down the rocks. As Kane and Wolfe looked over her shoulders, she scrolled through the photographs. Bloody handprints suggested Alicia fought for her life, even preferring certain death in the falls to the attack. The image of her body and the damage inflicted flashed into Jenna’s mind. She glanced around the peaceful sunlit clearing. The grass here was soft, and small patches of wildflowers had sprung up around the perimeter. She could imagine it would be a very private place to visit with a special friend. Had Alicia believed she was meeting a close friend, only to find a monster waiting for her?

“This is a perfect place to commit murder.” Kane removed his Stetson and shook off the water droplets. “Think about it. The killer lures Alicia here with a promise of romance. She agrees to go skinny-dipping, gets undressed, and as soon as she’s in the water he attacks her. As she tried to escape in that direction.” He indicated with his chin toward the area where they’d discovered the fingerprints. “I figure he attacked from the shallow end, closing in on her so she couldn’t escape. He likely stabbed her in the chest first. She turned to get away and that’s when he inflicted the wounds to her back.”

“I would agree to that scenario.” Wolfe nodded and rubbed his chin. “I’ve examined the incision across her throat. It didn’t happen quickly.” He glanced at Kane as if expecting him to explain.

As Rio and Rowley were crowding around Kane and listening intently, Jenna gave him a nod. “You mentioned earlier you’d seen something like this before. Can you give us a rundown?”

“It would have been easier to grab the hair, tip the head back, and slice across the throat. This in itself takes a lot of force and isn’t easy by any means. The throat is very muscular, and cutting through almost to the spine, it’s more difficult than you imagine. In this case, Alicia’s attacker obviously wanted to look her in the eye when he killed her. I can see from the initial puncture wound in the area of the carotid artery he knew how to inflict the most damage. From what I could see, he used that initial stab wound as a starting point.”

“Yeah, cutting from the front requires more of a sawing motion and it would be extremely bloody. Not fast and easy like you see in the movies.” Wolfe grimaced. “The problem we have here is, if he dumped the body over the falls, he likely spent the time to wash off the blood. The flow of water being so rapid, it would have been easy enough, although there might have been traces under his nails. There are places where blood is very hard to remove.”

They spent another hour meticulously searching the entire area and found nothing, no hairs or fibers. It was as if nature had reclaimed the area and turned it back to a pristine condition. Jenna straightened after bending over for some time and groaned. It had been a very long day and every part of her was aching. Her team all looked the way she felt. She went up to them and turned to Wolfe. “Are we done here?”

“Yeah, I can’t think of another thing y’all can do.” Wolfe pushed back his Stetson and wiped his brow. “If I can get a ride back to the morgue, I’d appreciate it. With any luck, Webber will have prepared Alicia Palmer and gotten her on ice. When I get back to the office, I’ll hunt down the dentist. I figure he’ll be the best person to identify the body.”

“I’ll give you a ride.” Rowley smiled. “Do you want me to stop by Aunt Betty’s for some takeout? If you call now, it will be ready by the time we get to town.”

“Yeah, I’d appreciate it. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” Wolfe collected his things. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Ma’am?” Rowley raised one eyebrow at Jenna. “Are we good to go?”

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