Page 6 of Unnatural Death

“You’re probably familiar with the Mansons’ sporting goods store,” I say to him as we continue talking by his hearse, no one near us. “Wild World is just down the street from you. Not far from my house, for that matter.”

“Oh boy, that’s who it is? I didn’t know the owners, but I know their store quite well,” he says. “I also buy a lot of their things online. You can’t beat the prices.”

“For good reason, it seems,” I reply. “It’s likely the retail business is a front for money laundering and who knows what else. I doubt any of us will be shopping at Wild World in the future. Including me, and that’s a shame.”

The retailer’s inventory is on the scale of a Target combined with a sporting goods store. Wild World sells outdoor and athletic gear, automotive supplies, kitchenware, tactical clothing, firearms and all that goes with them. Best of all are cutlery and sharpeners well suited for autopsies. There’s an enormous selection of tools, and industrial rolls of butcher paper, tape, string and all sorts of things for a fraction of what I’d pay a forensic or surgical supplier.

“I’m assuming the victims’ criminal activities may be connected to their deaths,” Henry says. “Is that what the police are thinking?”

“I know it’s what Lucy believes. Based on what I’m learning, that’s making the most sense,” I reply. “Although there are elements to the case that are unexpected and hard to explain, as I’ve mentioned. A good example is someone trekking deep into a pitch-dark forest in the rainy early morning hours.”

“Whoever it was had to know the way and maybe was equipped with night-vision goggles,” Henry says. “Unless we’re not talking about a human. As we know, many animals can see perfectly fine at night. I remember when my father used to take me camping as a kid.If you hear a noise in the dark and something’s eyes reflect red, it’s not a human. Then he’d ask me what I was going to do about it. My answer was to pick up my shotgun and wait. He taught me not to shoot without knowing what I was pointing at.”

“A good rule of thumb,” I reply. “I’d like for you to work with me as we have before, Henry. The Secret Service will make sure that happens if you’re amenable.”

“It goes without saying that I’ll help. Do we have any idea how they died? Homicides, obviously.”

“If we’re talking about humans killing other humans, then yes,” I reply. “If an animal did it that’s a different story. As I’ve said, that’s not what I’m thinking, but for now it needs to be part of the differential.”

In the unlikely event we’re dealing with a bear or some other powerful creature, it will be game wardens tracking it down, making sure it does no further harm. In such a case I would rule the manner of death accidental. There would be no police investigation. Lucy and her colleagues would have no further legal interest or jurisdiction beyond the victims’ criminal involvements.

“For now, I’m calling the deaths unnatural,” I’m explaining to Henry. “But I don’t think a wild animal is to blame. I’ve never heard of one removing every stitch of its victims’ clothing, for example. Or spearing them with hiking poles, throwing one body in the lake, the other down into a mineshaft.”

“Good Lord. This is sounding only more disturbing, Kay.”

“And then there’s the not-so-trivial problem of a humanlike footprint, a shoeless one that’s abnormally large, if you get my drift,” I add. “Marino found it inside the abandoned mine.”

“Oh my!” Henry is visibly startled. “Fake, I’m assuming?”

“That’s probably the most likely scenario, I’m told. But to answer your question, I don’t know.”

“Have you seen a photo? Does it look real?”

“Real enough,” I admit. “But that doesn’t mean much considering the technologies available these days.”

I remind him that the sky’s the limit when it comes to the mischief and mayhem that can be created with 3-D printing. It’s increasingly sophisticated, easy to use and affordable. One can give form to all sorts of nasty thoughts without special training or leaving the house.

* * *

“It’s routine for 3-D-printed weapons to end up in the firearms lab,” I tell Henry. “Knives, guns and their pieces and parts, you name it. The other week it was a 3-D-printed nine-millimeter pistol carried by a drone. You may have heard the story on the news. An angry neighbor, and that was the attempted solution.”

“The world’s going to hell in a handbasket,” he says.

“A face mask 3-D printed from a scan of another person’s photograph can trick facial recognition software.” I give him another scenario. “Prosthetic devices might include a glove that has someone else’s fingerprints, enabling the wearer to open biometric locks.”

“And that’s what you think may be the explanation for the footprint,” Henry says. “Someone created a fake foot.”

“Or just the bottom of one that could be pressed in the dirt,” I suggest. “I have no idea except Marino finding the footprint will make working this case exponentially harder.”

“I’m not well versed in all things Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, whatever name it goes by,” Henry says. “But I do know that it’s a very popular topic around here. A sheriff’s deputy I go fishing with swears he encountered this huge shaggy thing crossing the road late one night. It was walking upright like a person, about eight feet tall, its shoulders as wide as his car. I’m not aware of a Bigfoot hurting people. Assuming it’s real.”

“I have no idea if it is or not. But there are no reliable accounts of such a thing attacking anyone. That much I do know,” I reply. “I started looking into it the minute Marino told me about the footprint he discovered between ore cart rails that go back hundreds of years. Secret Service agents arrived at the scene hours before he got there, and it would seem they hadn’t noticed it.”

“I don’t think it’s a good thing for Marino that he’s the one who found it after the police didn’t see it,” Henry says. “How can that be explained without making him look like he’s guilty of perpetrating a prank?”

“He definitely wouldn’t do anything like that, and you know it, Henry.”

“It’s not about what I know. It’s about what the media and others will do with the information.”

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