Page 15 of A Song for the Dead

Glad to have Kane at her back, Jenna negotiated the undergrowth and tangled roots along the trail. “It would have been good if they’d caught him and he was in jail somewhere.” She ducked under a low branch and held it back for Kane. “I find it unnerving but interesting to interview serial killers. I believe it slams home the fact how dangerous they are and how easily they can deceive people. Watching them change from seemingly normal to a person intent on murdering you in an instant really shocked me. All I could think of at the time was that’s the same expression their victims saw just before he took their lives.”

“A sobering thought, but what they reveal can be helpful.” Kane moved silently behind her. “The main thing for me was that they don’t need a reason to murder. It’s like saying to a young kid, ‘Why did you eat that candy?’ The kid would say, ‘Because it was there’ or ‘Because I wanted to.’ It’s as if the part of them that decides what is right and what is wrong was never taught to them. Adults teach behavior, and for a time, I wondered if this was the foundation for a serial killer, but we know now it can be genetic or caused by extreme emotional distress as a child.”

Thinking through what he said, Jenna kept moving, following Blackhawk through the zebra-stripe shadows across the trail. “Maybe it’s a bit of both. They do have a genetic tendency, but we know not all psychopaths end up murdering people, but a bad childhood is a defining factor.” She cleared her throat. “With luck, Freya may have been the victim of a jealous lover from her past. She remains a mystery as well. We know she worked plenty of jobs. She could have easily snubbed the wrong person.”

“Whoever he is, he knows how to cover his tracks.” Kane came to her side as they reached the other burial site. “He took the body with him. That’s a risky move. The question running through my head is why he did that. He broke in and murdered her. Most killers would walk out and hope no one saw them, but not him. He’s so confident. I mean, who takes a shower at a crime scene? It makes me believe he’s done this before. It’s well planned. There has to be more murders. I hope Kalo will be able to find similar MOs from different states. We might have another visitor hellbent on joining Serial Killer Central’s hall of fame.”

EIGHTEEN

On his knees between two open graves, Wolfe held up a hand to stop the excavation of the one he’d been supervising. “Hold up, I see something. Go slow now.”

“It’s a blanket.” Matty from Norrell’s team brushed soil away and moved along the bundled mass of filthy bed linen with Colt Webber beside him, gently extracting loose dirt, until the shape of a body was uncovered.

Taking great care, Wolfe lifted the edge of the blanket to find a bloodstained pillowcase, the blood long turned to a rusty orange but easily recognizable. He moved his fingers over the pillowcase and turned to Norrell. “We have a body here, same as before. I suggest getting this one out in situ. You can unwrap it in an examination room. It looks fragile, we’ll need to get it onto a board for support.”

“Yeah, same, but this one is out.” Norrell was kneeling beside a body bag. “I also found a pillowcase over the head. The body is naked and wrapped in blankets. It looks like it was buried the same time as before, around six or seven years ago. I figure these are the three missing girls from the Halloween Slasher from seven years ago.” She waved a hand at the body bag. “I’ll leave uncovering the head until I’m back in the lab, but I can plainly see the same knife marks on the sternum and ribs as before.” She looked at him. Her eyes showed her despair. “Another homicide as we suspected.” She held up an evidence bag. “There’s a phone tucked in with the body. This body was wrapped really tight and had binding string holding it together. The body isn’t stretched out, but it’s like the other one, in a fetal position.”

Wolfe stood as Norrell’s expert team slid the corpse onto a backboard and removed the victim from the grave and deposited it into a body bag. “When you’re done, search the grave in case there’s something else in there.”

He walked to Norrell’s side. “I’d normally see a body in the fetal position when someone is left to die and they curl up in pain, or from a fire, but from what we’ve seen so far, these women died in seconds. It’s impossible to live with the injuries they sustained.”

“So, he posed them for some reason, wrapped and bound them with string.” Norrell looked at him. “Why? Wouldn’t that make them harder to move?”

Nodding, Wolfe glanced up as Jenna, Kane, and Blackhawk came back on scene. He brought them up to date. “We were wondering why he bound them in a fetal position. It would make them difficult to transport. Any suggestions?”

“I’ve seen the guys who mow lawns and tend gardens hauling the clippings away in a big bag.” Blackhawk shrugged. “Maybe this killer runs a gardening service. No one would notice him dragging bags around, would they?”

“Good thinking, but wouldn’t he dump them at the landfill?” Jenna rubbed her temples. “Why go to all the trouble of burying them in threes out here? It’s a massive landfill. It would be easy to lose a body there, wrapped and mixed with lawn clippings. No one sorts through the garbage. It’s just pushed from one place to another and then covered with dirt.”

“I figure it’s going to be interesting to discover if they all have a phone belonging to the girl who died before them.” Kane stared into the grave Wolfe had excavated. “If she has one, we’ll know who is in the other set of three graves.”

Wolfe shook his head. “And if all three have them, it will be like the chicken and the egg. How many people has this guy murdered and where are the bodies?”

“Maybe we should start with the other three graves.” Jenna stood hands on hips staring into the shadowed forest. “If they’re the same, we’ve solved six cold cases by locating the bodies. If the Halloween Slasher made one mistake when he recorded the murders, our technology today will pick up more than he anticipated.”

“Or, if we discover Freya Richardson’s body with a phone belonging to Lydia Ellis, the first victim we uncovered from this gravesite, at least we’ll know for sure it’s the same killer.” Kane stared at the body bags shaking his head. “If it is, then something stopped him from completing his three sets of three. I figure this is an element of this crime we need to explore.” He moved his attention back to Jenna. “If he’s back to complete his fantasy or mission in life, whatever, where has he been for the last seven years?”

“That’s something we need to look into.” Jenna blew out a long sigh. “Who was jailed for seven years, would be a start. Who died around the same time, is another consideration until we find Freya Richardson’s remains.”

“I know you need information ASAP from the other graves.” Norrell pushed a strand of blonde hair from her face with her forearm. “If you assist with carrying the bodies back to Wolfe’s van, we’ll grab a twenty-minute break to rest our backs and then head to the other burial site. I want the information as much as you do. This case is intriguing, but I can’t expect my team to dig graves all day.”

Wolfe surveyed the team of young healthy males and barked a laugh. “Maybe you need to suggest fitness training? They’re going to be spending a good deal of their time hiking up mountain trails and digging in all weather, riding horses and working long hours.” He cast an eye over the young men. “Y’all need to be fit. You never know when y’all have to run for your lives, from a grizzly or a serial killer.”

“Maybe some firearms training as well.” Kane shrugged. “It’s Montana. Not knowing at least the basics about weapons is a big mistake. Three guys should be adequate protection for Norrell, if you were armed. Going unarmed out here in the wilderness is asking for trouble.”

“They rarely left the lab before coming here with me.” Norrell frowned at him. “It wasn’t necessary, but I can see your point.” She looked at her team. “I work out with Dr. Wolfe every morning to keep fit. If you like, I’ll arrange for some fitness classes for you.” She turned to Kane. “If I recall, Rowley attends a dojo in town to keep in peak condition. Maybe he can talk to my team and get them motivated to join.”

“Yeah.” Kane nodded. “Good choice. They start off slow and build up their skills in various martial arts. It takes time. It wouldn’t hurt to hit the gym in town a few times a week as well.”

“Okay, enough talk about fitness.” Jenna looked from one to the other. “Let’s get these bodies back to the van. We have Thermoses of coffee and enough food to feed an army in the truck.”

Wolfe looked at Kane and Atohi and raised his eyebrows. “Can you lend a hand carrying the bodies to the van? I figure these guys need a break.”

“No.” Leo straightened and looked at the other members of Norrell’s team. “Matty and Tara will help me. We only need one other to assist.” His ear’s pinked as he looked at Kane. “I’ll take you up on the firearms training if you have the time, and who do we talk to about joining the dojo?”

“Sure, and I’ll help you carry the bodies.” Kane smiled at him. “I’ll send Rowley over to have a chat with you. He’s around your age. Not long ago he was on a rope bridge that broke. If he hadn’t been fit, he’d have fallen into the ravine.” He shrugged. “Exercise is tough to start but it gets easy soon enough and then it becomes second nature to want to keep fit. We’re only mentioning this for your own good. It’s not in the job description, and if you don’t want to do anything, we won’t hold it against you, okay?”

“Thanks.” Leo nodded. “I’m in.”

---