Page 24 of A Song for the Dead

“No, we don’t know her. The thing is, I didn’t clean the house, Sheriff.” Tara slumped in the seat, staring at the energy bar as if just realizing it was in her hand. “Whoever hurt Daisy is a clean freak.” She shuddered. “Oh, nooooo.” She burst into tears. “He could have been in the house when I came home. If I’d known, Daisy would be okay. I have a gun in my nightstand. I know she’s dead. I could see it in your face when you came out of the house.” She dropped the water and energy bar and pressed her hands to her face. “I can’t go back in there. Please don’t make me.”

Squeezing Tara’s arm, Jenna pulled a packet of tissues from her pocket and handed them to her. “You don’t need to go back. I’ll collect your things.” She watched the poor woman fall to pieces in front of her. She was in no state to be driving anywhere. “Is there anyone I can call?”

“No, I’ll go to my parent’s house.” Tara wiped her eyes. “I’ll be fine once I get there.”

As Wolfe’s white van appeared on the driveway, followed closely by Rio’s truck, Jenna sucked in a breath of relief. “Just wait a little longer.” She pulled the notebook out of her pocket and handed it with a pen to Tara. “Make a list of anything important you need me to pack for you. I’ll leave Deputy Rowley with you while I grab your things. He’ll drive you to your parents. Okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Tara blew her nose. “Who is going to tell Daisy’s mom?”

A dark cloud of sorrow dropped over Jenna’s shoulders. Informing next of kin was her worst nightmare. She patted Tara on the arm. “I will.”

THIRTY

Kane whistled Duke to his side and walked slowly around the house. The driveway extended along one side, curling around back to stop in front of an old shed. He pulled out his phone and took images of the disturbed grass in the backyard. The dirt was dry and hard-packed but some of the overgrown weeds had been bent over, suggesting a vehicle had used the area to turn around. He searched around but found no tire tracks, oil spills, or anything else and went to examine the back door. He used his phone light to illuminate the lock. Peering inside, he made out evidence to indicate the lock had been professionally picked. “This is how he got inside. No deadbolt on the back door, just a regular lock, maybe thirty years old.” He patted Duke on the head. “I figure he carried the body out this way.” He pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and opened it for Duke to smell the pair of socks he’d found in Daisy’s room. “Seek.”

Duke moved back and forth, from the door to the driveway, and stopped twice. Once, he returned to the back door and stood on his hind legs, barked, and sat down. Kane walked to the door and turned the handle. The door swung open and he could hear Wolfe giving orders from inside. “What do you smell, boy?” He scanned the floor and then inside the door found a small patch of discoloration on the paintwork of the doorframe. “Good boy.” He took images and waved Duke away. “Seek.”

Duke retraced his steps with his head moving back and forth, tail sticking out behind him like a rudder. When he reached the driveway, he barked and sat down again. Kane hurried over and dropped to his knees to examine the ground. Small brownish watery marks, as if something had been rested on the concrete driveway, stood out clearly. He took more photos and took a piece of chalk from his pocket and circled the mark. He glanced up as Jenna came around the side of the house and stood. “He carried her out the back door and had his vehicle parked here, out of sight. Duke found what could be blood on the doorframe and again here on the driveway.”

“That sounds like he carried her out wrapped in the blankets, maybe rested her on the ground to open the back of a truck or a van?” Jenna chewed on her bottom lip. “That blows our theory that he carries the bodies around in bags.”

Kane shook his head and waved a hand around. “Look at this place. There’s no one close enough to see what he’s doing. It could have floodlights, and no one would see. He could have dropped her into a bag here, and that’s where he rested her to put her inside.” He walked back and forth. “If he placed her in a fetal position before he wrapped her, like he’s done before, that would account for the smear on the doorframe. It’d be difficult to carry her and open the door at the same time.”

“Maybe he left the door open?” Jenna tapped her bottom lip with her finger. “We’ve already established when someone’s in the shower they don’t hear anything, and he’d be sneaking around. If he knew the movements of both women, he’d know how much time he had to kill and leave. He wouldn’t know if Tara usually spoke to Daisy when she got home. Maybe the time for Tara to arrive home was getting close, so he bundled up Daisy and got out of the house. He dumped her into his truck and drove away before anyone noticed him. Maybe he took her straight to the burial site?”

Kane shook his head. “No one is that crazy. Digging a grave at night maybe, but carrying a blood-soaked body through the forest at night? He’d have every predator on him in seconds. They’d scent a fresh kill and he wouldn’t survive, let alone have time to bury the body.” He blew out a breath and then rubbed the back of his neck. “I figure he drives a big covered truck or a van. He would go home as usual and bag up the body. He probably soaks the van in something to hide the smell. Or maybe he carries bags of fertilizer, they stink. It has to be someone like that, who can move bodies around without people noticing.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Jenna looked toward the back door as Wolfe’s voice called her name. “Ah, Shane’s finished processing Tara’s bedroom. I’ll go and pack up her things.” She smiled at him. “Jo and Carter are out front. Can you bring them up to date? Rio will help me. I’ll tell Wolfe about the blood you found.”

Nodding, Kane watched her go. As professional as always, they worked together like a well-oiled machine, and he’d been worried marriage and then adopting Tauri might have put a strain on their working relationship. Many had expected her to retire, and there’d been speculation around town his name would be on the ballot for the next sheriff’s election. He’d never take Jenna’s place as sheriff, but the idea had entered the mayor’s mind. If Jenna decided to step down, they’d both leave and take Tauri and head for a safer place. As he headed back to the front of the house, he smiled to himself, and shook his head. Jenna step down as sheriff? Nah, she’d still be out there protecting people when she was pushing a walker.

“Hey, there you are.” Ty Carter stood hands on hips, grinning around a toothpick, his Doberman, Zorro, by his side. “So, the Halloween Slasher, huh? What have you discovered?”

After nodding to Jo and bringing them up to date, Kane removed his examination gloves and rolled them into a ball. “So what do you think, Jo?”

“If what you say is true and it sounds logical, then this guy is single and lives alone. He’d need to move around without anyone noticing him coming and going. So somewhere like this place, not far from town but secluded.” Jo paused a beat thinking. “He has a day job, likely shift work, or he works more than one job, odd hours and moves around in plain sight. Like you mentioned, a delivery driver, a gardener, an occupation that would normally carry things around, so people don’t think it’s unusual. Look at gardeners, they carry shovels, rakes, and bags of rubbish. No one would look twice at them and they work all hours.”

“That takes in a list of contractors as long as my arm.” Carter rubbed his chin. “You figure he carries the bodies out in bags during the day, but not this time. Is that because it was dark when he left and out here nobody is going to see him?”

Leaning against the Beast, Kane pushed his hands into his jacket pockets. “Yeah, we thought of that too. A gardener carries bags of leaves and grass, so that’s a possible. Mail carrier, the ones that move letters between post offices, or a postal worker who delivers and picks up mail. They carry bags and they wouldn’t be noticed.”

“Someone who picks up kills from the hunters and takes them to the processing plant.” Carter stared into space and then looked at Kane. “He’d have a reefer, even at this time of year to keep the game chilled. He’d be waiting for game to come to him and be back and forth from sunup until sunset. If anyone noticed his truck parked on a fire road, they wouldn’t think twice about it.”

Kane glanced over to see Jenna coming out of the house carrying bags with Rio loaded up beside her. He hurried over to help. “She needs all this stuff?”

“Yeah.” Jenna headed to Tara’s SUV. “She’s not planning on coming back anytime soon. This is personal belongings. I guess later she’ll get a moving company to haul out the rest of their belongings and take it somewhere.”

As they approached, Rowley climbed out and opened the hatch of the SUV. Kane looked at him. “You should drive and Rio will follow you. Tara is in shock, maybe advise her parents to call a doctor. Make sure you get all the details to the Louan sheriff. They’ll keep an eye on the house, but I don’t believe she was the target. Seems to me, the killer likes them small, probably so he can carry them a distance.” He glanced over as Tara climbed from the driver’s seat. “Tara is tall, maybe five-nine and heavy. From the images in the house of Daisy, she’s tiny, five-three, and slim build. That’s the same as Freya.”

“Okay.” Rowley glanced over his shoulder to the house. “Same MO?”

Kane nodded. “Yeah, I’m afraid so. Did you find anything in your drone search?”

“Nothing that looked like graves, a few piles of entrails are all so far.” Rowley removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair. “I hope Wolfe finds something on this guy. He’ll kill his third victim soon, won’t he?”

Nodding, Kane cleared his throat. “I figure we have a couple of days to catch him. When you’re done here, head back out and continue the drone search. If we can discover a gravesite, we’ll catch him.” He stared toward Jenna. “I know we haven’t found evidence to point to any suspects, but we have a great team, and just need to trust our instincts.”

THIRTY-ONE

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