Page 2 of A Song for the Dead

Relieved to be heading back to the office and the warm, Jenna spun around to her deputies. “Take a break and then head back to the office. We’re done here for now.” She ducked under the crime scene tape and followed Kane and their bloodhound, Duke, back through the forest. “I sure hope we get all those bodies to the surface before the first snow or it’s going to be April before we know what’s happened here.”

TWO

Although no smell of death lingered at the gravesite, Jenna had worn a mask. She peeled it off and inhaled the fresh pine-scented air with a hint of snow. The mountaintops already had a generous coating of white powder and hinted at a hard winter—or a good winter for the ski resort. She could hear her deputies coming up behind her on the trail.

“What do you figure is going on?” Rowley caught up to her. “I scouted around in a wide area with Blackhawk when he reported the graves and we only found traces of one burned-out cabin. All that remained were a few blackened stumps. The rest had been reclaimed by the forest.”

In a somber mood, Jenna looked at him. “That’s interesting. Not that we’d find any evidence after so long, but maybe we should take a look next time we’re here. I actually hope they did die of illness. There are too many murders in my county and knowing they’ve been happening for years before I arrived in town is chilling.”

“It doesn’t help that the filing system was nonexistent before you took office.” Kane whistled to Duke, who had wandered off in the opposite direction. “It was like pulling teeth searching through death notices in old newspapers and the like trying to discover what went on here before we arrived.”

“Tell her everything you know about this area.” Rio wound his way between the trees, making his own path back to the fire road where they’d left their vehicles. “Everything is significant in cold cases.”

“You know the old cabins up at the top of Bear Peak?” Rowley’s shoulders sagged and the tips of his ears pinked. “They were a hangout for me and some of the kids from school. There’s a road that goes from the highway to the cabins.”

Wondering where this was leading, Jenna stopped walking to look at him. “Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s some ways from here. Too far to carry a body.”

“At Halloween, the kids would dare each other to go down the path and into the forest.” Rowley cleared his throat. “There’s a cabin about five hundred yards from the foot of the mountain. Local legend says a crazy old man haunts it and he comes out each Halloween to hack people to death with an ax.”

“Seems to me there’s a truckload of haunted places in Black Rock Falls.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “Those of you who believe in ghosts and put yourself in danger as kids due to peer pressure are lucky to be alive. Those stories often have a grain of truth. There may well have been an ax murderer there in the past, or a bear tore someone to pieces. Either way, kids are just offering themselves up to potential psychopaths by engaging in a myth. Who knows when a real crazy person might be waiting for the next batch of innocents to slaughter?” He grinned and wiggled his fingers at them. “Woo woo.”

“I don’t believe in ghosts.” Rio grinned at Rowley. “You do, right?” He chuckled. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a common thing and what would the world be without horror movies?”

“I was a kid then but now I’m a father, so I don’t get scared easy.” Rowley straightened. “Seems to me, being raised here has benefits. I know all the inside information.”

The image of the blonde hair on the skeleton had stuck in Jenna’s mind. “That poor girl in that grave isn’t a ghost and we need to know what happened to her and the others. The one thing I noticed is the grave is deep. It’s taken Norrell forever to uncover the body. It’s as if the grave was dug before the murder or whatever.”

“Yeah, but where did she die? Carrying a body from the fire road wouldn’t be easy for most people.” Kane straightened. “They’d be on an adrenaline high for the murder, but that usually wears off, leaving a person exhausted. Unless they killed them on scene, but then getting someone to walk into a forest to be killed wouldn’t be easy either. This is a hunting area, people, and forest wardens could be around from dawn until dusk, and no woman would walk in here after dark. Not willingly.”

Running possible scenarios through her mind, Jenna shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. We’ve had killers who hunt their prey. He might have driven her here on a date, let her out of the vehicle, and chased her down. There are endless possibilities, but I still believe after seeing the unfinished grave, he dug the graves first. Usually, killers wouldn’t be so careful. Digging a grave that deep wouldn’t be easy alone. Shallow graves are what we usually see, although most just dump the bodies and run.”

“In LA the murder cases I handled were mostly in situ.” Rio walked along a wider path beside Jenna. “People murdered in their homes or on the streets, in parking lots, shot in stores. We had a few who dumped the bodies, but then I wasn’t dealing with a serial killer. It seems many of them hide their kills.”

Trying to keep all the horrific crime scenes out of her mind, Jenna glanced at him. “It’s impossible to rationalize a psychopathic killer. They all have their own little eccentricities, all have so many different psychoses, it’s impossible to really know what’s going on inside their heads. Trying to figure out their next move is practically impossible. Although with the help of Jo Wells, we’ve gotten close.”

Special Agent Jo Wells, a behavioral analyst working out of the Snakeskin Gully field office with her partner, Agent Ty Carter, an ex-SEAL, had become close friends and having them close by, along with computer whiz kid Bobby Kalo, a teenage hacker who worked for the FBI, had been priceless.

As they stepped out onto the fire road and headed for Kane’s tricked-out bombproof truck affectionately known as the Beast, Jenna smiled at Rowley as Kane slid behind the wheel. Kane liked speed, and from the way his stomach was rumbling, he wouldn’t be waiting around before heading to the diner. “We’ll meet you in Aunt Betty’s Café. I’ll save you a seat.”

THREE

As he ducked through the legs of a giant spider and stepped inside Aunt Betty’s Café, Kane inhaled the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and pumpkin pie. His dog, Duke, wiggled his backside at the sight of Susie Hartwig, the diner’s manager, and was greeted by a smile. Duke, being a patrol dog and carrying his own deputy’s shield attached to his collar, was allowed anywhere when accompanied by a law enforcement officer. Kane waited for Jenna to order and wanted to add his own, when Wendy, the assistant manager, pulled him to one side. He glanced at Jenna. “Order me the pie. Wendy needs a word.”

“Okay.” Jenna glanced at her watch. “It’s lunchtime. Do you want a burger and fries as well?”

Nodding, Kane grinned at her. It had taken him some time to get Jenna to come to terms with his voracious appetite. “Sure, thanks.”

He walked a short distance away, wondering why Wendy would want to speak to him alone. He looked into her troubled eyes and frowned. “Is there a problem?”

“There might be, but I feel stupid if there isn’t.” Wendy’s eyes slid to the line of customers and back to him, but her head didn’t move.

Sensing the agitation, Kane nodded. “Whatever is worrying you, you know you can come to me anytime. I won’t think you’re stupid. What’s wrong?”

“You know those phone extension sticks or whatever they’re called?” Wendy moved her eyes to the line of customers and back to him and then lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “That guy in the line, the one in the green jacket, has been using his phone to… I believe… take pictures up women’s skirts, particularly the schoolgirls.” She looked stricken. “I was buying groceries and he was in the store doing the same thing yesterday. I think he’s a creep.” She took a sharp intake of breath. “He’s doing it now, right in front of the sheriff.”

Kane turned around and scanned the line of people waiting to order. Lunchtime was always busy in Aunt Betty’s, but Susie always moved anyone from the sheriff’s department to the front of the line. Time usually being of the essence, deputies dropped by for a quick snack before heading back to work. They also had a couple of reserved tables at the back of the diner and Jenna was heading in that direction. He watched the guy with the phone, holding it down beside one leg on an extension and then moving it toward a young woman and aiming it under her long coat. As they moved forward in the line, he slid it under a teenager’s skirt. Kane turned to Wendy. “Go and tell Jenna I’ll be delayed. Mind if I use your office?”

“Go right ahead.” Wendy nodded. “I’ll tell Susie as well and she’ll hold your burger.”

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