Page 7 of A Song for the Dead

They hurried outside and climbed into the Beast to the accompaniment of Duke’s thumping tail. As Kane turned to rub Duke’s ears and gave him a doggy treat, Jenna put the phone on speaker. “Okay, we’re in the truck.” She explained about the Halloween Slasher. “That’s all we have for now. What do you have for me?”

“The killing in threes is pertinent information as we seem to have two sets of three victims. The other interesting discovery is the phone Norrell discovered with the body. It belongs to Josephine Wade. I found information on her. She went missing from here some years back. I have her dental records and the girl in the grave isn’t her. The thing is, there’s a voice recording on the phone and it’s confronting. The killer has recorded the actual murder, but he refers to her as Lydia. The voice is distorted, so I’m only assuming it’s male.”

Disturbed, Jenna stared at Kane and swallowed the bile creeping up the back of her throat. “Am I to understand he recorded himself killing?”

“Yeah, in brutal detail.”Wolfe took a deep breath. “Like I said, it’s confronting, but from what I can hear, the echo from the screams, it could easily have been in a bathroom. I haven’t listened to all of it, but I believe he took a shower after the murder. He wasn’t in a hurry. I’ll need to go back to the current crime scene and examine the shower. I need to know if there’s any blood residue or hairs we can use. If there is something, and this killer makes a habit of showering after the murder, he is well organized and knows the victims’ movements.”

“We have a Lydia Ellis missing from Louan.” Kane frowned. “Can you hunt down her dental records? I’ll send you her details.”

“Not a problem. There’s only one dentist in Louan. You mentioned in the current case that Freya Richardson has a phone missing? I believe, even considering the cases are wide apart in time, they might be connected. If we find another phone in any of the graves, I figure this guy is playing a sick form of paying it forward. I mean, maybe he took the phone from the first girl he killed, and he’s using it to record the next murder and so on.”Wolfe let out a long sigh. “We’ll need to open the other graves ASAP. I want to know if this is the case because it would link all the murders.”

Trying to get her head around the incredulity of what Wolfe had just told her, Jenna sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, ask if Norrell can identify the victim she has in her examination room from the dental records. I’m chasing up crime scene images from Louan. We have nothing in our old files, but I’ll recheck.”

“Okay.”Jenna could hear Wolfe’s office chair squeak as he stood, followed by footsteps on tile.“I’ll send Webber to pull the shower apart at the crime scene and I’ll head over to speak to Norrell. I’ll see if we can move ahead with the exhumations. I’ll have the dental records for confirmation before the end of the day.”He disconnected.

NINE

Mulling over the case similarities, Kane headed for Aunt Betty’s Café. The soothing comfort of the diner took the edge off when it came to disturbing crimes. Just going there was like walking into a different world, a place protected from the horrors all around it, like the memories he had of his grandma’s kitchen. He could almost feel her hugging him every time he walked inside and inhaled the aromas of baking. Jenna had said nothing since leaving the library. Her head bent over her tablet, she was making formal requests for viewing the case files on the missing Louan women. As he pulled up outside Aunt Betty’s, he smiled at the giant spider, legs spread to form an archway into the diner. The display was growing daily and now an old witch sat at a table outside before a crystal ball, red eyes flashing and cackling when people walked by. Behind him, Duke was on his feet, mouth open and stretched into a doggy smile as if he found the display amusing. His thick tail banged against the seat. The one place he liked above home was Aunt Betty’s Café.

“Okay, I’m done here. Let’s go eat. I’m starving.” Jenna pulled her cap over her ears, pulled up her hood, and slid from the truck.

A cold wind buffeted Kane as he stood on the sidewalk. It came in gusts, determined to slam the door on Duke before he had his harness unhitched from the back seat. The rush of mountain air made the skeletons and other decorations rattle and howl. Sometimes a strange eerie whistling sound would reach his ears. It was as if the wind was getting involved in the Halloween spirit by adding its own twist on the spookiness. He followed Jenna inside and went to one side of the counter, Susie had erected a small sign that saidsheriff’s department. It saved arguments from the people lining up to order or pick up. As usual, the diner was busy, more so this week because, being a notorious town, tourists flocked here over Halloween to join the murder scene or haunted house bus tours that had become popular and attracted people from all over the US just to be frightened. Kane shook his head. Just watching the news was frightening enough these days, and what he and Jenna experienced dealing with psychopathic murderers was nothing he planned to share with anyone, but terrifyingly came close.

After waiting for Jenna to order, Kane smiled at Susie. “What do you recommend? I’m cold and hungry.”

“Well, we had a special order for barbecue ribs that went out just before. We made extra because they’re always popular. I have some great sides to go with the ribs: smoked corn on the cob, baked potatoes, coleslaw, baked beans with ground beef and bacon. Oh, and the pie today is cherry.”

Kane’s stomach gave an undignified rumble that sounded like the thunder rolling through the mountains, and he rubbed it and gave Susie an apologetic stare. “Yeah, that sounds wonderful.”

“All of it?” Susie stared back at him, her eyes wide.

Nodding, Kane indicated Duke. “Yeah, and the usual for Duke. Add it to our tab. We’re up to date with paying you, I hope?”

“Sure, Maggie fixes us up every Friday.” Susie scratched away on her order book and ripped off the top page and handed it to the chef behind the partition. She smiled at Kane. “Take a seat. I’ll send someone over with a pot of coffee. It won’t be long.”

As he shucked his coat and removed his gloves, he could see Jenna smiling at him. “I’m guessing you went with the ribs? Now you can have them twice this week. I’m having them too.”

He sat down. “I get hungry just walking inside the door. I don’t get time to cook ribs on the weekend. Maybe I could, but it takes time and we never know when we’re going to be called out for something. Good ribs take dedication.”

“Changing the subject.” Jenna’s expression turned serious. “We’ll need to drop by Wolfe’s office and listen to the recording.”

Kane nodded. It wasn’t something he’d enjoy. “Yeah, Wolfe’s great at anything technical but I figure we should speak to Carter about it.” He sighed. “The FBI has so many resources we can use. There may be things our ears might miss. They can enhance the track and bring out background sounds. We should make a copy and send the original to whoever deals with old recordings.”

“Do you figure Bobby Kalo is capable or is it a specialist thing?” Jenna smiled when the coffee arrived.

Kane leaned back in his chair. “I’ll ask him.”

“Hi, Wendy.” Jenna smiled at the woman delivering their coffee. “I hear you had a prowler.”

“Oh, maybe just a kid playing tricks on me.” Wendy shrugged. “It was so dark and misty when I arrived home. With the neighbors away and my dog at the vet, it was spooky being all alone. I felt much better after Deputy Rio arrived. He made sure everything was safe.”

“That’s good to know.” Jenna met her gaze. “You did the right thing, calling it in. Keeping everyone safe is our priority.”

“Thanks. I’ll go and get your meals.” Wendy headed back to the kitchen.

Kane poured cream into his cup and added sugar. “She seems fine. I’m sure if she were concerned, she’d have told us.” He pulled out his phone and called Kalo to explain the situation.

“So, it’s an old phone, right? You should still be able to plug it into your laptop, access the sound file, and send it to me. I don’t need the phone. The files will be identical.”Bobby sounded confident.“I have access to all types of equipment. The magic of living in an age of technology is we don’t have to rely on being anywhere in particular. We just send a file to a program and get a result. Too easy.”

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