Relieved, Kane nodded to Jenna. “Okay, we’re heading over to listen to it after lunch. I’ll send you a copy as soon as I’ve downloaded it from the phone. Thanks for doing this for us.”
“That’s what we’re here for.”Kalo cleared his throat.“My ears only, or do you want Jo’s and Carter’s slant on the murder?”
Having the top FBI behavioral analyst in their local field office was a bonus. He glanced at Jenna, who nodded enthusiastically. “Sure, we’d value their input. Just mention this is a cold case—we think six to ten years old—but it might have a link to a case we’re working now.”
“Gotcha. Chat soon.”Bobby disconnected.
The meal arrived and Kane surveyed the plates all around him and sighed in delight. “Now that’s what I call a meal.”
TEN
Apprehension slowed Jenna’s steps into the ME’s office. The inquisitive cop side of her wanted to know exactly what had happened to the victim tossed into a grave in Stanton Forest; the other side would rather not listen to someone being brutally murdered. As her stomach went into freefall, she came to the realization the latter was winning. The fact that fear, along with nightmares from the recent cases, still lingered after witnessing a murder troubled her. The terrifying ordeal of coming so close to death hadn’t left her and she’d discussed her problems with Kane. Not wanting anything to impact her new role as a mom to Tauri or her job as sheriff, she’d taken therapy sessions to work through her problems. She’d seen so many gruesome crimes and mangled bodies over the last few years that she believed she’d become titanium, but in truth, being human and having deep sorrow for the victims and fear of the perpetrator was perfectly normal.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this, Jenna?” Kane took her hand and ran his thumb over the back. “I can listen and give you an outline. You don’t need to put yourself through this, it’s not essential.”
Tension thrummed through Jenna with every step closer to Wolfe’s office, but she lifted her head and smiled at him. “I need to, Dave. The victims need me to listen and it’s my duty to be here for them, but I’ll try and not attach myself emotionally to them. I’ll listen to the facts, rather than get afraid.”
“No, Jenna. We can never cut ourselves off from the fact this is a person being murdered. What I want you to do is listen around the actual crime. You know, this woman was terrified and murdered, but it’s over now and it should be just like watching a movie. It’s not you this is happening to.” Kane squeezed her hand. “We know what happened to the woman, right? What we need to be listening for is what happened before, and clues to what the killer was doing. Was he already in the house? What happened just before he murdered her? What did he do afterward? Did he say anything? We need a timeline of the crime. Try and disassociate from the actual murder. Wolfe is the one who will be concentrating on that part of things. We need to do the investigating.”
Jenna looked at him. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I’ve listened to communications of troops KIA to determine what actually happened.” Kane shook his head. “I knew many of them and it was difficult, but knowing exactly what went wrong was crucial. That’s what I concentrated on, rather than the cries of the dying.”
Nodding, Jenna straightened her spine, suddenly realizing she had been so wound up she hadn’t noticed the awful smell of the morgue. “Okay, let’s do this.”
They sat around Wolfe’s desk as he played a downloaded file from the phone. Jenna listened closely. The first thing she heard was a shower running, followed by a slight rustling sound and a few sharp intakes of breath. “Stop it there.” She looked at Wolfe. “He’s inside the house, but from the rustling sounds and heavy breathing, I figure he’s undressing.”
“Could be. That’s interesting.” Wolfe rewound the recording and they listened again. “Hmm, hear that slight tapping sound, the tips of shoelaces hitting tile. I’ve heard that exact noise when I’ve been to the gym and changed out of my sneakers. So, we can assume he’s in a tiled area, maybe the kitchen?”
The recording progressed: a soft brush of feet on carpet as he entered what Jenna assumed was the bedroom, followed by a grunt as blankets and sheets were pulled from the bed and presumably laid out on the floor. The sound of water running came in the background as if from another room and then the sound increased as if the bathroom door had been opened. Heavy breathing and then a slight tapping sound. Jenna leaned closer to the laptop. “I know that sound. I hear it each time I place my phone on the vanity. He’s in the bathroom.”
Nothing happened for a minute or so and then the unmistakable sound of someone opening the shower door. A soft sliding noise as a towel was pulled from a rack and then a woman’s voice.
“What?”Her voice came out in a bubbly moan as a struggle ensued. Grunts and the squeak of feet on tiles, soft thuds and groans.“Stop, please stop.”The woman was fighting for her life.
“Maybe I don’t want to.”A man’s muffled voice.“Maybe I like cutting you.”
The slicing sound, as a knife tore through flesh followed by the bubbling last breaths from the victim sickened her. Heart pounding, Jenna could almost see a gush of blood hitting a tiled wall in spurts. It could only mean one thing: he’d cut her throat and then gone into a frenzy. The thuds as a sharp blade hit deep into soft tissue were unmistakable. Nauseous, Jenna dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands as the poor woman gurgled her last breath. As the sound of a body slipping to the floor in a splash of blood came through the speakers, she heard a sigh of contentment and then a male voice.
“Happy Halloween, Lydia.”
He’d killed her in seconds.
“Keep listening.” Wolfe paused the recording and stared at Jenna. “The worst part is over, but the next part is crucial. I want you to think on the Freya Richardson crime scene we’ve just processed as you listen. Consider what we’ve seen and listen as it plays out. It could be the same scene. It’s the same MO. I’d bet on it.”
The next sound they heard was the shower running again and a man singing. When he turned off the water, his wet footsteps could be heard across the tile. He slid a towel from the rail and then opened a closet, muttering to himself. The closet door closed and his footsteps vanished before the snap of examination gloves are clearly heard.
“I don’t figure he’s dressed at this stage.” Wolfe looked at Jenna again. “He likely has taken towels from the closet, and maybe has one wrapped around him.”
The man grunts and then a slithering sound as if a body is being dragged across the floor. Jenna can see it in her mind’s eye as she recalls the gruesome crime scene on Elm.
“It sounds like he has her feet and is dragging her into the bedroom.” Wolfe looked at her across the desk. “It’s as if we’re listening to Freya’s murder. The crime scene y’all witnessed, I could walk through it using this recording. It’s how I see her murder went down in my head.”
The voice on the recording startled Jenna. It was soft, almost a whisper.
“Sit up, Lydia, or you’ll drip blood all over the sheets. There’s a good girl.”Another grunt as the man hauls the body onto the blankets.“Curl up nice and tight and I’ll wrap you up. I need to fit you into the bag.”
Holding up one hand to stop the playback, Jenna stared at Kane. “This is new. Since when do killers care about women after they’ve killed them?” She pushed a hand through her hair. “Why is he removing the body from the scene? He knows what he’s doing. Cleaning up means logical thought.”