Blood Legacy

by C. M. Sutter

  That evening, Renz and I had shared a conversation over drinks at Hal’s Hole in the Wall, a bar three blocks from our hotel. After an hour of casual talk and drinks, we enjoyed the exercise and fresh country air as we walked to the hotel.

  “Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll get the information we need,” I said. “We can follow up on the adoption angle, if there is one, and the names that we can cross-reference between livestock auction houses.” I was hopeful as I glanced at Renz. “It could be a productive day after all.”

  “It could be. Keep your fingers crossed.” Renz checked the time on his watch. “It’s pretty late. I think we should call it a night. Meet up in the breakfast room at seven o’clock?”

  “Sounds good to me. See you then.”

  We parted in the hallway, and I went to room seven while Renz went to room nine. I was too tired to shower and went straight to bed without a good night message to Amber. I planned to text her after breakfast, but right then, all I wanted to do was sleep.

  The next morning, I woke to my ringing phone. I forced my eyes open since they weren’t quite ready to face the day. I rolled over and picked up my phone, squinting to see whose name was on the screen. It was Renz.

  “Damn it, DeLeon. I could use another hour of sleep.”

  “Sorry. We aren’t in Taft’s time zone, but she texted me to call her as soon as we were vertical. After she said that, I had to respond, so I did.”

  “Call her?”

  “Yep.”

  I yawned into my phone. “So, what was so urgent?”

  “She got a call just before she texted me. I guess it took since yesterday afternoon for the information to pass through the different chains of command between the police, sheriff’s office, and medical examiner’s office here in Montana before they realized what they had right in front of them.”

  I needed to stop his rambling. “Renz, just tell me why she called.”

  “A dead man was found not far from a dead mountain lion at the base of a mountain in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.”

  I rubbed my eyes, tossed back the blankets, and got up. I put Renz on Speaker as I started the coffeepot. “Yeah, that’s weird. Why was the mountain lion dead too?”

  “You’re missing the point. I don’t have that information, but what Taft has is the autopsy report.”

  “Why the hell would that be sent to her?”

  “Because that dead man has a double-circle brand on his left hip.”

  “Shit! We’re getting close, Renz. Was he a kid like the others and, what, tossed off the side of a mountain?”

  “Nope, a man, mid-forties, give or take. Supposedly, he had a lot of head wounds, like the mountain lion attacked him, and then it’s assumed they both fell over the edge when the cat was shot.”

  “So the mountain lion had a hold on the guy, someone shot it, and they were close enough to the edge for both of them to go over?”

  Renz sighed into the phone. “I guess. That’s the speculation anyway since the guy’s body didn’t have any bullet wounds in it. He likely died from the fall. Purely by coincidence, and lucky for us, the bodies were found by hikers.”

  “Sounds sketchy all around. If another person was there who shot the lion, then why didn’t they contact authorities to search for the man who went over the edge?”

  “Good question. Maybe he looked for the man but gave up when he couldn’t find him.”

  “Any sane person would still tell the sheriff’s office.”

  “I agree, but I don’t know all the details.”

  “Okay, so where the heck is the dead guy?”

  “An hour and a half east of here in White Sulphur Springs. Taft wants us to meet up with the local medical examiner this morning. The breakfast room opens in a half hour. Meet me there. We’ll grab some food then head out.”

  “What about the lists Jeff Andrews is hoping to get from the livestock auction houses?”

  “He’ll have to forward those lists to your email address. You can call or text him on our way.”

  “Okay, see you in a bit.” I hung up and dove into the shower.

  We were on the road to White Sulphur Springs by seven thirty. I would call Jeff Andrews at eight o’clock since I doubted that he was at his office yet. I knew Taft was at work and called her instead. I wanted more details, if she had them, about the dead man with the brand on his hip and how she learned about it. I tapped her name on my phone and waited as it rang on her end.

  “Jade, I’m glad you called. Are you and Lorenzo on your way to White Sulphur Springs?”

  “We are, and we left Helena about ten minutes ago. I’ll call the ME soon and give him an idea of when we’ll arrive. I also need to touch base with Jeff Andrews, the executive officer of the department of livestock. Hopefully, he has names that he can just email to me. We’ll cross-reference them with the other auction houses as soon as we have time.”

  “Good plan.”

  “We haven’t talked to anyone in White Sulphur Springs, so how did they know to contact the FBI about that brand?”

  “I contacted the FBI agencies in each state that a body was discovered in. They entered the details about the brands into the law enforcement database, and after a handful of transfers between departments, the information got to me this morning. The ME there, Lester Clark, had to contact the sheriff’s office when he saw the brand, they contacted the FBI agency in Helena this morning, and finally, the information was sent to me.”

  I chuckled. “I guess you can’t make that up since here we are right in Helena.”

  “That’s fine. No matter what, I would have wanted you and Lorenzo to speak with the ME and see the body yourself. I also want you to speak with the deputies who were first on the scene where the man was discovered.”

  “We will for sure.”

  “Okay, keep me updated. As far as the adoption and orphanage angle, we might have something. There was an adoption agency in Billings that was shut down in 2006 for illegal practices. They took the money, promised families they’d get kids from the Ukraine, but never produced results.”

  “I’ve heard of that happening on a number of occasions.”

  “Yes, but I believe there’s more. Something about dealing directly with down-and-out birth moms, paying them for their children, and essentially selling the kids once they reached three or four years old. The rumor was that the kids were used to perform slave labor, but nothing was ever documented on paper about who they were sold to or for how much. Everything went through as cash transactions. No names and no locations so essentially no proof. That could very well be what we’re dealing with in this case.”

  I frowned. “But then why was that man in his forties branded, too, and why kill the kids once they’ve reached their late teens?”

  Taft sighed. “I’m hoping you and Lorenzo can find that out. I think you’re closing in on the general area, so work the system, speak to law enforcement and the ME, then check out the location where the man was found. Find out everything you can, and I’ll send you the information we have on this end.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  I hung up, told Renz what Taft had said, and made the other calls.

  Chapter 32

  “Appreciate you stopping by this morning, folks. I’m sure you have other things to do, but the Meagher County Sheriff’s Office said it was important to make sure your statement was on the record here just like it was there,” Sheriff Clinton said.

  “I’ll admit it was a bit shocking to see two deputies at our front door last night,” Byron said.

  “Consider that a welfare check. It took some time for the sheriff’s office in White Sulphur Springs to connect the dots between the girl you came across and the dead man that the hikers found.”

  Tara spoke up. “Your deputies didn’t go into detail about that with us. They just said a dead man was discovered in the same general area that the girl was in. They wanted to make sure we were okay.”

 
“And that’s true. I’m the one who sent them to your home. So the story is that you saw a man forcefully leading the Meagher County Jane Doe out of the woods with a rifle?”

  Tara nodded. “That’s correct. It scared me so much that when I tried to hide, I stumbled backward, cracked a twig under my foot, and that’s when he saw me. I don’t know what the relationship was between him and the girl, but I think he intended to kill her anyway, and when he saw me, he panicked. I believe that blow to her head was meant to kill her simply because he didn’t want her to talk and he needed to get out of there quickly. I thank God he didn’t come after me too.”

  Byron took his turn. “About the dead guy the hikers found. Do you think that same man killed him too?”

  Sheriff Clinton shrugged. “He didn’t have any bullet wounds, but he could have been pushed. There was a dead mountain lion near his body that had been shot, though. Both of them were severely injured by the fall and from animals ravaging their bodies.”

  Tara grimaced. “And that man is unidentified too?”

  The sheriff rubbed his brow. “Neither he nor the girl had names or prints in the system. The only similarity between them is an identical mark they wear.”

  Byron cocked his head. “A mark?”

  “Sorry, it’s confidential, so all I can tell you is that they’re marked in the same way. Would you be able to find that same spot where you saw the man with the rifle and the girl?”

  Tara looked at Byron then at the sheriff. “I think we could.”

  “We’d like to know how far away from where the dead man was found that you saw the guy with the rifle. We need to find him and get him into custody. I don’t want to frighten you, Mrs. Philips, but if you saw him, then he saw you too.”

  Byron added his take. “And I worry that he might have circled back and checked out our car. For all we know, he could have taken a picture of it and the plate number too. We don’t want anyone coming after us because of what Tara saw.”

  “Your safety is important to both Meagher and Gallatin counties. If you could help Meagher County by aiding the deputies in finding that exact location where the man was leading Jane Doe out of the woods, then maybe they can narrow down a general area where he was prior to that.”

  “But he had a truck,” Byron said. “He could have come from anywhere.”

  “That’s true, but that was only yesterday. According to the ME, the man the hikers found had been deceased for at least twenty-four hours. Something went on at the top of that mountain ridge in the forest and found its way down to the road where you saw the girl, but somehow, an entire day passed before that happened. The question is, can Meagher County Sheriff’s Office count on your help?”

  Byron and Tara agreed to meet the deputies at the intersection of Highway 12 and Spring Creek Road. They were given Deputy Knight’s phone number and asked to call him when they were twenty minutes out.

  “Deputy Smythe and Deputy Knight from the sheriff’s office in White Sulphur Springs will walk the area with you.”

  Tara nodded. “We know them, and they’re the same deputies we met with yesterday.”

  “Thank you, folks. Montana is proud to have helpful citizens such as yourselves as residents.”

  Tara and Byron stood to leave.

  “One more thing, Sheriff Clinton.”

  “What’s that, ma’am?”

  “Has anyone mentioned if Jane Doe is doing better, and has anyone claimed to know her?”

  “Sorry, but I don’t have those answers. You might ask the Meagher County deputies or check in on her when you’re there.”

  Tara thanked the sheriff, and she and Byron left. It would be ten o’clock by the time they reached the area where Tara had come face-to-face with the man who’d tried to kill Jane Doe.

  Chapter 33

  Jeff Andrews said he’d gotten customer names from six auction houses but more were coming in. I thanked him and asked for them to be sent to my email address. We were on the road and couldn’t stick around Helena that morning, yet I was excited to compare the names later to see if there was any repetition from auction to auction. I imagined there would be some, and if we could get that same information from the other states where the bodies were dumped, I was sure we would find our killer.

  Shortly after nine o’clock, we arrived in White Sulphur Springs. Given the size of the small town, finding the sheriff’s office on Crawford Street was easy. We were told to ask for Sheriff Burke directly, and we did. We waited for only a few minutes before a tall, slender man who looked to be around fifty walked out and greeted us with a hearty handshake. His daytime crew was small, and the night shift was even smaller, he said, so he was meeting with us personally. Six deputies were on the roster that day, according to Sheriff Burke, and three of them were busy with other details. He welcomed us into his office and offered us the guest chairs across from his desk.

  After we took our seats, Renz explained why the FBI’s serial crimes unit was alerted to the dead man the hikers had found with the strange brand on his hip.

  “We’ve literally been going in circles while trying to figure out why teenagers are being killed and dumped along interstates in Montana, Utah, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. We’ve concluded that the killer has to be running a route, and since he brands every victim and obviously has a large and secluded compound, it led us to believe he may be a rancher.”

  The sheriff nodded while rubbing his chin.

  Renz continued. “The problem we had was not knowing where the killer’s point of origin was. We made it to Kansas after conducting interviews in Whitehall and in Green River, Utah. After the ME in Kansas enlightened us about decomp, he concluded that the point of origin had to be in Montana since the young man who was discovered outside Whitehall had the least amount of decomp.”

  “Makes sense. So you obviously came back.”

  I took over. “We did, and after landing in Butte yesterday, we headed to Helena to speak to the head honcho at the Department of Livestock. We were hoping to find that brand somewhere in the current registry or in the archived files, but so far, we haven’t had any luck. This morning, we got word that a deceased middle-aged man was found in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest not far from here by a couple of hikers. Your ME, Lester Clark, discovered the man’s brand, alerted you, and the rest is history.”

  “So two people right in our neck of the woods have been found with that same brand. What are the odds of that happening unless this area is actually ground zero?”

  I frowned. “What do you mean by two people?”

  Sheriff Burke shook his head as if he didn’t understand my question. “You haven’t heard?”

  “No, please go ahead.”

  “Jane Doe? The girl who was transferred to the hospital yesterday with a severe head injury? She also has that same brand on her hip.”

  “What? Oh my God! Maybe the FBI alert wasn’t out then. We need to hear the entire story then hear what she has to say.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Why?” Renz asked.

  “Because she’s in an induced coma until the swelling on her brain goes down.” The sheriff checked the time. “But I have the next best thing. The good Samaritans who loaded the girl right into their own car, called 911, met the EMTs on Highway 12, and transferred her to the ambulance are meeting my deputies out in the general area where they found the girl. We need to know how close that area is to where John Doe was found. There has to be a connection.”

  I groaned. “You called him John Doe. He didn’t have identification on him either?”

  “Nope, and no prints in the system. His wallet could have been taken by the person who shot the mountain lion, or it and his cell phone—if he had one—might have fallen out of his pockets during the tumble down the mountainside.”

  I squeezed my temples. “We’ve got seven Jane and John Does already. I’m losing track of who’s who.”

  The sheriff stood. “Shall we? The deputies are meetin
g Mr. and Mrs. Philips at the intersection of Highway 12 and Spring Creek Road in twenty minutes. I’ll lead the way.”

  I leapt from my seat. “You bet. Let’s go. I can’t wait to speak to the couple who found that girl.”

  “Actually, Agent Monroe, they didn’t find her. The wife saw the man who had the girl at gunpoint. He whacked the girl in the head, likely to kill her, when he realized there was a witness who could describe him. Luckily for Mrs. Philips, he ran off instead of attacking her too.”

  “Geez,” Renz said. “We’re going to have a lot of questions for her, and maybe we’ll break this case wide-open after all.”

  Behind the sheriff, we pulled out onto the main road and headed east on Highway 12. I could barely contain my excitement while Renz drove. We would talk to the couple and get their account of what had happened. We hoped to get the description of the man with the rifle and find evidence of either the girl having been back there or of the man’s presence in the area before he died.

  “Renz, we may solve this case in a matter of days and find out exactly where that killer lives. We’re as close as we’ve ever been, and I know he’s nearby.”

  Renz chuckled. “Now you sound like your roommate Kate.”

  I swatted his shoulder. “Hey, her psychic ability is real, and she’s solved plenty of high-profile cases because of it.”

  He raised his hands. “Okay, okay, I give up.”

  “Keep your hands on the wheel so we actually arrive in one piece.”

  “Yes, mom.”

  Soon, the right-hand blinker of the sheriff’s cruiser flashed.

  “We must be there.” I pointed out the windshield. “There’s the deputies’ cars parked on the shoulder. I guess they’re still waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Philips to arrive.”

  Renz nodded.

  “I have an idea.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “Shush. How about the wife rides with me and I’ll talk to her, and you jump in with the husband and talk to him?”

  “I have a better idea.”

  My shoulders slumped. “What?”

  “Let them concentrate on finding the exact area they were at first. That’s most important. We’ll have plenty of time to talk to them later.”