Embers of Murder (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 12)

by Alec Peche

  “Our pathologist will start the autopsy at eleven, and you’ll be able to leave your dog with our receptionist. He’s a dog lover, and we’re assuming the dog is friendly if it’s trained enough to sniff stuff at crime scenes. We’ll also accompany you to where we located the body.”

  “Thanks for your help. By the way, does your victim fit the age and race profile we included in the alert? Was he for the most part, clothed except what burned away, and did you find his parked car nearby?”

  “Yes, to all of those questions.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As soon as the call ended, she punched in the numbers for Agent Sanderson.

  “Hi, Jill.”

  “Hi, Agent Sanderson. We may have another victim. I’m attending an autopsy tomorrow in Redding for a man who fits our profile.”

  He sighed and said, “Give me the details.”

  “It’s an active fire scene, but as fire personnel was inspecting the scene, they came across a lone male fitting our profile. I’m bringing my dog with me and attending the autopsy at eleven, and then I’ll go out to the location where they found him. The coroner’s office is sending an investigator with me.”

  “I don’t need to be there at the start of your autopsy, so I’ll meet you at the coroner’s office between twelve and one and go with you to the location where the man was found.”

  “Bring a heavy-duty mask since it’s an active fire scene and the air is bad in that area. I’ll admit to you that I’m terrified of fire. I don’t operate a barbeque, and my house doesn’t have a fireplace, so a big wildfire will not be my cup of tea.”

  “If you want to loan me your dog, you can stay inside the coroner’s office, and I’ll go with the investigator.”

  “That’s a kind offer. Let me think about that.”

  They ended their call, and before Jill forgot, she checked the supplies in her autopsy kit in the car. She also packed overnight bags for herself and Trixie in case they were stuck in the area. She hoped to be home as she suspected she would have her usual fire nightmare, and it was better to have it in her own bed where at least Jill recognized her surroundings when she woke up in terror. The car was ready to go and she could head out immediately after breakfast the next morning. She couldn’t recall ever visiting the city of Redding. She knew its reputation for hot days and wildfires in any year, but nearly one-hundred-thousand people lived there, so it was a big town. If she got there early enough, she would take Trixie for a walk across the Sundial Bridge, one of the town’s most famous landmarks.

  When coroner’s investigator Vickie Stockdale had called back to confirm Jill’s requests, she had also identified their victim. His wallet was in his pocket, though there was no cash inside it. Josh McCloud was their suspected fifth victim. Jill pulled up the dating app Matefinder and found his profile for a suburb of Redding. Like the other victims, his ideal first date was at a bar, and there was no mention of a love of hiking or even visiting wide open spaces. Josh seemed to be a couch potato just like the other victims. Where had the Burnt Widow met him for the first date? Was it possible to hack into his account, or could the FBI get a search warrant to examine the website? She looked at where he lived and where he was found dead. Would the first date have occurred in a bar in his neighborhood? She looked at the map and decided no. There was no point researching the bars of Redding to identify where the two of them might have met for the first date as there were simply too many of them. Maybe he had a credit card charge for a bar, and that would help identify their arsonist. Jill decided this was another FBI assignment. Maybe they could get a subpoena for the website to locate all women who had contacted the victims.

  She sent an email to Agent Sanderson with her latest information and suggestions. He hadn’t taken offense with her suggestions so far, and hopefully, he wouldn’t this time. She stepped away from her computer to call Nathan and chat. With another early morning, she needed an early night for a projected long day. Invariably when they spent the night together, she ended up going to sleep later.

  After they chatted, she took one more look at her email before heading upstairs to bed. She smiled when she read the agent’s response.

  I submitted a request for the Matefinder subpoena yesterday. I’m meeting a judge early tomorrow to discuss before I head to Redding.

  Jill loved that the agent was ahead of her in thinking about the various aspects of the case. She wondered how the judge would react to the request. She’d never dealt with judges and subpoenas and didn’t know how reasonable they were. They had only circumstantial evidence, but she didn’t know what was required to be allowed to dig into a dating app. They had a definite pattern in the five murders and the female DNA.

  At some point, she supposed that the FBI would make an announcement of this case to the media. It felt like they had a duty to alert men about agreeing to hikes with female dating prospects. On that last thought, she fell asleep.

  Chapter 20

  Jill’s drive north went faster than expected, and she found herself walking Trixie across the Sundial Bridge. As a scientist, she appreciated the structure and the science that it demonstrated. There was hazy smoke from the nearby fire that blocked the sun, so she didn’t see the actual sundial in action. The Sacramento River was beautiful, and it was a great way to stretch her legs after the long drive. The heat was rising, and it was already eighty-five degrees as they returned to the car for the drive to the coroner’s office.

  She arrived at the single-story light olive-green building and parked. It was not an impressive building, but then, the taxpayers hate spending money on coroner’s facilities. Who needed a bright shiny building if you were dead? However, forensics had become much more sophisticated lab spaces since the likely date of construction of this building. The coroner was a division of the sheriff’s office and likely had to fight for budget resources among other sheriff priorities. In Jill’s opinion, the most important feature of a coroner’s office was a competent forensic pathologist, and she would know soon if that was what she was dealing with. She decided to leave her autopsy kit in her car as she might get off on the wrong foot if she showed up with supplies in tow. She hooked Trixie’s leash and walked to the entrance waiting to be buzzed in.

  An employee inside approached to unlock the door. Looking at Trixie, he said, “Ma’am, we don’t allow pets in this building.”

  “Hi, I’m Dr. Jill Quint. I’m here to observe an autopsy with your coroner scheduled for eleven. This is my dog, Trixie who is a trained scent dog. When I scheduled my visit, I was told that someone would watch Trixie indoors while I attend the autopsy. It’s too hot to leave her in the car.”

  “Oh, of course, I’m sorry. I was informed you were coming. I expected a big German Shepherd or a Labrador. I’ve never seen a Dalmatian used as a trained police dog. I’ll be keeping an eye on Trixie while you’re inside.” The clerk reached out his hand for Trixie to sniff and then gave her a pat once the dog accepted his scent.

  Jill brought a bag containing a rug for the dog to lie on while Jill was observing.

  “Would you mind if I took her outside for a walk or two?”

  “Not at all; she would love that. If you see any squirrels, just tell her ‘no,’ and she’ll resist the urge to yank the leash and chase them. She’ll lay quietly on this rug out of your way,” Jill said, handing over the leash and the rug to the clerk.

  He laid the rug down in the corner of the reception area and released Trixie from her leash.

  “Follow me, and I’ll take you to Dr. Katz.”

  Jill followed the clerk through the secure door and into what was clearly the sheriff's crime lab, including the coroner’s space. She was given an ugly large white hazmat suit to put on over her street clothes. There appeared to be a bookcase with slots for observers to leave their stuff if they were visiting the autopsy area, so Jill left her purse and shoulder bag in one of the slots before she put on the suit, and then approached the table where a male body was
laid out.

  “Hi, I’m Dr. Jill Quint. I’m a forensic pathologist and private investigator here on behalf of my role as a consultant to the Sacramento ME’s office. We’ve had a series of deceased single males located within brushfire zones and fear that we have a serial arsonist murderer on the loose in California.”

  “Hello, Dr. Quint. I’m Dr. Emma Katz, and this is my assistant Vickie Stockdale whom I believe you spoke with yesterday.”

  Jill nodded at Vickie and said, “Yes, I appreciate your call. The pattern of deaths has so far been every other county going up the state, so I was half expecting a call from your county as the last death was in Butte County.”

  “Tell me more before we start this autopsy,” Dr. Katz requested.

  “First, let me ask, did you collect anything from the scene where this victim was found?”

  Vickie pulled up something on a computer screen and appeared to scroll down with her mouse.

  “No, we just brought the remains in.”

  “Okay. We’ve had four male victims, as I mentioned in other wildfires across the state. Each of them has been Caucasian, within a fifteen year age range, with all the locations including a cigarette butt. The most recent three locations also have had remnants of a balloon with helium residue. The first victim had barbiturates and alcohol in his stomach contents. All the victims have profiles on the dating site Matefinder. There has been female DNA located on the cigarette butts.”

  “Sounds like you have an unusual female serial killer at work here,” said Dr. Katz.

  “Probably. It appears this female has the means to move around the state, setting up dates with her victims. She then talks these victims, who from their profiles and body composition don’t appear to be hikers, into a date where they hike, and then she has them inhale helium. Once they’re dead, the Burnt Widow lights a wildfire. Since these cases have occurred in different counties, law enforcement might not have noticed except that a fire insurance investigator noticed the similarities in the first three deaths and reported this to the Sacramento Medical Examiner. The FBI is involved and will be stopping by towards the end of this autopsy to accompany your staff and me out to the wildfire site.”

  “What are you expecting to find in an autopsy?” asked Dr. Katz.

  “I’m expecting that most people would say this victim died from smoke inhalation. I expect the autopsy to show only minor bits of smoke in his lungs as I think he was dead before he had the chance to inhale smoke.”

  “Okay then, let’s see what we have. That’s quite a nickname for the perpetrator, the Burnt Widow. It perfectly describes her actions.”

  An hour later, it was exactly as Jill expected. There were no drugs in the man’s system. A toxicology screen showed nothing, though more lab tests were pending. He didn’t have enough fire particulate in his nose or lungs for that to have killed him. As usual, he had a wallet on him with no cash, but identification and credit cards. He was a match to the other victims.

  As expected, Agent Sanderson joined them toward the end. After introductions were made and identification verified, he listened as the two pathologists discussed their findings.

  Jill did an elbow bump with Dr. Katz, thanking her for her help and alertness to the case. They then left the autopsy area and joined Vickie, stopping for Trixie on their way to the Medical Examiner’s van that they would take to the fire scene.

  As they got closer to where they found this most recent victim, the air got considerably worse.

  “The air is really bad here from this fire. We have some respirators in the van. As you can imagine, some scenes have pretty awful smells. Nothing for the dog, though,” Vickie said.

  “I have a cloth mask made with HEPA filter materials for her. I will have to take her mask off at the crime scene so she can scent for anything possibly belonging to the victim. I’ll also have her scent the cigarette brand we have found at all the crime scenes. Do you have the geocoordinates for where the body was located?”

  “We do. However, as I picked up the body yesterday, I think I’ll be able to remember where the body was found.”

  “Awesome.”

  Jill peered through the windshield as they approached a checkpoint guarded by a sheriff’s officer. There was very thick smoke in front of them, and Jill felt the pinpricks of terror hovering in the background of her mind. She’d never been this close to what appeared to be a monster fire. Could the fire be traveling this way? Maybe they should turn around and wait a few days before the fire was extinguished. She didn’t want to get any closer to the fire.

  Vickie rolled her window down, and it appeared the officer knew her and the official van they were riding in.

  “Did you get a call for another victim?” he asked through his rebreather mask.

  “No, we’re going back to the scene where they found the victim to see if we missed any evidence.”

  Jill was beginning to feel hot. She reached down and grabbed her water bottle, taking a drink. Then she pulled a stick of peppermint gum out of her purse. She could feel the monster close by, and it was closing in on her.

  Agent Sanderson was watching her in the front passenger seat and leaned forward to ask, “Do we need to turn around and drop you off somewhere?”

  Jill was holding on to her panic by imagining being in Nathan’s dojo taking meditative breaths. She would get through this. No way was she sending her dog to a place she was afraid to go. They needed the dog to find any evidence.

  “No. I’ll make it through this.”

  The van began moving forward, and Jill closed her eyes and focused on deep breathing and the thought that the area they were going to had already burned and therefore it couldn’t burn again. Soon she found peace, and the panic began to subside.

  She opened her eyes when she felt Vickie stop the van and slide the gear shift into park.

  The landscape in front of her looked much the same as it did when they stopped at the checkpoint. There were billowing plumes of dark smoke in the distance, the landscape was black, and the air was an orange haze. She felt guilty for wearing a better mask than her dog had, but it was all a moot point as the dog would have to be maskless when she followed her scent to any evidence. They would just have to try and limit their time at the location where the victim was found.

  Vickie carried an article of the victim’s clothing as well as evidence bags for anything they located. Jill carried Trixie’s leash and the pack of cigarettes that matched the brand the Burnt Widow had used at other sites. In a short time, they were at the location where the latest victim was found. This time Jill had the eyewitness of Vickie, who had retrieved the body. That made their search site smaller. She removed Trixie’s mask and held out a cigarette to her with the order to find, and the dog went to work. Jill could feel rivets of sweat rolling down her neck and back. She suspected it was the combination of the heat, her anxiety being this close to a major fire, and the weight of the respirator smashing her thick head of hair. She would be a sodden mess when she finally climbed into her car for the journey home.

  Sure enough, Trixie found a cigarette butt close to where Vickie indicated the body had lain. She collected that in an evidence bag. Next, they had the dog smell the article of clothing, and she went to work sniffing. When she focused on an area, Jill gently disturbed the burnt brush and soot and came up with a piece of melted latex. Vickie collected that in another evidence bag, and they waited to see if the dog would find anything else. After another search, Trixie came up empty, so Jill reached down to give the dog a reward and, once she was done chewing, slipped the mask back in place. She made her way quickly back to the van, realizing she was completely soaked with sweat. She hoped she didn’t smell bad, but with the respirator on, she had little sense of odor other than smoke. Vickie and the agent were a minute behind her, reaching the van. They climbed inside removing their respirators and the dog’s mask, and headed back to the coroner’s office.

  “What’s your timeline for processing the cigarette b
utt and the latex fragment?” Jill asked.

  “The lab should be able to give us a result for the latex fragment today. The cigarette butt is a different issue. That might take several weeks.”

  “I’d like to take it with me and drop it off at the private lab in Sacramento. They have the other butts, and we’ll hear within a few days if the DNA is female and if it matches the other butts. I can sign a chain of custody form for you.”

  “Let me check with my supervisor when we return to the office.”

  “Okay. Agent Sanderson, where would this case be tried?” Jill asked, not knowing the judicial side of criminal investigations.

  “I have no idea. Let’s catch the Burnt Widow first, then we’ll let the lawyers worry about that.”

  They continued their drive back to the coroner’s office. Jill looked at her watch and realized she would likely get home at a reasonable hour that night. She made a call to Jennifer Galloway to see if she might use their private contract to run Shasta County’s DNA test results.

  “Tell Dr. Katz she owes me. I’ll run it under our contract here,” Jennifer said.

  That was good news. Jill was just waiting to see if Dr. Katz was interested in having Sacramento County handle the DNA test. She waited outside in the shade with Trixie and spoke to Agent Sanderson while waiting for an answer from Dr. Katz.

  “So, what are your next steps?” Jill asked.

  “I’ll talk it over with my SAC for a second opinion, but I think we have a duty to warn the men in this state who are using Matefinder. That will be a mess. We’ll get sued by Matefinder, who will say it is just a coincidence. That could be as it’s a popular dating app, but I don’t like all five victims having profiles. Yes, they are in the same age range, but the range is somewhat broad. Otherwise, these men have nothing in common except they are all on that website.”

  “I agree that you need to make a public announcement. One problem also is our killer may go underground once she understands that we’re on to her.”