They followed the gravel one-lane uphill to a junction with a wider gravel road. Neither of them seemed to be in use as roads, but both were clear. Paths were beaten into the soil on both sides. Once on the wider road, they paused again and saw on their right the large derelict gravel pit the roads had served. The slopes were overrun here and there with broom covered in yellow flowers.
They walked out to a yellow gate and found themselves facing a line of cars along the road. One had just pulled in and a young man and woman were climbing out.
Henry left Melissa at the gate and jogged up to the couple. He explained about the body and asked for a phone. Melissa joined him.
“We didn’t bring our phones ‘cause we were going down to the river to swim,” said the girl. “But we’ll drive you, only we can’t call ahead.”
Henry slapped the side of the backpack, ripped the zipper back, and yanked out his satellite phone. “I forgot. Damn it, I forgot.”
He hit 911 and talked to the emergency operator. “I need the police in Harbour City, can you connect me?”
Henry held up his finger as the girl began to speak. “Yes, thank you. My wife and I found a body out by the river.”
Henry sighed and bowed his head. “Yes. We found a body, my wife and I. No, we didn’t touch anything.” He took a deep breath and continued. “In the bush. Looks like a long time.”
He dropped the phone into the open pocket of his pack and began to explain to Sarah what they’d found. Melissa got so upset that he stopped and said he’d better save it for the police. Sarah tried to comfort Melissa, but it was no use. She cried silently standing by the car.
Jeff asked if he and Sarah should wait with them. Henry shook his head. “They said to stay here. They’d only be a few minutes. You may as well go for your swim. They’ll probably start a search, and it’s difficult terrain. Probably take time.”
Sarah and Jeff waved and turned toward the beach.
X
Twenty minutes later, they heard the siren. The cruiser pulled in beside them, followed by an unmarked Ford Escape.
Alan sent one of the uniforms to the gate to control the site. Spence called for more uniforms as she took two packs from the unmarked. Alan introduced himself and Spence and left Melissa with the other uniform while he, Spence, and Henry walked down to the yellow gate.
Two more cruisers, light bars flashing, fish-tailed on the wide gravel in front of the gate, braked hard, and disgorged four more uniforms. Alan gave them instructions. Then he followed Henry and Spence down the gravel road, trailed by two uniforms, one of whom he left at the trail head.
They began the descent to the Trans Canada Trail. When they reached the junction, Alan said to the remaining uniform, “Set up the check-in here. Set up a second check the other side of the scene and route any hikers up to the road from there or anyone who tries to sneak down. Any media, keep ‘em out. Get two more down here and send them up to us. The coroner’s been informed and knows the location’s hard to access. He isn’t happy, but he’ll be here when we call in to tell him we’re ready. You’re check-in. Log everything.”
Spence grinned. “Is it still Harding? He’s gonna love this. Old fart doesn’t like trails and at his age, I don’t blame him.”
The uniform turned to Alan. “We’ll help him over, sir, and he knows to order up a pair of young paramedics. Ambulance will have to wait up at the trail head. I’ll get the company to send someone out to unlock the gate. Land’s owned by Canadian Copper, keeps a local office the highway end of River Road. Gate should be open shortly, sir. I’ll call in when it is.”
He stepped aside, touched the brim of his cap, and the three of them followed the Trans Canada along the top of the gorge.
At the flat area near the rock outcropping, they stood and waited. Shortly, two uniforms joined them.
The tall one nodded. “I’m Smith, he’s Jones. I sent two men to set up a checkpoint farther on. Keep the hikers out of here. Anything else we can do, sir, miss?”
“Yeah, you can help us secure the crime scene. This is Henry, he can take us up to the site. You guys bring your gear and we’ll get the place locked up. Once that’s done, this’ll be the staging area, this flat spot, so you two come back when we’re finished up there and wait for the techs, okay? They’ll be bringing in a ton of stuff, lights, tent for the samples, other stuff.”
The two uniforms nodded, picked up their packs, and the five of them, Henry in the lead, moved through the underbrush to the spot where Melissa had ended up after her fall.
Henry stopped and pointed out where he’d climbed the ridge to the top. He swung his arm along the ridgeline. “I found Melissa’s path down over about there, and I came down that way. The opening’s right there. See that dark line in the rock face? That’s it. It’s really tight, just a slit between two big boulders. Do you want me to take you up?”
Alan and Spence studied the ridge, then turned to the two constables. “We’ll go up the same way,” Alan said. “We’ll take a look first because we might get lucky and find some trace. Unlikely, but we have to check. We also need to keep the area above the opening clear, and we need to mark the area off from here to there. Henry, you wait right there until we’re back down.”
Here Henry nodded and leaned against the fallen tree.
Once on top, the two uniforms, Smith and Jones, tied off and started a new roll of yellow tape and began unfurling it as they fought their way up the slope through the forest floor. Salal covered everything, so what was below was hidden, fallen branches, old trunks, depressions, and tree roots. All of them struggled and progress was slow, especially since Smith and Jones had to wrap their tape around tree trunks and bushes every so often.
Eventually Alan stopped. They could all smell the decay.
◆◆◆
“Tie off here, start a new line. We’ll cross and come down the other side. Should be far enough up by now.”
When they reached the top of the ridge, Alan stopped them again.
“Use that tree to tie off, and get another line going. We’re gonna have to tape off the whole descent. It’ll be a bit of a bitch, but we got no choice. Just be careful going down. When we get to the opening, I want to study the scene some, so you two continue down and tape the rest of the area. Everybody ready?”
Smith and Jones did the best they could using whatever would hold tape. Once at the slit, Alan told the uniforms to pick up Henry and wait back at the flat near the outcropping. He and Spence watched them descend for a bit, and when they were clear, popped their heads into the opening.
The flies were so thick, the body was a writhing mass except for the few parts that were still skin. Spence, in front of Alan since she was a lot shorter, bent down and picked up some pebbles and pitched them in. Clouds of flies rose and before settling again, it gave them a clearer view of what was left of the girl. The maggots were dense and heaving, and Alan thought they were looking at two to four days of decomposition. Neither of the detectives had any doubt that they had found the remains of Kylie Wingate.
“Jesus, Alan, who the fuck does stuff like this? She’s been slit open, and what’s that stuff on her skin?”
Alan leaned in as much as he could over Spence and watched as she threw in a few more pebbles. “Looks like some kind of pattern. Tats maybe? She have any you know about? Don’t remember Alicia saying anything about that, and the kids would have mentioned it, especially Jen. Won’t know much until forensics is done. Might not get much then, but King’s pretty good, best chief coroner we’ve had for a while. Anybody gets anything, it’ll be him. Bloody flies!”
Alan shut up. He’d been talking just to do something.
Spence was still looking, studying, and she was quiet for a long time.
“It’s been staged,” she said finally. “And I don’t think those curly marks are tats. They’re some kind of paint or ink, maybe. Whatever sicko did this, it’s more than just killing; it’s some kind of special thing for him. Some kind of ceremony
maybe. You see those small stones, kind of a circle around her? That’s gotta be part of it. Whole thing’s creepy. Fuckin’ flies. Let’s get away from this and see if anybody’s here yet. CSI crew’s gonna be here awhile on this one.”
Spence leaned back, forcing Alan to do the same. He was just as happy as she was to get away from the horror and the smell. They had put on latex gloves before they touched anything, even the rock, and now they peeled them off, stuffed them in their packs, and climbed down. The trail itself had been so contaminated, two more hands wouldn’t matter, but the site was pure. No one had touched that except the killer.
When Spence and Alan got back to the staging area, the flat spot by the gorge, they found a few early forensics guys. One held a 35mm camera, one of those new ones without mirrors about the size of a cigarette package. He had a small bag slung over one shoulder, presumably with lenses and flash, and a pack at his feet.
Alan introduced himself. He didn’t know this guy. “Alan Kim, and this is Spence Riley, homicide. We’re the leads here. Who are you?”
“Jay Alexander, Crime Scene. I’m here to do the prelim shots and the sketches. The rest are coming, but the gear’s heavy and it’ll take them a bit. Can I see the scene? Already signed in. I gotta get above, if that’s possible, before I do the main and close-up stuff. Anybody been in yet?”
“Scene’s virgin. Pocket in the ridge. You need to keep any disturbance minimal, but you know that. You new? I expected Jimmy Goodman, he still around?”
“Jimmy left the crew last month. Said he had a shot at a mainland spot out in Chilliwack, so he’s over there now. I got on after him, done a couple jobs, so I’m good. Someone gonna show me the spot?”
Alan glanced at Spence and raised his eyebrows in question. “Grab your stuff, I’ll take you in,” she said, “Spot’s a bitch to get to, so best slip that strap over your head so it’s secure. We gotta climb if you want an overhead.”
Jay slipped the small camera in the bag, slung it across his shoulders, and picked up the backpack. “Okay, all set, let’s go, detective.”
“Spence will do. You gotta follow me, single file. When we get to the base of the ridge, let’s take a minute and I’ll explain the scene for you, okay?”
Once they were up the ridge, Spence pointed to a spot she figured had to be over the crime scene. “You can’t see anything from up here, okay? But you crawl over that big rock, you can look straight down or close to it. Looks flat enough on top, you can belly up and see what’s what. Need a longer lens than normal, I guess, but you decide. Best I can do, and it’s a guess. Should be close though. Then while you’re up here, we taped off stuff in case of trace. Don’t know how you want to do that or if you want to at all. It’s mostly salal cover and it’s a bitch to walk through. Can’t see anything below your knees. Take the same route down and then I’ll take you up to the opening. Scene’s a mess and the stink’s a lot stronger than up here. Take a deep breath before you look over that bloody rock.”
Spence watched him pull on the white crime scene coveralls and smack on the helmet. He looked like a baker with a breathing problem. She left him up there, and once down the path, hiked up on the remains of the huge trunk Melissa had rolled up against. She heard Jay cursing coming down. He plowed through the undergrowth and stopped in the small spot Spence was now standing in. “Got what I need. Geez, it’s a mess in there. I brought some mentholated cream, gonna need it.”
“I got stuff to do, so I’ll take you up, see you in. You know the drill. Come back the same way. I’ll be back at the staging area.”
She took him up the ridge to the narrow opening. “We looked in from here, gloved, but still. This is as far as the contamination goes. The rest is pristine.”
“I gotta spend some time in there, photos, sketches. I’ll come back when I’m done.” He shucked out of the white suit, took out another of the thin coveralls, and pulled them on along with another head covering. It was awkward to do in such a small space, and Spence was impressed with his skill in getting ready on the side of a steep drop.
It took Jay over an hour to finish, and by the time he got back, the staging tent was up, equipment arranged, and the team was standing around drinking coffee.
A tall lanky man separated himself from the group. “Hey, Jay, you got what you need? We’re going in for collection if you’re done.”
“You’re gonna need a lot of paper, decomp’s advanced, and predator damage’s pretty severe. I took some Polaroids to give you an idea. Sketches are in my bag. Here, take a look.”
He handed the team leader, Georgie Scott, a few shots, and they gathered round to study them. “Tight in there, looks like. Okay, two of us in for collection, then two more for the approach and the ridge. We’ll suit up when we get up there. Let’s go!”
Alan and Spence watched them go. Once the guys were through, they’d be able to get in there themselves, but it could be hours before they were let in, so they walked back to the perimeter and checked with the uniform.
“Everybody’s here, miss. Generator’s coming down now and the lights.”
Spence and Alan signed out and walked up to the gravel road, where they met the crew bringing in the heavy stuff. Alan talked to them for a moment, eyed the generator, and shook his head in sympathy.
“Gonna be a bit of a bitch getting down, but once you’re there, the trail’s a lot better. Perimeter is just where this path meets the Trans Canada. Sign-in is there. Have fun.”
◆◆◆
Spence and Alan walked up toward the car and found a canteen truck already on site. All the cars except for police vehicles had disappeared, and the two uniforms responsible for clearing the scene were now directing traffic through the gate to the head of the pit. It looked like a big party with cars all over the place, except these were cop cars, black vans, and forensics trucks. Many of them had driven right down into the pit and were taking equipment through a defile in the bank down to the curved gravel road and on into the path.
The canteen truck was parked just inside the gate and doing a brisk trade. Alan and Spence lined up and got a late lunch. They sat out of the way on one of the fallen trunks along the top of the abandoned gravel pit so they could see the activity down on the flats.
“Where do you think they’ll put the path in?” Spence said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Place is a bitch to get to and tight as hell once you get in. Not much room to set up. I’m gonna take a mask and menthol stuff. Putrid in there.”
“Over lunch you gotta talk about that? Look at the scenery, watch those poor buggers down there work, whatever, but let’s get our food down at least?” Alan balanced his cup on the great log and picked up the other half of his sandwich. “What is this stuff anyway?” He lifted the top of the sandwich and looked inside. “Looks like liver paste and tastes like three sheets of blotting paper.”
“Hey, it’s the forensics’ foody, what do you expect? They can’t taste anythin’ anyway and couldn’t care less.”
Spence lifted the top of what was left of hers and peered in. She slapped it back down, chewed contentedly, and watched the tech crews working. “I’d have another coffee but then I’d have to pee a lot. Not that there isn’t a lot of cougar piss all over anyway.”
Alan sighed. “Gonna spend a lot of time down there for not much. Scene’s old, animal scat, weather’s been up and down, some heavy winds. I don’t think your peeing would have much effect. Still, rules is rules, so you’ll have to hold it. Get me another coffee, will you?”
Spence glared at him. “Get your own, I’m not your mother, and you should know better anyway, what with women’s lib and harassment and shit. Ah hell, I want another one too, so just this once, okay? You tell anyone, your ass is mine.”
She got up to get them both another cup from the catering truck.
When she got back, she said, “We both know it’s Kylie. We’ll have to tell the privates soon. Wonder where the hell they got that crazy name, SHH Investigations. I mean, I get it,
but it’s too hard to say.”
Alan got up and stretched. “It won’t be easy for Will though. He really liked his niece. I’ll call him as soon as the techies release the scene. By that time, we’ll be there on our own, and after old Harding’s been and they’ve carted off the remains. We can let him come take a look. You done?”
They started back down to the staging area. “You know, you tell Will, he’s gonna bring the other pair down with him,” said Spence. “You know that, don’t you? The lot of them are gonna be tryin’ to get through that opening. You sure you want three of them tramplin’ all over the damn place?”
Alan glanced at her as they worked their way down. “Won’t matter much by then. Techies are finished, we’re finished, coroner’s been, body’s gone… What could they disturb? It’d be good relations keeping them in the loop. We want co-operation, we have to give it as well.”
“Just askin’ is all. Keep your shorts on.” Spence plowed ahead and reached the junction first.
They signed in again. The generator had been hauled up to the base of the ridge and a line snaked up to the opening. The two guys who were cataloguing trace looked up. The older one pointed toward the ridge. “They’re still in there, lights are up. We should be finished soon, lot of trace already. Georgie’ll release to you two soon as he’s down.”
Alan and Spence waited where they were. The generator was one of the new quiet ones, but it still made too much noise to talk easily. “We’re not gonna get much out of this. If trace gives us anything, we can run it, but I’ve never seen anything like this on the island. Whoever it is won’t be in the system, I don’t think.”
NIGHT MOVES: The Stroll Murders Page 13
