by Cameron Dane
“About to take a closer look.” Jace got on one side of the body, Duke took the other, and between them, they gently pushed aside the leaves, branches, hay, even garbage, from their victim, uncovering a black plastic tarp tucked around her body. They gently pulled the plastic from under her and slowly revealed a slender Caucasian female, nude, one arm resting at her side, the other over her stomach, both legs partially folded, slightly spread, neither touching.
As Jace folded and bagged the plastic in an evidence bag, Cade said, “Easy to make a first guess on cause of death.” He picked up the camera on his way from his position at the victim's feet. “Clear strangulation marks around her neck.” Gouges from something left deep, bloodied lines on her throat. “Looks like there might be fragments of something embedded in the skin. Synthetic rope or plastic maybe.” Jace and Duke leaned back while Cade took a ton of pictures, first of the overall revealed body, then some close-ups of her neck.
When Cade nodded that he was finished, Jace leaned in and studied the body closely again, starting from the bottom. “I think I have needle marks on the left inner thigh,” he said, although he couldn't be 100 percent sure without moving the body. He didn't want to handle her more than necessary. That way, the crime lab in Bozeman might have a shot at pulling some prints from her skin.
“Scars here too,” Duke said, pointing at the arm lying straight on the ground. “These look pretty old, though. Faded. Probably blew these veins out and moved on to her legs.”
Cade took more pictures, getting tight shots of not only the needle marks on her arm and leg, but on each segment of her body, some of which had faded bruising that was consistent with a rough existence, but nothing fresh to show she had been in a fight recently.
“I don't put her at more than twenty-two or -three.” Duke's jaw clenched visibly as he stared at the girl, and Jace figured he was probably thinking about his teenage daughter. “Any thoughts on who she might be?” he asked, catching Jace's attention from over the body. “Does she look familiar to either of you?”
Jace pursed his lips, sadness weighing on him as he looked at the dead woman. “No.”
“Me either,” Cade seconded.
“No posing of the body,” Jace said, talking through things aloud. “Nothing about this scene screams 'Look at what I did!' the way Ginger was put on display. This is a body dump. Whoever killed this girl clearly wasn't trying to show her off and even tried to conceal the body some. The person who did it knows he did wrong and didn't want her found. A boyfriend?” He guessed. “Crime of passion that got out of hand?”
“That's a strong possibility.” Duke nodded. “I'm also wondering about the truck stops on the main state road and interstate, where prostitution is out of control and more and more of those girls are getting hurt. I was just talking about that with Sheriff Leeds the other day.” He mentioned his counterpart in the county just south of Quinten. “If we can't get a fingerprint ID on her, it might be worth taking her picture up and down that line of stops for some conversation.”
Cade finished up with the pictures and zipped the camera into its protective case. “When we get a name, we can start to figure out her life.”
“Yeah,” Duke agreed, stepping up to the deceased again. “Harris is right, though. It's a damn shame.” He focused on the dead young woman. “Poor thing. Let's not keep her here any longer while we try to figure it out.” He slipped a cell phone out of his utility belt and moved a half dozen feet away. “I'm going to call the station and get Max out here to help me search this ditch for evidence. Probably won't find anything, but I don't want to overlook it. Fuck, Juan's going to lose his day off again, but I'm going to have to bring him in to cover the station.” Swinging a pointed finger between Jace and Cade, he finished, “You two go ahead and bag her and drive her and that tarp to Bozeman. I'll get on the phone with Robyn and see if I can get another bump over the other DBs she has stacked in her lab.”
Jace unfolded the body bag, and together he and Cade got to work.
It would be another late night. And at just the time he didn't want Sarah alone in the house.
Fuck.
Chapter Fifteen
Ravenous after skipping breakfast and lunch, Jace took a huge bite out of his bacon cheeseburger. Sarah had twisted him up inside this morning, killing his appetite for breakfast. Then absorbing Jasper's sadness at Caleb's ranch later had stolen any desire for lunch.
Sitting next to him in the war room, Cade dug into a similar meal, as did Max, Juan, and Carson. As Jace chewed and grabbed some fries, he listened to Duke get started on their meeting.
“Right now, I'm not making any leaps and assuming these murders are connected.” Duke pointed a hand in each direction, indicating two walls, one of which held information regarding Ginger's case, and the other their new Jane Doe. “But since they're active cases, involve two women of near the same age, and occurred so closely together, we're going to keep them in here, close to each other, in case something jumps out and causes us to change our minds. Now”—he picked up a sandwich of his own—“let's get some updates. What do we know so far?”
“Not much on the second vic yet,” Jace said after swallowing. “Likely cause of death is strangulation. Won't know much more until we get a report back from Robyn.”
Max lifted a finger, gaining everyone's attention. “I checked the recent missing-persons reports in counties within a hundred-mile radius of Quinten and didn't find a physical match for our Jane. If we don't get a fingerprint match from the crime lab, I'll give it seventy-two hours and check again. Then I'll go further back and also send her specs to Missing Persons and see if we get something that way.”
“You keep on that,” Duke said. They all knew if their victim went missing recently, her family or friends might not yet realize she was gone. “Robyn has done me too many favors recently and can't bump our body up on the list. She said she'll have someone on it as soon as she can.”
Cade shifted in his chair, putting his attention on the first wall and then to Max. “What about Ginger's case?” he asked. “Did you get anything from the motels today?”
“We did,” she answered. “The Rest Stop manager remembers Ginger and thinks she was there early Friday evening. Paid by the hour, and was out by nine p.m. He said her face was familiar and recalled that she'd been there more than once but didn't recognize or have a record of her real name.” Max swirled the soda in her cup. “It's not exactly a place where they check IDs, and he does not have security cameras on the premises.”
Frustration showed on Duke's face. “Was someone with her that the manager can describe?”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “As far as he can remember, she always came in and got a room and key by herself.”
Duke shuffled through notes as he asked his next question. “What about the other motels?”
“Of the ones that have them, tapes go back one week for some, two for others,” Max answered. “Carson and I had just gotten back to the station when you called me out to the new scene. I had him start watching them.”
“Nothing on the few tapes I've watched,” Carson picked up. “It seems like some of these cameras were put up years ago, and they're not aimed right.”
“That's because they tend to get jarred and never corrected,” Jace told the newbie.
“Right.” Carson's creamy skin reddened. “In any case, I'm going to get back to it tomorrow, and I'll let you know if any woman even remotely resembling Ginger shows up on camera.”
Juan put his sandwich down and contributed next. “Ginger's boss confirms that she was at work on Friday as usual. I also canvassed her neighborhood, asking people when they last remember seeing her. A few saw her leave on Friday morning, but nobody remembers seeing her in the evening. Neighbors to her left said she usually didn't come home till late on Fridays and Saturdays.”
Jace gathered his empty plate and cup and leaned back in his chair to toss them in a trash can. “If Ginger did go missing on Friday evening,
as this timeline and TOD seem to suggest, that is consistent with when the psychic said he had his vision of her. He said late Friday, early Saturday.”
“Sarah told me about this Peter Robbins person you wanted Max to research,” Juan added. “I went ahead and got running with that earlier this evening. I have the names of victims he wrote about and the names of the detectives in charge. I put in some calls and spoke to a detective in Minneapolis who said Peter offered valuable information that helped lead to an arrest. That was four years ago. I found some newspaper archives online too, and law enforcement in Phoenix and Austin are quoted as saying good things about him. The Phoenix guys made an arrest on one of the victim's former lovers and got a conviction. I left messages for detectives in other cities and am waiting to hear back.”
Duke turned to Cade. “What about Mr. Robbins's alibi?”
Pulling a file to him, Cade opened the folder and started to read. “I have his flight information showing him flying into Billings from San Francisco early this morning. When I pressed him for his exact whereabouts on Friday night, he said he was home alone most of the evening. He's single, so nobody to verify that. But he did go to a movie. He's not sure if he still has the receipt or stub back home, but he used a debit card and says he can have the company send an invoice as proof if we need it. Other than that, he said he spent most of the weekend at home going through news stories on the Internet, trying to find a case that matched his vision. When he found the one about Ginger, he booked the first flight into Billings and came to the family.”
“Have him provide the card information so we can verify that movie,” Duke said. “What else do we have?”
Jace gnawed on the straw of his drink, holding back the words that wanted to spill from his mouth. Shit. How will they perceive my suspicions? His gut clenched, but he knew he had to do it. “The psychic mentioned thinking the man who picked up Ginger had blond hair.” He treaded carefully, hating that his colleagues might question his professionalism. “We have two blond guys who are new in town that I'd like to throw into the suspect ring.” He forced himself to look at everybody in the room. “Samuel Simmons and Alexander Quick.”
“Samuel Simmons is in my town?” Outrage coated Duke's words, and tension suddenly filled his tall, muscular body. “When did this happen?”
“Don't know for how long,” Jace answered. “But he contacted his brother yesterday for the first time. I was about to mention both men earlier today, but that's when Sarah told us about the new DB.” Jace went on to explain to their newer deputies who Samuel Simmons was and why he wasn't currently in prison for rape.
Duke smacked his hand against the wall, sending a sharp crack through the room. “Son of a bitch. Let's find him tomorrow and have a talk with him. What about the other guy, Alex Quick? Ty introduced me when I went to visit him at the youth center, and he seemed like a nice guy. I can't bring in every blond-haired man without probable cause.”
“The guy is new in town,” Jace said, trying to keep his voice professional. This isn't because of Sarah. You aren't acting out of jealousy. Sell your case. “He's here for what? Less than two weeks, and we have two murders on our hands. Plus, he actually knows the area around Compton's place; he's looking to buy it and two additional ranches in that area, and today we find a dead girl in the ditch in front of Compton's land? Something about the guy doesn't strike me right. He's about as rich as they come, very cool, and wears expensive clothes. Yet where is he staying while he's here looking to make a deal? A motel on the interstate. One of the ones Ginger used to use, if we can believe our motel identifications to be correct.” He slumped back in his chair, out of steam, but turned a puzzled eye on his coworkers. “Doesn't that seem odd to any of you?”
Everyone in the room looked to Duke, except for Cade, who clearly remembered Jace's reaction to Alex giving Sarah flowers. Jace pushed himself up straight and forced himself not to look away from the scrutiny.
Duke finally broke the silence, his deep, measured tone an automatic authority to everyone exposed to him. “I don't know about that one, Jace,” he said. “Let me think about it, and I'll get back to you.”
“Fair enough.” Jace bit down a second argument and moved on. “I'd like to get an okay to talk to Beth again, go at her a little bit harder. I think she can give us more insight into Ginger's life than she has so far.”
“That, I will authorize.” Running his hands through his hair, Duke expelled a breath. “All right, guys. I think that's about all we have right now. I should be able to show enough progress to appease the mayor's office when I speak with Brian again tomorrow. When I talked to Robyn, she didn't have anything new to tell me about our evidence, so we're just going to have to keep working our own angles. Let's go ahead and wrap this up for the night. I need to get home for a few hours before my wife forgets what I look like. And we all need a little shut-eye so we don't overlook something important.”
Everyone cleaned up the office in silence, straightening evidence and throwing away empty food containers, and then filed out in a single line, Duke taking up the rear and locking the office door behind him.
Duke was right. Jace needed sleep. And lots of it.
He needed Sarah more.
* * * *
In the darkness of her bedroom, Sarah drew the art book to her breasts, hugging it as closely as she wanted to do with Jasper right now. She'd been touching the pages and flipping through them for hours since getting home from work, unable to put the book aside. Jasper was about the sweetest, most intuitive man she'd ever met. She'd mentioned wanting this book months ago and had just done it in passing while they were wandering around a bookstore, killing time before the start of a movie. It was so like him to put her comment into his memory and do something about it when he was able to afford it.
Sarah's chest heaved, and wetness burned behind her eyes.
Jas, this wouldn't be so hard if you weren't such a good man.
She picked up her cell for the tenth time, scrolled to his number on the list, and squeezed her eyes shut as she hit the green Send button. Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up. He would know it was her by the ringtone and might ignore it.
On the fifth ring, right before it would flip over to voice mail, Jasper's familiar, wonderful voice filled her ear. “Hello?”
“Oh, thank you.” Sarah slumped into her pile of pillows, breathing a sigh of relief. “I was beginning to think you weren't going to answer.”
“Guys are all playing poker in the bunkhouse,” Jasper answered. “Had to get somewhere quiet so I could hear you.”
She knew he wasn't much of a fan of the game. “What were you doing?” On poker night, Sarah normally picked him up, and he spent the evening doing something with her. “You could have come to see me.”
“No, I couldn't. You know why.” Steel forged his words.
Let it go. Don't get into a fight. You don't want him to hang up on you.
Wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, she whispered, her voice a little scratchy, “Thank you for the book.” She brushed her fingers across the cover once again. “It's beautiful.”
A rumble, sounding as if it came from Jasper's throat, reached through the phone. “Don't cry, Sarah. I don't want you to cry.”
“I miss you.” She sucked up her unhelpful tears before the third one could fall and forced out a rough chuckle. “It's stupid; I know it has only been a day, but I can't help feeling like I've lost you, and I don't want to lose you. You're not here, and it doesn't feel right to me.”
“I know.” Jasper sounded as miserable as she felt. “I miss you too, but I gotta do this. If somethin' happened to you, I don't know what I'd do.”
“I understand.” And she did, even if she didn't agree with him. “I just wish you were in bed with me right now. If I close my eyes, I can feel your chest against my back and your legs tangled with mine, and you're holding me and keeping me warm. I can smell you fresh from a shower, and then all damp and musky after we've had
sex.” Naturally as breathing, Sarah's nipples tightened with the beginnings of arousal, the peaks feeling especially sensitive against the fabric of her robe. She slipped her hand inside the fold and cupped her breast. “I want to feel you making love to me again, Jasper. Your weight shoving me into the bed with every thrust of your hips and the rough texture of your fingers rubbing and squeezing my breasts, making my body tighten on your cock with every touch.” Her legs fell open a bit, and the book slipped to the mattress. She moved her fingers around her puckering nipple, and the first throb of need pulsed in her pussy. “God, I can feel it like you were here doing it right now.”
The rustle of movement and a hint of heavier breathing moved across Sarah's skin like an invisible hand.
“Where are you?” she asked, her voice already turning husky. “Right now. Tell me.”
“Bathroom.” Two clicks registered in Sarah's ear as Jasper said, “I just went into a shower stall and shut the door. You're givin' me a hard-on. Gotta open my pants.”
Sarah closed her eyes and pictured Jasper leaning against a shower wall, his cock hard and jutting. She moaned in response to the visual and moved her hand between her thighs, fingering her slick slit. “I'm already getting wet. Do you have your jeans around your hips now?”
“Yeah. Goddamn, Sarah.” Jasper hissed, and she imagined him beginning to stroke his erection. “I ain't ever known anyone like you. What are you wearin'?”
“Just my robe. I have it open. My legs are spread and drawn up a little.” She dipped a finger into her sex, and she swore she felt a thicker, longer, callused touch force its way into her tight channel. “I'm touching myself and telling myself it's you getting me ready for a hard fuck. I swear it's your finger pushing in until you can't go any deeper. It feels so good, Jas.” She worked in a second digit, just like Jasper did before he sank his cock into her. She fluttered all around the invasion, her cunt worked to hold her inside, and her clit started to fill with blood. “Tell me you can feel it too.”
