by D. K. Hood
Kane glanced at the blue skinned man on the gurney and shook his head. The mental torture he must have suffered watching his wife being mutilated and unable to help her must have been horrendous. His gaze never wavered as Wolfe proceeded to examine the body. The weighing of the organs, checking the stomach contents and the spinal column, and finally removing part of the cranium to examine the damage from the crossbow bolt. Each action was recorded, and finally Wolfe handed the closing to his assistant, Colt Webber.
Kane gave himself a mental shake. The entire process had been hypnotizing, or he’d placed himself into a sniper state without realizing it. He glanced at Jenna, who had said nothing during the examination, and she gave him a nod indicating she was okay. He moved his attention back to Wolfe. “Did you find anything significant?”
“Yeah.” Wolfe removed his gloves with a snap and replaced them with a fresh pair. “Whoever inflicted the injury to the spine was right-handed.” Wolfe gave him a thoughtful look over his mask. “I’d assumed the injury was an attack from behind, but from the angle of the wound it was a frontal attack. I don’t think Howard saw it coming. There are no other signs on him to indicate a struggle.”
“So, he knew his attacker?” Jenna folded her arms across her chest and leaned her back against the counter. “Like his guide, for instance?” She raised both eyebrows. “It has to be Adams or Lane, doesn’t it?”
Kane nodded. “They seem to be the most likely candidates, but without new evidence the DA won’t prosecute them. Because the murders are alike and you can’t prove either man committed both murders, you have too much reasonable doubt to convict either of them.”
“Have you found anything to link these men?” Wolfe looked at Jenna. “Have you gone right back? For instance, were they at school together?”
“Nope. Apart from murder scenes, we’ve come up empty.” Jenna cleared her throat. “They both did time in the county jail but deny knowing each other. They were in different areas of the prison and I can’t prove they met. They both belong to the firing range, but so does just about everyone in town.” She looked at him. “How close have you gotten to the TOD?”
“My findings haven’t changed. Emmett Howard died from a projectile to the head. His time of death is between the last time he was seen alive, which, according to Tyson Long’s statement, was at eleven-thirty on Tuesday, and when his body was discovered at nine on Wednesday morning.”
“Which, if we can believe Long, puts Adams in the clear. He was at work at eleven on Tuesday and in custody at the TOD.” Jenna glanced at Kane. “And Long has an alibi for Payton Harris’ TOD. Which makes it impossible for one of them to have committed both crimes. Although, they could be collaborating and timing their crimes to give the other an alibi?”
Kane shook his head. “We’ve found no evidence to suggest they know each other. It won’t play for a conviction unless we can link them.”
“Okay, let’s push on with Patti Howard.” Wolfe pushed a gurney under the light and pulled back a sheet.”
Although Kane had already seen the brutality one person had inflicted on this poor woman, the sight of her laid out was no less of a shock. He straightened and stood feet apart and shoulders back and forced his mind to be objective. Murder was never pretty, and although he’d served in a warzone and as a government assassin taking out targets to protect his country, nothing in his experience prepared him for this level of carnage. He noticed Jenna shiver and wanted to reach out and hold her hand but when her chin rose and she stepped closer, a sense of calm descended on him. Jenna had that effect on him. Seeing her upset concerned him deeply, and it would seem the opposite soothed his nerves.
“From the lacerations, the killer used a hunting knife.” Wolfe examined, measured, and documented each deep incision on the body. “As we observed at the crime scene, Patti Howard was secured, her arms extended with tape and then at one point pinned to trees with crossbow bolts. I’d say he did this not for any other reason than to prevent her from fighting back. There are no defensive wounds on the arms, but the lacerations to the legs show she fought long and hard before he subdued her long enough to restrain her.”
Kane ran his gaze over the woman’s body. The injuries appeared methodical, not what he recognized as a frenzied attack. He turned to Jenna. “This looks calculated to me. Look at the cuts to her torso: they are evenly spaced.”
“None of them look deep enough to have killed her.” Jenna scanned the body. “He wanted to torture her, make her suffer, just like Stone’s victims.” She glanced up at Wolfe. “What killed her? I can’t see any signs of strangulation, or anything else fatal.”
“I’ll examine her heart for any signs of a coronary, but heart failure from blood loss due to sharp force trauma is the most likely cause of death. After examining the lacerations, although some are gaping, the one here, on her thigh, killed her.” Wolfe pointed to the narrow incision. “If you look at the crime scene image, blood has pooled all around her, but in this area it was most concentrated, which made me examine this wound closely. This was a fatal wound. It sliced through the femoral artery and death would have occurred in five minutes or less.”
The autopsy continued and Kane watched as Wolfe examined Patti Howard’s organs, but his findings didn’t change. It was getting late by the time he climbed behind the wheel of his truck and headed back to the office. He turned to Jenna. “These murders have me baffled. Everything points to Adams and Long.”
“Whichever one it is, he’ll make a mistake or he already has.” Jenna chewed on her bottom lip. “Or one of the witnesses backing up their alibis is lying. For instance, we only have the word of the receptionist at the nursing home to confirm Adams arrived there at the time she said he did. My gut tells me he’s involved.”
Kane nodded. “We just have to prove it.” He pulled into his parking space outside the sheriff’s department.
“Well, we’ve found needles in haystacks before.” Jenna gathered her things. “I’m not waving a white flag just yet.”
Forty-Three
Exhausted emotionally and physically, Jenna dragged her legs up the steps to the sheriff’s department and headed toward the front counter. She noticed two teenagers sitting on the row of seats beside the main entrance and went to them. “Are you waiting for me?”
“Yeah.” The boy stood and gave her an angelic smile. “I’m Cade Rio and this is my sister, Piper. Zac wants to know if we can hang around here until he finishes work? We don’t mind helping out. Answering phones, sweeping up, or whatever.”
Jenna looked from one to the other. She could see the resemblance the twins had to their brother. “Yes, of course. Is there a problem at home?”
“No.” Cade shook his head. “Our housekeeper is polishing the floors and she doesn’t want us walking all over them until they’re finished.” He chuckled. “She likes things nice.”
Trying not to laugh, Jenna waved them toward the receptionist. “Maggie will find you something to do, won’t you, Maggie?”
“I sure can.” Maggie gave them a beaming smile, her brown eyes twinkling.
The silence in the office surprised her, and Jenna flicked a glance around the room and found it empty. Leaning on the counter, she looked at Maggie. “Where are my deputies?”
“They had a few calls on the hotline and went to check them out.” Maggie lowered her voice. “Someone else was seen with the Howards. Wendy at Aunt Betty’s Café called and they headed down there.”
Jenna nodded. “Okay. I’ll be in my office with Kane. Send them up when they get back.”
Hopeful of a lead, Jenna climbed the stairs to her office and inhaled the smell of brewing coffee. She could always trust Kane to go ahead and fill the coffee machine. Inside, she dropped wearily into her chair and stared at him across the desk. “Please tell me that’s good news.”
“Maybe.” Kane handed her the scribbled note in Rowley’s handwriting. “It says after the Howards left the Outdoors Store, one of the CCTV cameras in tow
n picked up them speaking to someone outside Aunt Betty’s Café. They’re hunting down the person right now.”
Jenna stood and took out cups and the fixings and then stared at the dripping liquid filling the jug. “So, no mention of the Stone surveillance tapes, and what about our suspects? Have they left town?”
“Nope, both have moved around town but not at the same time or places.” Kane scrolled through the files Rowley had uploaded. “They’ve both been working all day. The entries in the file track Adams’ and Long’s movements. They have watched a small portion of the footage from the prison but that’s going to take forever. It’s a long, tedious job, we all need to take turns or something will be missed.” He held up a finger before she could reply. “Nothing on June Harris either.”
After pouring the coffee and adding the fixings, Jenna slid a cup across the table to Kane and then noticed the yellow slip of paper under the old chipped mug on her desk that housed her pens. It was a note from Atohi Blackhawk. She glanced at it and lifted her head. “Ah, here’s a note from Atohi. He’s been searching the area around the Payton Harris murder scene again in the hope of finding which way June Harris went. He is concerned her trail wasn’t picked up by him earlier and is convinced she must be close by. He’ll be searching again tomorrow. He doesn’t give up easily.”
“There wouldn’t be much left of her now if she died in the forest.” Kane sipped his coffee and sighed. “Payton Harris’ murder, with his wife going missing and all, convinces me this is a copycat of Stone’s murders. I figure Payton Harris’ killer stashed June’s body in a cave up there somewhere.”
Jenna pushed a hand through her hair. “‘Somewhere’ is the operative word. There are thousands of caves up there. Many have entrances that are so overgrown no one would ever find them. So yeah, that’s a distinct possibility.”
Footsteps on the stairs interrupted their conversation. Jenna stared at the door. It was Rio.
“We’ve brought in a person of interest for the murders.” Rio was trying hard to control a smug smile. “I think you should come down and speak to him.”
Taking in his excited demeanor, Jenna held up one hand. “Slow it down, Zac. Give me the details, so I know what to ask this guy.”
“First up, we received a call on the hotline this morning from Morgan White out of Maple Way. He and his girlfriend, Fern, were out hiking in the forest on Monday and noticed a man following them. The guy kept off the trail but he was carrying a crossbow and wore a slicker and a cowboy hat. As luck would have it, they met up with a forest warden on horseback patrol and he escorted them back to their vehicle.” Rio frowned. “The man had vanished into the shadows and with the mist rising from the river, the warden didn’t want to risk hunting him down without backup. White gave me the warden’s name and I called him; he didn’t see anyone or any tracks but he made note of it in his report. He figured the couple were spooked because of the murders and the fact people act a little crazy around Halloween.”
“It gets better.” Rowley walked in the door. “We get back here and there’s a message from Wendy at Aunt Betty’s. Her curiosity got the better of her and she checked out the CCTV footage of the day Long said he met the Howards. She recalled they dropped by to pick up some supplies for the hike and wanted to see if they met anyone in the diner. When they left, she saw them speaking to another man, and Wendy knew him. She identified him as John Foster, he lives out on Pine, two doors down from Wendy. We dropped by and he was at home and only too happy to come down and answer some questions.”
Jenna exchanged a look with Kane and he raised one eyebrow. She looked up at her deputies. “Good work. Write it up and we’ll go and speak with Mr. Foster. Have you read him his rights?”
“Nope.” Rio shrugged. “We asked him if he’d mind coming in to talk to the sheriff and he agreed.”
“What is it with these suspects coming in willingly and talking?” Kane scratched his head. “Have I walked into another dimension, or is this one giant conspiracy? Nothing is making sense anymore.” He turned his attention to Rio. “Tell me you did this by the book. You did show White a six-pack?”
“Yeah, don’t worry, I made sure we had a photo lineup. I pulled Foster’s driver’s license and showed the image, along with five others selected at random, to White and his girlfriend and they made a positive ID on Foster.” Rio looked at Jenna. “Think about it. If Adams and Long were telling the truth about the couples they took into the forest, this guy might have been waiting somewhere along the trail for them. He could be our killer.”
Unconvinced, Jenna narrowed her gaze at him. “So, you figure Foster just hangs around the trails up at Bear Peak, the most isolated of areas, on the off-chance a couple might wander by so he can kill them?”
“He just happened to be hanging around the same places at the same time as both the couples who met with Adams and Long.” Rio shrugged. “We have him on CCTV footage and he was close by in both instances. It’s not unreasonable to assume he overheard the plans the victims made with Adams and Long and followed them… or headed out there before they arrived. He would have had time.”
“So, we brought him in for questioning.” Rowley straightened. “He’s in interview room one.”
Jenna waited for them to leave and blew out a long breath. “I’m with you on this one. Have we stumbled down a rabbit hole or something? Foster throws doubt on both our possible suspects. With the three of them admitting to being involved at least before the fact, we’ll never get a case to stick against any of them.” She glanced out the window at the gathering darkness and swirls of mist. It was as if the chill was creeping toward the windows with its long, fingerlike tendrils reaching out to her, and she hurriedly looked away. “This is the weirdest Halloween week ever. It’s like we’re living the same day over and over again. If this guy gives us the same story as the other two, pinch me good and hard, because as sure as hell I must be dreaming.”
Forty-Four
In the interview room, Foster appeared to be relaxed. He sat turning his to-go cup of coffee in his fingers, patiently waiting as if he had nothing else to do with his time. Jenna looked him over: he’d be in his mid-forties, rugged, with corded muscles in his forearms. The calluses on his hands and a weathered complexion would indicate he spent a lot of his time outside and likely did manual labor. There was an odor of freshly sawn wood around him, and she noticed a peppering of sawdust on the front of his T-shirt. He actually smiled as Jenna walked in and dropped a statement book beside her iPad on the table. She didn’t return the smile, turned on the recorder, and gave the date, time, and who was present. This interview would be by the book. “Mr. Foster, we’ll be interviewing you in relation to an investigation into the deaths of Payton Harris and Emmett and Patti Howard.” She read him his rights. “I believe when you spoke to my deputies, Zac Rio and Jake Rowley, you mentioned speaking to the Howards outside Aunt Betty’s Café on Tuesday morning. Is that correct?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” Foster clasped his hands on the table. “Nice couple.”
Jenna opened the statement pad and then raised her gaze back to him. “Tell me in your own words how this came about.”
“I was heading into Aunt Betty’s for a bite to eat and Patti bumped right into me.” Foster eyed her with an amused expression. “Feisty woman that one, she told me to mind where I was going. I apologized, and Emmett said there was no harm done and Patti had walked into me. So, we got talking about the weather and hunting and such. They mentioned their plans to head up to Bear Peak. I told them straight it’s not safe up there and they told me they were going with some guy who was heading that way.”
“How did you know their names?” Kane looked dubious. “I’m sure most folks don’t offer their details to people they bump into on the sidewalk.”
“Oh, yeah.” Foster’s eyes danced with amusement. “I offered to buy them a cup of coffee so we could talk some more about the trails, but they had to get along.”
Jenna made unnecess
ary notes to appear uninterested and casual. Everything she needed would be in a transcript of the tapes. “What took you to Stanton Forest today?”
“I was collecting firewood.” Foster raised his eyebrows. “No law against that, now is there? Clearing the forest floor of dead wood is a good thing. You never know when a dry storm will trigger a wildfire.”
“Do you usually take a crossbow with you when you’re collecting firewood?” Kane leaned forward in his chair.
“I sure do.” Foster rubbed his chin. “You’re not from hereabouts, are you, Deputy? No man in his right mind would go into the forest without some type of protection. A crossbow is my weapon of choice.”
Wanting to push Foster a little harder to see how he’d react, Jenna eyeballed him. “So why stalk the couple in the forest? You must have known that after the recent murders they’d be suspicious of strangers?”
“Is that what they said?” Foster bellowed a laugh. “That I stalked them? I tried to get close enough to warn them to get the hell out of Dodge, that Bear Peak wasn’t a safe place to be right now, but they hightailed it like scared rabbits.”
Jenna shook her head. “So, if it was too dangerous for hikers what made you believe you were safe? A killer running in the forest would be just as dangerous for you.”
“Me?” Foster shook his head. “They wouldn’t see me unless I wanted them to, Sheriff. In the forest I’m a ghost.”
Recalling the man in the alleyway, Jenna pushed down an involuntary shiver and scrolled through her iPad. “Where were you last Thursday night through Friday morning, Sunday night and last Tuesday between ten and four?”
“I can’t remember.” Foster scratched his head. “Around. I had a few things to do on Friday but I work at the produce store most days. Loading and unloading trucks. The other times, I went many places: stores, Aunt Betty’s, the new outdoors store to purchase bolts for my crossbow. I got gas at George’s Garage.”
