The Skin Worshipper
Page 15
Chapter 15
Spring turned into summer and the little town of Green Tree was swarmed by tourists looking for fishing and hiking in the mountains. Small businesses around the town flourishes and Hawk and his deputies got their share of work. There are bar fights at night, and they are even called to a house where there is a Swingers party. The neighbors complained about the naked people jumping in the pool and screaming all night.
The investigation into the murder of Maria Santos and the disappearance of the hikers has stalled. Hawk has been in contact with Burt in LA a few times, but he hasn’t found anything interesting in the files. Doc Martin has been talking to the lab, but they can’t help either, all they can say is that the poisons used to kill Maria are uncommon and that they come from south of the border.
One afternoon Hawk and Friedman are sitting outside the police station in the sun. They have pulled out some comfortable chairs and are having coffee. Mrs. Winters is inside and Collins is on patrol somewhere. Hawk is in civilian clothes which are black jeans, a black tank top and a thin short sleeved shirt in gray. He is half lying in the chair, enjoying in the warm rays from the sun when Friedman asks him, "do you think we will ever catch whoever did it?"
"Did what?"
"Kill Maria Santos."
Hawk is quiet and then opens his eyes and turns his head towards Friedman, "maybe, we just have to be patient."
"I’m not so sure, it’s been months now, and not a single lead."
Sandy Holms is driving down the street slowly, looking for the police station. She sees it up ahead and parks by the sidwalk.
When she gets out she takes off her baseball cap and shakes her head, and her curly black hair falls down her back. She leaves the cap on the back seat and takes out a thin briefcase. She locks the car and walks up the driveway towards the main entrance. There are two men outside and it looks like they are sun tanning, she gets an irritated look on her face. When she comes closer she sees the man in civilian clothes has a scar around his neck and she wonders why the policemen next to him would be tanning with what is obviously some scumbag. She is good at reading people, and this guy stinks of trouble.
When she comes closer the uniformed man looks at her, but the other one keeps his eyes closed and ignores her.
"How may I help you?" asks Friedman.
He has never seen the young woman before. She looks like a lawyer, business suit in dark blue, flat shoes, and a briefcase in her hand. She is good-looking.
"I’m Sandy Holmes, I’m a Criminal Psychologist, well almost, I’m doing my Thesis for my PhD and then I’ll be one."
"Uh-huh," says Friedman and leans back in his chair, Hawk hasn’t moved a muscle.
Sandy becomes more irritated and she steps in front of the sun, and a shadow falls on Friedman.
"Excuse me, could you move a nit to the right, you are blocking the sun, " he says waving at her with his hand.
"I’m here to help," she says.
Friedman opens one eye and looks at her, and then asks, "help us with what?"
She looks at the other man with the scar and notices he is missing half an ear, Christ, this gets worse and worse. He is obviously some kind of gangster and his ear got cut off in a knife fight.
"If we could talk in private, please," she says and nods her head at the man with the scar.
"Anything you want me to hear, Chief Hawk has to hear too," says the uniformed man and points with his index finger at the other man.
"Chief Hawk?" asks Sandy with astonishment.
"That would be me. How can we be of service?" Hawk open his eyes smiling at the young woman.
She clears her throat and says, "well, like I said, I’m a student and writing my Thesis for my PhD."
"What does that have to do with us, " asks Hawk, sipping his now cold coffee.
"Well, you see, I chose to write about a string of disappearances and then make a profile of the possible offender."
"What disappearances?" asks Friedman, now sitting up.
She clears her throat again and opens her briefcase. She takes out a thick folder and begins to flick through the pages. She looks up at the two men and asks, "did you know that fifteen people have disappeared between here and the Canadian border in the last three years?"
Hawk and Friedman look at each other and then back at her, Hawk says, "no we didn’t, how do you know?"
"When I had to decide what to write about I decided to look for unsolved crimes instead of profiling an already arrested serial killer, like some of my colleagues did. After deciding on the North Western part of the US, I went through all the missing people’s reports for the past five years for the area, and guess what. I found something.
"That must have taken time," says Friedman impressed by the work she must have put into it.
"Yes, it did, but I’m sure these disappearances are linked, and there is one offender out there."
Hawk stands up and taking his coffee cup and chair with him, he turns to Holmes, and says, "let’s talk inside."
The station is quiet apart from Mrs. Winter’s typing. Holmes looks around in the reception area and realizes how small it is. There is a bench and a couple of chairs against the wall opposite the woman behind the desk, a few plastic plants in the corners. Hawk is standing in the door to one of three offices and signals for her to follow him.
Inside, he sits down behinds his desk. Holmes takes a seat opposite him and Friedman hangs by the door.
"Tell me more about what you have found," says Hawk.
"Like I said, so far I have found fifteen people, but there seems to be no connection between them except they used the same road to drive to or from Canada, the I25."
"How come no one has been here asking questions, I mean, if they know where they disappeared, then I would expect a call from any other police station," says Hawk.
"I suppose the answer is that there is not much communication between the different police jurisdictions, this is a problem in the big cities too."
Hawk knows what she is talking about. When he was in LA there was always foul ups because the different precincts didn’t communicate with each other. "OK, continue."
"The people who have gone missing are; a family with a small child and two teenage daughters, then several lonely travelers and the last report is about a couple that went missing about six months ago."
"You are saying there is no connection between these people?"
"None that I have found, their age range from ten to sixty five, white and all middle class, no previous connection to crime or law enforcement."
"What about their cars, have they been found?" asks Friedman from the doorway.
Holmes shakes her head, "no, no cars, no bags, nothing has been found. It’s like they were snatched by Aliens."
"Where were they from?" asks Hawk.
Holmes looks through her papers and says, "Seattle, LA, Las Vegas, Portland and Boise, Idaho."
Hawks smiles at her and says, "I already noticed one common thing, guess what."
Holmes is looking down at her notes. She bites her lower lip and Hawk thinks she looks adorable, like a little girl thinking about a math problem. Then she looks up at him and says, "they are all going to or from cities in the U.S. None of them live in Canada."
"Yes. Could be a coincidence, who knows, but it’s somewhere to start."
"Could it be a trucker who is taking these people?" asks Friedman.
"I thought about that, and it has happened before. There was a case a few years back in Texas, where a trucker would pick up hookers that he then raped and killed," says Holmes."
Hawk is leaning back in his chair, and is enjoying it all. After years of dealing with drunks, domestic violence and burglaries, this young woman walks through the door and hands him a real case, something to get his teeth into.
"Holmes, I think we need to find you a place to stay, and you need to buy some clothes or did you come prepared for a long-haul?"
"I got an overnight bag, that’s all."
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"Not to worry, Mrs. Winter will find you a room you can rent cheap and Friedman here will take you to some shops where you can get proper clothing."
"So you will look into this?" she asks with hope in her eyes.
"I think you are right, we have a killer out there, and I intend to find him."
PART 2
The Amazon
Four years earlier.