Cold Heart Creek: A nail-biting and gripping mystery suspense thriller (Detective Josie Quinn Book 7)

by Lisa Regan

  “We don’t have two months. What if this third camper is dying?” Josie complained.

  “Two months was just an example. They’ll be here in a couple of hours and as long as the weather permits, they’ll work. In the meantime, we’ll do grid searches. We can get more units and some of the fire department out to search as well.”

  “That sounds good,” Josie acquiesced. She didn’t say that they couldn’t have grid searches in bad weather either. Her team was doing the best they could, but the last thing she needed was a searcher getting struck by lightning or crushed by a tree branch.

  “I found some boot prints,” Hummel called from the camping area. “I’m gonna try to get casts of them before the rain washes them away.”

  “Thanks, Hummel,” Josie said.

  The Alcott County Medical Examiner, Dr. Anya Feist, arrived, picking her way carefully through the woods. Her silver-blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. A fine sheen of sweat glistened on her pale skin. Behind her were four paramedics, carrying two scoop stretchers which they leaned up against nearby tree trunks. They hung back, waiting while Dr. Feist got to work. Josie checked the GPS unit, on which she could monitor the other members of the Denton PD as they searched for the third camper. The radios were quiet which meant no one had found anything yet. She looked back toward the bodies to see Dr. Feist kneeling beside Tyler Yates’ body, probing his arm for stiffness.

  Josie walked up to Valerie Yates’ side, across from Dr. Feist, and asked, “What do you think?”

  “Time of death probably only a few hours ago. I think it was definitely something they ingested that made them sick and killed them. Perhaps some kind of poisoning. Hummel showed me what you found behind the tent. Whether it’s accidental or not isn’t really for me to say. That’s your job.”

  Josie sighed. “Yeah, I’m working on that.”

  “I’ll know more when I perform the autopsies. There is this, though.”

  She leaned over Tyler’s body and lifted his large hand, uncovering Valerie’s tiny palm that had been clasped inside it. She used her other hand to point to a mark on Valerie’s wrist.

  “Is that a cut or a brush burn?” Josie asked, leaning in.

  “I don’t know,” Dr. Feist said. “But it’s fresh.”

  “Ligature marks?” Josie asked.

  “I can’t tell for sure. Like I said, once I get her on the table, I’ll have a better idea.”

  Josie sat back on her knees and examined Valerie’s right wrist. “I don’t see any marks over here.”

  Dr. Feist nodded. “Right. It’s curious but could be nothing.”

  “We can revisit it once your autopsy is done,” Josie told her.

  Josie’s phone rang. With mounting dread, she pulled it out and looked at the screen, actually relieved to see that it was Deputy Moore calling her back and not the prison again. She answered and he said, “There haven’t been any reports of anyone acting suspiciously around the woods in Lenore County. I also checked with the nearest hospital to see if they’ve had anyone show up ill like they ingested something poisonous, and they haven’t had anything like that in the last forty-eight hours.”

  “Okay, thanks,” she said and hung up.

  “Maybe the third camper did the poisoning and took off,” Noah suggested, walking up beside her.

  “I wouldn’t rule out the third camper’s involvement in whatever this is,” Josie said, thinking of the menacing feeling she’d experienced earlier. “But if I’d poisoned a couple of people, I wouldn’t leave evidence of my presence at the scene.”

  “Good point,” Noah said. He looked at Dr. Feist. “Any idea what they might have ingested?”

  Dr. Feist stood up and snapped her gloves off. She waved the paramedics over and they began to bag the bodies for transport out of the forest. Josie, Dr. Feist, and Noah stepped aside to let them work. “The only way to find out would be to run toxicology,” Dr. Feist said. “But as you know, that takes weeks, and it doesn’t test for plants or berries found in the woods.”

  “You think it’s something they found out here?” Noah asked.

  Dr. Feist shrugged. “It seems the most likely explanation. Hummel says there were no prescriptions, illicit drugs, or alcohol found amongst any of their personal effects.”

  “There’s also no food or water,” Josie pointed out.

  “Maybe the third camper took whatever was here when he or she left,” Noah said. “Although it’s weird that a couple would be camping with an extra person, don’t you think?”

  Josie nodded. “I’ve been thinking that all morning. Noah, you might be right. It would explain why so much is missing—or why the items you’d expect to find at a campsite are not here—and why we haven’t found another dead person in the woods near here.”

  Dr. Feist fanned herself. “The lab will test for the usual stuff—alcohol, opiates, amphetamines, barbiturates, marijuana, that sort of thing, but your best bet is to bag up some of that puke and see if you can find any evidence of unusual leaves, roots, or berries that they might have found in the woods and eaten.”

  “I think that’s Hummel’s job,” Noah said, wrinkling his nose.

  From somewhere behind the tent came Hummel’s voice. “Already did it.”

  “What kinds of plants would cause something like this?” Josie asked. “The sickness, cyanosis, and froth at the mouth? Jimsonweed? Bracken Fern? Foxglove?”

  Dr. Feist nodded. “Sure, those. Or hemlock, oleander, water hemlock. There are also plenty of poisonous berries—yew and holly could cause death.”

  Josie recognized those as well. She’d grown up in the Denton woods and had spent most of her childhood exploring and playing in them. Before she was even six years old, her father had taught her the names of most wildflowers and made her memorize the plants and berries that were toxic to humans. He used to walk her through the forest and test her knowledge. Later, after he died, she used to test her then-childhood-friend, Ray, on which plants and berries were edible and which would make them sick or kill them.

  “If I were you,” Dr. Feist said, “and I wanted to really narrow it down, I’d search at least a mile in each direction and see if you can find anything toxic that this couple could have easily picked to use in their dinner or put in tea.”

  Josie nodded. The paramedics began carrying Tyler and Valerie Yates away. Dr. Feist followed. “I’ll fast-track their autopsies and let you know if I find anything unusual.”

  Hummel emerged from behind the tent carrying a large cardboard box. “Boss,” he said, walking over to Josie. “You’ll want to see this.”

  Six

  Hummel fished inside the box until he came up with a clear plastic evidence bag containing what looked like a thin gold chain. Josie took the bag in her hands so she could get a closer look.

  “Is that a necklace?” Noah asked.

  “Yeah,” she answered. “Looks like a gold chain with a heart-shaped charm on it.” The golden heart was open in the middle and along its edges, small diamonds sparkled. “I would venture this belongs to a woman. Where did you find it? The chain is broken.”

  Hummel said, “The rolled-up sleeping bag.”

  Josie and Noah looked at one another. Noah said, “So we’ve got a husband and wife out in the middle of nowhere camping with another woman.”

  “Husband and wife are dead, and the woman is missing,” Josie concluded.

  Hummel said, “Maybe the female was their child?”

  Josie thought of their faces and the dates of birth listed on their drivers’ licenses. “I doubt that. Unless Valerie Yates gave birth as a teenager, any daughter they might have would have to be pretty young, and I’m not sure they would let a young child sleep out here. Wouldn’t they keep her in the tent with them?”

  “She could be a pre-teen,” Hummel suggested.

  “She’d have to be ten to twelve at most,” Josie said. “I’m not sure this is exactly pre-teen jewelry, and I’m not sure that, as a parent, I’d let my pre-tee
n sleep in the woods alone while I was safely tucked away in a tent. There are wild animals out here.”

  Noah took the bag from her hands and held it up. “It could belong to a pre-teen. Hard to tell if it’s expensive or not.”

  Hummel agreed. “Can’t tell if those diamonds are real or not or if it’s fourteen-karat gold.”

  “Okay,” Josie conceded. “It’s something we can’t rule out.” Her stomach turned at the thought of a young girl lost and sick in these woods—or worse. Again, for just a moment, the hairs on her body stood on end. Noah smacked his hand against the back of his neck. “Damn mosquitoes,” he muttered.

  Josie looked around them, studying the breaks in the trees around the campsite, searching for something out of place and finding nothing. She pushed the sensation away. The only thing that tempered her anxiety was knowing there were already searchers in the woods—at least until the thunderstorms came. She hoped they’d hold off another couple of hours. That could make all the difference. “We’ll know more when we get back to the station and get some background on the Yates couple. For now, we’ll let our team continue the search. Why don’t the three of us take a look for poisonous plants nearby?”

  Josie began walking out of the camp. Noah lingered, staring at his phone. “Everything okay?” Josie asked.

  He looked up at her with a grimace. “I don’t really know what I’m looking for.”

  Josie laughed. “Seriously?”

  Noah shrugged. “I played sports.”

  Josie turned toward Hummel. He swiped sweat from his brow and gave a little smile. “I’m a hunter, so my dad made sure I knew what not to touch and what not to eat pretty early on. I’ll stow this evidence and grab a couple of guys to help look.”

  Josie said, “Thanks, Hummel.” To Noah, “Come with me then. I’ll give you a crash course.”

  She and Noah went one way, and Hummel went the other.

  They picked through the trees, checking their GPS units as they went to keep track of the area they were searching. Josie said, “Since we got out here, have you felt like—?” She broke off. What could she say? Like someone was watching them? Like someone or something bad was waiting just out of their sight?

  “Like what?” Noah asked.

  Josie waved a hand. “Forget it. I’m just tired.”

  Noah stopped walking. “Tell me.”

  Josie stopped as well and put a hand on her hip. “If there was someone else out here with us, we would have found them, don’t you think?”

  Noah shrugged. “If not, we would have found evidence of them. Something they left behind or some trail. Why? You think there’s someone else out here? Besides our officers and the third camper?”

  “I don’t know,” Josie said. “No. I’m just—maybe I’m just having an off-day. Let’s just keep going, okay?”

  “Sure,” Noah said. He set off again, Josie keeping pace with him. Beside her, Noah huffed. “I could take my shirt off and squeeze the sweat out.”

  “I know,” she agreed.

  Josie glanced over to see him beginning to limp. He had broken his leg several months earlier after jumping out of a burning building. He’d spent two months in a cast and another six weeks in physical therapy, but she knew it still bothered him on occasion. She stopped herself from pointing out his limp, knowing Noah would never agree to go back and wait at the car. She would have to rely on him to let her know when he hit his limit. Either that, or he would be hurting badly the next day.

  “Tell me what we’re looking for,” he said.

  She slowed down so he could keep up with her and ran through the toxic plants she knew could be found out in the Denton woods which could cause severe illness and even death: jimsonweed, oleander, foxglove, hemlock, water hemlock. She described each one in detail so Noah would know what to look for and then she moved on to the berries that could have sickened and killed the Yates couple: American bittersweet, Cotoneaster, holly, juniper, and pokeweed.

  Josie pointed ahead of them. “Is that a stream up there?”

  “Looks like it,” Noah said.

  Josie stepped through a line of trees with Noah in tow to see a creek cutting through the forest. She took out her GPS unit. “Cold Heart Creek,” she read from the screen. “We’re about a half mile from the campsite. This is definitely Lenore County territory.” She looked left to right. “This is kind of far, but it’s possible the Yateses came out here to get water. Although, if they had, they would have needed a small portable water filter or at the very least, a pot to boil the water in. And something to drink it out of.”

  Noah used the hem of his shirt to wipe his face. “They could have been drinking the water without filtering it. Although I don’t know that that would have killed them so quickly.”

  Together, they walked along the edge of the creek, small rocks crunching beneath their feet. Josie had a strong urge to jump into it and cool off even though from where they stood, it didn’t appear that deep. As if reading her mind, Noah stopped and squatted down, cupping some of the water with his hands and splashing his face. “You think someone was at the campsite,” he said. It was not a question.

  “Yeah,” Josie said. “I think someone took their stuff—whether it was part of the poisoning, or just someone stealing it after they died, I don’t know.” She didn’t say that she thought that person was still out here. Noah was right—they would have seen or heard something.

  “The bodies could have been staged,” Noah agreed. “Someone slips something poisonous into their food or water supply, waits for them to die, lays them out next to one another, hand in hand, and then takes their stuff.”

  He stood and continued walking. Cold Heart Creek led further south of the campsite, deeper into Lenore County. Josie said, “That is the scenario that’s entered my mind, except why would you bother to poison someone just to take their stuff? Someone could have just snuck into the campsite while they slept and taken whatever they wanted. Also, why leave them holding hands? That seems like something only a person who knew them would do.”

  “So, if this is foul play, we’re back to the third camper as a suspect.”

  Josie sighed. “We just don’t have enough information yet.”

  They walked in silence for a few more minutes until Josie could stand it no longer. She knelt on a large rock beside the creek and threw water on her face and neck. The cool moisture felt like heaven. As she reluctantly stood back up, she spotted a large hemlock plant on the other side of the creek. She pointed to it. “There.”

  Noah followed her finger. “That would be hemlock, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes, it would.”

  They looked up and down the creek. There didn’t look to be a way across it without getting wet. As if reading her thoughts, Noah said, “We might as well just walk across. We’re already soaked in sweat. What difference will it make?”

  Josie went first, walking slowly and carefully across the creek’s rock bed. At its deepest point it only came to her waist. She had to admit, the water felt good, even though she knew she’d be risking blisters on her feet later from walking in wet sneakers and that her wet slacks would be heavier to maneuver in—although if they didn’t beat the rain, they’d be soaked anyway.

  When they reached the plant, Noah snapped on a pair of gloves, then looked at her. “Did you bring an evidence bag?”

  Josie smiled as she produced one. “I got a couple from Hummel, yes. Just a minute though. Look at this.”

  She pointed to one of the smaller branches. “There’s a broken stalk here.”

  Noah leaned in and examined it. “Take some photos,” he told her. “And mark this on the GPS unit so we know how far it was from the campsite.”

  “Got it,” she said, putting a marker into the GPS map and then taking out her phone. She clicked away, taking photos of the hemlock while Noah bagged some pieces of the plant. Josie was putting her phone away when something behind the plant caught her eye. “What is that?” she asked.

  Noa
h pocketed the evidence bag and took his gloves off. “What’s what?”

  Josie took a few steps. “Behind those trees. There’s something shiny. I think it might be a fence.”

  “Let’s look,” Noah said, walking in front of her and leading her through the dense copse of trees on this side of the creek bank. Josie estimated it was roughly twenty-five yards from the bank where they’d found the hemlock to the chain-link fence that stretched in both directions as far as they could see. On the other side was simply more forest. Josie walked along the fence until she came to a black sign with red lettering affixed to it that said: “Private Property. No Trespassing.”

  “Why is there a fence in the middle of the damn woods?” Noah muttered, coming up behind her.

  “It’s someone’s private property,” Josie answered, motioning toward the sign. “We should call and ask Moore about it. Might be worth looking into.”

  Seven

  Hummel waited for them at the campsite, standing beneath a shady oak tree. The rest of the search had turned up nothing, so Noah gave him the hemlock they had bagged, and Josie released him so that he could go back to the station, log in the evidence, and deliver the specimens to the State Police lab’s serology department and the casts from the footprints he’d found to the shoe and footwear department of the lab. The rest of the Denton PD officers were small push pins on the GPS map, meandering through the surrounding forest for miles in each direction. One uniformed Denton officer waited out by the road for the K-9 unit to arrive. So far, no one had found any evidence of the third camper.

  Josie and Noah began the slow trudge back to the road where their vehicle waited. “We’ll have to see what we can find out about the Yates couple,” Josie said. “Do background checks, find some next of kin. See if we can figure out who was traveling with them.”