Her Shallow Grave (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“Beats me.” Carter enlarged the image of the frozen head and leaned toward the screen. “This one has a tiny bluebird on her forehead just above her eyebrow.” He shrugged. “They haven’t found the other head yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if the tattoos are visible.”

She turned to Kalo. “See what you can find.”

“I’m on it.” Kalo tapped away at his keyboard, eyes flicking from side to side as he scanned the files.

The images confronting Jo reminded her of a case—but which one? “I’ve seen this before, I’m sure of it.”

“I hope you’re not planning on paying them a visit?” Carter rolled his green eyes to the ceiling. “We can’t fly in this weather. I’ll need three hours at least of clear skies before I’m taking that bird anywhere.”

Jo lifted both arms in the air and dropped them to her sides. Bad weather had trapped them in town since the first falls. “I hadn’t realized as this town isn’t on any major routes to anywhere else, there would be no snowplow service past the local school.”

“Uh-huh.” Carter gave her a long considering stare. “That’s why I rented a place in town for the winter. The road to my cabin is impassable.” He scratched his cheek. “I’ve been trying to figure out why you agreed to set up a field office here? This town has a population of one hundred and most of them live off the grid.”

Jo remembered the confrontation with Alexis, her boss and husband’s lover. She’d had the choice: retire from the FBI or banishment to Snakeskin Gully. She stared at Carter. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, maybe you’ll tell me sometime.” He smiled around the toothpick between his teeth. “There’s not much to do around here in winter.”

“Oooweee, I have a match.” Kalo grinned at her from across the room. “You gotta see this. It seems the psychopath named by the media as The Sculptor has been a busy boy. Sending the case files to your laptop now.”

Jo looked over a few of the case files gathered from all over the country and shook her head. “If this guy is in Black Rock Falls, Jenna is going to need all the help she can get.”

“She sure will and I wish I could be there for her.” Carter stared at the screen. “I like Jenna.”

Amused, Jo smiled at him. “I wouldn’t mind having Kane here either.” She chuckled. “Maybe we could swap. You and Jenna would make a nice couple.”

“Call yourself a behavioral analyst and you can’t see she’s smitten by him?” Carter shrugged. “I don’t make moves on another man’s woman.”

Jo hadn’t seen this side of him before. “Smitten, huh? He’s been working with her for years and he’s still living in the cottage. I don’t think so.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Can we get back to the case? What do you see, are there any specific similarities?”

“Yeah, some have different MOs but most are the same. It’s too early in the investigation into the Black Rock Falls cases to say for certain if this is the same guy. We’ll need to wait for

Wolfe’s autopsy report to be sure.” He flicked back from the case file photographs to the ones from Black Rock Falls. “It’s not a copycat, little information went out in the press releases.”

Worried a delay might put Jenna and her team at risk, she leaned forward in her chair. “I’ll forward these case files to Black Rock Falls and then I’ll call Jenna. I’d be interested to find out Kane’s slant on this killer as well.”

After sending the files, she made a video call. “Hi, Jenna, we have the files and I’ve sent you what we have on similar cases. The killer in Black Rock Falls has the same MO as one the press named The Sculptor. He’s been murdering women across the country for four or five years and from what I can see, we have likely only found the tip of the iceberg.”

“Yeah, we thought this wasn’t his first dance. He’s too slick and leaves no evidence behind.” Jenna shrugged. “He’s like most of the psychopaths we deal with lately. Does he do this in winter or all year round?”

Jo turned to Kalo. “Can we give an answer on this, Kalo?”

“Yeah.” Kalo glanced up from his screen. “All through winter.”

Jo glanced at Carter. “Carter has a theory.”

“Ink seems to be a link.” Carter stared at the screen. “From what we’re seeing they all had tattoos, they’re all women around the same age, similar in build and hair color.” He shrugged. “What gets me is he’s doing this in winter. How is he choosing his victims? Most people are covered up.”

“That’s something we’ll have to discover.” Jenna glanced at Kane. “Kane has some questions.”

“Hi, Jo.” Kane’s gaze was serious. “From what we’re seeing here, this guy is using these women as his art. I gather from the name given to him by the media, we’re not alone in this assumption. We haven’t found a cause of death, so am I right to assume he’s getting no pleasure out of killing these women?”

Jo pursed her lips thinking. “Oh, he gets pleasure out of killing them or he wouldn’t be doing it.” She waited a beat to gather her thoughts. “The type and the ink are representations of someone he wants to kill repeatedly, someone who caused him grief, maybe as a child. From what I’ve seen from his previous kills, at first he wanted to humiliate them. That phase changed.”

“Why? It’s unusual for this class of psychopath to change his MO mid-stream.” Kane raised an eyebrow. “Unless we’re dealing with another multiple personality.”

“Not necessarily, because the last ten or so have been similar.” Jo shrugged. “Maybe he found humiliating them didn’t satisfy him, he needed to do more, hurt them more. I believe he uses the art excuse to validate his need to keep killing. He regards the women as the necessary pieces he requires to make his sculpture. Once he has decided how to use them, they’re no longer people.”

“That’s disturbing.” Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “How many have been identified? How many were reported missing?”