The Crying Season (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“I’ll look forward to it.”

She watched him amble slowly back to his cottage with Duke at his heels. Maybe the iceman is melting.

16

Wednesday

The following morning Jenna walked into the morgue with Kane to find a blonde woman in her thirties dressed in a white coat bending over the skeletal remains they had retrieved the previous day. The woman glanced up and smiled as the door whooshed shut behind them.

“Ah, you must be Sheriff Alton and Deputy Kane. Shane has told me so much about you, I feel I know you already.” She removed a surgical glove and offered her hand. “Jill Bates.”

I hope he hasn’t told you everything about us. Jenna took her hand and smiled. “You must be the forensic anthropologist Wolfe mentioned, and please call me Jenna.”

Beside her Kane offered his hand. “Nice to meet you.” He glanced around. “Where is Wolfe?”

“He took some samples down to the lab. We only have the basic autopsy equipment here. He has everything we need for my side of things and of course the DNA testing set up down the hall.”

Astonished, Jenna gaped at her. “He can do DNA testing here now?”

“Oh yes, his equipment is impressive.” Jill’s lips curled into a pretty smile. “I think he has a fairy godmother—every time he applies for funding, it comes through in record time. Someone in government must be watching over him.” She laughed.

Yeah, POTUS can be generous. Jenna heard the door open and Wolfe strode in carrying an iPad. She turned to him. “Ah good. Do you have anything for me yet?”

“Ah… yes and no.” Wolfe’s gray eyes narrowed. “I see you’ve met Jill. She has been invaluable and will be staying for a couple of days to help out.”

Jenna nodded. “Not a problem but I hope she is staying at the Cattleman’s Hotel? I wouldn’t put a dog in the Black Rock Falls Motel.”

“You don’t have to worry, Jenna. I’m staying at Shane’s house.” Jill glanced over at him. “I’ve been crashing in his spare room.”

“You have no idea how happy Emily is to talk to Jill.” Wolfe’s stern expression turned into a smile of sorts. “She is much like me at the same age and craves knowledge.”

“How is she handling college?” Kane rubbed the black stubble on his chin. “Not planning on creating a body farm in your backyard, is she?”

“Oh my goodness.” Jill burst into l

aughter. “You obviously know his daughter better than you think; she is devouring textbooks about dissection at the moment. I was the same; I played with dead things, bones, and fossils when I was a kid.”

Jenna cleared her throat. “It was never dolls for me either. I had a passion for guns.” The three people looking at her all dropped their jaws at once and she swallowed the laugh bubbling in her throat. She had a crime to solve. “Can we get down to business? Have you discovered anything we can use to positively identify these people?”

“Yeah, with Jill’s help and contacts, we have obtained the dental records for both victims and compared them. They both have the same health insurance and we tracked them from there.”

“Yes, I was able to access the database with my password and we’ve gotten a match. Both victims had X-rays recently, which was a bonus.” Jill waved a hand at the shattered remains on the left. “This is Dawson Sanders and his fiancée Paige Allen.”

“Once we found a match, I did a search and discovered a newspaper article about them.” Wolfe cocked one eyebrow. “He owns a string of hotels and she comes from money. Their engagement party was spread over two pages of the local newspaper.”

“He was very young to own a string of hotels.” Jenna tapped her bottom lip. “So why come to Black Rock Falls? You would have thought they would have taken a vacation somewhere more luxurious.”

“I figure we’ll find out soon enough.” Kane moved closer to the pathetic remains of Paige Allen. “The skeleton looks almost complete.” He turned to look at Sanders’ remains. “What happened to their hands?”

“We believe they were carried away by animals.” Wolfe’s attention shifted to his iPad. “It’s still early in our examination of the remains but from the damage we can see on Sanders, we believe the bolt through his head was post mortem.”

“Yes.” Jill moved around the remains and indicated with one gloved finger. “The lack of bone scatter and teeth marks would indicate, for some reason, the animals left the rest of Sander’s body alone. Decomposition leaves traces in the clothing and his appears to be normal, which led us to believe he was soaked in gasoline or oil.”

“Yeah you mentioned that before but who would carry a can of gas up a mountain?” Kane flicked Jenna a disbelieving look then turned back to Wolfe. “Have you tested the clothes yet?”

“Not yet.”

Jenna caught Wolfe’s flash of annoyance. Kane wanted answers yesterday, and what Wolfe and Jill had achieved in a short time had been incredible. She patted Kane on the arm. “I asked for the identities of the victims and they have confirmed that in record time. You know how long it takes to do all the tests.”