A young woman sat against a tree. The killer had secured her hands above her head, holding them in place with a zip tie looped over a crossbow bolt. Naked and eviscerated with the lower part of her body missing, she barely resembled a human. An involuntary shudder of disgust went through him and he fought down the need to vomit.
No amount of experience helped when dealing with a gruesome murder. So much for the notion the tough TV cops portrayed. They acted with unfeeling nonchalance as if nothing turned their guts then discussed the case over the corpses as if they were storefront dummies. They are always people to me. Kane moved his attention back to Wolfe. “This is different from the other murders in one aspect. The woman’s face hasn’t been touched.”
When Jenna gripped his arm with a trembling hand, he glanced down at her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Jenna peered at the body. “Oh, no. I’m sure I know her.” She moved closer to him. “Isn’t she the woman who found the skull? Bailey Canavar?”
The image of the vibrant young woman flashed through his mind. “Yeah, that’s her.” He indicated to a man flat on his back some distance away. An empty hole replaced his face. “I’m not sure if that’s her husband; he had sandy hair.”
“It could be bloodstained.” Jenna edged past him, stepped around pools of congealed blood, and went to Wolfe’s side. “I have an ID on the woman.”
Wolfe gave her a patient stare then pushed a marker in the ground beside a body part, moved to the male victim, and lifted his head. “No, this man has black hair.” He balled his hands on his hips and looked around. “At least three people had to be involved because, if he tied her up, she couldn’t have murdered him.”
“We’ll leave you to record the scene and take a look around.” Jenna turned to Blackhawk. “Do you know of any other trails leading from here?”
“I do but if you look up into the trees, the crows are waiting here, not in any other area. If there was another body, they wouldn’t be waiting here for us to leave.” Blackhawk shrugged. “But we can circle this area.”
Kane turned one-eighty degrees. He had noticed something familiar on a tree and did a visual scan of trees lining the trail, then pushed into the undergrowth and circled back to Jenna. Something wasn’t sitting right. “Just a minute.” He pulled out his cellphone and accessed the FWP website for the hunting locations in the immediate area. He glanced at Blackhawk. “Do you know if this area has ever been a designated hunting zone?”
“Not that I’m aware.”
He moved to one of the trees and rubbed his hand over the rough bark. “See this mark? It is very similar to the damage done by fixing a trail cam. I noticed there is another further down and there are some freshly cut branches over there.” He pointed to the spot in the forest he had searched. “It could be a hunter’s blind.”
“Or a naturalist studying wildlife.” Blackhawk’s dark eyes moved to Jenna. “Some spend months in the forest and they use trail cams. There are many different varieties of creatures here.”
“Yeah, that’s likely but I think the killer lured them here—somehow.” Jenna turned to Kane. “Have you heard of anyone stalking their victims using trail cams? How would they know they are here? We know this is a rarely used path. If I wanted to kill someone, this is the last place I’d set up a trail cam.” She turned and followed Blackhawk into the forest.
Kane hung back and moved along the trail, using his flashlight to check the trees. He noticed further recent damage high up on the trunks. The markings resembled those left from a belt on a trail cam and fixed in the branches to avoid human detection. This setup looked military to him. A trail cam ran in silence so its presence would not alarm animals. It was more usual to place them lower and out in the open. They either collected data to a hard drive within the unit or could run a live feed to smartphones. He turned a full three-sixty degrees to take in every angle. His idea had merit but Jenna was right: How would the killer know people might be on this trail and be able to set up the trail cams before they arrived? Stymied, he rubbed his temple then decided to discuss his findings with the team later.
Duke nudged his leg and he patted the dog on the head. “Seek.”
When Duke headed back in the direction of the crime scene, he stared after Jenna for a few moments then hurried after his bloodhound. If his trail cam theory was correct and they did not find Jim’s body, he’d be a prime suspect. Jim could have lured his wife and perhaps her lover into the forest and killed them. By the damage to the man’s face, whoever killed him had unleashed a whole lot of anger.
24
The way Blackhawk moved through the forest impressed Jenna. He ducked and weaved using his height to search hidden-away places. He would often look behind him and check on her; not that she needed to be coddled but she had to admit the whining trees and unusual silence in the dim, dank forest put her nerves on edge. Especially as Kane had wandered off in a different direction without saying a word but he could take care of himself. Although she had respect for Blackhawk’s abilities as a tracker, Kane always had her back. She glanced around, keeping her eyes focused in every direction. The dark shadows between the trees could be hiding a killer waiting for his next victims. She rested one hand on the butt of her pistol. If someone came at them, she would be ready.
One thing was apparent: As they moved away from the stink, finding another body became more remote with each step. After about twenty minutes the awful death smell returned and she filled her mouth with peppermints—at least they would prevent the awful smell permeating her mouth. They had come full circle and Blackhawk bent to examine the animal path leading away from the crime scene. She moved to his side. “Have you found something?”
“Maybe.” Blackhawk took flags from his backpack and marked a small area of leaves. “That could be a partial footprint. I’ll get Shane to take a look at it.” He moved into the bushes and stared up at a tree. “He came through this way. There are traces of blood on this pine and it has a mark on it. Something was secured here and retrieved after the murder.” He poked another flag into the bush. “See how the branches are broken? He must have been in a hurry.”
Jenna examined the leaves and the trunk of the tree and nodded. “Yeah, Kane saw something similar on the trail. He figured the marks came from trail cams. I’m wondering if the killer set this up before his victims arrived.” She smiled at him. “Show Wolfe what you found and thanks, I appreciate your help.”
Her mind reeled as they edged their way around the crime scene. She went straight to Kane’s side and waited with impatience for him to label evidence bags. “We didn’t find another body. It would make sense that if these people traveled here together or met on the trail, we would find their bodies together, or within the radius we searched.”
“Yeah, which means we need to find the whereabouts of Jim Canavar.” Kane’s gaze moved over her face. “It will be difficult to identify the male victim. Whoever did this went out of his way to disguise his identity. His teeth are non-existent and both hands are missing. The killer did not want us discovering this man’s name.” He frowned. “One thing—the clothes we found have foreign labels, perhaps Chinese.”
Jenna nodded. “Blackhawk found a footprint and evidence of possible trail cams. I’m convinced Canavar set this up ahead of time.”
“ Yeah, it looks more like an ambush every second.” Kane lifted his chin and his attention moved away from her. “I’ll go and take photos of the footprint.” He went to where Blackhawk was in deep conversation with Wolfe.
She pulled out her cellphone and called the Cattleman’s Hotel. “May I speak to Jim Canavar? This is Sheriff Alton.”
“The Canavars checked out, Wednesday right after breakfast.”
Jenna sighed. “Okay, did they have anyone with them?”
“No, but I had the bellhop help them out with their bags. He is right here.”