Bring Me Flowers (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Jenna cleared her throat. “Hey, settle down, Wolfe. Rowley has a right to an opinion. This is a discussion and I value everyone’s views.” She stood and walked to the whiteboard. “Okay, we have a very minimal gap between the last time Felicity’s parents saw her alive and when the kids found her body.” She wrote Felicity’s name on the whiteboard and underneath, “Last persons to see her alive,” then added Mr. and Mrs. Parker and the time of approximately eight. She turned to look at Wolfe. “Did Weems confirm stomach contents?”

“Yes, cereal and milk.” Wolfe glanced at his notes. “In fact, my observation on that alone would place the time of death before nine; no digestion had taken place at all.”

“At that time of the morning, people in the area would be leaving for work. It might be an idea to release it to the media.” Kane sipped his coffee. “Someone must have seen something, a car, a person walking their dog, a man strolling along the road. The killer couldn’t have been invisible.”

Jenna frowned. “I’m not sure I want the media scouring the forest just yet, not with two murder scenes sticking out for all to see, but I can see your point. I’ll put out a media release to say we found the bodies and urge the public to be cautious. I’ll ask for anyone who saw the girls in the vicinity of Stanton Forest and see if anyone calls in with information.”

“There would be about thirty residences along Stanton Road near both crime scenes.” Rowley clasped his hands in front of him on the desk and gave her a determined look. “It would be faster to call everyone in the area tonight around, say, six. Most people will be home from work by then and we could cover the entire neighborhood in a couple of hours.”

“Half that time if Walters gives you a hand.” Jenna nodded. “Good thinking.”

“Main suspects?” Kane lifted his pen expectantly.

“We have one man in the vicinity seen coming out of the forest. Steve Rogers is a teacher, known to the victim. From his driver’s license, he weighs 195 pounds, five ten, age thirty-six. When I interviewed Aimee Fox and Kate Bright, Kate said they spoke to him on the morning of the murder around nine. She said he was looking for his dog and she made a comment about him being in a hurry.”

“I don’t recall you mentioning him before.” Kane gave her an inquisitive look. “He ticks all the boxes and we should be shaking him down. Did they say anything else about him? Did they mention him being wet, for instance?”

“No, she said he was in a hurry, sweating and had flowers stuck to his shoes.” She checked her notes. “I made a point of asking them about his appearance. They spoke to him close up and would have noticed, so for me that point alone is significant.”

“I agree.” Kane scribbled notes in his book.

Jenna made a list of suspects on the whiteboard. “Okay, I want boots on the ground today interviewing suspects. As we have already spoken to Lucky Briggs, Storm Crawley, and Derick Smith, that leaves the guy in the computer store, Lionel Provine, and Steve Rogers. Kane, you can speak to Rogers.” She glanced at Wolfe. “You will be with me today. The computer store is on the main street.” She turned to Rowley. “I want you to check Felicity’s social media.” She returned to her desk, searched for Derick Smith’s cellphone number, wrote it down, and handed it to him. “Then see if Walters has her cellphone records and check this number against incoming and outgoing calls Sunday through to Monday morning and check it against Kane’s notes. Make a note of any calls from Saturday through Monday. I want a list. I’ll give you her laptop from the evidence room before we leave and you can check her social media accounts.”

“Unless Rowley has the necessary hacking skills, I would advise against allowing him near her computer.” Wolfe filled his cup with coffee and added cream and sugar. “Leave that part of the investigation to me, ma’am. Problem is these days most kids of her age use their laptops for schoolwork and their cellphones for social media. As we don’t have her cellphone, it will be difficult to follow her on social media without the necessary passwords. I’ll be able to get into her account.”

“That sounds like a plan.” She glanced at Rowley. “We had better make our coffee to go.”

“I’ll get some takeout cups.” Rowley headed to the kitchenette.

Jenna looked from Wolfe to Kane. “I want everyone in the loop at every step of this investigation. I want you to add your interviews to the file and pertinent information to the whiteboard. I want to know at a glance where the suspects were at the time of the murder and the witnesses for their alibis.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kane pushed his hat onto his dark head then his phone chimed. He pulled the device out of his pocket, and after bending over the screen, he whistled. “You have an email from Deep Lake’s sheriff’s department. Six months ago, they had two murders, two weeks apart, sixteen-year-old girls, almost the same M.O. They found the bodies of both victims inside their houses and believe the murders took place in the bathtub. They have no leads and all their suspects came up clean. They want to be in the loop if we find any new evidence. This could be the same man. If it is, he is escalating fast.”

“If you forward the email to me, I’ll send them what we have on file to date.” Rowley walked into the office carrying a pile of takeout cups and lids.

“Ask them to send the files and complete autopsy reports on both girls to me.” Wolfe frowned. “Two weeks apart.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and his pale eyes slid to Kane. “If this is the same killer, he had a break for four months before killing Felicity.”

“If it is, then I wonder what happened to slow him down.” Kane keyed in a reply to the email and lifted his concerned gaze to Jenna.

“Maybe he was in transit from his last killing ground?” She cleared her throat. “He has not murdered anyone here before, so we have to assume he moved here since his last kill.”

“Or like Derick and the cowboys, he moves around a lot, like with a football team or in a rodeo and didn’t need to get his fix in his hometown. There could also be other victims in nearby towns unaccounted for, or something substantial prevented him from pursuing his activities for a while. Perhaps he was in jail. Psychopaths at this stage of madness don’t slow down, they escalate.” Kane frowned. “The fact we can determine Joanne Blunt was a thrill or opportunistic kill means he is out of control.”

Jenna chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. “Rowley, get me a list of men recently released from jail. We have a list sent monthly, it’s in the files.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rowley pulled out his notepad and pen. “Right away.”

Gripped by the horror of finding another mutilated girl, Jenna pulled hard on the years of training she relied on to keep her sane and kept her tone calm and professional. She looked at Kane. “How long do you estimate we have to catch him before he kills again?”

“It depends how much control he has over the beast.” Kane took one of the takeout cups Rowley handed him and reached for the coffee pot. “Maybe a week, maybe a couple of days, or maybe he has killed again already.” He gave her a long, steady look. “This animal enjoys killing and wants to show his skill to the world, and from Joanne Blunt’s murder, we can tell that although he prefers to plan his kills, if a suitable girl comes along, he’ll take advantage. He likes to shock and his next thrill ride could be hours away.”

Her stomach cramped with concern for the safety of the local girls. “Then we need to move faster if we plan to catch this guy. I want you out there interviewing our suspects immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Wolfe nodded in agreement.

“Kane, when you talk to Rogers, I want to know why he was in the forest. He is married. Speak to his wife as well. Find out what you can about him, as in does he often sneak off during the day?” She picked up her car keys and coffee. “Okay, move out.”

Twenty-Three