Cross My Heart (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“Maybe they had a fight and she killed him.” Kane was checking the ground around the campsite. “This might be unrelated to what happened at the ranch.”

“It’s making my skin crawl.” Jenna beckoned Wolfe. “Clear.” She looked at Kane. “I can almost feel James Stone watching us and yet I know darn well he’s locked up in jail. Who did this, Kane?”

“I wish I knew.” Kane pulled on surgical gloves. “I’ll search the backpacks for ID.”

Trying to focus on the procedure and not the reality before her, Jenna dragged her gaze away from the staring eyes of the victim. “I’ll examine the tent. Go with Atohi and recon the forest, the woman might be close by.”

“Okay, but I’ll grab the sweater. The dogs will be able to track her from the scent.” Kane touched her arm. “Stone is in jail. Don’t allow the memory of his obsession with you to overshadow what we have here now. It’s creepy that this murder is so close to his case, but there has to be an explanation.”

Jenna stared back at the body. “It’s too darn close, and I’m not imagining the man who wrecked my home. I know you figure I’m not thinking logically but my gut is telling me Stone is involved. We have to find out how he is communicating with the outside before one of his disciples kills again.”

“I know you went through hell last night and whoever doing this is a threat, Jenna, but I can read you like a book and the thought of Stone manipulating a copycat killer and sending someone after you is clouding your judgment.” Kane’s expression filled with concern. “You always think outside of the box. You’re logical. This”—he waved a hand toward the corpse—“doesn’t compute in your mind. It can’t be happening because we know Stone has no communication with the outside world and then we come across a crime scene like this one and it’s unsettling.”

Unconvinced, Jenna nodded to appease him but she had no doubt, some way, somehow, James Stone was in the thick of it. “Okay, okay. Think outside the box, gotcha.”

“If we find anything, I’ll use the com.” Kane headed for the tent, bent to snag the clothing, and then dropped it into an evidence bag. He gave her a wave as he headed to where Blackhawk was waiting with the horses.

As Jenna turned away from the corpse, Wolfe and Emily moved in to secure the site. Having a medical examiner on her team was a bonus. Wolfe’s team documented the scene and she could concentrate on the investigation. She headed to the tent as Blackhawk and Kane followed the dogs through the surrounding forest. Inside the tent, she found two backpacks and bedding. She took photographs with her phone. The tent hadn’t been disturbed. After pulling on surgical gloves, she leaned inside and grabbed the backpacks. She went through them methodically and found a woman’s wallet, her driver’s license but no phone, just like in the Stone case. A wave of panic shot through her and she straightened to stare all around her. This was like a recurring nightmare and she wanted to wake up. Pushing down the rising panic, she scanned the forest, seeing a threat in every

shadow. In her mind’s eye James Stone stepped out of the darkness, intent on murdering her with slow deliberation. It wouldn’t be fast. Stone like to enjoy his kills and he’d make sure it would be an especially slow and painful death.

Forcing her mind back to reality, she shook her head, but panic surfaced in a hurry as the shadows turned into a dark figure heading straight for her. She gasped with relief when Kane walked into the clearing and stopped to speak to Wolfe. As he came to her side, she looked into his troubled expression. “Did you find the woman? I found her purse. June Harris out of Buffalo Ridge.”

“Nope, the surrounding forest is disturbed, so she could have run away. The dogs lost her scent down by the creek. It’s wide and fast flowing, she might have waded across it or fallen in and been washed away. Or someone carried her. It’s hard to tell. There’s nothing but rock alongside it.” He indicated toward Wolfe. “The man has a wallet in his back pocket, no phone. That’s what’s left of Payton Harris.”

A shiver went down Jenna’s spine. “No phones, the man disabled. This is too close to Stone’s murders. We have to keep looking. June Harris must be here somewhere or what’s left of her.” She shook her head slowly and then waved a hand toward the corpse. “I’m not paranoid. This has Stone’s signature all over it.”

Sixteen

Bear Peak

Returning to a crime scene was listed as one of the dumbest things a killer could do, but his fascination with death compelled him to admire his work in the cave before resealing the high-voltage barrier. The black cocoon hanging from inside of the cave, with its purplish, swollen, blood-filled face and bulging eyes, captivated him. The images he’d shared with likeminded friends didn’t come close to the real deal. He’d watched videos but in truth the tantalizing smells of a hunt came in stages. Fear had a scent, and mixed with the sweat of a young woman, made him hungry to kill her. The first drop of blood, warm and intoxicating, was an experience he’d never gotten from a video, and now the luring odor of death called to him. He took one last look and stepped outside. The smell would cling to him, and although many hunters walking from the forest had the stench of an animal kill on their person, he chose to use a pine-scented body spray all over his clothes. It was an idea he’d come across on the internet to cover the odor of death. He chuckled—that or a mentholated spray seemed to work just fine. He climbed to the top of the boulder that concealed his cave, the snowberry bushes acted as a fine cover and he took care not to damage them.

A horse snickering caught his attention. Sound carried in the forest, especially alongside the mountain. The echoes of people’s voices as they traveled sounded like ghostly whispers coming from all directions. He took out his binoculars and stared in disbelief at the group gathered in the clearing. The sheriff was hard to miss with her rank emblazoned across her jacket front and back. He grunted in disgust; the warning he’d given her hadn’t slowed her down and now she had found his kill. He watched for some moments until the deputy and another man had moved into the forest behind two bloodhounds. He snorted. They’d find nothing. He’d hunted down his prey and herded her to the river. It was knee deep at this time of the year, fast flowing and wide, but it hadn’t taken too much convincing to make the woman cross to the other side. In fact, she’d run some ways down the river before staggering up the rocks and heading straight for his cave. He’d enjoyed his time with her and removed the silken hair from his pocket and stroked it. “I’d like to stay here all day but I have to go.”

He checked the soil around the cave for footprints but found nothing. The thick coating of pine needles had covered any trace of him. He glanced at his watch and, with reluctance, pushed the hair back into his pocket. After taking one lingering look at the cave, he headed along the animal trail bordering the foot of the mountain. In ten minutes’ he’d be climbing the track to the Bear Peak parking lot. He stared into the tall pines. It was so good to be back hunting in the forest again.

Seventeen

Kane pulled Wolfe to one side as Emily collected samples from around the body. The animals had made a mess of the victim and Em took it all in her stride. Nothing seemed to faze her. Although he’d tried unsuccessfully to calm Jenna’s worries, the same thoughts filtered through his mind. He met Wolfe’s gray eyes over his facemask and caught his lifted eyebrow. “You think Stone is involved too, don’t you?”

“You know darn well I don’t make conclusions on the fly. You shouldn’t either, because we have no proof he’s involved.” Wolfe waved a hand toward the corpse. “There are similarities with the Stone murders but also significant differences.” He inclined his head. “I’m guessing you’ll need absolute proof to calm Jenna’s nerves after what’s happened, but even if I make that decision, she’ll make up her own mind and you know as well as I do she is difficult to convince otherwise.”

“On some things, maybe, but she’s no fool.” Kane sucked in a breath, suddenly glad of the mentholated balm under his nose. “This has Stone written all over it and I’m sure you have the same suspicions. How he orchestrated the kill and attack on Jenna is the mystery. Jo contacted the jail and has absolute proof that Stone has no contact with the outside world. How could he possibly be convincing likeminded killers to copycat his kills?”

“Here lies the problem with that conclusion.” Wolfe opened his hands and spread them wide. “There are a ton of differences if you look closely but as we only have one victim, I can’t make a valid comparison. One on one, Stone’s murders were a little different to each other, and why? Because he had different accomplices at each scene.”

Kane rubbed his chin and stared at the victim, now lying on an unzipped body bag. “The obvious comparisons I see are the crossbow bolt and the gasoline. They are a signature of Stone’s MO and those particular details were never released to the media. So, what makes you believe this might be a coincidence? What am I missing?”

“Many things.” Wolfe bent and rolled the body onto its side. “The only obvious injury the killer inflicted on this man is the head wound. Everything else you see, at first inspection, I believe are from animal origin. In all Stone’s cases he used a hunting knife or other methods to sever the spinal cord. His intent not to kill but to paralyze the victim. He was then propped up against a tree, secured with a rope around the chest, and forced to watch Stone torture the female victim. The bolt in the head was the death blow. He used the gasoline to prevent wildlife consuming the body but it didn’t stop something tearing off part of one leg.”

Kane nodded. “Would that be the body part Atohi recovered?”

“Yeah.” Wolfe’s mouth turned down. “It looks as if the remaining half of a tattoo on his leg is a match to the body part I have on ice.”

“He wanted us to find the victim and what was left of the female after he and his client had had their fun torturing her.” Jenna had walked up behind them. “He didn’t use gas on the female because he wanted her devoured by animals. She was an embodiment of the hate he had for me.” She turned her attention to Kane. “Jo just emailed her workup on Stone. She figures by making the male victim watch, Stone was displaying his power over the female. She believes in his mind, each male was you, Dave, and he was showing you he could do whatever he wanted and you’d be powerless to stop him. He almost succeeded, didn’t he?”

Kane took her by the shoulders and stared into her troubled eyes. “But he didn’t. You took him down and now he’s in jail.” He shook his head. “If by some remote chance Stone is messing with your mind, you’re allowing him to win. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, Jenna.”