The engine revved and the big truck edged closer and then stopped. What did it want her to do? All Jolene could see was thick bull bars moving closer. The roar of a powerful engine filled the cab and she wound up the window and locked the doors. The jolt came again lurching her vehicle forward. Terrified, she rolled her vehicle down the mountain, moving a little faster than comfortable to get away from the menace behind her. In seconds the truck was on her. The impact as it struck the back of her vehicle, flung her forward, locking the seat belt painfully across her chest. The truck behind her roared and propelled her forward toward the edge of the mountain. She screamed and, pressing both feet on the brake pedal, used all her strength to slow down. The smell of burning rubber filled the cab as the brakes locked and the tires skidded along the dirt road. Desperately turning the wheel to make the corner, her old pickup slid sideways. Behind her, the roaring truck’s wheels spun, sending clouds of dust and gravel into the air, and pushing her toward an open expanse of sky. “Stop it!”
Out of control, Jolene screamed in terror as her front wheels reached the edge of the road, but all at once the truck eased off and she bounced around the turn. Heart in her mouth, she couldn’t suck in a breath, but somehow spun the wheel to gain control. Ahead on the left, a neighbor’s driveway loomed like a beacon of hope. Accelerating, the truck’s back wheels slid over the gravel as she aimed for the open gate. Behind her the truck roared past in a blast of airhorns and Jolene sat for a long time taking deep breaths. She’d met many fools in her lifetime but not one of them had tried to kill her—until now.
SIX
Pulling on her gloves, Jenna stopped on the front porch to inhale the crisp pine-scented breeze, and after taking one last look at the snow-capped mountains, she climbed into the Beast. With Duke safely in his harness on the back seat, she turned to Kane as they headed for the office. “That poor murdered woman. She has no one left in the world to claim her body. I called both lawyers in town and one of them has a copy of her will. I asked him if anyone would benefit from her death, but he informed me that there were multiple beneficiaries. Agnes Wagner was a devoted church goer and left her entire estate to charity. She mentioned me in her will as the founder of the Broken Wings Foundation, he was able to speak to me without a court order. The foundation for battered woman will get the bulk of her estate.”
“So, you could be a prime suspect?” Kane flicked an amused look in her direction. “That being your pet charity and all.” He chuckled. “Don’t worry I’ll give you an alibi. I owe you that much after allowing you to be waylaid by Poppy.”
Jenna laughed but she had been a little jealous. “You’re making too much out of it, Dave. I’m not threatened by her. I trust you. It’s taken me years to get you to commit to a relationship. I know you’re not the kind of guy to jump in boots and all after meeting a woman.”
“So, if she sends in an application to work with us, you’ll accept it?” Kane looked at her skeptically. “I said she was a rookie, but now I come to think of it, she’d be in her third year of service by now. She might be an asset.”
Staring at the melting patches of snow, forming blue reflective patches across the lowlands, she shrugged. “She’s inexperienced by her own admission. The last rookie we had working with us was murdered. You do remember that don’t you?”
“Yeah, it was nasty.” Kane turned into Main and slowed to allow a woman to cross the road with two kids in tow. “I’m thinking, if she wants experience with how we handle serial killers, she can go through our files and I’ll explain the profile I came up with in each case.”
Turning her head slowly to look at him, Jenna couldn’t contain the chuckle. “Really? She could do that by reading our casefiles. From what she was saying, I assume she wants hands-on experience.” She allowed the grin she’d been trying to contain burst forth. “Oh, I can give her that—but she’d not be working with you. You’re my partner. First up, she’d be pulling duty at the Triple Z Roadhouse to see just how rowdy those rodeo boys can get. Then I figure a few days patrolling the showgrounds with Rio or Rowley and seeing how things are done in a backwoods town would add to her experience.”
“Poppy hasn’t had the training you’ve had, Jenna.” Kane gave her a sideways glance. “I doubt she’s had much experience at all in that tiny town. I can’t see the sheriff there working out with her every morning like we do.”
“Exactly.” Jenna scrolled through her files on Agnes Wagner’s murder. “She’d be a liability in a crisis, and if she’s as soft as you say, I wouldn’t allow her to work with us on a homicide anyway. I know nothing about her and, if you haven’t been in contact with her between the first conference and the last, neither do you. I’m sure as hell not risking my life taking down a serial killer with someone I don’t trust watching my back. That’s if we happen to have a case at the time.” She glanced at him. “You can’t help every damsel in distress, Dave. If she wants to work here for a short time to get experience, it will be on my terms… as you told her. I’m the boss.”
“I didn’t intend on training her for combat, Jenna.” Dave pulled into his space outside the sheriff’s department and turned to look at her. “She asked for my help at the conference and I blew her off. I figured she was coming on to me but now she seems genuinely interested in profiling.” He slid her a look and held it for a long time. “As you hadn’t planned to advertise the job for few months yet, you have time to think about it and she might not apply. I’ll keep out of it, if that’s what you want, but we’ll sure need some help around here soon.”
They spent the time before the autopsy correlating and updating the files on the homicide. They moved on to checking out the CCTV footage, but the fuzzy image gave them nothing to work with at all. Bobby Kalo had no luck after using all the FBI’s software to come up with a viable image. Jenna suggested floodlights for the front of the office, but no doubt she’d get complaints from the people living opposite on Main. When Kane’s stomach started growling, she took a brisk walk to Aunt Betty’s to give Duke a run and collect takeout before settling back to work. Nothing much had happened in town since the melt. It was as if the townsfolk were all emerging from hibernation and too busy to get into trouble. The time for the autopsy came around fast and she looked at Kane across her desk. “Ready to leave? It’s coming up to ten.”
“Yeah. I’ll leave Duke with Maggie.” Kane led the way down the stairs down to the main floor.
“Anyone want to observe the autopsy?” Jenna turned to Rio and Rowley.
“I would.” Rio stood and grabbed his coat. “This case is a real mystery. From what I’ve discovered about the victim, she didn’t have any enemies. She was a liked member of the community, although she’s stayed in her house most of the time since her husband died.”
“I’ll pass.” Rowley looked up from his computer screen. “I’m checking out people who the victim used to see regular. I have a pile of invoices from local contractors we found at her house a
nd I have her phone to hunt down who she contacted before she died. I might get a clue as to why someone killed her.”
“Okay.” Jenna led the way out to Kane’s truck and stared into the sunshine. “Nothing better than an autopsy to ruin a perfectly good day.”
They all piled into the Beast for the short drive to the ME’s office. Jenna ran the evidence through her mind. The ashes she’d bagged from a fire pit out back of Agnes Wagner’s house were just that—ashes. Not one fragment of material remained, if indeed the killer had burned the bloody clothes at all. She had no idea if Agnes usually incinerated her garbage. Jenna pushed her thoughts to one side as she swiped her card on the entrance scanner. There was something quite disturbing about the ME’s building. Although Wolfe had gone to great pains to make the foyer and the visitors’ area warm and comfortable, with air fresheners strong enough to prevent the usual odors from the mortuary escaping and causing concern, the move through the two sets of electric glass doors, from a warm vanilla-scented area and into a cold chemical environment, always brought the seriousness of the examination rooms into sharp focus. Out there was comfort and consolation, but once through the doors, the stark reality of the brutality one person could inflict on another was frighteningly real.
The morgue was a reality check too. As sheriff, it was her responsibility to apprehend the often twisted and maniacal offenders who preyed on her townsfolk. Jenna had come to realize, especially since working with Kane, that although the brain chemistry that created a psychopathic serial killer might be in the genes of a person from birth, a great majority of the afflicted never murdered. It seemed that traumatic experiences as a child—sometimes by bullying or humiliation—triggered violent episodes. So it seemed that a vicious circle of circumstances created most of these killers, and once they released the beast, like a genie in a bottle, they could sometimes control it for a time but never put it back. Many had tried to help these people and many had died believing they could reason with a mind often conflicted by multiple mental disorders, but in her experience, there was no cure.
She shucked her coat and pulled scrubs over her clothes, adding a mask and gloves before following Kane and Rio into the examination room with a red light burning outside. Emily was missing but Wolfe was staring at X-rays and Colt Webber was busy arranging instruments on the silver tray on a cart. She glanced around at the stainless-steel benches, sinks, and wall of drawers to store corpses. The room was much like any other operating room, with the lights above the gurney, but where the body of Agnes Wagner lay, the cold metallic bench had a drain at one end. She swallowed hard at the sight of the two bluish white feet poking out from under the sheet, one with a dangling toe tag. Who would attack and kill a kind elderly woman? What was their motive? Nothing was missing from the house, as far as she could figure. The killer hadn’t broken in to steal anything. They’d found cash in the victim’s purse. Had the killer targeted her for a reason? If so, what would possibly induce someone to hurt her in such a violent way? So many reasons spun around in her mind in a carousel of question marks. As Wolfe went to the gurney and pulled back the sheet. Jenna summoned her professional side. She’d need it. This senseless murder had shaken her to the core.
SEVEN
Shane Wolfe moved his attention to his silent audience. He wondered how Kane and Jenna managed to portray a visual of complete calm, as if they were devoid of emotion, especially when both of his friends just happened to be the most caring people he knew. The solemnity of the occasion shimmered through the room, giving his workplace the feel of a funeral home, where the need to keep their voices to a whisper as a mark of respect was paramount. The problem with that attitude was it would get them nowhere. Silence in a funeral home was one thing, but not in his examination rooms. Active discussion was essential to solve the puzzle of a case, and if he needed a cattle prod to get them springing into action, he might well consider it. He leaned against the counter and moved his gaze from one to another. “I’m aware, seeing a kindly old lady brutally murdered has been a shock. Agnes Wagner is a stereotype of the grandmas we loved and we all feel a connection, which makes watching the autopsy more difficult. I’d like y’all to consider a very important aspect of why we perform autopsies.” He waved a hand toward the body on the gurney. “Agnes here can’t tell us what happened or who did this to her. By using forensics and investigation techniques, we’ll be able to hunt down who killed her and why. We’re all highly skilled and together we’ll catch the person who did this, but we must start with the autopsy. Allow me to speak for Agnes by telling y’all what happened.” He pulled back the sheet.
“What made the sharp force trauma injuries?” Kane moved forward as if breaking the spell on the room. “A screwdriver?” He peered down at the mangled body and then up to the X-rays displayed on the screen. “No, not a screwdriver, not from the bone damage.”
Moving to the screen array, Wolfe nodded in agreement. “I’ll need to examine the damage to the bone but I’m not seeing a typical saw injury, say from a hunting knife. The width of each incision would preclude a kitchen knife or similar as well. We’re seeing puncture wounds here. I would suggest a thin blade of about six inches long caused the injuries. I’ll take measurements as we go.”
“Do you mean something like a meat skewer?” Jenna’s eyes peered at him over the top of her mask. “But what about the neck injury?”
“That would be easy to inflict.” Kane shrugged. “The victim wouldn’t be standing still after the initial attack, and with the blade buried in her neck, a twist or turn to get away would’ve caused the tear.”
Wolfe smiled behind the mask. The discussion had begun and the team was looking at the victim objectively. “You’ve gotten it in one.” He nodded to Kane. “I’ll open her up and we’ll measure the depth and angle of the wounds. This will give us an insight to the killer.”