BLACK ROCK FALLS, THURSDAY
The summer sun poured through Sheriff Jenna Alton’s office window like a beam of hope. She leaned back in her chair, watching the dust motes twirl and spin. As a child, they’d been fairies with gold wings traveling between dimensions on a shaft of sunlight but today they reminded her the office needed cleaning. It was just before eight and she wondered why she’d bothered to arrive so early just to stare at the walls. She’d been doing practically nothing for almost three months and the quietness concerned her. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something was happening. She could feel it in her bones. Life in Black Rock Falls was very different from her time in Washington, DC, as DEA Agent Avril Parker, but her time as an undercover operative was over. With a new face and name, she’d fought her way to becoming the sheriff of this vast county. She had no idea when she moved to this backwoods town, hidden deep in a forest and surrounded by mountains, that she’d moved to serial killer central.
It was by pure luck the specialized team she’d gathered around her was unique. Her second in command and deputy sheriff, David Kane, had turned out to be an off-the-grid special forces sniper, but another surprise awaited her with the arrival of his handler, Dr. Shane Wolfe, who set up as medical examiner. It had taken three years working with these two men before Jenna discovered they had strong ties to the White House. Now along with her deputies—Jake Rowley, a local Black Rock Falls resident; ex LAPD gold-shield detective Zac Rio; and semiretired Deputy Walters—she’d taken on psychopaths and brought them to justice. She turned in her chair to stare out the window. From here she could see the length of Main and a crowd gathering in the park. She turned to her computer to check the calendar for upcoming events and found nothing. Footsteps came up the stairs and Kane stood framed in the door. At six-five and two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, Kane was a force to be reckoned with and he just happened to be her fiancé. She frowned at his stone-faced expression. “What’s up?”
“I’m not real sure. Maggie got an anonymous call saying we should be down at the park.” Kane jerked his thumb over one shoulder. “Want me to go and take a look with Rowley?”
Jenna stood and plucked her hat from the desk. Magnolia “Maggie” Brewster ran the front counter with amazing efficiency, and if she couldn’t get a name, nobody could. “I noticed the crowd. We’ll go. I’d love to get out of the office. Updating the files is so boring. I’m afraid my mind isn’t on work right now. It’s set on getting married and being in Florida next weekend.” She smiled.
“Mine too, but if it’s an argument about picking up dog poop, I’m all over it.” He pushed his black Stetson on his head and followed her downstairs. “I’ve read everything there is to read. I used to look forward to some downtime, but constant inactivity is like watching paint dry.”
The next moment, phone ringtones filled the office. Jenna pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned to raise an eyebrow at Kane. “I figure this might be more complicated than dog poop.” She answered the call. “Jenna Alton.”
“Morning Sheriff this is Susie Hartwig from Aunt Betty’s Café. People are coming in and saying there’s a body in the kids’ playground.”
Jenna could hear Kane talking to someone and then Rowley jumped to his feet, phone pressed to his ear. She held up a finger when they both spoke at once. “Okay, Susie, we’re on our way. If you can get the names of anyone you spoke to about this, it would be a great help.” She disconnected and turned to Rowley. “Was your call about the body?”
“Yeah.” Rowley frowned. “In the playground?”
Jenna nodded. “Call Wolfe and bring him up to date, and I’ll go and secure the scene with Kane. When you’ve done that, head down to the park and start collecting names.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rowley’s phone started up again. “I’m on it.” He walked back to his desk.
Jenna thought for a beat. “Rio, grab your camera, but first, I want photographs of the crowd and the crime scene. Use the drone. I don’t want anyone slipping away. Check the woods as well. If this is a homicide, killers often mingle with a crowd to watch the fallout of their work.” She hurried to the front door.
“Sure.” Rio moved past her, heading for the equipment closet.
“Come on, Duke.” Kane patted his leg and a bloodhound stood, stretched, gave a doggy yawn, and went to his side, tail wagging. As a tracker dog, Duke was a valued member of the team.
As Jenna climbed into Kane’s black truck affectionately known as “the Beast,” she turned to him. “I know it’s been boring around here lately, but I’d hoped the crime rate would remain low until after our honeymoon. If this is a homicide, we’ll have to cancel the wedding.”
“Maybe someone just up and died.” Kane shrugged as he fastened Duke into the back seat. “It happens.” He slid behind the wheel. “Not every incident in town has to be the result of a serial killer.” He backed out of the parking space and headed down Main.
People congregated in and around the park like ants around honey. Jenna let out a long sigh. How was it that death drew people? Didn’t they understand the memory of seeing a dead body would stay with them forever? She stared down Main. The townsfolk were gathering as if someone were giving out free money. “You know, every time we say we’re bored someone gets killed. Perhaps we should drop that word from our vocabulary. Maybe it’s cursed or something?”
“Nah.” Kane pulled alongside the curb. “Nothing we say makes any difference. They’ve all been out there doing their thing. We just haven’t noticed them yet.”
The tension of the crowd was palpable as Jenna stepped out into the morning sunshine. Fear had a smell to it, and it hovered in the air like sweaty socks in a locker room. She waited for Kane to grab Duke, and the crowd parted as they made their way into the park. People pointed in the direction of the children’s playground, and the breakfast of hotcakes in Jenna’s stomach formed a solid ball. “Oh, please, don’t let it be a child.”
“It’s not.” With Kane’s height advantage, he could see over the crowd. “It looks like a female or a young guy on the carousel.” He glanced around. “Do you want me to disperse the crowd?”
Shaking her head, Jenna plowed through the onlookers. “No, Rio will have our eye in the sky up soon. Whoever did this could be watching. Once he’s taken his shots, we can send them on their way.”
The onlookers fell silent as Jenna and Kane hurried through the gate to the children’s playground. The crowd had remained outside the fence line and all faces turned somberly in their direction. The grass had been freshly mowed the previous day and damp dewy cuttings stuck to her boots as she walked. The playground was half in shade from the forest pressing against one boundary fence, but sun shone on the figure slumped over the carousel. As they moved closer, Jenna stared at the ground, searching for footprints. “One set of footprints in and out.” She pointed to the perimeter fence. “They came in through the woods.”
“And likely parked on the fire road. It’s secluded and they’d be able to move the body through the trees unseen.” Kane scanned the area slowly. “If we go in on the right of the carousel, I doubt we’ll disturb any evidence.”
Moving her gaze over the figure, Jenna followed behind Kane as he picked his way in a wide circle to the carousel. Examining a dead body at a crime scene was so much more than taking a quick glance and leaving the nasty stuff to the medical examiner. The procedure of investigating a homicide ran through her mind in a list. She needed to absorb the scene, but the first responders had a responsibility to record as much information as possible. In her time in Black Rock Falls, Jenna had seen many victims of horrendous crimes, but she reeled back at the shock of seeing this one. It wasn’t the blood spatter, because there was none evident, and although the stench of death hovered in the air, the usual stink of bodily fluids was absent. The body appeared to have been washed after death. The face was obscured by a comical plastic mask, the type kids wore when they dressed up as cops. Bile rose up the back of her throat as her gaze slid over the body. The woman’s white flesh was barely covered by a skimpy nightie. The skin had turned blue in the extremities and the lower half had a deep rosy hue on one side. All this she’d seen before but not the six-inch metal pins sticking out from the victim’s back like a porcupine or the number twenty carved into her flesh.
“Well, this is new.” Kane cleared his throat and peered at the victim. “Are those barbecue skewers? They look much the same as the pack of a hundred I purchased recently.”
Pushing on a face mask and snapping on surgical gloves, Jenna held her breath and bent closer. “Yeah, they look the same. That must have taken some time to do and why do it?”
“Torture, maybe?” Kane frowned and suited up. “From the lack of blood. I’d say she was killed somewhere else and dumped here.” He glanced up as a tall blond man pushed his way through the crowd barking orders. He resembled a Viking marauder. “Ah good, there’s Wolfe.”
The medical examiner, Dr. Shane Wolfe, arrived with his assistant and badge-carrying deputy, Colt Webber, and his daughter and ME in training, Emily. Jenna went to his side and gave him a rundown of what they knew. “We figure she was killed off scene and carried here through the woods. The trees block this area from Main and I haven’t found the person who first noticed the body. Can you give me anything to go on from what you see here?”
“Hmm. Deep ligature marks on wrists and ankles.” Wolfe climbed onto the carousel and examined the body. “The body is emaciated. She was probably kept alive for a time in captivity. We’ll get the images and I’ll check around for trace evidence.” His gaze moved all around. “I’ll need to get her to the morgue ASAP. She could have latent prints on her flesh or trace evidence from whoever carried her here. Her feet are clean.” He lifted one arm of the corpse and moved one of the legs. “The body is in a state of decomposition and there’s no rigor. It came and went already. This would make me believe, unless I prove otherwise, that she died at least thirty-six hours ago. That would be the longest time a body would go through this process. The livor mortis, the dark purple patches on the left side, would indicate she certainly didn’t die here.”
Above, a humming sound caught Jenna’s attention and she noticed the drone moving back and forth like an old typewriter carriage. Rio had become an expert at using the eye in the sky and even sent it to collect takeout from Aunt Betty’s Café. Right now, it was recording the scene, taking in the townsfolk and moving off to scour the surrounding area to look for anyone acting suspicious or out of place. Rio had a retentive memory, which was very useful for anyone in law enforcement. He could look at a scene from every angle, take in all the available information, and make a solid judgment call. Jenna could rely on him to carry out his duties to the letter. She turned back to Wolfe. “Okay, we’ll talk to the townsfolk and see what we can find and then we’ll backtrack from those footprints.” She noticed Rowley moving through the crowd. “Ah good, there’s Rowley. He’s taking people’s details, but I need to find out who was first on scene.”
“I’ll get their attention.” Kane walked to the fence line and raised his voice. “Okay, hush everyone. Who was here first?” A few hands raised into the air. “Come here and talk to me.”
Glad to be upwind of the body, Jenna stood beside Kane and they spoke to the three people who stepped forward. After speaking to them, they discovered who’d made the frantic 911 call earlier. “Thank you for coming forward, Mr. Lawrence. Tell me how you stumbled on the body.”
“I went into Aunt Betty’s Café for a to-go coffee, like I do same time each morning, and then headed to the park to give Bingo a walk.” He indicated to the golden Labrador standing beside him, mouth open in a doggy smile.
“What time was this?” Kane’s pen hovered over his digital notepad.
“At seven forty-five, or as close to it as an angel’s breath.” Lawrence tipped back his hat. “I didn’t see the body at first. I head up the other way most days, but Bingo started fussing and walking around in circles. Then without warning he ran down to the playground and started barking and whining. I figured there must be a bobcat close by, so I went to see what all the fuss was about and then I smelled the body. I took a look and called 911.”
Jenna nodded. “Why didn’t you give your name?”
“No time.” Lawrence indicated to the dog. “Bingo was trying to open the gate to get inside the playground and I had to stop him. I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I’ve watched TV shows and I know about contaminating a crime scene, so I kept everyone away and waited for you.”