FIVE
FRIDAY
Ty Carter took one last look at the horses in the corral, made sure the water feed was working and headed back to the cottage. Creeping around to make sure he didn’t disturb Jo and Jaime, he showered and dressed in record time. He smiled to himself. Man, this town was having a strange effect on him. The previous evening at the Cattleman’s Hotel had been amusing to say the least. He’d expected a raucous night of drinking, cards, pool, and women for Kane’s bachelor party with Shane Wolfe, Jake Rowley, and Zac Rio, but oh boy, had he’d been wrong. They’d had a good time, but the Black Rock Falls guys liked to keep to themselves. Yeah, women gave them the eye from time to time, and he loved women, but between Shane Wolfe’s Viking marauder glare and Kane’s blank expression, they backed off. Even his charm had fallen flat and that had never happened before—that was for darn sure. He’d had only two light beers and had driven back to Jenna’s ranch as sober as a judge. I must be losing my edge, or it’s getting time for me to settle down.
He fed Zorro and then filled his cup with freshly brewed coffee and sat at the kitchen table. It was real early and still half-light outside, too early to wake Jo. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he quickly answered the call. “Yeah?”
“We have a problem.”Zac Rio sounded serious. “The owner of the landfill, George Brinks, called the 911 line. He found a body at the landfill, right at the front gate against the fence. I’m heading there now.” He sucked in a breath. “Protocol is for me to inform the sheriff, but as it’s her wedding day, what the hell am I supposed to do?”
Considering the ramifications of not informing Jenna, Carter rubbed his forehead. “As I recall, Jenna put you in charge while she was on her honeymoon. They’re away, on vacation—whatever. I figure we handle it and give them the rundown when they get back.” He pushed to his feet and, grabbing his hat from a peg by the door, went outside. “I know where the landfill is. I’m on my way.” He hurried to the cruiser and opened the door for Zorro before he slid behind the wheel. “Don’t tell Rowley—if Sandy notices something is up, she’ll tell Jenna for sure—but check out the scene and call Wolfe. We’ll have to keep this from Kane too. That man is as stubborn as a mule. He’ll want to know all the details and it ain’t gonna happen. Not today anyway.”
“Copy.” Rio disconnected.
It was light by the time he reached the landfill. Rio’s cruiser was blocking the road alongside Wolfe’s ME’s van. A few disgruntled townsfolk lined up along the service road sounding their horns and getting agitated, but he couldn’t see anyone on foot. That was a good thing. Bystanders meant interviews and taking statements. It looked as if Rio had gotten there in time to keep people away from the crime scene. Assuming Rio was too busy to disperse the people waiting to use the landfill, Carter drove up the wrong side of the road, pulled on his FBI windbreaker, and walked to the front of the line of vehicles. He gave a twirling motion with his hand, sending everyone back the way they’d come, and once the road was clear, he moved Jenna’s cruiser to the entrance to the service road and blocked it by parking horizontally.
He flicked on the flashers and slid from behind the wheel. “Come on, Zorro.” He opened the back door and made his way back to the landfill. To one side a gray-haired man was sitting on the side of the road, pale as a ghost, holding his head in his hands. As he moved around Wolfe’s van, he caught sight of the body. Another woman, white, bloodless, with blue extremities and wearing a mask. Wolfe was bending over her, and Rio was taking photographs, the ME’s usual entourage was missing. He moved closer and covered his nose. “What have we got?”
“It’s the same MO as before, right down to the number of skewers along the backbone, but this is number twenty-one. Makes me wonder where the other nineteen bodies are stashed.” Wolfe straightened. “Look at all the trash around here. It’s pointless collecting samples. They’ll be contaminated. Whoever dumped the body here was sure using his brains. A perfect place to hide evidence, and should we find anything, it would be challenged in court. This place is a petri dish of microorganisms.” He sighed. “I’ll get her bagged and tagged. I’ll have to sneak her into the morgue and get her on ice before I’m missed.”
Running his gaze over the crime scene, Carter nodded. “If you’ve got spare gloves and a mask, I’ll give you a hand.” He took the items Wolfe pulled from a pocket. “This one was left lying faced down by the liver mortis. Is she still in rigor?”
“Nope.” Wolfe tossed a body bag on the ground. “I’ve bagged her hands and feet. If there’s any trace evidence, it will be there or maybe in her mouth.” He turned to Rio. “Get some close-up shots of the body and under the body when we move it.”
“Sure.” Rio moved closer with the camera. “I’ve videoed the scene as well and I’ll do the same when you move her. Do you want the scene preserved?”
“Nope.” Wolfe headed for his van. “There’s nothing we can use. I’ll get the gurney.”
Carter walked to Rio’s side. “Did you get a statement from the old guy?”
“Yeah.” Rio kept shooting. “He drove to the gate and saw the body. The road here was deserted. He didn’t see anyone hanging around. He went back to his vehicle, drove down the road a ways, and called it in. He was blocking the road when I arrived. No one has contaminated the scene.”
Carter walked over to the old man. “Mr. Brinks.”
“That’s me.” Brinks looked up at him. “You know this is the second time someone dumped a body here. It’s a shock coming to work and finding a young woman like that.” He waved a hand toward the body. “I guess this means I’ll have to close the landfill again?”
“No, the ME will remove the body and then you can open up as usual.” Carter tipped back his Stetson. “Don’t speak about this to anyone. It’s obviously a homicide and anything you say might hinder the investigation.”
“Yeah, Deputy Rio already read me the riot act.” Brinks ran a finger under his nose. “I won’t say a word, although people are going to want to know why they were turned away this morning.”
Carter thought for a beat and then smiled. “Tell them we’re investigating illegal dumping. That’s true and you don’t have to elaborate. Why don’t you go wait in your truck until we’re done here?”
“Thanks, I’ll do just that.” Brinks stood and ambled off.
Carter scanned the area again and, seeing nothing of interest, went back to the body. Bending to spread out the body bag beside the victim, Carter caught the smell of something familiar. He turned to Rio. “Can you smell that? Like over the stink of the body?”
“You mean trash?” Rio’s eyebrows rose over his mask. “Yeah, I smell the trash.”
Carter shook his head. “It’s… Dammit, I know that smell.” He looked up as Wolfe returned with the gurney. “There’s a chemical odor here, something I’ve smelled before. Can you identify it?”
“I have mentholated salve under my nose, so no, I can’t smell much at all.” Wolfe bent to take hold of the shoulders of the corpse. “Grab her feet and we’ll get her bagged.”
Complying, Carter lifted the body and stood as Wolfe zipped it up, bending again to lift it onto the gurney. He removed his gloves and the memory slotted into place. He snapped his fingers. “The smell, it’s formaldehyde.”
“Do you think the killer is preserving the bodies?” Rio shuddered. “That’s plain nasty.”
Thinking over some of the cases he’d investigated and read about, Carter rubbed his chin. “It’s not unusual for a killer to want to relive the kill. Some of them keep a body or go visit a corpse many times before they decompose. If they know how to preserve a body using formaldehyde, it’s possible this woman could have been murdered some time ago.”
“Maybe, but with the technology we have, we can tell how much the cells have degraded. If a body was frozen or soaked in formaldehyde, the cells still deteriorate.” Wolfe pushed the gurney to the van and slid it inside. “I didn’t smell traces of formaldehyde on the previous victim, but I’ll run a specific test for it ASAP. I inspected tissue samples and took blood. She wasn’t drained like this one. Or, let’s say, not as much. There was substantial blood loss on the first victim.” He sighed. “The most common place to drain blood is from the carotid artery. I’ll be sure to check for any other points he might have used. I figure you need to start searching for anyone around town who is buying large quantities of formaldehyde. It’s not something most people would use.”
“I’ll hunt down suppliers.” Rio rubbed the back of his neck. “Kalo is still searching for missing women and making a list with photographs. We’ll get him to run them through the system. He might hit a match with our victims.”
Carter nodded. “I don’t like our chances. If these women haven’t entered the system as missing, we might never identify them, but if we do, it will give us a start in the right direction.” He thought for a beat. “Taxidermists use formaldehyde. There are some working here and in the neighboring counties, and hunt down undertakers. I figure we get a list and check them out as well.” He smiled. “Just as well I’m here. If needs be, I can hunt down people across counties and state lines.” He clapped Rio on the back. “Let’s go. I need to get back to the ranch before I’m missed. We’ll meet up at the office as soon as Jenna and Kane have left for the airport.”
“Jenna is going to be as mad as hell when we tell her.” Rio removed his face mask and crumpled it in his fist.
Carter snorted. “Then say I came in and took over.” He tossed a toothpick in his mouth and grinned. “One thing is for darn sure: she can’t fire me.”