“Good night,” Bruno said
Jimmy walked out to the parking lot, and, as he was about to get into his car, he noticed that Bruno’s unmarked cruiser, parked next to him under a streetlamp, had the keys in it. If Bruno kept doing that, Jimmy mused, he was going to end up with a stolen police car.
The next morning Lauren Cade was fifteen minutes late for work, having spent longer in bed with Jack Smithson than she’d meant to. Hurd Wallace called to her as she passed his door.
“Lauren?”
“Yes, Hurd. Sorry I’m late.”
“You’re just in time. The Vero department called two minutes ago. They’ve had a call about a dead woman in a car, and they’re en route now.”
“Is it another one, do you think?”
“I think,” Hurd said. “Do you know the fairgrounds west of town?”
“Yes.”
“That’s where they found her. You ready to go?”
“Sure.”
“We’ll take your car,” he said, grabbing his jacket.
The fairgrounds were located on a grid of roads just west of Vero Beach, a place that Lauren passed when she was driving from her house to the Indian River Mall. There was a police car blocking the entrance, but Lauren identified herself and was allowed in.
She drove into the grounds, and it was immediately obvious where the crime scene was. Two Vero cars and a van were in the middle of the large, grassy field that served as a parking lot when there was an event at the grounds. She cut across the field toward them.
She stopped, and she and Hurd got out of their car and identified themselves to the detective in charge.
“I’m Ed Rankin,” the detective said. “I’ve heard about you folks. You going to take this one away from us?”
“We don’t want to do that,” Hurd replied. “We just want to help.”
“Well, I hope you don’t help like the FBI helps,” Rankin replied. The Bureau had a reputation among cops for letting them do the work, then taking the credit.
“Nothing like that,” Hurd said. “This is probably one more in a series we’ve had. You know about that.”
“Sure, I do, and I think you’re right,” Rankin said.
The medical examiner’s truck pulled up next to them, and the ME got out. “What we got here?” he asked.
“Let’s look together,” Hurd said, leading the way around the victim’s car.
The driver’s door was open, and a naked woman was on her knees in the driver’s seat, her head toward the passenger door. There was blood on her buttocks and thighs and on the back of her head.
Lauren winced when she saw the position, and she was immediately struck by the difference between what she and Jack had been doing an hour ago and what this woman had experienced.
The ME conducted his on-site examination, then stood back.
“Tell me what you think,” Hurd said.
“I think she was forced to strip and kneel on the driver’s seat, then was raped vaginally and anally from behind, then shot once in the back of the head, probably with a twenty-two pistol, eight to ten hours ago.”
“I concur,” Hurd said, looking at Lauren.
“So do I,” she said.
“Can I take the body?” the ME asked.