Her Shallow Grave (Detectives Kane and Alton)

The day came back to her in random thoughts but she clearly remembered Kim Strickland sticking her with something and then nothing before she woke, freezing cold, with Wolfe calling her name. She would never forget the expression on Kane’s face. She had seen the same expression, as his target would have seen during his time in combat. The way he’d turned off his emotion and became cold, hard, and determined was disturbing. If he’d been in a blind rage, she’d have understood him better, but she knew at that moment, if someone ever hurt her, he would hunt them down and bring them to justice.

Eventually, she’d crawled out the shower and dressed in the spare set of clothes Kane had collected from the office. They’d headed home, saying nothing, but he’d refused to leave her alone. She’d woken at six with Pumpkin curled on the end of her bed and Duke beside the bed on the rug. As Kane had checked her throughout the night, she doubted he’d slept at all. After sending him home, she’d sat in the hot tub for half an hour before examining every inch of her body in a full-length mirror. She had a bruised elbow and a lump on her forehead but found nothing else and then climbed back into bed and slept until ten.

Leaning back in her office chair, she tried to concentrate on The Sculptor cases, scanning the notes on the screen but couldn’t concentrate. The wait for Wolfe to complete the tests was agonizing. When her phone rang, Jenna stared at it for a moment. Wolfe, no doubt had finished examining the swabs from her and her clothes. A part of her didn’t want to know. She just wanted to make like nothing had happened. As she hesitated to answer, she felt rather than saw Kane slip into her office and close the door. Kane, her rock, had her back as usual but she couldn’t look at him, not yet. Taking a deep breath, she answered the call. “Hi Shane, what did you find?”

“The swabs are clear, no seminal fluid or foreign DNA in you or on your clothes. No residue from a condom.” Wolfe heaved a deep breath. “I haven’t done a full tox screen, that will take a few weeks, but as Kim is a nurse, I tested for morphine and it came back positive. The blood is under analysis for STDs but I can’t imagine I’ll find anything. I’m sure you’re okay.”

Jenna looked up at Kane’s anxious face and gave him the thumbs up sign. He seemed to sag against the wall and then gave her a brilliant smile. She turned her attention back to Wolfe. “Thank you!”

“That’s okay. I have information on the first victim. The dental records are a match for Evelyn Ross, nineteen out of Colorado Springs and reported missing last winter.” Wolfe paused for a beat. “I’ll be performing the autopsy on the second victim at three. I’ve taken all the necessary swabs, so you’ll be able to be inside the room with me this time, no worries about cross contamination at this stage but I have Webber here if you’d rather rest up a bit.”

“I’m fine.” Jenna wanted to punch the air. “We’ll be there.” She disconnected and looked at Kane. “We have confirmation on the first victim. As we suspected she is Evelyn Ross and Wolfe is conducting the autopsy on the second victim at three. It will be real stinky. We get to be in with Wolfe this time.”

“Oh, goodie.” Kane pulled a disgusted face and then straightened. “Did I mention, we have received a ton of emails from other states on the tattoos. I’ve split the list with Rowley.”

No one had mentioned Kim Strickland’s name since her arrival. Jenna wondered if Kane was being overprotective again. She fingered the pens in her old chipped cup. “Why are you keeping me out of the loop on the Kim Strickland case?” She looked up at him. “I’m still the sheriff, I need to know.”

“Sure. The fingerprints on the envelope carrying the dead rat are a match and she’s being held in county. She’s been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder of a law officer. The DA is waiting for a statement from you about the kidnapping.” Kane pushed both his hands inside the front pockets of his jeans. “I’ve given a statement and Wolfe too.” He lifted his chin. “We have to stay out of it, Jenna, Rowley is taking the lead, he’s the only one of us not involved. Once he turns everything over to the DA, it will be out of our hands. She won’t get away with kidnapping you, we have too much evidence. You don’t need to worry, Jenna, the court will decide what happens to her. I’m sure she wasn’t involved with The Sculptor.”

Jenna nodded. “Okay and what about the man in the cabin?”

“He’s in the hospital in Blackwater, broken nose, ribs, and a concussion.” Kane looked chagrined. “He has a string of sexual assault charges against him. The sheriff wanted to charge him with assault but their judge is having none of it, says Wolfe and me assaulted him. The guy isn’t pressing charges, so unless you want to accuse him of attempted rape, he’s gonna walk.”

“It looks like you arrived just in time, doesn’t it? The disgusting animal.” Jenna shuddered and then thought for a moment as the vivid image of the beaten man drifted back into her mind. “None of The Sculptor’s victims have been sexually assaulted, so he can’t be involved. You must agree he doesn’t fit the profile? I agree with you, what happened to me was Kim Strickland acting alone. I’m going to let him slide with the proviso the sheriff keeps him in his sights.”

“Oh, I’m sure he will. He mentioned making him wear an ankle bracelet to keep track of him, so he’ll know if he leaves his house.” Kane straightened. “If that’s all, I’ll get back to the emails.”

Jenna held up a hand. “You can sleep anywhere, right?”

“Yeah, it was part of my training.” His brow furrowed. “Why?”

“I want you to forward me all the emails on your list and then go down to the cells and sleep for a couple of hours. I’ll take you to grab something to eat before we attend the autopsy at three.” Jenna noticed the slight upturn of his lips and a flash of amusement in his eyes. “Don’t tell me you don’t need sleep. I’m surprised you can see out of your eyes they’re so bloodshot. That’s an order, Deputy.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kane touched his woolen cap and smiling headed out the door.

Jenna set about writing the statement for the DA. Once she’d finished, she sent it by attachment to his office with a note saying that she’d have Rowley drop by with the original before two. It would be months before Kim Strickland went to trial for kidnapping and attempted murder. It would be unlikely she’d be granted bail. When her trial date came around Jenna would be called as a witness but for now, she could put her out of her mind. She glanced out the window. Snow had started to fall, turning the gray slush on the side of the road to white again. She loved a winter wonderland and had to admit, the picturesque town did look amazing covered with snow, but the bitter cold brought so many accidents and often the elderly perished in the harsh conditions. She shook her head trying to concentrate on the contents of the emails. As she went through the list, she found nothing of significance and then she came across an email from a tattoo artist out of Colorado. He believed he could be the artist of the snake tattoo on victim number two and vaguely recalled the ink on victim number one. He’d left a number and Jenna called him, giving her name and why she had contacted him. “Do you record any of your artwork?”

“Yeah, and since I wrote that email, I’ve been searching through the shots. I inked both of those women last year but not both at my shop.” He cleared his throat. “The snake, yeah, but the butterfly was at a convention. I remember the girl was young-looking and I had to ask for ID. The butterfly is not my usual, it’s a red admiral from the UK. She said it would remind her of her grandma. I wrote their names and the amount I charged them in my records.”

Excited, Jenna made notes. “That’s great news. Can you give me the details?”

“Sure. The snake one was Charlotte Barnes out of Denver and the butterfly, Evelyn Ross out of Colorado Springs.” He sighed. “No addresses, I’m afraid, but I can send through copies of the photographs? I have headshots of these two as well.”

Jenna grinned into the empty room. “Yes, please that would be great. Send them directly to me.” She rattled off her email address. “Thank you for your help.”

“My pleasure.” He disconnected.

She waited impatiently for the images of the two smiling young women to drop into her inbox. She scanned the faces and compared the images on file. There was no doubt, they’d found the names of the victims. She called Wolfe. “I think I have the identity of victim number two, the possible is Charlotte Barnes out of Denver. I’ll forward you the images I received from the tattoo artist. They look like a match. I’ll have to hunt down where they’re from and notify their families.”

“That’s great news.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “If they’re both out of Colorado, it might save a ton of grunt work if you contact Jo and ask her IT whizz kid to see if he can chase down the victims’ last known addresses and then you’ll be able to deal with the correct law enforcement agency.”

Concerned, Jenna stared out the window. “We have spoken to her already and I don’t want Jo thinking I need to run to her for help every time I have a case.”

“As soon as the victims’ hometown law enforcement know you’ve found their missing persons, you’ll be working with them to solve the murders. The sooner this happens the better. You’re just using available resources.”

She pushed her bangs out of her eyes. “You’re right, a good leader delegates and uses all resources to hand. I’ll call her and then contact the victims’ local law enforcement. They might be able to lean on the local dentists to get you Charlotte Barnes’ dental records. I know you won’t give a positive ID without them.”

“You know me so well.” Wolfe chuckled. “Ask them to contact me.”