Page 12 of A Touch of Murder (Touched #1)

Barret walked into the station ready to work. With the information Adam had given him, along with the evidence found with the body in Utah, they had a lot more to work with. He hoped it was enough to give them a lead on who took Trina Wilson and why.

He wasn't surprised to find Vance working at the whiteboard, where they had laid out the timeline of events as they knew them. He wouldn't have anything to add to the timeline from Adam's report, but that was okay. What they did have was a possible description of one of the men.

"How'd it go?" Vance asked as he turned to look at Barret.

"Good. Better than I expected. Give me a second to call Maggie. I want her to get out to Adam's as soon as possible and sit down with him." Barret hurried to his desk to find her number. Why he didn't have it on his phone after all these years was beyond him.

Maggie Crenshaw was somewhere in her mid-sixties.

She'd taught art at the local elementary school when Barret had gone.

She was a sweet, yet bit eccentric woman, with long hair that was always pulled into two braids.

She loved everyone and everyone loved her.

She'd never married as far as Barret knew.

She lived in a small house near the center of town and continued to volunteer at the schools when they needed art assistance.

He knew she was also behind the random murals that would pop up on business windows from time to time.

He found her number in his top drawer, saved it to his phone, then made the call. Within five minutes, he had her set up to call Adam Wrecker, and hopefully, meet with him today to get a drawing done of the man he'd seen.

"So, if you called Maggie, I'm guessing things went well with Adam and he saw something?" Vance leaned against the side of one of the desks.

"If we can believe him, it went really well. He saw the face of one of the attackers."

"One? You mean there was more than one person who took her?"

Barret shrugged. "Maybe. He thinks he saw two different people.

One grabbed her, another searched her car.

He only saw the face of one of them. I'll let you listen to the recording as soon as he sends it to me.

What he said about searching the car fits with what we found.

Her purse had been dumped out, glove box open and contents scattered.

Other than the description of one of the men, he didn't give us much we didn't already know.

Like the first recording, he talks about her fear.

He sees the struggle. He did mention he thinks they had a hand over her mouth and nose.

He said it was hard to breathe. Maybe that's how they knocked her out.

Caused her to pass out, unable to breathe, then took her.

That's why we don't see any signs of a struggle outside the car. "

"Possibly." Vance pointed the black marker at the board. "I don't know where else to go with this. We've watched every bit of surveillance video we have from around the movie theater, going both directions through town. Nothing draws my attention. Did Adam see a vehicle by chance?"

"No, nothing there. Everything he got was from inside the car. It's the oddest thing. It's as if he's looking at things through the object he's touching. I've never seen anything like it," Barret told him.

"So, you're a believer now?" Vance arched a brow.

"Not fully, but I admit there's something about what he does I can't explain. He's too accurate not to take him seriously. He was either at the scene or can somehow see what happened there. I can't begin to wrap my head around it."

"Have you checked where he was the night Trina was taken?" Vance asked.

"No, but I will. It still won't explain how he knew about Roy, or the claims my sister has that he helped her several times.

He can't be everywhere at once to see everything going on.

" Barret stared at the whiteboard. "So, we know she clocked out of work at one-forty-one in the morning, and she probably took two to three minutes to walk to where her car was parked.

She would have been on her own as soon as she left the main gate of the drive-in.

According to Adam, she was in her car when they attacked her.

We found her keys on the floor of the car, so she hadn't started it or if she had, they pulled the keys out.

We haven't found any prints, but I want to doublecheck things like her wallet and purse.

Adam claims he saw the second guy not wearing gloves as he went through her things in the car.

Have we got a match on the tire marks we found next to hers? "

"No matches, but we're hoping. Our team sent prints off to some specialist who is good at identifying partial tire prints.

He's backlogged but hopefully will get to ours quickly since it's now a murder investigation.

" Vance sighed. "She was found partially dressed.

She had her uniform shirt on, but nothing from the waist down.

Her shoes were found near her body but appear to have been thrown there.

Her hands were zip tied behind her back. "

"Autopsy?" Barret didn't want to hear, but he needed to know.

"She was sexually assaulted. Died from asphyxiation.

Bruising around her neck from where someone strangled her.

It looks as if someone used her as a punching bag.

Bruising and cuts all over her body. Medical Examiner think a small pocketknife was used for some of the wounds.

Not deep enough to be stab wounds. More like someone was just barely slicing her to cause pain.

" Vance shook his head. "I really hope the Wilsons don't request a copy of the autopsy report. "

"What about lab work, D.N.A.?"

"Waiting for it to come back. Could take a few weeks. The body should be here sometime tomorrow."

"Good," Barret said. "Adam has offered to try and read the body to get us more evidence. He won't guarantee anything, but I figure it's worth a shot. A chance at information is better than no information. I just hate we can't use anything he says in court."

"No, but we'll work our way around that. Did Adam's description of the man sound familiar to you?"

"Not a bit. Could be anyone traveling through but didn't sound like any locals I know.

Doesn't mean it wasn't someone close, and I just didn't think about them yet.

" Barret pointed to a photo with what appeared to be oil that they'd found puddled near Trina's car.

"We should be getting labs back on the oil, right? "

"They said no more than two weeks, so yeah, we should be seeing it anytime." Vance stretched his arms over his head. "I don't know where to go with this. We've been staring at the same evidence for two weeks now. Something has to break. Did you ask Adam to read the body?"

"Hell no. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.

I'm still working out how he can touch an object and get a read, let alone a body.

He suggested it. Said he'd done it before.

I told him I'd have to run it by the family and Captain Russel, but it was fine with me.

I'll take any help we can get." Barret went to his desk and sat down.

"Any idea why Adam gets so thirsty after a read?

He downed four bottles of water, and I swear he probably drank more after I left. "

"No idea. I didn't know about that until we watched him read that glove for Mrs. Anderson. When he was done, he looked exhausted. Did you ask him?"

"He said he didn't know why it happened, just that water and sugar help him get his strength back once he's done.

I guess any excuse for chocolate is a good one.

" Barret stared at his computer. "I need to contact the family and ask if it's okay for Adam to see the body.

Do I wait until tomorrow when it gets here or call today? "

"Give them today to grieve. We just confirmed her death yesterday.

You'll have to set it up with the mortuary as well and you can't do that until the body gets here.

Old Man Farley sent his son down to pick up the body, but he'll tell us to back off until he has custody of it here.

" Vance turned as officers Little and Steller walked in.

"Did you get Jefferson's cows off the road? "

"It's the third time this week. More if you count what night shift has dealt with. I swear I'm ready to go out and fix his fence myself." Officer Little went to his desk. "And of course I have to write another report about his damn cows."

"At least this time we did get to write him a ticket.

Not that it will do any good. Alfred was already drinking and it's barely noon.

No sign of his son. He's probably still in bed sleeping it off.

It's his wife who runs that place, but she can only do so much.

At this point, they're better selling the whole place.

" Officer Steller walked over and looked at the whiteboard.

"I keep hoping I'll walk in here and find the board erased. "

"So do I," Barret said. Erasing the board would mean the case was solved or moved to a cold case file. They'd bring in another board if they needed to work on another case. This one would stay up for as long as they had leads coming in.

"My son and I hiked every night after I got off work, looking for her.

This wasn't the outcome we wanted." Officer Steller looked at the photo the family had given them of Trina when she'd first gone missing.

"My son had several classes with her. They'd gone to some dance together back in their freshman year.

He was upset when I told him they'd found her.

I guess the kids at school are planning a memorial for her.

They'll gather for a candlelight vigil on the football field.

And I guess the drive-in theater is going to show Trina's favorite two movies one night this weekend. "

"That's good of them. I interviewed a lot of her friends right after she went missing. Seems everyone liked her." Vance moved to his desk. "We'll get funeral plans in a day or two."

"Any new leads?"

"Waiting on labs." Barret sighed.

"Adam Wrecker gave us some info, but we can't use that as evidence. He's going to sit down with a sketch artist," Vance told everyone.

"He's that guy that is psychic, right?" Officer Little asked.

"I guess that's what they call it. He doesn't talk to the dead or anything, but he sees things when he touches items they used. Weird stuff, but if he can help us, I'm willing to listen." Vance smiled over at Barret. "Whitestone here is still struggling to trust what Adam does."

Officer Little laughed. "We've all been there, but I don't know of a single time he's told anyone something false.

My mother wanted to know the history of a vase she inherited.

Adam told her it came from England and had been inside some castle.

Well, Mom got digging into the history of that castle and sure enough, she found a photo taken when the castle was up for sale around nineteen-fifty, and the vase was in the photo.

We still don't know how my grandmother got the vase, but at least Mom knows the history behind it. "

Barret sighed. "Does anyone have a story where he got it wrong?"

The room was silent.

"It's just so…" He searched for the word. "Insane, crazy, unbelievable. I mean, why him? Why is he given this talent while millions of others can't do the same thing?"

"There are others out there like him. It's called psychometry and there are a few people around the world who claim to have the ability.

I've seen television shows about it. It's considered a pseudoscience because nobody can prove it's true, but once you've seen or heard about Adam's success rate, you can't deny there's something to it," Steller told them.

"If Adam said he saw the guy who took Trina, he did. "

"He thinks there might have been two men.

" Barret went on to tell them about the reading and everything he'd seen.

"In fact, I should have the recording by now.

" He pulled up his email and nodded. "Listen to this.

" He turned up the volume on his computer and hit play.

While everyone in the room listened, Barret looked at the other things Adam had sent.

There was a color swatch of an almost lime green color that he'd seen from the tattoo on the man's arm, and there was an image of a black mechanic's glove with a small message that the glove was like it, but he couldn't be sure of the brand.

Barret sent the color swatch and the glove image to the printer.

He'd add a new area to the whiteboard and label it as possible evidence since they couldn't confirm anything Adam had seen was fact.

When the recording ended, Vance looked pale. "Man, I don't want to think about what Trina went through. That was troubling."

"Add in what the M.E.'s report said, and it makes it even worse," Little agreed.

"We need to catch these men." Steller stared at the whiteboard. "Doesn't sound like anyone I know locally, but I hardly know everyone."

"The fact the body was left over five-hundred miles away makes me think they aren't local," Barret said.

"I'm looking for other cases in surrounding states that are similar.

I've only come across one. A teen in Oregon went missing a few months ago and her body was later found in Washington.

I'm hoping we can get a D.N.A. match on the evidence from that case and Trina's.

I've got a call in to speak to the detective on that case. "

"Was there D.N.A. found with Trina?" Little asked.

"Hairs, and possible semen, but the body had been out in the rain. They aren't sure if it will be enough to get a profile on it. I'm hoping for the hair to at least come back with something," Vance told the others.

Barret stood and went to the printer. He pulled the pictures he'd printed from the tray and went to the whiteboard.

He quickly wrote unverified evidence at the bottom and attached each picture with tape.

"First man that Adam saw was wearing a glove like this one, and the second man he saw had a tattoo.

While Adam couldn't see what it was, he did notice the color.

" He wrote a short description under each photo so others would know what they were looking at.

"Once Adam gets done with the sketch artist, we'll start showing the drawing around town.

Hopefully, someone knows who these men are. "

"Until then, we keep digging. I refuse to let this one go cold. I want to catch whoever killed that poor girl and watch them hang," Vance announced to the room.

Barret agreed. Now they just had to make it happen.