Page 32 of Beyond Her Reach (Bree Taggert #10)

Bree stepped away from the roommate and lowered her voice. “What are the odds that a second woman who dated Troy Ryder was murdered by someone other than Troy Ryder?”

Matt followed her back to the doorway to the home office. “That would be a huge coincidence.”

Bree slipped on shoe covers. As Alice had suggested, Janet’s phone was stowed in her top desk drawer. Bree picked it up with gloved hands and backed out of the room. She entered the passcode Alice had provided, and the phone unlocked. “Bingo.” She opened the message app.

Matt looked over her shoulder. “There are the texts from Alice.”

The second group was a message chain labeled Dad . Bree opened it and scrolled. “Looks like she texted with her father every morning at minimum.”

“We need to get over there soon,” Matt said.

“Yes. As soon as the medical examiner comes.”

As if on cue, a voice said, “I’m here.”

Bree turned to see Dr. Jones down the hall, her assistant trailing behind her.

Bree stood aside as Dr. Jones stepped into the doorway and overlooked Janet Hargrave’s brutalized body.

The ME’s sharp exhalation summed up the situation.

She shook off her reaction, donned gloves, slipped booties over her rubber clogs, and picked her way carefully into the room to conduct her initial assessment of the body.

She repeated the same motions as she had with Kelly’s body, testing limbs for stiffness, checking the underside of the body for lividity stains, and taking the corpse’s temperature.

She stepped back from examining the torso.

“Rigor is peaking. Lividity is fixed. Based on those factors and body temperature, I estimate she’s been dead ten to fourteen hours.

” She checked her watch. “It’s two a.m. I’m giving a preliminary time of death between noon and four p.m. yesterday—Thursday—afternoon. Did anyone ID her?”

“Her roommate,” Bree said. “But let’s keep that to ourselves until the family has been notified.”

Dr. Jones nodded. “I assume you want to do the death notification?”

“Yes,” Bree said. “Cause of death? Do you see anything besides the obvious?”

“No,” Dr. Jones said. “On initial examination, I don’t see any other major injuries. Therefore, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say exsanguination by throat cutting, subject to confirmation on autopsy, of course.”

“Defensive wounds?” Bree asked.

The ME shook her head. “I didn’t find any. This cut looks deeper than Kelly Gibson’s. I don’t see any hesitation marks, just one quick, hard slash. She would have gone into shock almost immediately and bled out in a few minutes.”

Bree lowered her voice. “I don’t have to tell you how sensitive this murder is. We need to know if the murders are related ASAP.”

Dr. Jones nodded. “I’ll shuffle some cases and move this autopsy to the top of the list.” She summoned her assistant into the room and directed him to begin photographing the body in situ .

Space was limited, so Bree left them to their work. She found Matt in the backyard, examining the back door.

“Anything?” she asked as she took a gulp of night air.

“Nope.” He straightened. “Really, I just needed a break, and the press is already cluttering up the street out front.”

Bree shoved her hands inside her pockets. “Preliminary thoughts?”

He lowered his voice. “Other than the glaring parallels?”

“Yes. We have to consider the case both as a potential follow-up to Kelly’s death and as its own separate crime.”

He sighed. “Time of death makes Harrison Gibson an unlikely candidate. It might be possible , but he was in the sheriff’s station for most of the afternoon. The timeline would be very tight.”

“Especially when you consider the drive out here and the necessity of personal cleanup. It’s not impossible to do this clean.” Bree gestured in the direction of the body. “But it’s more likely they got some blood on their sleeve or hand.”

“We have his time of arrival and departure at the station, so we can test the timeline. Same with Jeff Burke. The roommate says she dated Troy Ryder. We should confirm that.”

“She uses the Date Smart app, just like Kelly did.” Bree turned to the victim’s phone again and attempted to open her dating app.

“Date Smart requires a separate passcode. We’ll get Rory to open it.

I want to know if she met Troy through the app and who else she was dating.

While we’re at it, we’ll request Troy’s Date Smart info.

We might need subpoenas.” Most apps had fine print disclosures that personal information was available to law enforcement, but not all companies cooperated without warrants.

From an evidence-in-a-future-trial perspective, it was always safer to have the warrant. “I’ll put a deputy on that.”

Matt tilted his head. “Kelly’s death seemed impulsive. The weapon was on hand rather than brought along. Her door was unlocked, with no signs of being picked.”

“Kelly’s murder scene felt as if she knew her killer and let them in,” Bree agreed.

“This murder feels more planned,” Matt added.

Bree stiffened. “So, you think the killer enjoyed Kelly’s and wanted to do it again?”

“I won’t speculate on motivation.” Matt shoved a hand through his short hair. “Hell, I don’t even have proof of the premeditation. I’m just going on my gut.”

Bree got the same vibe from the scene, but Dana had trained her to suppress her gut.

Follow the evidence would be carved into her former partner’s tombstone.

“We also need to consider that this murder is unrelated, with throat slashing being coincidental. Possibly Kelly’s killer gave this one ideas. ”

“And Janet just happened to have also dated Troy?” Matt’s brows rose.

“Could be a copycat, but there’s only one way to find out,” Bree said, though it would be hard not to see the parallels everywhere.

They went back into the house. Through the front window, Bree studied the reporters giving sound bites. “We need to do the death notification. The ME’s van is here. The media knows someone died. It won’t take them long to figure out who lives here.”

With that in mind, she herded Alice toward the door. “You should call your family and let them know you’re all right before this hits the news. They’ll show the house and everything.” She turned to Matt. “I’ll give the press a brief statement while you sneak Alice outside.”

“Got it.” Matt stepped in front of Alice. “We’ll wait until Sheriff Taggert distracts them.”

Reporters thronged Bree as she walked down the driveway. She went all the way to the street, where her deputies had set up sawhorses to mark the crime scene and keep out the media. The rural location meant no lookie-loo neighbors would wander over.

“Was there another murder?” A reporter jammed a microphone in Bree’s face.

She gently pushed it away before it struck her chin. Sadly, she couldn’t avoid the questions as easily as the mic. “Yes. We believe the victim was murdered.”

“When was she killed?”

“Yesterday.” Bree kept her answer intentionally vague. Holding back some details would better enable them to assess the truth of any suspects’ statements.

“Who’s the victim?” another reporter shouted.

“I will give you that information as soon as we have a formal identification from the medical examiner’s office.

” Bree stalled. “All I will say at the moment is that there has been a murder. Please be patient. Out of respect to the family, I’ll ask you to hold off on any speculation as to the identity of the victim.

” She ignored annoyed grumbling. They were under no obligation to do as she’d asked.

All she could do was cross her fingers and get to Mr. Hargrave quickly so he wasn’t blindsided.

“I’ll give a press conference this afternoon, when we have more information to share and the next of kin has been notified. ”

Bree also wanted to interview Troy Ryder before he learned the victim’s identity. She wanted to be the one to tell him and observe his reaction. She didn’t want him to have time to prepare a response. If he did it, he’d have to be a good actor to fake surprise.

Reporters yelled additional questions, which Bree waved off as she backtracked to the SUV.

Matt was in the passenger seat. Alice was in her own car.

She lowered the driver’s-side window and wiped frost from the side mirror with her sleeve.

She was on her phone, crying. “Please don’t say anything to anyone just yet. Ok , really, Mom. I love you too.”

Bree’s heart broke. Mr. Hargrave wouldn’t be getting such reassurances tonight.

He’d be slammed with the worst news a parent could receive.

She climbed into the SUV. The seat was freezing under her butt.

She started the engine and blew on her hands.

When she could feel her fingers, she put the vehicle into gear and drove to Mr. Hargrave’s address.

The brief interview left her bereft. The elderly man broke down immediately. His answers matched Alice’s, and he provided no additional information. Janet wasn’t seeing anyone, nor had she seemed particularly worried about anything, except the tight deadline for her current work project.

Bree was grateful that Alice stayed behind to comfort Janet’s father. Back in the SUV, Bree slumped behind the wheel. Mr. Hargrave’s grief was a physical weight crushing her shoulders.

Matt fastened his seat belt and scrubbed a hand down his face. “That was brutal.”

“Yeah.” Bree took a minute to compose herself, then drove back to the crime scene.

The media still lingered. The ME’s van was gone, and a forensics unit had parked in its place.

She and Matt walked past Zucco, who noted their time of return on the scene log.

Then Bree checked in with the lead forensics tech.

Outfitted in full PPE, he was dusting the front doorknob for fingerprints.

“Any sign of the weapon?” Bree asked.

He shook his head. “Not yet.”