Page 10

Nine

Shaken by Emily’s call, Jenna sat on a rock beside the fast-flowing river and replaced the phone in her pocket.

She kept her back to a clump of trees, always concerned someone might creep up on her.

She had two dogs close by and Norrell, Webber, and Blackhawk a few yards away.

Her position was well away from the edge.

She’d learned her lesson after falling in the river and being washed miles downstream.

Kane, Carter, and Wolfe had tied ropes around their waists and then anchored themselves to trees before diving to recover the bodies.

Although she’d seen Kane dive before, seeing the three men vanish under the rapids frightened her.

She’d been stuck in those rapids and understood the danger from the incredible force of the water.

It seemed to take forever before Kane surfaced with one of the bodies.

He informed her that four of the five boys had been hogtied, one shot in the chest, and all the girls were missing.

Without being asked, Blackhawk left at once to hunt down the girls’ trail.

She chewed on her bottom lip as Kane dived again and her heart ached as, one by one, they hauled pale lifeless corpses from the icy depths to the riverbank.

Norrell went to each one and bent down, brushing the hair from their faces and closing their eyes.

A lump formed in Jenna’s throat as Webber took photographs and her eyes stung with unshed tears.

The boys, all dressed in tuxedos, were so young. What a waste.

Trying to take control of her emotions, she stared at the river, trying to grasp the implications of what had happened.

These murders were another class of brutality.

Five dead boys, the driver, and now five missing girls.

As the reality that another serial killer had arrived in Black Rock Falls hit her like a tsunami, she rocked back and forth, running everything through her mind.

First this and now a young woman found dismembered and hung in a tree.

Could she be one of the missing girls? If so, did this killer kidnap the girls so he had a batch of potential victims to choose from?

The copycat murderer had left a message on his victim—why?

What did it mean? Jenna shook her head trying to look at the crimes from every angle.

If these two crimes were connected what game was he playing?

She shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around her.

Beside her, Duke sat with his head resting on her thigh.

Sitting a little way away, Zorro, Carter’s Doberman, sat like a statue, his gaze fixed on the water, but he was alert.

Carter had given his dog orders to guard her, and every so often, his proud head turned toward her, as if checking.

She turned and scanned the forest. The dense pine trees spread out for hundreds of miles.

The killer might have four or five girls hidden somewhere out there.

They’d be terrified and wearing nothing more than thin prom dresses, all potentially suffering from hypothermia.

Horrified, she stared into the distance.

How could she possibly find them, before he killed them all?

Jenna turned at the sound of voices. Rio and Rowley headed toward her through the forest. She looked up as they approached.

“It’s good to see you. Raven has gone with Emily to look at a potential crime scene close to the Glacial Heights Ski Resort, and Webber needs help getting the murder victims into body bags once Norrell has done a preliminary examination.

We found only the missing boys in the limo and now Blackhawk is hunting down tracks of the girls in the forest.”

“Murder victims?” Rio’s brow creased as he peered past her at the bodies laid out on the grass. “Have they been shot?”

A pang of deep remorse gripped Jenna as she nodded. “One of them at least. The others were found hogtied and left inside the limo to drown.”

“Have mercy.” Rowley ran a hand down his face and his eyes filled with sadness. “Do you believe that the murder at the ski resort has anything to do with this?”

Jenna handed them gloves and masks she’d taken from Wolfe’s forensics kit.

“Emily is on scene now and I’m waiting for a report, but she said the victim is definitely female.

I don’t like her up there alone with Raven.

We don’t know who is hanging around watching us.

The only reason I agreed to her going was the fact that Raven has Ben with him and that dog would smell a stranger a mile away. ”

“Then you’ll need Wolfe’s team up there as soon as possible.” Rio indicated to Rowley. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Splashing in the water caught Jenna’s attention just as Kane and Carter broke the surface with a body of a young man between them.

The young man was strong and muscular. His pale handsome face and staring eyes brought a lump to Jenna’s throat.

She stood as Kane and Carter fought against the fast-flowing river.

The swirling currents made it difficult for them to maneuver the body to the bank.

As they were wearing wet suits, diving tanks, and flippers, lifting the body across the rocks and up onto the bank was almost impossible.

Rio and Rowley ran to the edge to take over and hauled the body onto the grass.

There was no time to talk or give her team encouragement.

Kane flicked her a glance and then turned and dived back into the swirling current as Wolfe broke the surface with the final victim.

As they struggled with another victim, she stood and stumbled over the uneven surface toward the river’s edge.

“Don’t come any closer, Jenna.” Carter dropped onto a boulder to remove his flippers. “The rocks down here are slippery. Just wait, we’ll move them onto the grass.” He stood and walked to the water’s edge and assisted Kane and Wolfe with the last body.

Wanting to see the extent of the victims’ injuries, Jenna moved slowly to Norrell’s side.

In her time as sheriff she’d seen so many horrific murders, but the sight of these young men lined up wearing their finest clothes tore at her heart.

She couldn’t imagine the heartache of losing a child like this.

Their deaths were senseless. The serial killers she’d dealt with over her career always had a crazy reason or a fantasy to fulfill.

She couldn’t imagine anyone creating a fantasy of drowning young men in the river.

The killer had used them to get to the girls.

To him, they were nothing more than collateral damage.

He needed them out of the way and drowning them was quick and easy.

Driving the limo into the river made it hard to find and gave him time to move the girls to a safe location.

“I’d say the last four are death by drowning.” Norrell straightened from bending over the final victim. She turned to Webber. “Bag them up, we need to get them to the morgue as soon as possible, but the chances of finding any evidence on them is practically zero.”

The drivers removed their wet suits, dried off, and dressed.

None of them said anything and all had a faraway expression.

Jenna looked from one to the other. She needed to keep up morale.

“I have coffee in the Thermoses for when you’re ready, and then we need to head to the next crime scene. Emily confirmed it’s a female victim.”

She went back to the pile of their belongings and Kane came to her side, pulling his T-shirt over his head. She handed him a cup of coffee. “This is bad, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I sure as heck won’t get the sight of those boys floating inside that limo from my head for a long time.

” Kane sipped the coffee and then handed back the cup before pulling on a sweater and jacket.

His lips had turned blue. “It was dark down there and seeing them floating under the roof of the limo hogtied like that was nasty.” He took the coffee from her and rubbed his hair vigorously on a damp towel.

“That coffee sure smells good.” Carter came to her side, his blond shaggy hair dripping down his suede jacket.

“It was like the Arctic in that river. The only good thing is that it would’ve preserved evidence.

” He sighed. “The limo is under a rock shelf way down at the bottom. It will never see the light of day again.”

Jenna poured a cup, added the fixings, and handed it to him.

As Wolfe joined them, she updated them on the Glacial Heights Ski Resort murder.

“I figure it’s a copycat of one of our old cases, but why the message?

Who is it to? The killer obviously murdered the girl, so why carve ‘not mine’ into her torso? ”

“Unfortunately, I guess we won’t know unless he murders another victim.” Kane observed her over the rim of his coffee cup.

“We can’t assume the mutilation is the same killer.

” Wolfe swallowed half his coffee and then looked at Jenna.

“There could be significant clues all over the body parts, for all we know. Although, it would be very unusual for someone to have an argument with his wife or girlfriend and then cut them up and hang them from a tree.”

“Where are the energy bars?” Kane’s teeth chattered as he hunted through one of the backpacks. “I packed a ton of them.”

Unable to believe he had an appetite after what he’d just witnessed, Jenna raised one eyebrow and reached for the bag resting beside the rock. “The energy bars are in the Beast. Sit down. I have enough sandwiches here to feed an army.”

“From Aunt Betty’s Café?” Kane peered into the bag and smiled at her.

“You amaze me.” He gave her a long look.

“I know you want to get to the next crime scene but I’m cold.

I need to eat and so do the others. It’s a necessity to survive after being in freezing temperatures. Get warm first and then eat.”

“I agree. We need the calories and then we’ll carry the bodies back to my van.

I’ll be able to fit them all inside. Although we’ll have to make a couple of trips.

” Wolfe reached for a sandwich and then looked at Jenna.

“I’m guessing it will be a waste of time asking you to return to the office and leave the rest of us to deal with the other crime scene? ”

Rolling her eyes, Jenna stared at him. “An absolute waste of time. I’m not leaving Dave’s side.

If I do, I’ll end up having our baby without him and that’s not going to happen.

” She sighed. “I’m happy for the team to deal with the day-to-day running of the office, but I’ll handle the serial killer cases.

I’m feeling fine, and trust me, you’ll be the first one to know if I’m not. ”

“What’s up?” Norrell came over and sat beside Wolfe. “Mmm, coffee and sandwiches. I’m starving.” She glanced at Jenna and read her mind. “I’m afraid that if dealing with corpses affected my appetite, I’d be dead by now. I know it seems insensitive, but like they say, someone has to do it.”

Understanding, Jenna looked from one to the other.

“I know none of you are heartless, far from it, but it breaks my heart seeing those young boys like that. I’m the sheriff and I’m responsible for taking care of the people in my town.

They voted for me, trusted me”—she poked at her chest —“to keep them safe. How am I going to tell these people that their sons are dead and victims of a mass murderer?”

“No one will blame you, Jenna.” Kane put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “They’ll expect you to bring their killer to justice.”

Jenna leaned into him. Determination surged through her.

She suddenly understood why the notorious and almost mythical Tarot Killer delivered their own brand of justice to unstoppable serial killers.

She’d come across the Tarot Killer by chance when her prime suspects in unsolvable crimes had been found dead with a tarot card beside their bodies.

The Tarot Killer’s vigilante form of justice had removed some of the most horrendous serial killers from existence.

Jenna didn’t agree with vigilante justice but she understood the reasons why some people were pushed to find justice in any way possible.

Right now, she’d been pushed to the edge and needed justice for these young men.

“Oh, I’ll catch him, but deep down I’ll be hoping the Tarot Killer gets to him first.”