Page 33

Thirty-Two

Black Rock Falls

As Jenna reached the Beast she turned to Kane.

“You mentioned that the victim walked to the park bench. Do you believe that Duke will be able to follow her trail? I know there’s glass there, but Zorro managed to get through it okay without hurting himself.

Do you figure it’s worth taking the risk to find out where she came from? ”

“I guess so.” Kane rubbed his chin. “Duke isn’t stupid and I’m sure he knows not to walk on broken glass.

” He lifted the dog from the back of the truck and attached a long leash to his harness.

“We need to get to Wolfe before he leaves and grab something that belongs to the victim so that Duke can use it for a scent.” He handed her the leash.

“You head on toward the bench and I’ll run and catch up with Wolfe.

Don’t trip over the broken bricks and tell Duke to heel.

I don’t want him pulling you over when he gets excited. ”

Jenna sometimes wondered if Kane figured she had a brain at all. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She gave him a shushing gesture with her hand and led Duke, who was being extremely quiet, beside her toward the bench.

Moments later, Kane came back carrying something contained inside an evidence bag.

On closer inspection it turned out to be one of the victim’s slippers.

Jenna handed the leash to Kane as he opened the bag.

She gagged as the stink of death wafted out and she turned away as he held the bag in front of Duke’s nose and gave him the order to seek.

Duke wandered around for a few minutes sniffing the ground going back and forth in front of the bench and then took off in a northerly direction.

They followed a line of trees alongside the road opposite the forest for some ways before crossing the road and heading along a narrow trail.

Jenna recognized the trail as one that many off-road vehicles used to gain access to the many fire roads running through Stanton Forest. A little out of breath, she stopped walking and turned to look at Kane.

“The killer must live locally to know these trails through the forest. Remind me to ask Kalo if any of the suspects were raised in Black Rock Falls.”

“Do you need to take a break?” Kane pulled Duke to a halt.

Waving away his concern, Jenna shook her head. “I’m fine. I just get a little out of breath when we’re walking fast.”

The trail opened up onto the fire road and Duke wandered around and then sat down in the middle of the road. Jenna walked up and down searching the hard-packed gravel road for any signs of tire marks or footprints but found nothing. “Absolutely nothing, no signs of her even coming this way.”

“I believe I have something.” Kane pulled an examination glove out of his pocket and stretched it over his large hand.

He plucked a few strands of long hair hanging from a branch of a pine tree and held it up to show her.

“This must belong to the victim. I figure it shows the direction that the vehicle went. So not toward the mountains. This guy is either in town or farther afield, maybe in Blackwater.”

Jenna pulled out a small evidence bag from her backpack and opened it for him.

“It certainly looks the same color. I’ll take any evidence right now, even if it means a directional one.

” She straightened, pressing her fists into the small of her back.

“I’m sure looking forward to not carrying this extra weight around.

” She smiled at him. “At least I’ll be able to carry it in one arm or another. ”

“Looking at the size of your bump, I figure you’re going to need two hands.” Kane gave her a wide smile. “I’m not sure whether I should be sorry or pleased.”

Jenna snorted. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a big healthy baby.

” She slipped her arm through his and stared through the forest. In the summer it was glorious, with many shades of green and the fragrance of pine mixed with the wildflowers scattered in patchwork colors all across the ground.

“It is a lovely afternoon for a stroll through the forest. It’s such a shame that this beautiful place is the choice for many murderers.

It should be a place where people can come and be happy and not looking over their shoulder all the time for someone determined to end their lives. ”

“People are happy here, Jenna.” Kane strolled along beside her.

“We’re happy here, aren’t we? I figure you can’t let a few people spoil your life.

Whatever the tragedies that occur here, we should rise above them and still enjoy the beauty of this place.

I’m grateful every time I wake up and look out of the window.

Almost every day the landscape is different.

The changing colors of the sky, the trees, and mountains are all so amazing.

I’ve lived in many places throughout my life, and I’ll admit I love the beach.

Walking along wide stretches of golden sand with the sea lapping against your toes is relaxing, but this place has a peace about it.

I figure we’re here to protect it and the people from the monsters who want to destroy everything beautiful in our lives. ”

Leaning her head against his shoulder as they walked, Jenna blew out a long sigh.

“I have no idea who sent me here. It wasn’t a choice I made myself and I’m sure it wasn’t for you either, but whoever did obviously knew something that we didn’t.

I figure that Black Rock Falls has a very dark past that’s been hidden for a long time.

We know from the lack of documentation that criminal behavior wasn’t recorded and many of the cases never investigated.

I know many people came back from wars over the years, disturbed and likely suffering from PTSD.

We know many of them lived off the grid in the forest. I figure local law enforcement turned a blind eye to what they did.

” She waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m not saying that all these people turned out to be serial killers, but maybe years ago it became common knowledge that Stanton Forest was a good place to hide.

Being so vast, with many old mining cottages throughout, plenty of available water, and good hunting, it’s a perfect place to live off the grid whether you’re somebody wanting to be away from people because of the wars or because you intend to kill people.

” She looked up at him. “Maybe during the time that we’re at home on parental leave we should take the time to look through some of the old newspapers that are now online that go way back to the first broadsheets that were published in the area and see what we can find.

I figure in the ten or fifteen years prior to my taking office, murders were happening all over, and the local sheriffs were putting them down to animal attacks.

It will be interesting to see how many we discover. ”

“Yeah, I’d like to know.” Kane walked backward along the trail and then turned back around to walk beside her. “It makes sense. I don’t believe all this just started happening when we arrived. I figure we were the first cops to enforce the law, is all.”

When they reached the Beast, Stanton was empty apart from the odd vehicle passing by.

Every member of her team had departed. Wearily, she climbed into the passenger side and fastened her seatbelt.

She tapped her bottom lip, thinking. “We’re going to be one man short for a while and I believe the next couple of days are going to be crucial to finding this killer.

I’m going to call in Johnny Raven again.

He is a great help and has a good investigating mind, plus he is a little intimidating when it comes to questioning suspects.

” She shot Kane a grin. “Much like you, huh?”

“I figure the dog helps.” Kane slid behind the wheel after putting Duke in the back seat.

“A K-9 is good to have beside you when you’re interviewing a suspect.

It often keeps their attention on what you’re saying.

Although the dog can just sit there as placid as anything, everyone knows it only takes a hand gesture and they’ll attack. ”

Jenna took out her phone and made the call. “Hey, Raven, how are the dogs going?”

“I have a couple of rescues coming along for personal protection at the moment and they’re doing just fine.

” She could hear strange little snuffling sounds in the background.

“I’m at Blackhawk’s ranch on the res. We are looking at a new batch of puppies especially bred for the K-9 program.

There are eight in the litter and they are all even in size.

With luck they’ll all be good enough to train, but you never know until the time comes if they have the right temperament to be a K-9. ”

Jenna cleared her throat. “They sound wonderful. I wish I could see them. The reason I called is that Rowley has been injured in the line of duty and will be laid up for at least forty-eight hours, maybe more. We’re in the middle of a murder investigation and I really need your assistance if you can come into the office tomorrow. ”

The agreement Jenna had with Raven was that he would be on call when she needed him, and in the meantime, he could carry on his profession of training dogs as well as being the local doctor in the forest community.

He’d completed all his necessary training to be a deputy in her department and was very good at his job.

He’d even taken a recent refresher course and renewed his chopper license.

She considered them very lucky to have him on the team.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll be in at eight o’clock. Do you have any files available to get me up to speed? I can look over them tonight.”

Glad that she had someone else to rely on, Jenna smiled.

“I’m heading back to the office now from a crime scene, and Wolfe will be conducting the autopsy in a couple of hours.

I’ll have everything uploaded to the server ASAP.

There are already files available from the previous two murders.

The first one involved the limo with ten high school students inside on their way to the prom.

You’ll recall we found it at the bottom of the river but only the male students were inside?

We discovered that four of the males had been restrained but the girls are missing and we’ve been finding them murdered.

Three so far and there’s still two missing and we don’t have a clue who’s doing this.

Rio has a couple of suspects, which we are hunting down.

This is why we need your assistance. Another set of eyes on the evidence or lack of it will be very helpful. ”

“Okay, as soon as I get home, I’ll get onto it. I’ll see you in the morning.” Raven disconnected.

“You might as well call Kalo as well. If he’s come up with anything, we may be able to talk to someone this afternoon.

” Kane drove into the Triple Z Roadhouse and pulled up at the pumps.

“I need some gas. Do you want to stop at Aunt Betty’s for lunch before we get back to the office?

” He checked his watch. “Unless you’d rather eat after the autopsy? ”

Jenna shook her head. “Not really. I’ll call Kalo, and yeah, I’d like to stop at Aunt Betty’s for lunch. We’ll have at least an hour for our food to settle before we head into Wolfe’s office. From what I saw at the crime scene, I won’t feel much like eating afterward.”

As Kane pumped the gas, she called Kalo. “Hi, Bobby. I believe Rio contacted you earlier with a list of suspects. Do you have any information on them?”

“Yeah, I found two of them.” Kalo tapped away on his keyboard, “I found Jim Birch and Silas Thorne close by. Birch lives in the back room of the livery stable in Black Rock Falls and, as far as I can ascertain, works there with the horses. He also repairs saddles in the workshop. It’s his trade.

The other one is Silas Thorne. He is a ranch hand over at the Silver Buckle, I believe that place is situated on the outskirts of Black Rock Falls and Blackwater.

He is looking for accommodation and is apparently staying at the shelter in town.

I was able to hunt him down at the shelter via Father Derry.

” Kalo sighed. “I’m still trying to locate the other two.

It seems to me when prisoners get out of jail they vanish into the smoke.

None of these men were on probation. They had completed their sentences and were released.

So finding them is going to prove difficult unless they open a bank account or obtain a legal document.

If necessary, I could try facial recognition, but most of the images I was able to obtain are old and I would imagine they have changed their appearance since, but we can try if push comes to shove. ”

Grateful for any help, Jenna made a few quick notes in her book.

“It’s the start we need in this investigation.

So far, we have zip. These men are not probable suspects.

They are only possibles. All were released from jail in the last few months for sexual assault.

We have absolutely no idea who is doing this as there are no clues and every single crime scene is different. ”

She went on to tell him about the various murders and Carter’s involvement with the explosion.

“It was good we had Carter here with Zorro to clear the scene for us. It would have taken us a few days to get the bomb squad in from Helena.” She paused for a beat.

“Could you possibly update Jo on everything I’ve told you and ask her if she could please look over the files I’ll be uploading this afternoon?

Dave would like to pick her mind about the murderer.

This man is very different from anyone else who we’ve had to deal with and he seems to have an ax to grind with a copycat killer.

The problem is we don’t know which copycat killer he’s talking about. ”

“Yeah, I figure someone who cuts messages into the corpses is a new breed of psychopath.” Kalo whistled.

“ I’m sure glad I’m not living in Black Rock Falls right now, but if you need me, I’m right here on the end of the phone.

I’ll be in touch as soon as I can discover information on Ben Holloway and Jasper Montgomery. ” He disconnected.

A shiver ran down Jenna’s back as she stared out of the window and into the forest. Girls were dying and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. I wonder who’s going to be next?