Page 101 of Paranoid

Son of a bitch!

“In here,” Voss said, urging him on.

They stepped through the door and into an anteroom. Lights were visible on one side of the altar, shafts falling through an open doorway. Following the beam of Voss’s flashlight, they walked carefully down the aisle and around a corner to the base of the bell tower, where the woman lay crumpled on the floor of the square space. A severed rope was still tied around one ankle. Her hair fanned out on the ground around her, and her eyes were glassy and fixed, bits of some gooey substance clinging to the skin near her eyes.

“Tape,” Voss said, as if reading his thoughts. “It was over her eyes. As she was still alive, Vale tore it off her face before he tried to revive her.” She motioned to the side of the enclosure where a wad of blue tape was tacked to the wall. It appeared to be identical to the tape they’d found slapped across Violet Sperry’s face.

Evidence.

Destroyed.

Two rescue workers, a man and a woman, were bending over the woman.

“No one would have been able to save her,” the male hypothesized. “Once the killer strung her up, she was probably too far gone.” A lanky twentysomething, his face pockmarked from acne in his youth, his hair trimmed tight on the sides giving way to a thick tuft of red on top, he nodded as he stared at the lifeless woman. “Looks like a ruptured trachea, broken windpipe.”

“Hyoid fractured?” Voss asked.

“Probably,” the female EMT agreed. “Have to wait until the autopsy for the actual cause of death. ME’s on his way.”

“Crime scene team, too. They should be here any minute,” Voss said, then added, “It looks like Vale’s story holds up. He had a knife, gave it up.” She cast a glance up at Cade, her face in weird shadow cast by the eerie lights. “The kids were lucky they didn’t surprise the killer.”

“Not for her,” Cade said, glancing down at the corpse.

The male EMT stood up and scrabbled in a front pocket for a nonexistent cigarette. “As I said, nothing they could do.”

Cade looked upward to the dark recess of the tower overhead and imagined the brute force required to carry the victim here, presumably as she fought back. He wondered about the adrenaline rush firing the killer’s blood. Why had the killer brought her here? Why string her up? Why not leave her at the site of the attack, across the way at the school?

Premeditated.

This wasn’t a random killing.

“She have any valuables on her?”

Voss nodded. “Wedding ring set, lots of diamonds in the setting, credit card and forty dollars in her back pocket along with her driver’s license. Robbery wasn’t the motive.”

That much he knew just by considering the brutality of the crime, the way the body was staged to be found.

“Her husband been notified?”

“Yes, she’s married. Is that a lucky guess?” Voss asked.

“I knew of her. Small town.”

“We reached the husband, but he’s in Seattle. On his way back here now.”

“You found her cell phone, right?”

“Yeah. Checking the recent calls and contact list already.”

“Good.” He glanced down at the body one last time. “I gotta go.”

On the way back to the parking area he said, “I’ll be back once I get Harper home and settled, make sure she’s all right.”

“Got it.”

They reached Nowak, who was leaning against his car. Harper was huddled against Vale and she looked young and scared out of her mind. He didn’t blame her. He said to his daughter, “Okay, you ride with me. And you?” He met the younger man’s disturbed gaze. “You come to the house. In your own vehicle.” Then, thinking twice, “If you’re okay to drive.”

“I am.” The kid seemed calm, so Cade took him at his word.