Page 56

FIFTY-FIVE

Derrick muttered a curse. “Whoever killed her is sadistic and wanted her to suffer.”

Ellie struggled to breathe through the stench, so simply nodded and compartmentalized the situation. Her job was to investigate, not react. “Or he could have wanted something from her and she refused.”

Her eyes raked over the room, and she spotted blood smears near the door, the toe of a boot print standing out. Careful not to step in the blood, she inched closer.

“I’ll check the rest of the house,” Derrick offered as he snapped photos of the room.

“Hopefully he left a print somewhere,” Ellie said.

“If there is, we’ll find it.”

His confidence spurred her determination and she snapped into business mode. She photographed the blood spatter on the floor and wall, then crept closer to the woman. Her hair was tangled and her leg was twisted sideways. She took pictures of her position, then close-ups of her hair and hands.

The back of her blouse was torn and streaked with blood, and as Ellie peered closer, she realized they were puncture marks from a sharp weapon.

The poor woman had been stabbed multiple times.

Gently she turned Delilah to the side, careful not to disturb the scene, then wiped stands of her hair from her cheeks. Her pulse jumped as she studied the woman’s slender heart-shaped face.

She’d seen this woman before. She wracked her brain to remember where. In town maybe? At Winterfest?

She closed her eyes for a minute, thinking. According to Derrick, she was a therapist in a counseling center on Coal Mountain. She had no prior arrests. But…

It suddenly struck her. She accessed the photos she’d saved from the thumb drive ERT had found at Barbara Thacker’s house then scrolled through them. It took her several minutes and she had to go back years, but she found it.

A picture of one of the birthday celebrations. There were two cakes, one for each of the twins, each cake bearing one candle indicating the girls had been celebrating their first birthday.

Claire and Barbara stood on each side with Rosalyn also in the photograph.

Delilah was there, too.