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SEVENTY-FOUR

Ellie called a forensic team to fingerprint the Woodston house. She wanted to know everyone who’d been in the house while Derrick checked out the mini-van outside.

Her phone buzzed. Cord. “Did you find something?”

“Yeah,” Cord said, his voice dark. “A body.”

Ellie closed her eyes. “Another child?”

“No,” Cord said. “A man’s. It’s at the edge of the river, in the water, partially hidden by an old dock and brush.”

“Can you tell who it is?”

“Not until we expose his face. Right now, I’m looking at a hand.”

Ellie shivered. “I’ll get the ERT, ME and recovery team there ASAP. I’m on my way.”

“Copy. I’ll wait for you, then keep searching for the woman. Sending you the coordinates now.”

Ellie thanked him, then hung up and texted Derrick:

Cord found a man’s body by the river. I’m heading there and calling for assistance.

Ellie phoned her boss. “Send the ME, a recovery team and ERT here. Cord and his team found a man’s body and are still searching for Claire Woodston. We now know the girls’ names are Taylor and Heidi.”

“On it,” Captain Hale said.

Ellie hung up, then went to talk to Sergeant Williams and relayed Cord’s findings. “We’re going to need additional forensic investigators.”

Sergeant Williams made the call while he followed her outside. Derrick was waiting. “I found some prints in the car,” he said. “Also the registration. The car belongs to Claire Woodston.”

“If she was on the run, why wouldn’t she take her car?” Ellie asked, thinking out loud.

“Good question,” Derrick said.

Dammit. There were so many unanswered questions.

The three of them followed the coordinates Cord had sent with Ellie guiding the way. The sound of the river flowing over rocks helped lead Ellie, and minutes later she easily spotted Cord who stood guard by the dock.

A gray mist painted a ghostly glow above the grim scene, the rising peaks of the mountains beyond barely visible through the fog. Chill bumps cascaded up Ellie’s arms as they approached.

“Benji found him,” Cord said giving Benji a scratch behind his ears. “He’s the best tracker on our team.”

Ellie smiled at that. Cord did love that dog.

She, Cord and Sergeant Williams began taking photographs of the scene. Cord was right. She couldn’t yet make out the man’s face although a gold wedding ring hugged his ring finger on his left hand.

Laney and the extraction team arrived a few minutes later, working carefully to remove the body from the water without compromising the corpse’s integrity and to sustain what forensics they could. Water samples were also taken to be examined for temperature and its effect on body decomposition. As they lifted the remains onto a tarp, Ellie studied the man’s face. She recognized him from the wedding photo on the mantle in the house.

Joel Woodston.

Meanwhile, the recovery team searched for Claire’s body in the river near her husband’s but found nothing.

Laney frowned as she studied Woodston’s body. “I’ll have to take into account that he’s been exposed to the elements, the weather and water temperature to determine estimated time of death. The freezing temps and water would have slowed down decomp so he could have been here longer than it appears.”

She lifted one arm and gestured toward the raw skin on the tops of his hands. “This bruising indicates he fought with someone.” She unbuttoned his tattered water-soaked, muddy shirt. “There’s more bruising on his torso. But he was also stabbed in the stomach and chest which may have been the fatal blows. I’ll know more after I get him on the table.”

Ellie pictured the fight in her mind. “He died trying to save his daughters,” she said softly.

Was Claire dead as well?