“Yes,” Faith said.
She bent low and looked at the spike.“Sure is.Looks used too.Rusty.”
“No, that’s the color they come in,” Frank said.“Red tone’s from the blood.”Faith looked at him, and he explained.“My cousin works for BNSF.”
“Got it.Any railroads in Plano?”
He chuckled.“Ma’am, this is Texas.There’s probably more railroad here than road.You’ve got the DART rail for the metro area, you’ve got historical railroads, you’ve got the Union Pacific for freight, and then BNSF, the largest freight carrier in the United States, headquartered in Fort Worth.And honestly, ma’am, those spikes cost two bucks apiece.I have a few myself.I use ‘em to hang tools.”
Faith frowned.So, it didn’t narrow their suspect pool down.It still might tell them something about the killer.They’d used the spike to force Sarah’s mouth open.Was that forcing her to speak?To tell a truth she’d hidden before?Forcing her to stop speaking so she couldn’t lie?
Turk trotted forward, sniffing the body up and down and looking for clues.Frank watched him with interest.“Can he really find clues like that?”
“Oh yeah,” Faith replied.“He’s solved more cases than most detectives.”
“Huh.Well, I’ll be.”
Turk didn’t seem to be having much luck this time, though.He sniffed at Sarah for a little over a minute before snorting and returning to Faith’s side.Frank nodded and opined.“Probably smelling all the other dogs on her.”
“Could be,” Faith replied.“Who called it in?”
“Night watchman,” Frank said.“He watches the strip mall across the street, but they know him here.He noticed her car was still there about seven, two hours after the place closed, and he came to check.”
That put the call about an hour before Faith got the call from Torres.Plano PD had taken one look at the scene and passed the buck upstairs.
“He left his post to check instead of calling you guys?”
Frank shrugged.“It was the gentlemanly thing to do.That’s important out here.”
“Any security footage?”Faith asked.
“Of the exterior, yeah,” Frank replied.“Doesn’t show anyone suspicious entering.It shows Ray—that’s the night watchman across the street—coming to check it out, but it doesn’t show the inside or the back of the building.”
“So just the main entrance?”
“Yep.This isn’t the kind of worry people have out here, and since this is a county facility, there’s usually armed sheriff’s deputies and animal control officers here.”
“But not tonight?”
“Well, like I said, she was here late.”
“What about other entrances?”Jessica asked.“The killer got in somehow.”
Frank crossed his arms over his burly chest and lowered his head, pursing his lips in thought.“There’s the back entrance animal control enters.There should be a camera there too.”
“Let’s go check it out,” Jessica said.“Faith?”
“You go ahead.I’m going to look at the body more closely.”
Jessica nodded and Frank led her away to the rear entrance.
Faith nodded and pulled on a pair of latex gloves.She reached carefully forward and lifted the piece of paper.She saw no marks on Sarah’s skin and not much blood either.
She tried to picture the scene in her mind.Sarah was in the pen working with a dog when the killer entered the building and approached.The dogs were probably making noise, which allowed the killer to get close without being seen.At some point, she has to see him because he killed her with the spike by shoving it into her mouth and up through her brain.
That would take a lot of strength.Even with a sharp spike, the skull was a difficult bone to penetrate.So, the killer was probably a strong man.
Jessica and Frank returned.“Security camera out back is disabled,” Jessica informed her.
