“Morning, Parker,” he replied, a smile on his handsome face. He saw where my head had turned as I watched the retreating back of the man I’d offended. “That’s Dante. He doesn’t talk much, don’t take it personally.”
“Hmmm.” I continued to watch as he bent down to scratch behind the ears of one of the goats as they crowded around him. Then kicked a large ball, and several of the goats immediately ran after it in excitement.
“He’s a good guy. We were in the military together,” Ry continued as he pulled away and down the long driveway. “It’s not my place to discuss injuries, but you should know that what happened to him affected him pretty deeply.”
“Okay,” I murmured. Something about the man called to me, making me want to know his story. It was as if his pain spoketo my own. Though as much as I wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding last night, I wouldn’t push myself on him.
As we drove down the road, both our phones began ringing almost simultaneously. We both eyed each other, then Ry tapped the button to answer the call as I lifted the phone to my ear after seeing it was from SSA Walker.
“Yes, sir?” I answered briskly. I tuned out Ry’s call while listening to my supervisor.
“Another body was found this morning. I’m sure Detective Nakamura is getting the same call you are. Make sure he heads straight to the dump site. I’ll see you there in a few minutes.”
My breath caught as I heard the news. “Yes, sir. We’ll head there now.”
“Good.” The call ended abruptly, and I turned to Ry. We both had grim expressions. Without saying another word, we drove forward. I was unfamiliar with the area, so I had no idea where we were headed. We drove for several minutes down a back road, moving farther from town.
Finally, as we rounded a bend in the road, we came up to a spot where several vehicles were parked along the shoulder of the highway. Several of the vehicles had their lights flashing. It was brutally obvious that we had found the crime scene. Ry parked the car at the end of the long line of already parked cars. We had driven in tense silence the entire way, and that continued as we both stepped out of the SUV. As we walked toward the group of people who were standing outside the yellow tape marking off the dump site, I spotted my supervisor and co-workers.
SSA Walker saw me as I was walking up and broke from the group to come towards me. He was eyeing me up and down as if inspecting me for some hint that I had done something he wouldn’t approve of last night. His perusal, along with hisstern, disapproving look, irritated me. Then his eyes focused on something behind me, and his eyes narrowed.
I glanced over my shoulder to see that Detective Nakamura had been joined by his partner, Detective Morris. When Detective Morris saw me looking at him, he returned my glance with a sneer. It had me clenching my fists. I was starting to get really frustrated with the men around me.
“Sir,” I nodded my head, acknowledging my supervisor.
“You made good time,” he commented. “We actually just got here ourselves.”
“So, you haven’t seen the crime scene yet?” I asked. His grimace told me that he had at least had a chance to glance at it.
“We haven’t been able to inspect it yet,” he replied. “The crime scene techs are still working. They’ve taken pictures already and are now going over the area for any possible evidence.”
I nodded my head. It could take a while for them to be satisfied that they had retrieved any bit of trace evidence on the body as well as in the area. All we could do was wait until they allowed us near. Knowing that the killer had been very careful so far to not leave anything that could be used to help the case, I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
“How bad is it?” I asked. “Are we sure it’s the same killer?” I watched as SSA Walker clenched his teeth as he eyed me. “What is it?”
“We’re certain it is the same person.”
I just eyed him because his reaction was off. He let out a long, frustrated breath, then pinched the bridge of his nose as he shut his eyes. It looked like the man was fighting off a
headache already. “Listen,” he began, “there’s something different about this body.” I stiffened, waiting for him to continue. “This one is more… tortured than the others that were previously found.”
“Tortured, how?”
“Exactly what I said.” He shook his head and turned to walk back towards the waiting group outside the police tape. “The body has the usual signs of being held for at least a week. Starvation, most likely, but also bruising that is yellowed from beatings that were several days old. Cuts that were starting to heal. Basically the same as the previous victims. But it appears that something changed last night.”
He stopped speaking and stared off in the direction where I could see several crime scene techs working. One was scraping under her nails, while the other was taking samples from the body. From previously found victims, I knew that there wouldn’t be much to find. The killer was meticulous about cleaning the bodies when he was done with them.
All evidence collected was carefully sealed and labeled before being placed in a case for transport. From the distance we were standing, I couldn’t get a good look at the victim’s body, but I didn’t need to be closer to see the raw wounds.
“He’s escalating,” I muttered.
“Yeah, he’s certainly doing that,” SA Monique Hanson said from beside me. “That poor woman was sliced and diced. We are going to need her fingerprints, DNA, or dental records to identify her.”
I turned to Monique, trying to hold back my shock. “He’s never harmed a face before. That we are aware of, at least,” I admitted. There could be bodies at dump sites we haven’t found yet. “Wait a minute,” I frowned. “How was this site found so quickly?”
I glanced around at the remote location on the side of the road. I realized that since we’d arrived, I hadn’t heard a single vehicle drive by. It was a state highway, but it was obviously rarely used. “Who called it in?”
I eyed every person standing around, spotting Ry and Detective Morris a few feet away. There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t in some way related to law enforcement or medical. It’s a known fact that killers will often watch a dump location to see everyone’s reactions to finding their handiwork. I shook my head, then looked back at my co-worker.
