Ellie folded her arms across her chest. “Good work.”
Cord’s frown deepened. “Not sure how reliable the witness is but he was lucid. Said he thought he heard a scuffle up there, like there was someone else with the girl.”
Ellie sighed. “And you believed him?”
Cord shrugged. “Could have been confused, but he thinks he heard an argument.”
Or hell, he could be senile or have an addiction problem. Which made things worse as far as him being reliable. At his age, she also wondered if his hearing and eyesight were impaired.
Cord hooked his thumbs in the hoops of his belt loops and raised his thick dark brows. “I know how you like to explore all possibilities.”
Dammit, he was right. And she trusted his gut.
“Okay, let’s take a look.” She pulled her phone and followed Cord, grateful she’d worn her good hiking boots with the no-slip soles. For a long moment, she studied the scene. The way the girl’s face looked crushed. Scratches marked her hands andarms. Fingernails broken. Blood pooling under her battered face. Limbs at odd angles indicating broken bones.
What struck her as even odder were the black feathers strewn across the ground. One lay at the edge of the girl’s face, her hand almost touching it.
“Do you think those crow feathers were already there?” Ellie asked.
“I wondered the same thing. Crows are popular in the area, and people have been known to sacrifice birds here.”
“Because they’re omens of death?” Ellie murmured.
Cord shrugged. “Yeah. And some people think they’re guides to the afterlife.”
Ellie began snapping photographs. “So it’s possible the killer left them.”
“Raises questions,” Cord replied.
Ellie captured several pictures of the scene then picked her way across the slick damp rocks.
Her stomach clenched at the gruesomeness of the blood spatter that sprayed the stones. Ellie glanced up at the top of the ridge, her breath catching at the distance to the ground.
“She looks young,” Ellie whispered as she looked back at the girl.
“Yeah,” Cord agreed. “One reason I figured you’d be interested. Those other two suicides this past year were teenagers, too.”
Ellie understood where his mind was going. Three suicides in one year, all young girls. It did sound suspicious. And if the witness thought someone else might have been up there…
She stooped to get close-ups of the spatter, then eased toward the body. “We’ll look for a possible connection to the other suicides.”
She scanned the girl’s body, taking more photographs. Bruises, broken bones, blood. Then she knelt to do a quick visual exam, bracing herself for the horror of the girl’s crushed face.
“You don’t have to look, El,” Cord murmured. “Wait till the ME gets here.”
The cold air made it difficult to breathe and could affect decomp time. “You’re right.” A gust of wind brought the scent of death, and she swallowed hard. “I’m going to call Dr. Whitefeather and request an ERT.”
She didn’t intend for this girl to lie out here in the elements the rest of the night.
FOUR
Cord nodded. “I’m going to the top of the ridge to look around.”
“Wait a sec and I’ll go with you. I need to take Roman’s statement.” Ellie picked her way across the rocks toward Roman’s tent. But when she reached the firepit, she didn’t see him.
“Cord,” she called. “Where’s Roman?”
Cord’s brows furrowed as he scanned the creek and woods, then strode to her. “What the hell?” He searched inside the small stick hut and cursed. “His bag with his belongings is gone, too.”
