Page 19 of Forever Gone

“Not beyond being forced across the desk. The blood patterns suggest this is where she died.”

Connor stood near the doorway, keeping out of Matt’s working area. His attention remained on Karen, but his posture had tightened since Selena entered. Local victims were rarely strangers to him. Even when they were, someone at the station knew a cousin, a former employer, or the person who had sold them their first car. She wondered if he knew who owned the cabin.

Selena crouched near the broken word processor without crossing the nearest marker.

“That took effort.”

Matt came around the desk. “Several impacts. There’s a possible strike mark on the floor and fragments spread as far as the sofa. I’ve photographed everything before moving any pieces.”

“Could it have been damaged during the struggle?” Selena asked.

Matt shook his head. “Not like that. Someone kept hitting it after it was down.”

The word processor and the tongue belonged to the same act. Karen had come here to write. The killer had destroyed the machine and removed the part of her body that allowed speech.

Silence imposed twice.

Selena straightened.

“What do we know about the victim?”

Connor drew a small notebook from his shirt pocket. “Karen Sloane. Forty-one. Kentucky driver’s license lists her old address in Loyall.”

Selena repeated the name silently.

Something shifted in memory. A girl near the rear of a school assembly. Brown hair cut to her shoulders. A stack of library books held against her chest.

“Why do I know that name?”

“She was behind us in high school,” Connor said. “Quiet back then. She joined the school paper for a while.”

Selena studied Karen again, trying to reconcile the indistinct teenager with the woman on the desk.

“Matt, I want impressions from the drive and the ground around every entrance. Footwear and tire tracks. Latent prints throughout the cabin, starting with the doors, windows, desk, word processor fragments, and anything near the body. Swab the victim for foreign DNA, including beneath her nails. Do the same for the broken word processor.”

“We’ve started on the entry points,” Matt said. “I’ll expand the sweep.”

Blethan folded his arms. “You talk as though you think us wee townies don’t know how to get the job done.”

Selena met his stare. “Just do it, Blethan.”

His brows rose. Then he turned to Connor, waiting.

Connor gave a single nod. “Full processing. Anything Selena asks for.”

Blethan made a sound low in his throat, though he did not argue further.

Matt hid a smile by checking the display on his camera.

Selena turned toward the open suitcase. “Is this Karen’s home? There’s little personal furniture or photos, is it a rental?”

“Temporary rental,” Connor said. “She and her husband finalized their divorce recently. She took the cabin for three months. Hannah Montgomery owns it.”

Selena remembered that name, too. Harlan was full of memories and connections, some strong, others as tenuous as a spider’s web.

“What do we know about access, Connor?”

Connor cleared his throat. “Hannah mailed Karen the key. Says she kept a spare at her house. We spoke briefly over the phone, but I’ve got a deputy on the way to speak with her and secure it.”