Chapter 51

Wolfe arrived at the sheriff’s office with Emily and went straight to Jenna’s office. Inside, Piper sat on a chair, sipping hot chocolate awkwardly with plastic bags over each hand. Beside her, Rio was working on a report on his laptop. Keeping his tone casual, he smiled at Piper. “Hey, I hear you had a close call tonight?”

“Yeah, but I’m fine.” Piper frowned. “I’m not sure why I can’t just go home.”

Wolfe nodded. “Ah, that’s because I need to take a few swabs and check under your fingernails for skin samples. That’s why they bagged your hands. Criminals are slippery and will use any excuse to get away, so we use forensics to assist the DA to make a case against them. He attacked you and you fought back. You have three solid witnesses, but we won’t use Zac as a witness as he’s your brother.” He glanced at Emily. “You check the nails and I’ll do the preliminary.”

“Okay.” Emily placed a forensic kit on Jenna’s desk and went to work collecting skin samples from under Piper’s nails.

Wolfe rested one hip on the edge of the desk, keeping the situation as casual as possible. Piper had suffered a serious shock, and he didn’t want to add to the problem. “First of all, are you hurt? Did you suffer any injuries?”

“He pulled my hair.” Piper frowned and held out her hand for Emily to check her nails.

Wolfe examined her head and found significant bruising. “I’ll need to take a few pictures of your scalp. Em, if you’ve finished, come here and hold open the hair for me please.” He took a camera from his bag and took some close-up shots.

“There’s a scratch on her neck, Dad.” Emily lifted Piper’s hair. “Get a shot of that as well. I’ll swab it for DNA traces.”

Wolfe looked Piper over again. “You fell onto the blacktop. Did you hurt any part of you? Do you have any bruises?”

“My hands are grazed but that’s all.” Piper looked at him, her eyes pleading. “I just want to go home.”

He nodded. “Okay, I’ll take some shots of them as well.” He took the shots. “We’re nearly done, but before you go home I want you to go to the showers and remove all your outer clothing, place everything in an evidence bag. Emily has a sweatshirt and pants you can wear home. I want Emily to check you don’t have any other injuries. We need all the evidence we can find to put your attacker in jail.”

“Why all the forensics?” Rio stood staring at him. “She wasn’t raped. This is going a little too far. She’s exhausted and in shock.”

Swinging his attention to Rio, Wolfe smiled. “It’s better to have more than less evidence to present in court. So far Piper is the only woman to have survived an attack by this man. I mean to make sure her testimony will be backed by the best forensic evidence available.” He indicated toward the passageway. “I’m going down to the cells to take swabs from the accused. In cases with law enforcement as witnesses, it’s better to have solid evidence a crime occurred than offer any chance for a lawyer to put doubt into a jury’s mind. Everything I’m doing here backs up the witnesses’ reports.”

He patted Piper on the arm. “We’ll see you at Thanksgiving. If you have any headaches or problems, come and see me and I’ll run a few tests, but I believe the bruising on your scalp is superficial.”

“Okay, thanks.” Piper stood and followed Emily to the showers.

Waiting until Piper was out of earshot, Wolfe turned to Rio. “When she’s done, take her home and stay with her. She’s very calm and the shock of what happened might hit her suddenly. Watch her closely and call me if you need any advice.”

“Copy that.” Rio nodded his expression serious.

Wolfe headed down to the cells. If Piper’s skin was under Strauss’ nails and her DNA was present in the scratches on his face, the evidence would be solid. He nodded to himself. Up to now, he’d found nothing to tie Strauss to the killings. Now he had his stun gun and he would bet a dollar to a dime that Strauss never cleaned it between victims.