Chapter 27

TWENTY-SEVEN

Sick to her stomach, Jenna grabbed a flashlight from the Beast. The last thing she wanted to do was to go into a root cellar to hunt down a body. A cold wind blew across her face, making the hairs on the back of her neck rise. It was as if someone was watching them. She glanced at Kane. “Ready?” She turned to Rio and Rowley. “Watch our backs. Keep under cover. We could easily have a sniper out there. In this barn we’re sitting ducks.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rio nodded. “Do you want me to call Wolfe? I figure there are body parts in the stables. They could be fingertips. If they belong to Marissa Kendrick, she fought for her life.”

A sickening wave rushed over Jenna at the terror the victim must have endured, and she swallowed hard. What will we find in the cellar? “Yeah, we’ll need him. Explain the dangers surrounding the situation and ask him to take precautions.”

Trying to gather her courage to follow Kane into the dark root cellar, Jenna took out a face mask from her pocket and pressed it to her nose. She looked into Kane’s suddenly unemotional expression and realized he’d fallen into the zone to protect his mind against what horrific sight he was going to encounter in the root cellar. She’d tried many times to emulate him but memories of the dead they’d found over the years never left her. Although the flashbacks she’d suffered after her time as DEA Agent Avril Parker had subsided, the memories of murder scenes often played in her mind like a horror movie. Some very bad memories came back, triggered by similar events, and she couldn’t turn them off, and even flooding her head with happy thoughts didn’t distract them from tormenting her.

Following Kane down debris-strewn steps and into complete darkness took every ounce of her courage. She wrapped her fingers around a flashlight, the beam was powerful but didn’t deter the encroaching shadows trying to smother her. Making an effort to ignore the strong metallic scent of blood and the stale smell that arrives just before a body turns putrid, Jenna pushed down the need to run away. She sucked in a breath behind her face mask and nodded to Kane. “Let’s go.”

Drips of congealed blood coated the stairs down to the root cellar. No attempt had been made to disguise the footprints, although they were unremarkable in size and had the typical pattern of any rubber boots purchased from a number of stores in town. In fact, they could belong to anyone in the county and beyond, as everyone owned a pair of rubber boots and wore them frequently during wet weather. Ahead of her, Kane moved his powerful flashlight in a wide arc as he descended the steps. She followed in his footsteps, keeping to the outside to avoid the blood spatter and ducking away from the dead roots hanging down to clutch at her clothes and grab at her hair. When he stopped suddenly in front of her, she bumped into his back. “What is it?”

“What’s left of Marissa Kendrick.” Kane turned slowly to look at her, his wide frame shielding her from the sight. “Are you sure you want to see this? It’s what nightmares are made of.”

Of course, Jenna wanted to say no. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest she could hardly breathe as she moved the flashlight in a slow arc ahead of her. Old dusty cobwebs torn from their moorings hung like filthy lace curtains around the entrance. Thick grime covered the floor and animal skat, likely from the thousands of rats that roamed the property, crunched under her boots. She gave Kane a slight nod and he moved to one side to reveal the horror before him. Breath caught in her throat.

Her chest tightened and she wanted to turn and run away. The body of Marissa Kendrick resembled a broken storefront dummy, although nothing could disguise the open red lacerations covering her entire body. She hadn’t just been murdered. A monster had slowly dissected her and from the amount of blood, she’d lived through every second. Dizzy, Jenna swayed and put out one arm to steady herself against the brick wall. “How could anyone do that to a person?”

“Someone with absolutely no empathy whatsoever.” Kane’s hand wrapped around her arm as he urged her back up the steps. “There’s nothing we can do for her. We should leave the processing of the scene to Wolfe and his team. Just being down here is contaminating the evidence. It looks to me like this guy wasn’t too careful by the number of footprints he’s left behind. It’s likely there’s trace evidence all over.”

Nauseous, Jenna moved slowly up the steps and staggered out into the barn. Scanning the immediate area, she aimed her flashlight across the ground in front of the trapdoor. “Look here.” She moved the beam over an unusual circular patch of blood on the ground. “What do you make of that?”

“The killer came up the steps and removed his clothes here.” Kane pointed to the bloody footprints of rubber boots beside an unusual wrinkled pattern on the floor. “Looking at this, after killing her, he stripped off. The marks on the floor are where he dropped his blood-soaked clothing. See the very fine drops of blood heading toward the white truck? I figure he bundled up all his blood-soaked clothes, removed his boots, and carried them over to where he parked his truck. If he planned this murder, it would make sense that he laid out something close by like a large plastic bag or similar to place his clothes in so he wouldn’t carry any trace evidence to his vehicle.”

Heartsore for the poor woman, Jenna nodded. She turned away and stared into the anxious faces of her deputies. She realized the horror from the root cellar must be reflected in her expression. Keeping moving on the investigation would clear her mind. Sticking to procedure helped and she had a list in her head to work through. That small modicum of rational thought helped her get through some of the most terrible crimes. She lifted her chin and composed her thoughts. “So I imagine Marissa arrived to meet an acquaintance and climbed out of her truck. Things took a turn for the worse, she tried to get away, and her killer chased her down in the stables. The initial attack must have occurred there.”

“Yeah, from what I can see, he was swinging an ax or a long-blade knife, maybe a machete.” Rio led the way toward the stables, carefully avoiding the drag marks on the floor. When they reached a blood-splattered stall right at the end of the line, he pointed out the chips of wood gouged out from the side of the stall. “That looks like ax marks to me, and look down here. I’m not one hundred percent sure but that looks like fingertips.”

Scanning the area, Jenna noticed clumps of hair. “So he incapacitated her here and then dragged her by her hair to the root cellar. I wonder why he didn’t just kill her and leave her here?”

“I’d say it was for the fear factor.” Kane folded his arms across his chest. “It’s dark, filthy, and disgusting down there. He wanted to make it as bad as possible, as if he planned to teach her a lesson. This is a very twisted individual. Just from the brief moment I looked at the victim, I could see he wanted to give her a slow death. This is a monster enjoying the thrill of the kill. His aim was to inflict as much pain as possible. If this is one of her friends, I’d hate to meet her enemies.”

Mind racing with the implications of another monster roaming Black Rock Falls, Jenna scanned the faces of her deputies. “It seems we have stirred up a wasps’ nest by investigating the cold case. We must be getting closer to the killer of those kids than we imagined. I figure the killer was concerned that Marissa was going to inform us about what really happened on the mountain that night. He’s sending a message to everyone involved to make sure they all keep their mouths shut.”