Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

The moment Wolfe got the call about a murder at the Old Mitcham Ranch, he grabbed a generator and portable lights. Without his daughter Emily, who usually assisted him and was currently completing her residency at Black Rock Falls General, he only had his assistant Colt Webber. He called on his fiancée, Norrell, and her team to assist. Although Norrell and her team were forensic anthropologists, they were well versed in crime scenes since arriving in town. With everything packed into his van, they headed to the Old Mitcham Ranch. He’d worked on all the previous murders that had occurred at the cursed place and was fully aware of the dangers. He made sure every member of the team wore a liquid Kevlar vest and carried weapons.

As he arrived, Kane and Rio were in the process of moving their vehicles out of the barn. When Kane jumped out of his truck and waved him inside, he headed into the dim interior. Immediately the smell of blood and putrid flesh crawled up his nose. He jumped down and went over to where Jenna was leaning against a post. Her bleak expression spoke volumes. “What have we got?”

“Mutilation.” Jenna shuddered and wrapped her arms around her chest. “It’s not the worst I’ve seen but it comes close.”

Wolfe squeezed her shoulder. “I can take it from here if you like.”

“I would like to say yes, but I’m not leaving you or your team here without backup.” Jenna met his gaze. “When you see what happened to Marissa Kendrick, you’ll understand why we need to hang around.”

Nodding, Wolfe waited for Kane to walk over and raised his eyebrows. “Rio mentioned there were two crime scenes and we have only one body. Where do you want me to start?”

He listened as Kane explained what they’d discovered. He turned to Norrell, who had joined the group. “Can you process the scene in the stables and I’ll go down into the root cellar with Webber?”

“Not a problem.” Norrell turned to Jenna. “Do you have any suspects? I gather this is involved with the cold-case crime we are investigating. Marissa Kendrick was one of the people you spoke to recently, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, and now she’s dead.” Jenna’s brow wrinkled into a frown. “I have a list of possible suspects and I can assure you I’ll be hunting them down to find out exactly where they were when Marissa was murdered.” She straightened. “I’ll be in the Beast while you’re processing the scene. I’ve everything I need there to start the investigation.”

Once Wolfe had set up the lights, he sent Webber to video the entire scene and then take photographs. He stood to one side to absorb the scene in front of him. This murder had started in the barn and progressed to the root cellar. From the blood spatter and the angle of the incisions on the body, including the shattered bones, he identified the murder weapon as a long-handled ax. The swing from the ax had sent streams of blood spatter in arcs from the body across the ceiling and down the wall. The bloody arcs crisscrossed, which proved that the victim moved as the killer stalked her across the floor. The victim had extensive defense wounds on her arms and legs. Marissa Kendrick hadn’t died easily.

Once Webber had finished taking the images of the scene and every footprint that they discovered, Wolfe bent to look more closely at the remains. To his surprise the face and neck had not been injured. Although blood matted the woman’s hair and covered one side of her face, the killer had avoided striking her head. He shook his head slowly, wondering if there’d been a conversation between the killer and the victim. From the precise pattern of injuries, the killer was making a statement. One thing for sure, this wasn’t a crime of passion. In those cases, men would often attack a woman’s face or breasts. He straightened and sighed. “Okay, I believe we have everything we need. I don’t see any fingerprints anywhere, so it’s obvious he was wearing gloves. We can only hope he’s left some trace evidence on the body. Let’s get her bagged up and back to the lab.”

When they finally carried the body up the narrow steps and loaded it into his van, he went to the Beast and removed his gloves and face mask. When Jenna buzzed down the window, he met her troubled gaze. “We’re done here. There are no fingerprints to process. I’ll be doing the autopsy tomorrow morning at ten as usual, if y’all want to drop by, but I figure I’ll be looking for trace evidence more than anything. At this point, I don’t have a cause of death, and with multiple injuries, it could be difficult to determine. When people are injured to this degree, they usually die from blood loss.” He gave her a long look as a doctor rather than a friend. “You need to get back to the office and put your feet up for half an hour or so. I know you’re tough, Jenna, but we all need to take a break sometimes and I figure the time is now.” He slapped a hand on her door. “Doctor’s orders.”