Chapter 16

After a frustrating day without her team, Laurel gratefully climbed up into Huck's truck after work. Maybe they should take Sunday off. She turned on the seat warmer. "You know, I could drive once in a while. I did just buy a new Nissan Murano." Her former SUV had been riddled with bullet holes she was fairly certain had been fired by Abigail after she'd stabbed Zeke Caine.

"You can drive anytime you want," he said.

Laurel looked at him beneath her lashes. "You always try to drive."

He shrugged. "I'm a good driver."

"More like a control freak," she muttered. Yet it was true. His reflexes were seconds faster than hers, and he was more accustomed to driving on the winter roads.

Plus, while she might not admit it, she did like to relax and think through her cases without having to concentrate on the road. But still, she had purchased the new Nissan, and she should drive it more. Right now might be a better time to focus on him, however. "How are you feeling?" she asked gingerly.

"Feeling? Fine."

Perhaps she had asked the wrong question. "You have recently discovered that your mother, who abandoned you when you were a baby, was found dead in your own backyard. I wonder if that fact pattern raised certain feelings within you."

He barked out a laugh. "‘ That fact pattern'?"

"Yes." She truly lacked the ability to do this. "I'm concerned about your welfare."

He reached over and took her hand. "I appreciate your concern. I really do. But I never considered Delta to be family. She had me, she left. Dad was my family."

"Still, I felt the lack of a father growing up," she said, although she had truly been better off without him, considering Zeke Caine had turned out to be her father. "So, you must have felt the absence of a mother."

He shrugged. "Sure. There were other moms who volunteered at the school, and I had friends whose moms would cut off the crust of their sandwiches when I was young. Then in high school when I played football, there was the night everybody gave their away jersey to their mom to wear. So, yeah, I guess I missed having a mom, but Dad and I did all right. So did you and your mom."

Laurel nodded. Perhaps that was one of the qualities that drew them together. They had both grown up without one parent. "Yet it must feel odd that she's dead."

He looked out the window. It had finally stopped snowing, and the moon had already begun to climb into the sky.

"I guess. I didn't know if she was alive or dead for thirty-two years. So, I suppose I am wishing she'd reached out while she was here, so we could've met." His hands remained relaxed on the steering wheel as he capably maneuvered the country roads. "I think it's odd that she was found here in my hometown. Why did she come back to Genesis Valley after all this time?"

"That question has been traversing my thoughts as well. Are you certain she didn't try to contact you?"

He shook his head. "I suppose I get spam calls like everybody else, but I ignore them. If people don't leave a message, then I pay little attention."

"What about at the office?"

He took the turn down Birch Tree Road toward his cabin. "They have a deputy scouring through all of the call logs, but nothing so far. We'll need to see if she had a cell phone and conduct a background check on her."

Laurel took a deep breath. "There's no we . You've been taken off the case, and I am probably next."

She could maintain a professional distance from the emotions of the case and still investigate it. However, she didn't want to do anything to put the case in jeopardy, and an apparent conflict of interest would do just that. "Special Agent Norrs informed me that he's going to join the case as soon as he wraps up his three other ones." So she had a little time to find Jason Abbott, whether or not he was their current killer.

Huck parked the truck near his sturdy metal shop. "I need to run with Aeneas for a while. He's been cooped up all day. Why don't you go inside and get warm?"

"I'd love to be warm." She stepped out of the vehicle. "I'll heat up stew. It's in the freezer. My mom sent it over last week."

"Sounds good. Come on, Aeneas." He opened the back door to release the animal.

Laurel carefully picked her way across the still-icy ground and entered the cabin, removed her jacket and boots, and then started a fire. Once again, Huck had placed paper, kindling, and wood in a perfect formation, so all she had to do was light the match. Starting a fire was easy for her, because she could visualize the geometric proportions necessary, but it was nice that Huck took care of the preparations.

Her phone buzzed, and she lifted it to her ear, walking over to the sofa. "Agent Snow."

"Hi, Agent Snow. It's Dr. Ortega."

"Hi." She sat on the sofa and tucked one leg under her. "How are you?"

He coughed. "Tired. But I have the autopsy results for both of your recent victims."

Laurel watched the fire. "Thank you for calling. What did you find?"

"Starting with Delta Rivers, I found multiple contusions and abrasions on the upper limbs and right side of the head."

"Okay," Laurel said. "Somebody grabbed her arms and her head."

"Yes," Dr. Ortega affirmed. "Specifically, there are clusters of bruises on both forearms consistent with being forcefully gripped, and also an abrasion on the right cheekbone, maybe from blunt force trauma."

That made sense with Laurel's theory of the case. "So somebody grabbed her arms and her head, and either hit her in the face or smashed her face into a hard surface such as ice."

"That's what I surmise. No internal injuries or fractures noted, and the skin around the wrists was damaged. I collected fiber samples that look like rope and sent them to the lab"

So the killing was more about restraint than inflicting bodily injury. "What about cause of death?"

"Petechial hemorrhage is present in the conjunctiva of both eyes, indicative of asphyxia."

"What about her lungs?" Laurel asked.

He cleared his throat and then coughed several times, sounding as if he was coming down with a cold. The man had probably been working around the clock. "The lungs are edematous and congested, with foam present in the airways consistent with drowning."

Laurel clicked through what she remembered about the victim. "What about a microscopic examination?"

Keys tapped across the line. "The presence of diatoms was confirmed in lung tissue samples supporting the diagnosis of drowning."

Laurel had figured that would be the case, but one never knew. "Any additional findings?"

"Yes, the toxicology report is pending, but blood analysis shows signs consistent with hypothermia, including elevated levels of cold-induced enzymes."

Laurel nodded. "That makes sense because the river is freezing. Please give me the conclusion."

Dr. Ortega cleared his throat. "Cause of death is determined to be drowning with evidence of premortem physical altercation, including bruising consistent with forceful restraint and signs of blunt force trauma to the head. The manner of death is classified as homicide."

Laurel leaned back and rubbed a hand over her eye. "What do you think? It sounds like she fought with somebody, and then they shoved her head down into the freezing water until she drowned."

"Unfortunately," Dr. Ortega said, "that's exactly what it sounds like. The thing is, especially at the Iceberg River, they would've had to cut a hole in that ice, even on the edge, to be able to do this. There was scraping on the top of her scalp as if her head was actually shoved beneath the ice."

"That's a very brutal killing," Laurel murmured. "What about Teri Bearing's autopsy?"

The doctor clicked keys again. "Everything's pretty much the same as the first victim except for height and weight. Same manner of death—definite drowning."

"Any other injuries?"

"Affirmative. Contusions on the body and same on the skull that might've caused loss of consciousness, as well as damage from the probable ropes around the wrists," he said.

Laurel looked up at the ceiling. "It would take a perpetrator with impressive strength to be able to hold a victim down like that."

"Maybe," Dr. Ortega said, sounding exhausted. "It would depend on leverage."

That was an excellent point. Especially on the freezing banks of both rivers, if the victims' hands were bound for some time. Even if their hands had been freed, it would have been difficult for either of them to find purchase with arms or elbows or hands to shove themselves back up, particularly if somebody had pushed their heads beneath the ice.

"Thank you for your dedicated work. I appreciate it," Laurel said.

"Any time. I hope you catch this guy before I get another body. Good night, Agent Snow." He ended the call.

Another body? So did she. The wind howled against the windows, and she shivered. Was Jason Abbott this killer? Or did she have two monsters out there?