Bring Me Flowers_A gripping serial-killer thriller with a shocking twist Page 24

  Jenna swept her gaze over the scene then nodded, walked to Rowley, and issued orders. In the background, she could hear Wolfe speaking into his voice recorder and listened, amazed at his on-the-spot deductions. It was as if he could re-enact the crime in his mind.

  “The homicide victim is known to me as Aimee Fox, seventeen years old, female, Caucasian, brown hair, brown eyes. Time of death according to current body temperature is between twelve and fourteen hours, which would be between six and eight last night. Killer attached a green commercial cord made from synthetic fiber to stretch the body between two trees. Initial findings would suggest incapacitation by a blow to the back of the skull. Laceration across throat from left to right would suggest the killer is right-handed. The angle of the wounds to the torso would suggest evisceration occurred after the victim was suspended. Bruising around the genital area and thighs would suggest rape. Lipstick on mouth and cheeks consistent with previous victims.” Wolfe moved around the body, his gaze intently scanning the remaining flesh. “There is a fabric pattern on a blood smear to the right side, extending from under the armpit to the thigh. I have taken a sample of fibers attached to the skin. From my initial examination and the unusual footprints surrounding the area, I would presume the killer was wearing forensic coveralls and booties. Lack of bloody fingerprints on the body would suggest gloves.” He turned off the microphone, his eyes void of emotion. “That’s all I can do for now. We’ll have to cut her down and bag her. I’ll drop her feet-first into the bag then we’ll lower her in, keep the cords in situ. I need to check them very carefully for evidence.”

  “Sure.” Kane turned and his blue gaze slid over her. “Ma’am, do you want me to call it in first and ask Maggie to arrange transport for the bodies?”

  The way he deferred to her constantly of late made her wonder if he had finally gotten used to having a woman as his superior. She gave him a curt nod. “Go ahead.”

  “We can handle the exhumation, if you agree.” His full lips turned down at the edges. “Digging up Mrs. Rogers won’t be nice.”

  A wave of revulsion clutched her. She shot a glance at the staring blank expression peering out of the grave then hurriedly looked away. “No, it won’t, but I expect Wolfe will find it more than a little interesting, since his interest in decomposition is his main topic of conversation of late. Carry on. I’ll make casts of the footprints.” She turned to head toward Wolfe’s bag of crime scene supplies and heard his voice behind her.

  “Excuse me, ma’am.”

  Glancing over one shoulder, she met Wolfe’s gaze. “Yes?”

  “No one has reported Aimee missing, so her folks don’t know.” His steel-gray eyes narrowed. “They’ll be frantic once they find her gone.”

  Jenna sighed. Being the bearer of bad tidings had become a nasty task of late. “I’ll go and speak to them but if I had a choice, I’d dig up the body.” She took the key fob Kane offered her. “Thanks, but I could walk, it’s not far.” She dragged off her protective gear and rolled it into a ball.

  “Drive. We have potentially two killers roaming the immediate area.” Kane’s dark eyebrows met in the middle in a frown. “Either of them could be in the forest and waiting for their next victim.”

  She straightened, unwilling to show the trepidation his words had produced. “Okay. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Turning away from the gruesome sight before her, she headed along the narrow trail.

  Icy fingers of dread walked a path up her spine. She glanced into the picturesque forest of tall, majestic pines. Packed so close together, their dark zebra shadows had become a backdrop for brutality and could hide a man or a bear from sight. The morning usually brought a cacophony of birdsong rejoicing in a new summer’s day, yet not one bird watched her from the branches, not even a crow waiting to pick at the rotting flesh. Stillness surrounded her as if nature mourned the loss of beauty.

  Forty-Six

  Jenna stood in the Foxes’ hallway, enclosed in a shroud of dread. It took every ounce of her strength not to break down at the sight of the faces contorted with grief in front of her. Aimee’s parents had returned from date night and, seeing their daughter’s door closed, had tiptoed to their bedroom without checking on her. Arriving at their front door at eight forty-five on a Friday morning, they stared at her in disbelief after discovering a monster had murdered their daughter.

  “It can’t be true.” Mrs. Fox turned around and ran up the stairs. Moments later a scream of anguish echoed through the house. “She’s not here and hasn’t slept in her bed. Oh my God.” She stared down from the top of the stairs, her face pale and eyes wide with shock.

  “Are you sure it’s Aimee?” Mr. Fox ran a shaking hand down his face.

  Jenna laid one hand on his arm and guided him into the family room. “I’m sure. Please take a seat.”

  “What happened to her?” Mrs. Fox stumbled into the room and collapsed on the sofa beside her husband. “I need to know. You have to tell me.” She burst into uncontrollable sobbing.

  Wanting to be compassionate, Jenna pushed the images of mutilation to the back of her mind and fell back on the usual answer. “Cause of death is yet to be determined, although the M.E. at the scene has determined it is homicide. I am so sorry for your loss.”

  “Who would kill Aimee?” Mr. Fox stared at her with a blank, unseeing expression. “I can’t understand why she left the house. I thought Lucas was coming to keep her company. I told them not to leave the house, not after the girls went missing.”

  Jenna cleared her throat. “I take it you missed the news last night? We believe the same killer murdered Felicity, Kate, and Joanne Blunt.”

  Two sheet-white faces stared at her in disbelief. She needed information and had to ask the questions. “When did you last see Aimee?”

  “When we went out for dinner around six last night.” Mr. Fox looked at her bleakly. “We ate early then caught a movie. We dropped into Aunt Betty’s Café for coffee and cake around ten then came home close to eleven, I guess.”

  “What was she doing at the time?”

  “Online with the new girl, what’s her name?” Mr. Fox wiped at the tear streaming down his cheeks and glanced at his distraught wife.

  “Emily, the new deputy’s daughter.” Mrs. Fox pleated her skirt with trembling fingers. “You should call Lucas, he might have asked her to meet him somewhere.”

  Assuming Chad would have informed his best friend about finding Kate’s body after the news story aired, Jenna shook her head. “I doubt he would risk asking her to leave home alone. He is a friend of Chad, isn’t he? Kate’s boyfriend?”

  “Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” Mr. Fox gave her a puzzled look then reached for a cellphone on the coffee table. “I’m calling Lucas now.” He leaned back on the sofa. “Lucas, this is Mr. Fox. Did you drop by to see Aimee last night? No? Oh, she mentioned you planned to keep her company.” He stared into space, listening. “Okay, thanks.” He disconnected and met Jenna’s eyes. “He received a bonus game card and played online until way past midnight. He forgot about calling Aimee to tell her he wouldn’t be coming, and asked me to tell her he’d call her later.”

  “Would Emily have asked her to come over?” Mrs. Fox wiped her wet cheeks with a tissue then straightened.

  Jenna pushed to her feet. “No, she is aware of the danger but I’ll go and speak to her now. The M.E. will contact you if you wish to see Aimee. Is there anyone I can call?”

  “No, no thank you.” Mr. Fox pushed unsteadily to his feet. “I’ll contact our family. When will we be able to see her? She is all alone, we should be there.”

  “Later today, perhaps tomorrow morning.” Jenna walked with him to the front door. “She is in safe hands, Mr. Fox. I promise I will find the person who did this and bring him to justice.”

  * * *

  Out in the open, Jenna took in a few deep breaths to steady her nerves then walked toward Kane’s SUV and reached inside her pocket for the keys. The idea of returnin
g to the crime scene churned her guts. She fired up the engine, swung the powerful SUV around, and headed back to the crime scene. The K-9 team had left by the time she arrived and paramedics were loading the bodies into the back of two ambulances. She pulled to the curb and met Kane walking out of the forest. “Find any evidence at all?”

  “Yeah, a few fibers and a couple of hairs.” A trickle of sweat ran down Kane’s face. He appeared hot and exhausted. Mud caked his coveralls. “It looks like Mrs. Rogers was hit over the head then strangled.” He pulled off the booties, unzipped the coveralls, and rolled them into a ball. “Wolfe is convinced we are dealing with two different killers.”

  Unease slid over her. “Dammit, two killers and we let one walk right out of the door yesterday.” She walked around in circles. “We look like incompetent fools. I don’t suppose Rogers is waiting at home for us to arrest him again either?”

  “Nope. I sent Rowley to his house to look. Steve Rogers is on the run. His car is in the garage but we have to assume his wife’s car is missing, and it looks like he left in a hurry. He must have hidden her car close by but we have the license plate. I’ve contacted the state police and put out a BOLO plus told Maggie to give his photograph to the media and inform them he is wanted on suspicion of murder.” He gave her a long, compassionate look. “It’s not our fault. At the time, we had no evidence to keep him in custody. Think about the evidence. We didn’t have a missing person, only blood smears and a missing carpet. No judge is going to allow us to keep a suspect under arrest without proof of a crime.” He squeezed her shoulder in his large palm. “If it makes you feel any better, I doubt he’ll murder again. I think by the number of blows he inflicted, it was a crime of passion. Nothing like what happened to the other victims.”

  Her stomach rolled and she stared up at him. “What about Aimee? Did she suffer like Kate?”

  “Wolfe will be able to tell us more after the autopsy. Her murder was close to the street and he would worry about someone hearing her screams. The blow to the back of her head would have knocked her out cold. It looks like the killer uses the same method to subdue his victims each time. He attacks from behind, stuns the victims with a blunt object, then rapes them.” Kane’s mouth turned down in a grimace. “It seems too much of a coincidence he stumbled over Mrs. Rogers’ grave as he was killing Aimee. I’ve been wondering if he was hiding in the forest after killing Kate and saw Rogers bury his wife.”

  Trying hard to concentrate, Jenna rubbed her temples. “Going on what we know, Rogers was in the forest at the time of Kate’s death, and it’s more than likely Kate’s killer was as well, so it’s possible. Why uncover Mrs. Rogers’ face? It seems so macabre.”

  “Not if you look into the mind of a psychopath.” Kane removed his hat and massaged his head as if he had a headache. “When he knocked Aimee out, he didn’t have the thrill of the fight, so I think he uncovered Mrs. Rogers’ face to watch him.”

  Sick to her stomach at the memory of Mrs. Rogers’ blue face surrounded by blood-stained carpet, she gaped up at him. “That is so gross. What kind of human being does such a thing?”

  “You can’t think logically when dealing with a psychopathic mind. They don’t have emotions like we do; they are narcissistic and have no compassion, so trying to talk them out of murder never works. You can’t reason with them because they see a victim as an object not a person.” Kane’s forehead wrinkled into a frown. “It’s all about them, their needs, and their desires. As an example, think how we would regard soda in a can—once consumed, we toss away the can, it has no value. That’s how a psychopathic killer regards their victims.”

  “So why display them, what does he get out of the shock value?”

  “It’s a ‘look at me’ syndrome in the narcissistic part of their personality. I would say he feeds off the girl’s terror and gets some sort of extra thrill with the shock value he generates. This killer is making a point.” Kane’s blue eyes settled on her face. “It all goes with the makeup on the face and the mutilation. Each girl he kills is a symbol of the person who damaged him so bad it triggered his behavior. He is punishing a woman and sending a message to others. It’s not over, he is escalating, but it looks like he is sticking to the same group of friends. We have to figure out which one of them will be next.”

  The interview with Aimee’s parents slammed into her brain. “Oh, Jesus—she was speaking to Emily online last night.”

  Forty-Seven

  Kane met Wolfe coming out of the forest. “Is Emily at home? Jenna told me she was talking to Aimee online last night around six. As this lunatic seems to be moving through a group of friends, we need to be worried about her safety.”

  “I’ll call her.” Wolfe tore off his face mask, displaying a grim expression. “Not that she would go out again alone.” He removed his protective gear and pushed it into a plastic bag Jenna held out for him.

  “She is a sensible girl. I wish she would join the sheriff’s department once she has finished school.” Jenna’s smile reached her eyes. “I need a female deputy.”

  “She has bigger plans, I’m afraid. She will walk through a forensic science degree and will be joining me here as an M.E.” Wolfe’s tone made it clear Jenna’s suggestion would never happen. He dragged out his cellphone and turned his back, displaying a large patch of sweat. He paced up and down then turned to face them. “I’m sorry but there is no easy way to say this to you. Aimee is dead and I understand you spoke to her last night?”

  Kane observed the changes of expression on Wolfe’s face during the conversation. The man was blunt and did not pulled any punches with his daughter. When Wolfe finally disconnected, Kane waited expectantly. “What did she say?”

  Wolfe held up one large hand as if halting traffic and stared at the ground for some moments as if considering what to say. His large frame expanded as he drew in a big breath then let it out slowly. “I know how the killer lured the girls to the murder scene.”

  “What?” More than a little interested, Kane moved closer to Jenna and stared at him. “How?”

  Wolfe’s steel gaze swept over Kane and he grimaced. “He is manipulating the damn game they play on their cellphones. Emily said Aimee rushed off to meet Julia. Emily tried to stop her and threatened to tell me but Aimee pulled the peer-pressure card. She said Julia had apparently left Aimee a message to say she’d found three rare characters on the edge of Stanton Forest.” He gave him an agitated look when he opened his mouth to ask a question. “The game involves collecting digital images of characters projected in real time through a cellphone’s camera to move forward in the game.” He rubbed the blond stubble on his chin, making a rasping sound. “Emily tried to contact Aimee about eight thirty this morning to smooth things over and when Aimee didn’t pick up, she assumed she wasn’t speaking to her, so she called Julia.” His stone expression met Kane’s gaze. “Julia didn’t send Aimee a message last night.”

  “How is he impersonating the girls?” Jenna’s blue eyes widened. “I mean, a phone number comes up to identify people in messages.”

  “Emily mentioned the group of friends use an online messaging system via the games room to contact each other. Aimee told her it stopped her parents from snooping.” Wolfe raised a blond eyebrow. “I assume they made a habit of checking her cellphone messages. This means the killer is hacking the online games room. My guess is he is using the kids’ usernames to post messages, which would point straight to Provine. He is the person who gave each of these girls a toggle to interact with them online.”

  Mind reeling, Kane gaped at him. “Yeah, but without the boyfriends having a toggle, could he hack into their accounts as well? I remember in Chad’s statement he mentioned Kate sent him a message to change the time of their date through the games hub.”

  “If the killer is capable of remotely manipulating a single player’s game interaction, hell yeah.” Wolfe’s expression was bleak. “He is good, damn good. I am surprised he hasn’t tried to breach my firewalls on our cellphon
es or the department’s mainframe, but right now, it is as safe as the Pentagon’s security system. If he had as much as tried to tamper with anything we would be lighting up with alerts.”

  “Where is Lionel Provine? Have you been keeping tabs on him?” Jenna’s eyes flashed with anger. “The weasel. Did Emily connect her laptop to his damn circle of friends or whatever?”

  “Yeah, she did, but only so I could monitor everything he was doing. I’ll check the logs again the moment I get home, just in case he opened a connection last night, but so far, Provine seems to be quiet. As far as I know he didn’t trigger the alarm I set on her firewall and he hasn’t moved from his apartment either, unless he found the tracker.” Wolfe’s brow wrinkled as he pressed buttons on his cellphone. “Nope, according to the app, his car is still in the same place. If either of our suspects had driven anywhere, the trackers would have alerted me, which means Provine could have an alternative means of transport and Rogers could have walked here.” He cleared his throat.”

  Pulling out his cellphone, Kane scrolled down his list of contacts and found Provine’s number. He shrugged. “I’ll call him. You never know, some of these ass—Ah, Mr. Provine, this is Deputy Dave Kane. I am just looking over our budget for the rest of the year. I wondered if you could arrange a discount for the sheriff’s department if we buy in bulk?” He winked at Jenna. “You can, that’s great. I’ll speak to Deputy Wolfe and we’ll drop by next week. No, thank you.” He disconnected. “Well, he is in the store. I can hear games in the background and voices.”

  “Smartass.” Wolfe removed his hat and used wipes from his bag to clean his sweat- and mud-streaked face. “He thinks he is invincible and untraceable. If he is involved in these murders, he has to make an error either online or at the scene. I found hairs and fibers this time. He didn’t wash the body and is getting careless in his rush for a fix.”