Tracking A Killer

Chapter 1 It has been a year of peace and tranquility in his small Minnesota town since being involved in a state-wide case. He was sure that the madness had ended, but then Trish rushed into his office. "Mick, sorry, I mean Chief, there has been an accident on Twin Lake, sounds serious." "Where on the lake?" "On the east side of the island." "Okay, on my way." Keplar said while grabbing his coat and rushing out. When he got there, he could see three cars parked on the ice by the island. It had recently snowed, so he had to plow through about six inches of fresh snow. Although his winter vehicle was a four-wheel drive, he had a devil of a time getting to the island. He made a mental note to get some new tires. Kip, one of his deputies, waved him over when he came to a stop. "We have a strange one, Chief." Directing him over to an old blue Studebaker that had crashed into a large boulder along the edge of the island, Kip pointed to the guy sitting in the driver's seat. "He is frozen solid, been here ah while." Gently pushing Kip aside, Kepler reached in and carefully touched the man's hand that was hanging on his left side. "Yeah, definitely been here awhile." Trudging back to his truck, he reached in and grabbed the mic. "Trish, we need a medical examiner from Minneapolis here as soon as possible, over." "I'm on it, over." Attaching his mic back on the dashboard, he turned and went back to the accident scene. "Any thought, Kip?" "Ah yeah. My guess would be that he was fooling around on the ice and ended up crashing." Looking back over his shoulder, "Even with the fresh snow you can see that there were a few cars racing around and spinning on the ice." With a slight grin, Keplar said, "I used to do that myself when I was young." "Yeah, me too. It was a lot of fun." There were a few guys standing and stamping their feet in an attempt to keep warm. The temperature had dropped to about fifteen degrees. Keplar walked over, "Did any of you guys see anything here?" One young guy stepped forward, pointing, "Me and my buddy Ralph over there saw that the car had been there since the night before, so we decided to check it out." "What is your name?" "I'm Jerry and I live right back there, just to the right of the entrance to the lake." "Did you see anything last night or this morning that might be helpful?" "Nope, we just found him right there. Don't know anything else." "Thanks, Jerry. If I have any further questions, I know where to find you." Walking back to where the others stood, "Did any of you see anything that might be useful?" They all shook their heads. "Okay, thanks guys." Stomping his feet and wrapping his arms around himself, trying to keep warm, Kip walked over to Keplar, "How long before the ME gets here do you think?" "No real idea, but it shouldn't be more than an hour or so. Let's go sit in the truck." About twenty minutes later, they spotted the ME and a couple others walking toward them. Their breath was forming clouds in front of them as they approached. Keplar hopped out and shouted, "Good to see yah, Doc. Sorry to drag you out on such a lovely day." Waving his arm, "Good to see you, Chief. It has been too long. At least this time we're not dragging the body out of the mud … come to think of it, that might be better than this." The doc was breathing hard and struggling to get through the snow. He was clearly overweight, not obese, but close. The temperature was dropping with a light breeze, but all had their jackets buttoned up tight ... not the doc whose jacket was wide open. Small beads of sweat were bubbling up across his forehead. "There's never a good time, ’eh Doc." Motioning to Kip, "Hey Kip, have you met Doc Armstrong?" Stepping forward, while holding out his gloved hand, "Seen your work, but never had the pleasure." Armstrong reached out and shook. "Alright boys, show me what we have here." By this time, the snowfall was picking up making it hard to see the shoreline from where they were. Aside from the snow, everything appeared gray. As soon as they got to the car, Armstrong reached in and tried to move the victim’s head. "Frozen solid." Stepping back to take in the whole picture, "How are we going to get him out of there?" Stepping closer again he bent over and tried to move the body. Without looking at Keplar, "This is going to be tricky. One arm is between two spokes of the steering wheel and his right foot is caught under the brake pedal. I don't think we can move him without breaking his arm." Weighing in, Kip said, "What difference would it make now?" Ignoring him, Armstrong pointing at the seat cushion, "Looks like a lot of frozen blood under him." Now looking at Keplar, "I think we have more than an accident victim here." “How we going to get him out?” Keplar asked. Motioning to his team, “One of you go back to the van and get a bolt cutter. We are going to have to cut the seat out and leave the body in it.” “Anything we can do to help?” Keplar asked. “We might need your truck to get the body back to the van.” “No problem. I’ll back it up as close as I can get to the car.” Motioning to Kip, “Can you do that?” “Just guide me to where you want it.” As he turned, he slipped on the ice and went down hard. Slowly sitting up, he shook his head. Keplar slid over, picked up Kip’s cap that had slipped off, and knelt next to him. “You okay, buddy?” “Aside from a sore ass, I think I’ll be fine. Help me up and give my hat back.” “Here, take it, and get that truck moved.” Fifteen minutes later, the body, attached to the car seat, was loaded into the van. "I'll get a tow truck out here to pull the car back to the lab. Checking it out will give us a fuller picture." Armstrong said.