CHAPTER FIVE
1371 Words
CHAPTER FIVE
With distances so vast in this northern area, Katie realized immediately that driving all the way to the coroner's rooms would take precious time that they didn't have. The bodies were both at the same coroner's office, but it was further south, a three-hour drive from where they were now.
"Can we set up a video call with the coroner?" Katie asked, thinking that this was the best way to get the information they needed, fast.
"Sure, we can do that," Wilson agreed. "I'll call the pathologist's office and organize it. Give me a minute."
He got on the phone immediately.
Katie and Leblanc set the laptop up right there, standing near the forest in the shade of a tree, with the laptop on the car hood.
This was her life as a cross-border investigator, Katie thought. Making the best use of time in these vast, remote areas. Using technology in place of driving.
She felt a surge of gratitude that their team would have longevity and felt surprised by how much she had come to appreciate her unique role and its circumstances over the past few months.
This was her calling, her area of expertise. Once, she had hated this area, hated the cold. But now, coming back to it, she was realizing what an advantage it meant to have grown up so far north, and the value she could bring to crime fighting with her experience and knowhow.
"Right. You can connect now. He's happy to speak to you immediately, given the urgency of these crimes, and is sending through the video meeting link," Wilson said.
A few seconds later, they were face to face with the man who had performed the autopsies on both the murder victims.
Staring at the shimmering screen, Katie saw his blue eyes, sharp and intelligent, in a long, sallow face. He must have come straight from the examination rooms, as he was still in his PPE, with a head covering still on, and a mask that was hooked over one of his ears.
"Agent Winter, Detective Leblanc. Good to speak to you," he said. "I'm Dr. Kemp."
"Thanks for making time to discuss this," Katie said gratefully.
"These crimes." Dr. Kemp sighed, rubbing his chin briefly with a gloved hand. "Undoubtedly the same modus operandi in both cases."
"What exactly is that?" A breath of wind ruffled the trees behind Katie and she leaned closer to the screen, eagerly waiting for the information.
"From the evidence, both the victims were knocked out prior to death. A sharp, hard blow to the head in both instances. Accurately done. Very similarly placed in both bodies."
"This would have been when they were taken?" Katie asked.
"Yes. No sign of a struggle at all in either case, so they must have been surprised, overpowered, rendered unconscious very fast. I would say that they were unconscious at the time of their death, because again, no sign of a struggle. So most likely this was done quickly. They were knocked out, moved, transported into the forest, and then he set up the scenes. Which I will now show you. We took a lot of photos at each scene."
Katie waited as the pathologist shared his screen, flashing up photographs of the bodies on site.
Both she and Leblanc hissed in a surprised breath as they saw them.
They were arranged in what she could only describe as a significant way. Face up, with their arms outstretched and their heads against the trunk of the tree. Their hair flared out around them, their legs together. And then, Katie guessed, the deep wound in the front of their throats had been inflicted, so the unconscious victims had bled out on site.
"It almost looks like a sacrificial layout," she said, voicing the first thought that was in her shocked mind.
"Yes, that was my feeling as well," Kemp said. "It brought that to mind, without a doubt."
"And the evidence of the blood was the same at both scenes?" Katie asked. "Are you sure that the women weren't killed elsewhere and then brought here?"
"I'm sure because I can tell you that both women were killed exactly the same way. They both died from exsanguination, so they were alive but unconscious at the time this happened, hence the blood loss. Here are the postmortem photos."
Leblanc was leaning forward now, peering at the wounds in the two victims' throats.
"What weapon was used to make those gashes?" he asked. "A knife?"
Kemp now sounded doubtful. "At this stage, we're not sure. The wounds are big and ragged, so it might be something blunter or larger than a knife blade. But what we can say is that the same weapon was used in both instances, and that there's no sign of it on site in either case, so the killer removed it when he left."
"A splinter of wood, maybe?" Leblanc asked. "Or a piece of wood that had been sharpened? Something like that?"
"It might be, but I can't be sure, because I don't have any samples to compare to."
"Any trace evidence?" Katie asked.
"No DNA, no hairs, no skin cells, no fibers, nothing that could tell me more. And there was no sign of disturbance at the scene. Obviously, the second victim was slightly disturbed because the man who found her literally stumbled over her body, but beyond that, the scenes are immaculate. The victims were probably unconscious already when arranged at the base of the tree." He sighed. "Whoever did this is being very, very careful."
"I appreciate this information," Katie said. She felt sorry that there wasn't more to be gleaned from this man who had done a thorough job and was clearly an expert in his field.
"I'll let you know if we get anything more," Kemp said. "And I'm sorry I can't be more of assistance. I'll send through the pics to you, so that you have them as a reference."
"Thank you," Katie said.
They cut the video call.
This had given them a tantalizing insight into the killer's thought processes, but the lack of evidence was frustrating and would prove to be a stumbling block. Katie knew they needed to find another way of getting to this killer. Evidence alone was not going to lead them to him.
It seemed to Katie that the killer was someone with a lot of control. He had the ability to knock people out cleanly, with a blow to the head. He had the skill to be able to move the victims efficiently, to get them to the sites, to lay out the bodies in those weird poses, and have the equipment and the skill to kill them quickly and efficiently, then to remove any trace of his presence.
"So, we're looking for someone who is strong and skilled enough to knock out a healthy young woman, pick her up, put her into his car, transport her where he needs her to be, and then carry her out on the other side and arrange her body," Katie mused.
"That gives us a starting point for the physical specs," Leblanc agreed. “Strong, for sure. That tree at the crime scene we saw was about twenty yards from the road path.”
"I wonder how he’s choosing his victims," she said. "If they’re from the same wider area, there might be a link between them and we need to find that. After all, it’s a small community even though it’s scattered over a big space." She turned to Wilson. "Would it be possible to speak to the family of Jillian Holmes? Do they live in this area?"
"Yes, they do. Jillian lived in the town of Riverton, and her parents are also there. It's a half-hour from here, so shall we go there now?"
"Please," Katie said.
She knew it would be a tough job to interview the parents of this woman, so recently and shockingly killed. Especially given the current levels of distrust toward police and law enforcement. But she hoped that this would be the first step in finding the connection between the two victims and their ruthless, cold blooded, but efficient murderer.
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