Dark Intentions

Chapter 8

Dan and Mac started their morning by looking at Dr. Emily Bonter’s notes from the ME’s office.

The full autopsies had been completed in the night, and the reports awaited the detectives upon their arrival today. As expected, the examinations of the two victims from the previous day were unremarkable except for what they already knew.

“Well, there’s nothing here of any interest,” Mac noted.

“Good. We don’t need another factor to consider,” Dan answered.

As the detectives were chatting, Lieutenant Miller stepped out of his office and called out, “Can I get your attention!” He paused while half a dozen conversations in the room ended. “I just heard that Officer Hernandez is expected to recover fully. The doctors needed to maintain his vitals until the drug wore off. Still, he’s now awake, alert, and will probably be discharged this evening.”

Loud cheering erupted, continuing for several seconds, then the lieutenant continued, “Felty and Bell, I need to see you in my office.”

The duo entered their lieutenant’s office and closed the door.

“What’s up, LT?” Dan asked.

“A few minutes ago, I got off the phone with detective George Jenkins from the Pima County sheriff’s department. There was another incident yesterday. A pair of teen girls were jogging on a path in a park just outside the city limits. A man approached them and pulled out a strange-looking pistol. They ran away before he could shoot and didn’t get a good look at him. After looking at some photos, they identified the gun as a pistol used to shoot tranquilizer darts into livestock.

“I gave Detective Jenkins your numbers. If this was the same guy, I want you to share information with the sheriff’s department,” the lieutenant said.

Dan nodded. “Not a problem. We’ve interacted with them before. They’re good to work with.”

Mac nodded her agreement.

Miller responded, “He’ll be calling sometime this morning. Now, I have something else for you. I need you to get out to I-19, South of I-10. There’s a pedestrian struck on the highway. Officers on the scene think it might be related to your incident yesterday.”

Heading back to their desks, Dan and Mac logged out of their computers and headed out after refilling their coffee cups.

Because of the morning traffic, it took the detectives more than 15 minutes to arrive on the scene. They had to drive the last mile on the highway’s shoulder. The patrol officers had gotten one of the three lanes moving. But traffic was still backed up and crawling as drivers strained to get a look at what was happening around all the emergency vehicles.

When they arrived, the detectives saw a well-dressed woman in her late thirties talking to paramedics. She was holding an ice pack against her forearm and was crying.

The patrol sergeant, Chris Katten, approached them. “Morning, detectives.”

“Hey Chris, what do you have?” Dan said.

“From what the witnesses say, the victim stumbled along the shoulder and went into traffic. It sounds like at least three cars ran him over.”

Wearing a curious expression, Mac asked, “You think this is related to yesterday’s dart-gun case?”

The sergeant handed Mac an evidence bag. Inside were the broken remains of a tranquilizer dart. It was identical to the one recovered the day before. “Witnesses who saw him on the shoulder before he stepped into the traffic say he was holding something in his hand and he was moving as if drugged. We recovered this from the roadway. It looks like it went flying when the first car struck him, and it was run over several times.

“He left footprints in the dirt as he stumbled along. I sent two officers to follow them back so we can try to locate where he was drugged.”

Nodding in the direction of the covered body lying on the roadway, Dan asked, “Did you see a wound left by the dart?”

“Nothing obvious on the front of the body. The crime-scene techs are still getting photos. When ready, they’ll roll him over and check his backside.”

While talking, a voice came across the sergeant’s radio, “Two-six from three-two.”

“Go ahead, three-two,” Sergeant Katten answered.

“We tracked the victim about 75 yards to a hiking trail. There’s blood on the ground. It looks like there was a fight here. Can you send the crime-scene guys to me?” the voice on the radio asked.

As Sergeant Katten went to give instructions to the crime-scene team, Dan said to his partner, “Your choice, Mac. Talk to the witnesses or head over to where the fight happened?”

“You can talk to the witnesses. I’ll walk out with the tech and check out what the officer found,” she answered.

As she walked away from the highway, Mac noticed a disturbance in the dirt by a small barrel cactus. It looked like someone had fallen into it, and she cringed, imagining what that would have felt like.

Mac continued for several minutes, noting the uneven steps taken by the victim and staying several yards to the left of the path he took, following in the steps of the officers who had preceded her. She doubted the footprints would be of value but didn’t want to disturb any possible evidence.

When she reached the trail, she approached the uniformed officers. “So, what did you guys find?” she asked.

A tall, blonde female officer answered, “Scuffed-up dirt and blood on the trail. It looks to me like someone was injured and lay here for a while before leaving. That blood loss wouldn’t have been life-threatening.”

Mac looked at the spot from several angles agreeing with the first impression.

“Did you find any more blood?” she asked.

The officer added, “We walked the trail about a hundred yards in each direction and didn’t see anything. We could get a K9 officer out here to try tracking them, if you want.”

Mac nodded, agreeing to the suggestion.