Page 36 of Shadow of Doubt
Kelsey was looking at the camera display screen, the colors lighting up her face, and he caught a flash of sadness in her expression before she glanced at him and controlled it.
“I guess it was too hot to enter the house,” he said.
“Way too hot,” Kelsey replied but had gone back to looking at the camera. “So we took photos instead.”
“Can you forward all of the pics to me before you sign with the sheriff?”
She nodded. “They onboard?”
“Sounds like it, but you might still need to assure them of the privacy of any forensics results you recover.”
“We can do that.” Sierra stepped over to them. “But before then, you should know I can confirm an accelerant trail. Also, if you get close enough, you can smell gasoline, so it was most likely what was used to start the fire.”
Colin liked her straightforward approach. “Then we’re looking at arson for sure.”
“I can’t say for sure.” Sierra pressed her lips together. “Not until I take samples and analyze them, but first blush says yes.”
Kelsey looked up. “The trail runs from the door to the victim as you said.”
Sierra pointed at the enclosure area. “I’ll go look at the enclosure while Kelsey updates you on her findings. I’ll be taking the flashlight.”
Colin nodded.
She took off, swinging the light in front of her, brightening what was now an ominous scene.
Kelsey turned with the camera and held it out. “A close-up of the victim. I feel certain he’s male, but the only other thing I can tell you with certainty is that the fire burned hot. Very hot.”
Colin held back a shudder at the vision forming in his mind and forced himself to ask questions that would bring additional details he knew would gross him out. “How do you know?”
“One of the great perks of working at such a well-respected agency is that we get invited to work on cutting-edge forensic studies.” Her shoulders raised. “In the current study I’m working on, we’ve determined the heat of fires by looking at the bone discoloration patterns.”
“Discoloration patterns?” To him, the body just looked white or grayish, sort of like charcoal ready on the grill.
She nodded. “Bones subject to temperatures below four hundred degrees are typically well preserved, and ones that appear yellow and brown in discoloration indicate temperatures between four to six hundred degrees. Ones exposed up to six hundred fifty degrees are black or smoked in appearance. Up to fifteen hundred degrees and above have a white or calcined appearance.”
Queasiness set into Colin’s stomach. “And the guy in this picture is whiteish.”
“Exactly. Plus, gasoline fires can burn over three thousand degrees.”
He shook his head. “Things that nightmares are made of.”
That sadness Colin had seen earlier flashed for a moment in her expression, then faded. “Agreed. I always hope burned victims have succumbed to some other cause of death before the fire. Usually it’s the smoke inhalation that causes death.”
Colin could no longer hold back his shudder and didn’t need to see additional photos. He handed the camera back to Kelsey and walked with her to the van. Dev leaned against the vehicle, and Nick sat on the bumper looking at his phone.
Colin recapped the information Kelsey and Sierra had shared.
Nick grimaced. “Kane is a true sociopath, and I wouldn’t put it past him to set a fire while the guy was still alive but incapacitated somehow.”
Colin didn’t like hearing that. Especially since this was the guy who wanted to find Brooklyn more than anything.
Sierra hurried across the clearing to them. “You were right. A big cat of some sort was being kept in an enclosure way too small for it. No room for a large cat to exercise or even live well.”
“Why have a pet, then abuse it like that?” Dev asked.
“Maybe it wasn’t a pet,” Sierra said. “He could be into wildlife trafficking.”
Colin blinked at her while he gathered his thoughts. “Wildlife trafficking?”
