Page 29 of Lost Lake
Sierra settled on the van’s rear bumper, and El gave her a thorough account. The body, the beach, the ravine, the boat, the blood near the van, the screwdriver.
“I recovered a few items from the scene that were at risk of contamination or exposure,” El added. “They’re in my car. Bagged.”
“I’ll check the packaging before we process anything else.” Sierra stood and glanced toward the beach, her expression sharpening. “Looks like the beach has been significantly compromised.”
“The outer perimeter, yes.” El kept her voice even and tried not to take offense at her comments. “We cordoned off the area around the body and some of the waterline. But finding Lucy is our top priority, and I had to give divers, search teams, and my people access.”
“Understandable,” Sierra said.
El appreciated that Sierra didn’t push it. “The victim’s van is in the ravine, our secondary scene about a mile up the road. We believe she and her daughter were transported from there to the beach by boat.”
“You have a positive ID on the victim.” Sierra’s eyes moved to Gabe, then back. “But do you have anything placing the child at the beach?”
“Nothing direct,” El said. “DNA could tie the toys and car seat to Lucy, but that only confirms ownership.”
Sierra tilted her head. “Best option would be prints or DNA recovered from the boat or dock, assuming we locate any. Do you have her prints on file?”
El turned to Gabe. “Do you know if Kenna kept an identity kit for Lucy?”
“I gave her one from our department when I was a state trooper.” His jaw tightened. “We can look when we search her place to see if she finished it. Her prints are probably on the car seat too.”
“We should recover small latent prints from the seat,” Sierra said. “They won’t be definitive on their own, but they’d give you something to work with temporarily.”
Gabe’s expression shifted. “Same for DNA?”
“Identical limitation. Without a confirmed sample to compare against, nothing is ironclad.” She paused. “This one will be difficult.”
“One more thing.” El met Sierra’s eyes. “You’ll find blood near the van, a significant amount. Kenna didn’t have any obvious wounds to account for it. It could belong to her attacker. Or to Lucy.”
She let that possibility hang in the air just long enough to land.
“We also found a bloody screwdriver under the van,” El said.
“Knowing Kenna, she didn’t go quietly,” Gabe said. “She found it and used it on her attacker, leaving what we believe is his blood on her shirt.”
“I’ll pick up the shirt from the ME as soon as possible and give it to you for DNA testing.”
Sierra straightened. “Blood on the beach or dock?”
“Nothing visible.”
“Then the blood at the ravine is our first priority. Being outdoors, the rain would compromise the spatter patterns and dilute the samples.” She looked at El. “Unless you need us somewhere else first.”
“You know better than I do. I’ll defer to you.”
“We’ll have one of our techs drive all recovered evidence to our lab early this afternoon. That way we can begin processing it. If you locate anything else, make sure you get it to us to include in the delivery.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate your sense of urgency,” El said sincerely. “Is there anything else we can do for you?”
“I think we have everything we need to get started.”
“I could stay with them,” Jude said. He’d been quiet so far, which for Jude was an achievement. “In case they need anything.”
“It would help to have someone on-site,” El said carefully, then looked at Sierra and Chelsea. “Only if that works for you.”
They both nodded.
“Then I’ll brief him on the secondary scene before you head out.” El caught Jude’s eye and held it for a moment, a warning that said be professional, before turning back to Sierra. “The minute you find anything new, call me. Anything. After all, even the smallest of details could be the lead that brings Lucy home.”
