Page 32 of Lost Lake
The words landed like a lightbulb dropped from a height. El stood, unable to move past the initial impact, her mind already turning over everything they’d assumed about motive, about the killer, about why Kenna had died.
Things had just changed. Big time. This pregnancy could be the reason for Kenna’s murder, and El had been looking at this wrong from the beginning.
7
Gabe didn’t like the look on El’s face.
Her expression was tight, controlled in the way people got when they were holding something back. Whatever she’d learned in the autopsy, she wasn’t ready to tell him. Or maybe she just didn’t want the receptionist to hear it. Either way, the finding bothered her.
He crossed to her. “What is it? What did you find out?”
“Not here.” She tucked an evidence bag with clothing under her arm and took his elbow to steer him toward the door.
Not good.
He held the glass door open for her. She moved through without slowing, already heading for her vehicle in that focused, forward stride that meant her mind was occupied. He caught up to her as she clicked the key fob and the doors unlocked. They slid in together, and he turned to face her before she could reach for the ignition.
“Okay,” he said. “Spill.”
She took a moment to set her phone in the dashboard holder. Not stalling—organizing. There was a difference with El, andhe’d learned to read it. “First off, Kenna didn’t have air in her lungs. She definitely didn’t drown.”
“Not unexpected.”
A sharp nod. “In addition to the external strangulation marks we saw, Faye found hemorrhaging inside the throat muscles. She believes someone used two methods of strangulation. Possibly the first to subdue her, the second to end her life.”
“Man! Two methods. As a deputy, I saw that once before in a murder case of a former Marine and his wife. What do you make of it?”
El stared past his shoulder, not quite meeting his eyes. “We might be looking at someone with law enforcement or military experience.”
His thoughts exactly. “Kenna never mentioned anyone like that in her life, but our search of her house might show us something.” He filed it away and moved on. “What about the blood on her shirt?”
“She didn’t have any injuries other than the strangulation, so not her blood.”
His mind went somewhere dark before he could stop it, and he had to hold himself still for a moment before he could say it out loud. “Then it could be Lucy’s.”
El shifted to look at him directly. Her fingers curled around the wheel, released, curled again. “It could be from her or the attacker. We need Sierra to search the car seat. The fabric is dark, and I didn’t see any blood, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
“The amount on the shirt would be a significant loss for a child.”
“Could be, but let’s table this discussion until we know more from the scenes.” Her voice was steady, but it had that cautious quality, the one she used when she was managing somethingshe didn’t want to spiral. “Speculating right now doesn’t help anyone.”
She was right, and he knew it. He pushed the image to that place in his mind where he kept the things he couldn’t afford to feel yet. “Did Faye find anything else?”
“Micro-tears in the shoulder and neck muscles. That kind of injury happens with an accident like hers, but also when someone is violently startled. Most likely grabbed from behind.”
“Like the killer coming up behind her to take control.”
“Exactly. There were also traces of blood on Kenna’s hand. Not hers either. We’ll get the DNA to Sierra to run.”
“Could be her attacker again.”
“Possibly,” she said quickly. “Faye also found evidence of binding at the wrists and ankles. The marks suggest a specific type of zip tie. The impressions are distinctive enough that we may be able to match or cross-reference them through ViCAP.”
“Our team can look into the zip ties, if you’ll let us.”
She didn’t hesitate. “We’re stretched thin right now. I’ll take the help.”
He sat back. “I didn’t expect to get so much to go on from a small-town ME.”
