Page 2 of Shadow Angel
“Yeah.”
Rubbing his chin, Styles stared through the windshield at the clear blue sky. He should be fishing. “So, we have the keys to her home. I assume she has a vehicle? Did you check out Quartz Road? Is her vehicle there? Any evidence of a struggle? Maybe she was abducted?”
“This is why I called you, Styles. I need a second pair of eyes on this.”
Rolling his eyes skyward, Styles smothered a groan of regret. “Okay, meet me on Quartz in five. We’ll go by her house later. I assume the purse was found near the alleyway leading from Outlaws Saloon?”
“Yeah.”Ryder blew out a relieved breath. “Thanks. I’m leaving now.”He disconnected.
The thought of contacting Beth crossed his mind, but why should he disturb her? She’d assisted in three brawls over the weekend and had made a point of needing at least one personal day to go buy a cabin. It wasn’t as if it were an FBI matter, so he started the engine and headed toward Quartz. As he turned the corner, a small lump in the grass caught his attention. He pulled in and slid from behind the wheel. As he got closer, the shape of a backpack came into view. He went back to his vehicle and rummaged through his forensics kit for a pair of examination gloves and a large evidence bag. Returning to the backpack, he pulled on the gloves and recoiled at the sight of blonde tresses spilling out of the top. Concerned at finding body parts, he swallowed hard and then sniffed the air and, smelling no signs of decay, flipped open the top of the backpack to peer inside. He discovered a blonde wig, an assortment of skimpy brightly colored underwear, a makeup bag, and shoes. He shook his head, this likely belonged to Cassie. He closed the backpack and dropped it into the evidence bag before carrying it back to his truck.
After continuing along Quartz, he pulled to the curb opposite a meat-processing plant and nosed his truck up behind Ryder’s cruiser. He leaned over the back seat and patted Bear on the head. “Wait here, boy. With luck, I’ll have this sewn up in an hour or so and we can be on our way.” He headed toward Ryder. “What have we got?”
“Cassie’s truck is a metallic blue Ford pickup.” Ryder indicated with his phone toward a similar vehicle parked alongside the curb. “Plates match.” He walked all around it, peering inside. “It looks fine. Maybe she hooked up with a customer? Some of them do make extra cash on the side.”
Styles shook his head. “I don’t figure it’s fine. I found a backpack that has to belong to her. You must have driven right past it. It’s in an evidence bag in my truck. We’ll need to walk the alleyway and look for signs of a struggle.”
“Sure.” Ryder looked perplexed. “This used to be such a quiet town. I’d go weeks on end without anything happening. Since all the mines expanded operation, our crime rate has gone up five hundred percent.”
Following Ryder into the alleyway, Styles shrugged. “It goes with the population increase. I figure it’s time you asked the mayor for a deputy. Now I have Beth working with me, we’re gonna be away a lot of the time. You can’t be expected to handle everything on your own. In your place, I’d ask for two deputies. Serenity is smaller than Rattlesnake Creek and Sheriff Adams has two deputies. You should use him as an example.” He pulled out a flashlight and shone it under each of the dumpsters. “Man, this place stinks.”
They walked back and forth for a time but found nothing of interest. Ryder even went to the trouble of lifting up the dumpster lids and peering inside. Styles shook his head. “Nothing happened here. We should look out on the sidewalk opposite the alleyway.”
After scanning the sidewalk in both directions, Styles stopped at the entrance to the alleyway to examine the ground. He took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and circled a few dark spots. “We need to get a sample of that. It looks like blood.”
“I’m on it.” Ryder ran back to his cruiser, returning with a test kit, and carefully took a sample of the spots on the sidewalk. “I’ll drop it into Nate.” He was referring to Doctor Nate Mace, the only doctor with an office in town. “He’ll be able to tell us if it’s human or not. If it is, we’ll send it over to the medical examiner in Black Rock Falls for analysis.”
Nodding, Styles walked up and down slowly, searching for any other clues to the woman’s disappearance, but found nothing. He turned back to Ryder. “I guess we go check her house, but I think it’s a waste of time. This is where Rosie found her purse, and her backpack was thrown into the bushes. I’d say it’s pretty clear that someone has abducted Cassie Burnham and we need to find her fast.”
THREE
Not sure how to interpret her new feelings, Beth stared at her reflection in the mirror. She’d experienced satisfaction many a time after dispatching a particularly despicable serial killer or solving a difficult case, but this was something new. After signing the documents to complete the sale of the small cabin in the forest, everything around her appeared to be different. The leaves on the trees had become greener and the sun on her flesh warmer, and she even found herself smiling as she walked into Tommy Joe’s Bar and Grill to order takeout from TJ. Dumbfounded by the elation, she stared into the refection of her eyes. Could this be what it felt like to be happy? Perhaps it was the new normal as her life had suddenly slotted into place. Buying the cabin would give her the freedom she required, and she needed to move around if she planned to hunt down a particularly nasty serial killer she’d been watching over the last few weeks.
Life in Rattlesnake Creek had been tame, although she had to admit she enjoyed standing back-to-back with Styles behind saloons in the middle of a brawl breaking up fights. Disagreements in town happened with unnerving frequency at least every weekend, with some disputes spilling over to the following week. Although that wasn’t usual as the mining companies required their workers on site from Monday to Friday. She could handle herself, but Styles was in a class of his own. Being a military police officer may have had its disadvantages during his time in the Army as he was often despised by the rank and file, but his ability to fight was outstanding. As an MP he had to deal with every situation, including taking down highly skilled operatives, which meant miners didn’t so much as ruffle his feathers. Often, their arrival on scene was enough to break up a ruckus, but it usually depended on how much drink was involved.
Beth went back to her laptop. She had a vicious, bloodthirsty serial killer in her sights. This one passed all her self-imposed rules of engagement, but getting to him unnoticed would be a problem. During the downtime between cases, she’d collected files on a number of cold cases. Investigators were always looking for links between cold and current cases, and as she had access to the FBI databases, it gave her an excuse to be scanning current case files. She made sure to follow a number of FBI investigations and to discuss them with Styles to avoid suspicion. It was interesting to see how different investigators who supposedly followed the same procedure made so many mistakes. Most of them seemed to be chasing their tails. Where she could determine a pattern in a murderer’s MO almost immediately, it seemed to take some of the others months to apprehend a killer. She’d taken note to keep well away from the Snakeskin Gully field office cases. They had a higher-than-average rate of success, and she put that down to one of the agents, Jo Wells, being a renowned criminal behavioral analyst. She shuddered. That was one person she never wanted to meet. From all accounts she could spot a serial killer a mile away.
The case that really grabbed her interest happened in Eagle Rock, Montana, recently. It wasn’t connected to her current case but it intrigued her dark side as if calling her to action. The remains of two women were found dumped behind a strip mall on a desolate stretch of land, their bodies covered with bushes and lawn clippings. Six months previously three bodies, including one of a young child, had been discovered in Last Hope, a neighboring town. The subsequent autopsy reports stated that although dumped in the same location, the times of death occurred approximately a week apart. The murders, by strangulation or stabbing, had the same MO and resembled the attempted murder of Natalie Kingsley, who’d escaped a vicious attack over a year ago. Chilled to the bone by her statement, it was obvious by reading the autopsy reports that the same man was responsible for the entire killing spree.
Natalie had arrived in Eagle Rock with little money and called a number on a flyer at the local bus station offering a room for a few hours’ work on a man’s ranch. The guy, who called himself Bill, had offered to drive by in his van to give her more information. He looked okay and he’d mentioned being married with kids. After discussing the deal out in the parking lot, she’d agreed. The terms he’d offered suited her and she needed a place to stay, so took the offered ride to his ranch. She never arrived. He’d driven to an isolated area, raped and strangled her, but somehow she’d survived. She’d regained consciousness as he was dressing and, terrified, had pretended to be dead. As he’d driven away, she’d become lucid and when he stopped the van at a gas station and went inside, she’d grabbed up her clothes and escaped. Her description of the van and the CCTV footage from the gas station had pointed to one suspect: Levi Jackson, a drifter handyman. When her purse was discovered in Jackson’s 2016 Chevrolet Express later that same night, he was arrested and sent to trial.
Beth chewed on her pen as she read through the court transcript. How had he walked? The case against him was solid but his defense was strong. He’d stated he’d picked her up for rough sex. The CCTV footage had her climbing into his van willingly. He’d stated she’d fallen asleep in the back of the van and he’d left her in the van when he stopped for gas. She was gone when he’d returned from the roadhouse and he hadn’t seen the need to look for her. Sex workers didn’t usually hang around. Once again, the CCTV footage showed him leaving the van and entering the roadhouse. Moments later she slipped away dragging on her coat.
Beth looked into Jackson’s background. He might have been a drifter but he wasn’t without means, with cash in the bank. Thanks to glowing character statements from a few locals he’d worked for as a handyman and his softly spoken charming manner, his defense won over the jury. It was a slam dunk after they produced a rap sheet of Natalie’s priors listing arrests for soliciting.
Intrigued, Beth read and reread the case files again. There was no mention of finding Bill’s flyer, and Natalie had called from a pay phone. None of the numbers on the pay phone had been traced to Jackson. In fact, Jackson’s phone had never been placed into evidence because he’d admitted to paying Natalie for sex. He also mentioned she’d solicited him, and they’d come to an agreement on a price. In that agreement, he’d made it quite clear what he required from her. The defense made a point of the fact that he left the forest with Natalie in the van. The prosecution had no evidence he tried to kill her, and if there was any suspicion he’d been involved in the other murders, there would be reasonable doubt, because if he thought Natalie was dead, as she claimed, why didn’t he dump her and cover her with leaves?
Beth shook her head in dismay. Jackson likely hadn’t finished with her yet or he had a planned dump site in another area. Maybe he knew she wasn’t dead? There could be a ton of reasons why he didn’t dump her body at the rape scene. She read through the evidence and clicked her tongue in disgust at the lack of basic procedure. The bills in Natalie’s purse hadn’t been checked for prints. The main mistake was that the van wasn’t taken into evidence and given a forensic sweep. In fact, the entire investigation by the local PD was a joke.
She sighed. Three months ago, another murdered woman was found, this time in a town near Billings, followed by a mother and daughter a week later, all with the same MO. She’d noticed the similarities to the Jackson case and the current murder victims involved in the current FBI investigation because one of the victims and her daughter had been seen climbing into a white van. It fit the description of Jackson’s 2016 Chevrolet Express right down to the torn sticker on the back bumper.
The case interested Beth because the FBI had disregarded Jackson as a suspect. Why? The MO fit, but without priors and the previous not guilty verdict, she guessed they’d neglected to dig deeper for fear of the double-jeopardy laws. This was a mistake she’d never make because he fit the profile. Although, the six-month gap between the first two sets of murders was a problem. She believed that unless the killer had been incapacitated or jailed at the time between murders, it was too long between murders for someone who thrill-killed. There must be more bodies, somewhere. This killer indulged in frenzied kills close together, which made six months between kills unfeasible. It was Jackson, she would swear by it. Beth understood him so well she could almost step into his skin and know his next move. She pulled out a map and scanned the suburbs around Billings. The killer had established a comfort zone. He killed twice and then moved to another town but all within a comfortable radius of Billings. The pattern was clear to see. The next time he murdered, another would follow in the same town within seven days. Now it would be a waiting game before she could predict where he would strike. She ran her finger over the map, making an imaginary circle around Billings. Levi Jackson was out there, waiting for a call from his next victim. Which town was hiding more victims and when would he strike again?
FOUR
After searching Cassie Burnham’s house and speaking to a handful of her friends, Styles had nothing further on her disappearance. It was obvious she’d been abducted, but without one shred of evidence to suggest who might have taken her, he returned to the office. It was too late to go fishing but he’d given Bear a run at the local park before heading home and the dog seemed happy enough. He’d grabbed takeout from Tommy Joe’s Bar and Grill and returned to the office. Although it was Ryder’s case, he needed to create a case file and write it up. Something had happened to Cassie Burnham and when she left the club at that time of night, there wasn’t a soul on the street to witness her abduction. All Ryder could do was to follow procedure and put out a BOLO with Cassie’s description in the hope that someone may have seen something. If she’d been taken from one of the busier streets in town, her chances of being seen would have been greater, but during the evenings Quartz was rarely used by anyone other than the strippers. The inadequate lighting along the sidewalk was dangerous and Styles had complained to the local council many a time, stating that it wasn’t safe for the women leaving the gentlemen’s club. Unfortunately, it seemed that even in Rattlesnake Creek, those people living on the edge of acceptable society weren’t considered worthy of the expense.
As he filled the coffee machine, the door to the office opened and Beth walked inside. Happy to see her, he waved and smiled. “I gather your day off didn’t go as planned like mine?”
