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“You didn’t tell me,” he said.
“There’s no reason to get both of our hopes up.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, tugging at the seat belt that was choking the life out of me all of a sudden. There was awkward silence between us and then I finally said, “I just thought I would try. And if it was positive I would surprise you. And if negative…no harm, no foul.”
“I know,” he said. “We’ve not been trying that long. We’ve just got to give it some time. There’s no pressure to do this by a certain time or date. It’ll happen when it happens. Like Reverend Thomas says, ‘God’s timing and our timing aren’t always the same.’”
I snorted out a laugh. “When Reverend Thomas has his sherry at night he also says he can see angels dancing in his bedroom.”
Jack chuckled and he waved at the deputy assigned at the edge of the road, sitting in his unit with the lights flashing and windshield wipers swishing. Jack and I had both put on our rain gear before we’d left the funeral home, but we were still going to get wet. Being wet was one of my least favorite things, just behind being strangled and being shot at.
A police barricade had been set up and an ambulance was parked off to the side per standard procedure.
“Here we go,” I said, pulling up my hood and tying it tightly to keep the rain off my head.
The wind blew the car door open and my rain boots squished down in the mud, making sucking sounds as we made our way to the edge of the creek. It was a heavily treed area and there was a lot of underbrush on both sides of the creek. There weren’t any major roads out here, and the closest neighborhood was at least a mile away.
I nodded at Chen, noticing she looked wet and annoyed, and I wondered if her having real sugar had made any difference in her overall attitude. It didn’t seem like it.
“This is the middle of nowhere,” I said. “How’d the body get discovered?”
“A guy named Robert Madison called it in,” Chen said. “He said his dogs were outside and freaked out when they heard the thunder. They dug under the fence and took off before he could bring them back inside. Dogs found the body.”
“Animals always add a nice addition to autopsy findings,” I said. “All the extra bite marks and saliva are super helpful.”
“The victim washed up and got caught in the underbrush there,” Chen said, pointing to a spiny shrub with sticks and other debris caught in it. “As you can see, it’s mostly under water, so we had to move her to higher ground. She was starting to shift and I was afraid she was going to keep going down creek.”
“That’s a good call,” I said. “And it doesn’t matter too much at this point. There’s no telling how long she’s been in the water and how far she’s travelled. Looks like you drew the short straw for this one.”
“I disagree,” she said. “I already heard about Plank having to change uniforms. I’m okay with a little rain. I guess it’s a good thing I already ate my donuts for fortification.”
“That’s just mean, Chen,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I’m from Atlanta,” she said as if that explained everything.
I wiped water from my eyes and trudged my way to the blue tarp near the base of a tree, my boots making a squelching sound with every step. I pulled back the tarp and got my first look at the victim.
“She’s young,” I said. “Maybe early twenties. Caucasian female, multiple lacerations, probably postmortem due to her trip down the creek, but we’ll get them all sorted out in the lab.”
Water was never kind to anyone when they’d been submerged for a lengthy amount of time. Her skin was blue and mottled and her eyes were open and stared blankly. Gnarled blond hair was tangled with twigs and leaves. There was no jewelry around her neck or on her fingers. Her nails and toes were painted pale pink.
“She’s wearing a nightgown,” Jack said.
“With all due respect,” Chen said. “That is not a nightgown. My wai po wears a nightgown. It’s flannel and ugly. This is a sex gown.”
“I was trying to be respectful,” Jack said.
“It’s amazing there’s any of it left,” I said. “This is one of those expensive nighties. Flimsy lace and silk. Matching panties. Which are intact it seems. Looks like the gown snagged everything on the way down the creek. Nothing holding it to her body except water.
“If she did have sex there won’t be any seminal evidence left,” I said. “I can look for tears or signs of force, but that’s about it. She’s got multiple stab wounds in her chest and abdomen.”
“That’s a date that went wrong,” Chen said.
“Understatement,” I said. “There’s no needle marks. Or none obvious. She looks like she took good care of herself. Good musculature. Probably worked out. Upper middle class at least.”
“Someone will be missing her,” Jack said. “Shouldn’t be too hard to find out who she is. There’s no identification.”
“Not unless it’s shoved somewhere I don’t want to look right now,” I said. “We’ll be lucky if we find any evidence on the body. You might have better luck searching the banks to see if anything else got dumped with her.”
“This rain is getting on my nerves,” Jack said. “Half this county is about to be blocked in. The Weather Channel said we’re having a hundred-year flood.”
