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“Yeah.” She took more time to compose herself, to realign her thinking. It hadn’t been Katherine, but the killer had claimed another victim. That woman cried out for justice too. Rage pummeled Amanda. The killer had just bloodied his trail even more, but the joke may be on him. Criminals often messed up when they were in a hurry. This case could provide a clue that would break the entire investigation wide open.
Trent leaned over the trunk, not giving any indication of being affected by the smell of blood. In fairness, decomp was much worse. “It looks like this is also the scene of the murder.”
The blood spatter and some brain matter on the underside of the lid and other parts of the trunk supported that. “So the shooter had her get in the trunk, had her turn away from him, and then shot her?”
“Seems like. Does that mean he’s developing a bit of a conscience? That he didn’t want to look in her eyes when he took her life?”
“I doubt that. The method is still brutal and short range.” She wished to see the face, but the body couldn’t be moved until the CSIs did their thing, starting with snapping a myriad of photos. If I could somehow reach over her… Amanda pulled her phone from a pocket, held her arm out as far as she could, angled the screen down, and essentially took a selfie of the victim.
Trent stepped up next to her and looked at the photo she had just taken. “It is the man’s partner.” He released a deep breath. “We talked about all the ways she was sabotaging things. But leaving the money behind and removing her balaclava must have been the last straws.”
“Still, he chose to shoot her from behind. The woman and the shooter may have history.”
Trent nodded. “Ask me, and she meant something to him.”
She was going to respond when the van from Crime Scene pulled up. There were two more people who needed to join the “party.” She put in a call to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and requested a medical examiner, adding that she’d prefer Hans Rideout. He was on a call but would be sent out.
Now that aspect would become a waiting game. A painful one. Amanda’s mind was inundated with concerns about Katherine’s well-being and whereabouts. Was she still alive or were they too late?
“We got a surprise when we opened the trunk,” Officer McRoy told the investigators.
Amanda listened as he told them what they’d done. Blair and Donnelly responded by setting down their collection kits and getting to work. Blair snapped photographs, and Donnelly dusted for prints.
Amanda and Trent stood by, watching the activity. If it served a purpose, she’d floor it back to Central and have Lowell Mooney hauled back into an interrogation room. But until they had more information, that endeavor would be pointless. He’d already denied knowing this victim from the photograph, but she wanted to witness his reaction to her lifeless face. It might jolt him to talk.
Amanda nudged Trent’s arm, encouraging him to join her in talking with Wyatt and McRoy.
“You found the car,” she said to Wyatt, knowing this from Malone. “At what time?”
“Would have been about twelve forty-five.”
It wasn’t a high traffic thoroughfare, but surely the Mercedes hadn’t sat on the roadside all day. They already knew the woman was alive and running around at ten that morning. “How often do you roll by this stretch of road?”
“Honestly? Not often. First time this shift.”
Amanda and Trent thanked the officers and walked back toward the CSIs.
Amanda turned to Trent. “I’m trying to make sense of why her partner killed her in Katherine’s Mercedes and left her here to find. Also, why here of all places? Was he holding Katherine somewhere nearby? Is he still?”
“Could be, but without a way to narrow it down, we have no idea where to start looking.” Trent kicked the toe of a shoe at the gravel on the shoulder. “I realize you want to think Katherine’s alive, but we need to face the real possibility she might not be. The shooter could have killed his partner and ditched the car to clean up loose ends. He hasn’t tried to reach May again.”
If she were viewing this from an objective standpoint, then yes, she was with Trent that Katherine was dead and buried. But she tried to remind herself that Katherine was a fighter. “I just can’t think that way. I can’t.”
Trent let out a sigh.
“I’m surprised you can. If there’s only a glimmer of possibility we can save Katherine, I’ll hold on to that.”
Trent held up his hands.
“Let’s think this through from the start,” she said after a few beats. “Motive, we can only speculate. We figured ransom wasn’t the original plan.”
“Okay, well if Lowell is behind this, he’s after pure payback.”
Her eyes widened. “Lowell. Let’s say he paid these people to get Katherine and hold her for him. If the man kills her, Lowell wouldn’t be too happy. Trent, there’s a good chance that she’s still alive.”
He smiled, but the expression faltered. She read it as a means of pacifying her. Not because he was holding faith.
Tires crunched on the gravel of the shoulder, and Amanda turned to see it was Rideout and his assistant, Liam, in their van. They’d made short work of getting here, for which she was thankful.
