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“Then whoever did this must have covered their tracks.” Kellan rubs his chin. “I’m telling you, we are dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Hoffman shakes his head. “There’s got to be tracks somewhere. Or drag marks at least. Whoever dumped her had to have either carried or dragged her. There’s no way somebody could get an ATV or a four-wheeler through this brush.”
“It’s ballsy,” I muse, “carrying a dead body through the woods.”
“Or reckless,” Kellan adds.
“Or is it exactly what the killer intends?” Hoffman says, this earning our full attention.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we established that the manner in which Alyssa Kaing was killed was emotional. Someone had a beef with her.” He nods to the body on the ground. “This woman’s hands are carved with the same symbol. If Alyssa saw something she wasn’t supposed to, then this woman did something she wasn’t supposed to. Touched, held—did.”
A moment of silence lingers as we consider this.
Hoffman continues, “I’m saying that whoever is killing these women wants the bodies to be seen. They want the messages to be connected. They don’t care about getting caught carrying a dead body through the woods because to them, the message is what is most important.” He fists his hands on his hips and looks around. “Why this location, I wonder? How did you find the body?”
“I was jogging with Banjo, off the leash, when suddenly he just took off into the woods.” As if on cue, Banjo whines from the tree he’s tied to a few yards away. “I lost him for a good ten minutes before finding him at the edge of the ravine.”
After a pause, Hoffman dips his chin. “Okay. I’m going to search around the scene. You guys good?”
Kellan and I nod.
“I think he’s onto something,” Kellan says as Chris’s flashlight fades into the darkness. “Whoever is doing this wants us to know why.”
“Why?”
“They want the sins of these women to be revealed. Whatever these two women did are bad enough to die for—in the killer’s eyes, at least. And they want us to figure it out. I’m guessing this is someone who likes the game, the chase.”
“Agreed. It’s definitely someone with an ego. Hey, Darcy?” The medical examiner looks over her shoulder. “When can you get this autopsy done?”
“Same as with Alyssa; as soon as I can.”
“I want you to call me immediately—no matter day or night.”
“You got it.” Darcy pauses. “Allyssa’s husband is back in town, right?”
“Yes. But he didn’t land until this afternoon. If this woman was killed last night, Zach Kaing is officially off our suspect list.”
“Somebody needs to go to the trailhead,” Kellan says, glancing at the phone beeping on his hip. “The techs will be here any minute, and so will the media.”
“I’ll do it.”
My phone rings. I step aside and pull it from my pocket, noticing my hand is trembling.
“Velky,” I answer.
“Detective, hey, it’s Willa from dispatch, up here at the station.”
“What’s going on?”
“Zach Kaing just showed up here; says he needs to talk to you.”
“Now?”
“Yeah.”
Kellan walks up behind me, eavesdropping.
