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TWENTY-NINE
Dumbfounded, Jenna stared at Wolfe. “What? This can’t be happening. You’re telling me that Poppy Anderson is capable of murder? That woman is more interested in what color lipstick she’s wearing than killing people.”
“It would account for the different MO in this case. I figure stabbing a person in the heart would be easier than trying to strangle them to death.” Wolfe turned to the coffee machine and started feeding pods into the receptacle. “She’s involved or her DNA wouldn’t be on the body. Just how much do you know about this woman? It makes me wonder why she was hanging around the conferences and trying to obtain information about forensics when the county she lives in rarely sees more than a traffic violation.”
“I see her more as a homewrecker than a psychopath.” Jo dropped into a chair with a sigh. “She obviously likes to be the center of attention, and this could be the manifestation of borderline personality disorder or even narcissistic tendencies. It would take an overwhelming fit of jealousy to commit murder, and as none of our victims have been reported missing, I would dismiss them as being somebody’s spouse or girlfriend. It would be very unusual for a husband not to report his wife missing unless he was involved in her disappearance, and then there’s the family as well. No, in all honesty, I can’t see Poppy being the killer.”
“Maybe, she’s sending us a message?” Kane stretched his long legs and looked at Wolfe. “She’d likely assume that we’d search for her when she went missing, even though she sent us a cover story. She would know Jenna wouldn’t take the email she sent us as gospel.” He took a cup of coffee that Wolfe handed him. “I figure we need to take a closer look at the latent prints on the body. Is there any way we can see all of them at once? I’m wondering if there’s a pattern. She would know that the prints would be picked up, and I know for darn sure if I was captured and had the opportunity to leave a message only a medical examiner could see, I would use the same method.” He sipped his coffee. “Now we know Poppy is involved, it seems to me the smear of perspiration on the victim’s cheek was deliberate. I figure she used her own sweat to leave a message. We just need to find it.”
“I’ll pull up the images of the body and take a closer look.” The phone on Wolfe’s desk rang and everyone’s attention moved to him. “Shane Wolfe.” He flicked the phone onto speaker. “That’s good. Did you determine the species and origin?”
“Yeah, we sure did.” The voice on the other end sounded excited. “It’s a native local species of moss and goes by the name of luminous moss—Schistostega pennata. It’s found in caves. The soil sample is indicative of human habitation. We found traces of urea consistent with human excrement from a septic tank or similar. I’ll email you the full report.”
“Thanks for prioritizing this for me. I owe you one.” Wolfe disconnected and looked at Jenna. “This information confirms the location of the victims. The killer is keeping them in one of the thousands of caves in Black Rock Falls.”
Consumed by the idea of finding a message on the body of the last victim, Jenna nodded, but right now, nothing else mattered. This was the breakthrough they’d been waiting for. Why was everyone wasting time discussing possible locations? She wanted to push Wolfe out of the door and into the laboratory to hurry him along. Without more information on the location, the chances of finding anyone in the caves riddling Black Rock Falls would be like finding a needle in a haystack. “That’s valuable information but our priority right now is if Poppy left a message on the victim. Do you mind leaving the discussion on where the victims were being held for now and go see the images you took of the latent prints?”
“Sure.” Wolfe picked up his coffee cup and headed for the door and then paused to look at her. “It will take time. I’ll take a quick look now, but if I don’t find anything, I’ll keep looking. Sometimes I need to try different light filters to get anything.”
With her mind reeling at the implications of this information, Jenna turned to Kane. “You know Poppy. Do you consider her capable of stabbing someone to death? Would she do something like that to save her own life?”
“I don’t know Poppy well enough to give you an answer to that, Jenna.” Kane walked beside her toward the laboratory at the end of the hallway. “She could be with the killer as an accomplice but what if she’s been kidnapped by a psychopath? Who knows what a person might do to save her own life? Everybody’s different and she hasn’t the training that we have. I honestly don’t think Poppy would ever put her life on the line for anyone but herself.”
“So not really cop material?” Jo fell into step beside Jenna. “Which makes me wonder why you didn’t stand up to Mayor Petersham and allow her to join your department in the first place.”
Jenna snorted. “Trust me, I had no choice in the matter. Unfortunately, that woman can twist people around her little finger. It was by Mayor Petersham’s request that she join our team for a trial period. He controls our budget and it was a personal request, so what else could I do? She only lasted one day, after all, and sent in her resignation after being rebuffed by Dave. She’d gotten it into her head that he’d invited her to work with him.”
“I wasn’t that hard on her.” Kane shrugged. “I would have been willing to train her but not if her intention was to come between me and Jenna.”
“You know it was, Dave. She tried to push her way into our group at the convention.” Jo let out a long sigh. “She didn’t stop at Dave. She had Wolfe and Carter in her sights as well. Carter could see straight through her, but then it takes a player to recognize a player.” She grinned at Jenna. “Wolfe just totally ignored her as if she were part of the furniture or something.” She giggled. “I’ve seen Dave give people the death stare, but Wolfe takes it to a whole new level.”
They followed Wolfe into the laboratory. Moments later the screen array lit up, displaying the latent prints on the victim’s body. Jenna’s stomach gave a twist of apprehension as she examined each image closely looking for a pattern. As Wolfe presented the areas where he’d discovered latent prints, he rotated the images and enlarged them, but no message showed.
Disheartened, Jenna sighed. “Is this everything?”
“Nope, I have images of every part of the body taken at the scene and when we brought her into the lab.” Wolfe projected more images onto the screens. “I found evidence of sweat smeared on her cheek and across the skin of her belly.” He indicated to the areas of interest. “Obviously there were prints there as well, but I found the majority on the forearms of the victim and concentrated on using them for identification.”
Intrigued, Jenna stared at the screen array with renewed interest. “There must be something here. Is there anything we can do to enhance the images of the sweat to get a better look? It seems to me if I was going to leave a message, it would be easier for me to write it in sweat.”
“Yeah.” Wolfe smiled at her. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeve we can use. Like I said, it will take time. I’ll need to review all the primary images of the body. I’ll call you if I find anything.”
Disappointed, Jenna led the way to the door. She turned toward Kane as they headed for the Beast. “At least we know the women are being held underground in a damp cave.” She rubbed her temples in desperation. “I can only hope we get to squeeze information out of one of our suspects, because right now, I could have people scouring the entire county and just maybe, in about three years or so, we might find the darn cave.”
