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Jenna nodded. “We’ll wait for them and then decide who is searching what area. I noticed there isn’t a garage. If we’re going to find anything it’s going to be here inside the house.”
With Rio and Rowley as backup, they moved inside and went into the mudroom. The house smelled of cooking with an overtone of mold. Jenna turned to her deputies. “You take downstairs and we’ll look at the bedrooms. Don’t forget to look at places that could conceal things, like under loose floorboards or inside books, secret drawers in desks. You know the deal. If this guy has been doing this for some time, he could have things hidden all over. Take your time and check every corner of this place. Make sure you’re wearing gloves.” She snapped on a pair of examination gloves and handed a pair to Kane.
“Copy that.” Rio pulled out his Maglite and followed Rowley into the family room.
Jenna headed for the stairs with Kane on her heels. Upstairs, they found three bedrooms. One was obviously used for sleeping. Of the other two, one was dusty and obviously unused and the other contained cartons, each marked with dates and the names of towns throughout the USA. On a desk sat a computer and a printer set up to print glossy photographs. She turned to Kane. “I’m not sure I want to look in those cartons. If this is what I think it is, Matthew Oakley has been a busy boy.”
“Oh, man.” Kane ripped open the nearest box and lifted out a bag containing hair. “There are a ton of these in here.” He held one for her to see. Written on each one was a date, and place. He held them up shaking his head. “It gets worse.” He pulled out a pile of photographs. “These are before and after shots.” He turned one over. “The names of the victims are on the back, the date he killed them and where he put them.”
Horrified, Jenna stared at the gruesome images. “We’ll hand all this over to the FBI. Apart from what happened in Black Rock Falls, all these people are spread across the country. I suggest we leave everything untouched and they will call in a specialized forensic team to deal with it. Right now, Wolfe has enough to deal with.”
“Okay.” Kane pulled out his phone. “I’ll record everything in this room and we can send them a copy. I’ll take photographs of everything in the box I disturbed.”
Once they were done, they went downstairs to see what the others had discovered, but it seemed that Matthew Oakley had kept everything in the one room. Jenna turned to Rio and Rowley. “This is to be treated as a crime scene. Seal the front and back door with crime scene tape, and the front gate as well. We don’t want anyone coming in here and contaminating the scene. When you’re done, you can head back to the office, unless you want to attend the autopsy with us?”
“Not me.” Rowley pushed his hands into the back pocket of his jeans. “Seeing those poor folks in the park was enough for me.”
“Do you want me to report this to the FBI headquarters in DC, as it’s nationwide?” Rio tipped back his Stetson. “Or do we leave that to Carter?”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, leave it to Carter. We’ll need to run this past him first or he’ll believe we’re going over his head. I’m sure this is way too big a deal for a local field office. Can you imagine the resources they’ll need to sort through those boxes in there? There must have been a hundred or more images in the first carton that Kane opened.” She pulled her woolen cap down over her ears as the cold wind bit into her cheeks. “Carter will know who to contact.” She hunched against the snowfall and headed back to the Beast. As her boots crunched on the small patches of snow-covered ice, she leaned toward Kane. “I sure hope this day improves. It sure takes the ho, ho, ho out of Christmas.”
FORTY-THREE
It had been a relaxing distraction for Wolfe to have breakfast with Dr. Norrell Larson, the forensic anthropologist who had recently joined his team. They’d worked until late into the night removing wax from Matthew Oakley’s victims. After a few hours’ sleep, they’d decided to meet up at Aunt Betty’s Café for breakfast. He sat back in the chair, sipping his coffee and admiring the woman opposite him. It had been a long time since his wife had passed, a long and lonely time, during which he had never so much as looked at another woman. He could never replace her, but Angela had insisted he move on and find someone else rather than spend the rest of his life alone. She was wise beyond her years and her advice often ran through his mind like an earwig. In truth, he hadn’t been attracted to anyone else at all, but Norrell was a very special woman. They had so much in common and he found himself spending hours just talking to her. Not only about their mutual interest in forensic science, but so many other things as well.
It didn’t take him too long to discover that Norrell enjoyed reading a wide variety of subjects. He liked that she showed a deep interest in his children and when around them had listened to their constant chatter and never seemed to get bored. She was a homebody like him and eating a meal surrounded by family was something that she enjoyed. At first, he’d believed that his eldest daughter, Emily, who was currently working on her degree to become a medical examiner, might not get along with the extremely intelligent Norrell, as she was only ten years her senior, but the opposite had proved to be true. They had become fast friends, constantly discussing topics including body farms and forensic anthropology cases that Norrell had worked on over the last few years. Julie and little Anna treated her like one of the family and had no qualms about seeing her with their father.
Wolfe rubbed his chin. He’d met his wife in high school and the modern dating game was very new to him. He admitted the same to Norrell and she’d just smiled and squeezed his arm, saying that she was happy to take things one day at a time. That suited him just fine. He’d always been the slow and steady type—old-school, as Kane would have said. It had worked well for Kane, so he’d enjoy Norrell’s company and hope she didn’t get bored with him.
“You seem distracted today, Shane.” Norrell placed her cup on the saucer and frowned at him. “I think most of the cases that we’re looking at today are almost self-explanatory. Is there anything of concern?”
Shaking his head, Wolfe smiled at her. “I’m a little distracted, is all. In fact, I’m distracted every time I’m with you.” He waved a hand absently around the room. “I like this. You and me sitting here eating breakfast, chatting about our day. It seems kind of right.”
“I agree.” Norrell took a strip of crispy bacon from his plate, grinned and then popped it into her mouth. “I’ve felt comfortable with you since the first day we met. Men hit on me and become pests. These days, no one wants to take things slow and be friends. Allowing a relationship to grow is something I want, and I believe this is what’s happening between us. I feel as if I’ve always known you. Perhaps we knew each other in a different life or something?” She sighed. “Sorry to change the subject but it’s getting late. Are you holding back the autopsies until Jenna and the guys arrive?”
Nodding, Wolfe waited for Susie Hartwig, the manager of Aunt Betty’s, to refill his cup and then looked back at Norrell. “I try to keep the autopsies at the same time each day unless something comes up, so they know to arrive around ten. As Colt Webber is a badge-holding deputy, he usually stands in for the preliminaries, so when Jenna and Kane arrive, I’ve determined a provisional cause and time of death. I go over the findings with them and then they decide if they have time to watch the entire process.”
“Then I guess we had better finish our meal and get back to the morgue.” Norrell glanced at her watch. “It’s twenty after nine.”
Wolfe shrugged. “Take your time, Emily and Weber are both doing the final preparations. I can rely on them to have all the X-rays on file and have collected any results from the samples we’ve taken. The team runs very smoothly even if I’m not there. Emily has been a great help to me during her studies. Sometimes in this town there’s not very much time to think, and now being called out to cases statewide at all hours of the day and night isn’t making life any easier.”
“It will help when my team is in place.” Norrell finished her meal and then looked up at him again. “I have funding for three assistants and can always rely on the local college to send out students if I need more in the field. I’m honestly not expecting to be doing too many digs here in town. When I’m not out digging up bones, I’ll always be more than willing to assist you, and my team will be available as well.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, none of them will be here until the new year, so until then it’s just you and me delving into unsolved crimes and mystery.” She grinned. “I think that is what drives me, you know: the story behind what happened, who the people were and why they were murdered. I’ve always loved mysteries and in this line of work I’m right in the middle of it. I believe it takes someone who can take the information they find and expand it to create the small section of time just before a person died.”
This is why he liked her so much. They were on the same wavelength. “Yeah, I’m the same. I like to speak for the person on my examination table and bring whoever murdered them to justice by using whatever instruments I have at hand.” He pushed away his plate and stood. “I guess we’d better make tracks. I hope you’re staying for dinner tonight? My housekeeper is making pulled pork.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” Norrell pushed to her feet.
They arrived back at the morgue a little before ten. Wolfe smiled as Emily came down the hallway toward him, her rubber-soled shoes squeaking on the tile. “Everything ready? I figure it’s going to be Jenna, Kane, Jo and Carter today.”
“Yeah, they’re ready.” Emily frowned. “I’ve placed Charlie, Clare and Gavin Bridger in examination room one with Billy Stevens.Your notes mentioned that you consider they are all victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, so I figured they should be placed together.” She indicated with her thumb toward examination room two. “The two strangulation victims, Ginger Vaughn and Jenell Rickers are in two. Where will you be starting first?”
Shucking his coat, Wolfe went to the alcove outside the examination rooms, removed his sweater and pulled on scrubs. He took one of the large plastic aprons from a pile on a shelf and wrapped it around himself. He turned to Norrell. “Where would you like to start today?”
“Carbon monoxide poisoning.” Norrell pulled on scrubs. “The sooner we can release that family to their next of kin the better.”
Wolfe raised one eyebrow at Em. “One it is. Have you heard from Jenna? I missed them earlier this morning when Jo dropped by with Jaime.” He smiled. “That child slips into our family as if she belongs there.”
“Yeah, she is an angel and it’s so great for Anna to have a friend stay over for the holidays. They can do so much together. Oh, and Jenna messaged me before. She figured you’d be sleeping late today after pulling the graveyard shift.” Emily grinned. “I told her you grabbed a few hours and took a late breakfast. She’ll be here at ten.”
