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Before Wolfe had the opportunity to reply, the back door to the morgue slid open and Jenna came inside with the others close behind. He waved at them and indicated to examination room one. “I’ll meet you inside when y’all are ready.”
FORTY-FOUR
The temperature inside the morgue seemed warmer than usual as Jenna removed her coat and hung it on a peg outside the examination rooms. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror above the sink and a rosy-faced, red-nosed person looked back at her from under a thick woolen cap. The temperature outside had dropped considerably since they’d left home, and just walking back and forth from the Beast, had frozen her feet and hands. The odor inside the morgue hadn’t changed, but the smell of candle wax mingled with the usual smell of chemicals and death. She waited until the others had removed their outer clothes and replaced them with scrubs. She looked at Jo’s serious expression and took her to one side. “A kid is involved in these murders. If you want to miss this one and wait in Wolfe’s office, I’ll come get you when we’re done.”
“I appreciate your concern, but I’ve attended autopsies with kids many a time.” Jo adjusted her face mask. “Just because I’m a mother, it doesn’t stop me working on juvenile crime scenes.” She turned to look at Kane. “After looking at the images you discovered at Matthew Oakley’s home, I called Kalo to do a deeper search into him. I figured there’s more we need to know about that man.”
“Yeah, something triggered him, but not having him around makes it difficult to discover a motive for his killing sprees.” Kane pulled on examination gloves with a snap. “There has to be something in his background we’ve missed. Maybe he was adopted or has changed his name at one time or another.”
Jenna waited for Kane and Carter to take the dogs into Wolfe’s office. It was warm inside and he always had water and a bowl of food waiting for them. As Carter walked back, she touched his arm. “You went to the vet this morning. Is Zorro okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine.” Carter’s eyes danced with amusement. “The vet figures that now he’s getting older he feels the cold and maybe has the start of a little arthritis, although his X-rays look okay. So I need to keep him warm…well, warmer. I figured the coats he had were just fine, but now he has puffy coats, and if he needs boots in the snow, I have them as well. Although he wasn’t too keen when I tried them on him. He walked as if I had tied blocks of wood to his feet.”
“We keep a blanket in the Beast for Duke, and blankets at the office with his basket.” Kane shrugged. “There’s a difference between the two dogs, although they both suffer from the cold weather. Duke makes a conscious decision if he wants to come with us or not. If he decides to stay at home, he just sticks his head under his blanket and ignores us. Zorro is on duty twenty-four/seven. He doesn’t make up his own mind, he follows orders. Maybe when he refused to get out of the cruiser the other day, he was rebelling.”
“Hmm, you sayin’ that hanging around with Duke is giving him bad habits?” Carter’s eyebrows rose.
“No, I’m saying he’s just being a dog.” Kane led the way to examination room one and flashed his card across the scanner.
Jenna followed them inside, glad she had used the mentholated balm under her nose. The smell inside the examination room was overpowering. She stood with her back leaning against the counter and folded her arms across her chest, not wanting to get too close to the uncovered bodies on the gurneys. Although skin covered them all, the rose-red hue on their skin resembled burn victims. Kane moved to her side and leaned a little against her in a show of solidarity. She glanced up at him and met his troubled gaze with a nod.
“Okay, now you’re here I can save you time by running over the preliminary examination of all of these victims, but first I’d like to bring your attention to the images on the screen of the vehicle after the trainwreck.” Wolfe moved to the array of screens. “Y’all know that the back half of the truck survived intact. It may have slipped your notice, but after examining the interior, I discovered a Perspex divider between the front and back seats. Oakley had completely sealed the interior, even going as far as installing new seals around the windows and doors. I also found an inlet pipe running from the exhaust to the back seat. The mechanism is incomplete due to the wreck, but we have to assume he persuaded the victims to get inside the back of the truck and once he had started driving, he turned on the flow of carbon monoxide.” He ran his gaze over the team.
Astonished, Jenna stared at him. “Jo and Kane both said that he was an organized psychopath, and this proves it beyond reasonable doubt. What else do you have for me, Wolfe?”
“The victims were posed and then painted with numerous coats of wax. After the first layers had been completed, the bodies were painted and then further layers were added.” Wolfe moved from one body to the other. “Apart from the obvious physical signs of a deep red, flushed skin color, which is a significant indicator of carbon monoxide poisoning and completely different from the application of hot wax on live tissue, the blood samples we analyzed from all the victims in this room show high levels of carboxyhemoglobin.”
“The family hasn’t suffered any significant injuries, but Billy Stevens put up a fight.” Kane moved along the line of bodies. “He has defense wounds to his forearms and hands.”
“Yeah.” Wolfe rolled the body of Billy Stevens onto his side. “He was struck from behind, but I believe his first injury is consistent to an elbow to the neck. This tells me he approached his killer, so maybe Oakley was on the ground and Stevens went to assist him and was attacked. Once inside the back of Oakley’s truck, he didn’t stand a chance.”
Stomach clenching, Jenna’s attention moved over the small body of Gavin Bridger. “Did he suffer?”
“Fear at being abducted.” Norrell moved to her side, placed a hand on her arm and squeezed. “Once inside the back of the truck, he could have had a headache or felt nauseous, but with the high concentration we found in the blood, it would have worked fast.” She met her gaze. “No other injuries on any member of the family. No sexual assault.”
“Not so for Matthew Oakley.” Wolfe raised one blond eyebrow and looked at Jenna. “He wasn’t killed on impact. From my inspection of the locomotive, he was thrown from the truck on impact and caught under the cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive and cut to pieces.” He walked back to the screen array and displayed blood results. “He wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I have what’s left of his body parts if you’d like to see them?”
Jenna shook her head. “No thanks. I’ve already seen them in situ.”
“I’ll be completing tests on various organs, but in my opinion and Norrell’s, the Bridgers and Billy Stevens died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Their time of death can’t be calculated because all the bodies have been embalmed using formaldehyde, but we must assume from Maisy Jones’ statement that they died shortly after they were abducted.” Wolfe glanced from one to the other. “Any questions? No? Well, we can move to the next room.”
FORTY-FIVE
It was good to walk into the hallway for a short respite, not only from the smell but the aching tragedy inside. Fighting down the human revulsion at seeing the tragic loss of a complete family and a young man, all innocently going about their daily lives, Jenna removed her mask and went to the alcove to replenish the mentholated salve under her nose. Those people would never see another Christmas, never reach their full potential. One man destroyed all that, and the fact he had died might seem like justice for many, but to her it meant he took his secrets with him. How many more bodies of innocent people were out there? How many people waited by the phone in the hope their loved ones would someday contact them? The idea made her sick to the stomach. She straightened and followed the others into examination room two. Her gaze moved over two bodies covered with white sheets, their feet exposed and each attached with a toe tag.
“You, okay?” Kane leaned into her. “You’re sheet white.”
Jenna nodded. “Just angry we didn’t get the chance to interrogate Matthew Oakley. Where are all the others he killed? We need to know.”
“Don’t concern yourself with them, Jenna.” Carter stood beside her. “The DC HQ has taken over the case. They’ll have all their best teams hunting down and identifying the victims. If they’re out there, they’ll move mountains to find them.”
Nodding, Jenna met his gaze over her mask. “Thanks, that’s reassuring. Will you be involved?”
“Only with the Blackwater victims.” Carter folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the counter. “I’ll send in a report of the trainwreck and the Black Rock Falls victims, but as the perp is dead, they’ll be no need to follow up.”
“These two are different.” Wolfe uncovered the women’s faces. “Jenell Rickers was attacked from behind, with what we assume was a dog’s leash. Oakley wasn’t too concerned about removing trace evidence. She had dirt under her fingernails, which we assume happened during the attack in Broken Wolf Forest. I’m running samples to see if they match the immediate area. We can assume she walked the dogs to the exercise yard in the forest and was somehow lured away by Oakley and then attack from behind and strangled. There’s a fire road running through that part of the forest and no doubt he left his vehicle there. It’s in a secluded area and it would have been easy for him to carry her to his truck without being seen.”
“The attack on Ginger Vaughn looks brutal.” Carter shook his head. “Blunt force trauma to the head and then he garroted her. He really hated this one.”
