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“Do you think they’ll give us any trouble?” Nox asked. His brows jumped when Nelson cut the wheel and chuckled wryly, drifting the car around a tight bend as the road turned into dirt and gravel.
“Out here?” He hunkered over the wheel and notched his chin at the windshield when he spotted a white van. “Looks like the ME made it. I wouldn’t expect much of a fight. Not if the scene’s as bad as those pictures make it look. A jurisdiction like this is used to hunting accidents and domestic incidents. They aren’t equipped for this and they won’t want it to be their problem.”
“I guess there are benefits to being big brother,” Nox said with a wry chuckle.
“Between you and me, I’d prefer that this was their problem and unrelated to the girls in your bag.” Nelson pulled off the road, parking behind the medical examiner’s van. He winced as he counted the other vehicles under his breath. An assortment of older SUVs with various local agency departments’ logos were scattered along the side of the road.
One of the sheriff’s department’s deputies was on them as soon as they stepped out of the Continental. “Excuse me, gentleman. I’m afraid this area is closed off. It’s an active crime scene,” he explained, running to intercept them.
Nox glanced over the hood of the car, but Nelson calmly shrugged on his coat and gave the lapels a firm tug. “We’re aware,” he said dryly, giving his legs a slight kick to straighten his trousers. Once he was satisfied with his appearance, Nelson reached into his coat and removed his credentials, flipping open the black leather wallet and showing the deputy his badge. “Special Agent Grady Nelson from the DC field office,” he stated in a swift mumble. As predicted, the younger man’s face melted with relief.
“Thank God!” He whispered and threw a quick glance over his shoulder. “We’re too scared to go anywhere near her and my uncle says he must have got the flu, he keeps running off to the other tree line to throw up.”
“What’s your name?” Nelson asked, sounding slightly irritated and making the kid jump.
“Shoot! My bad, sir! Name’s Duncan. Chip Duncan. My uncle Woody’s over there,” he said as he swung around and pointed at a cluster of older men by the van. “He’s the tall skinny one in the sheriff’s uniform. Sheriff Woody Boyle. He can fill you in.”
“Thank you,” Nelson said with no enthusiasm once Duncan stopped rambling. “How long has the examiner been here?”
“Dr. Bixby?” Duncan yanked back the sleeve of his green field coat. The wind was picking up and sleet was beginning to mix with the mist that had descended upon the woods. Nox regretted leaving Maryland and heading into the Appalachians in just a sweater. “Goin’ on almost three hours now. Says he ain’t never seen anything like this either,” he whispered heavily. Duncan’s voice trembled with fear and awe as he turned toward the woods and what Nox assumed was the crime scene. “She’s all beat up and covered in scratches and there’re swirl marks burned into her chest. They cut out her tongue and she’s split open! Her insides—!”
“Easy.” Nox gripped the young man’s arm, absorbing some of his dread and sadness and offering strength. “We’re here to help,” he stated slowly, rubbing Duncan’s arm soothingly.
“Thanks,” Duncan choked out, his face turning red. His eyes glittered as the sun’s fading rays filtered through the trees. Nox could see that he was tired.
“You’ve been here all day, haven’t you?”
“Yeah.” Duncan nodded quickly. “Since a little after dawn. The MacCrorys were over here, trackin’ some deer and they found her and called her in.”
That got Nelson’s attention. “It’s a little early to be out tracking for deer. Season’s weeks out,” he stated, causing Duncan to turn deep red.
“Well… We, uh…”
“Who was the first on the scene?” Nelson cleared his throat, looking around them.
Duncan jumped and gave himself a shake. “We were. Me and Jesse. We took one look at her and ran and I called my uncle. My dad passed when I was just a kid and my Uncle Woody raised me. He helped me get into the sheriff’s department and everyone looks up to him. But all he can tell is that she was brought here—there’s tracks leading to the body from the road—and that she… She was part of some kind of ritual.”
“That’s in the initial report. Is there anything useful you can tell me?” Nelson asked, sounding both bored and impatient. He squinted at the tape blocking off a crude trail on the other side of the van and the cluster of whispering men. The tape had been tied around the trunks of two trees and a deputy stood guard. Such a haphazard barrier in the middle of the wilderness would have made Nox laugh if he didn’t know what was waiting a few hundred yards behind that tape.
Duncan gulped and shook his head. “No, sir. We don’t know a damn thing about her, I’m afraid,” he admitted, earning a stiff nod from Nelson.
“Alright. Go on and let the sheriff know that we’re with the FBI and that we’d like to take a look. Before the examiner moves her if possible,” he added, then gestured for Duncan to get moving.
“Yes, sir,” he said, ducking his head, then hurrying off.
Nox pushed out a steadying breath, attempting to shake some of his own dread before nudging Nelson. “You couldn’t have cut him some slack? He’s just a kid and he’s not used to seeing stuff like this,” he whispered, not wanting to question Nelson out loud in front of other law enforcement officers.
“I did,” Nelson replied absently, pulling a little notebook out of his inner coat pocket. “Later, he’ll regret telling me that he got scared and that the sheriff vomited. He’ll wish he had stuck with the case and the pertinent facts and he’ll be embarrassed for crying the first time he met an FBI agent.”
“How can you be so sure it was his first time?”
Nelson looked up from his pad and was irritated again. “He cried and rambled about his father dying and the sheriff vomiting. I doubt they’d let him talk to strangers if he’d pulled that before.”
“Probably not,” Nox agreed, following Nelson as they approached the trail and the men guarding it.
Sheriff Boyle offered Nelson his hand while eyeing Nox with obvious suspicion. “Thanks for getting here so quickly. We put in a call because we weren’t sure what this was but bureau dispatch said it might be a while before they could get someone down here.”
“Any ID on the body?” Nelson held out his badge while allowing them to assume he’d been sent. The four men shook their heads and there were unintelligible mumbles about her age and how wrong it was.
