Bloodstain (2 page)

Chapter 2

Jason Strong took Highway 368 out of his Terrell Hill
s neighborhood down to Houston Street, and then east to the police station. He and Sandy had moved to the subdivision when he’d made detective. It was a nice neighborhood of newer homes, and an easy commute for both of them.

H
eaded back to work after serving only six days of his suspension, the lieutenant had called this morning, and put Jason back on active duty. A case had just landed on his desk, and the lieutenant was short-handed. Jason jumped at the chance to get back to work, and was on his way within twenty minutes.

His cell phone
started going off five minutes after the lieutenant hung up. It was Vanessa but he ignored the calls to get ready. She kept at it right up until he pulled into the station parking lot. He pressed the button to ignore another call and headed toward the station doors.

He was almost there when he saw Vanessa coming toward
him. Tall and thin, some might say skinny, with big eyes and long, black hair, she’s very attractive. She’d made detective before him, but it wasn’t becau
se of her looks. They’d been beat cops together and she was good, very good. Jason was glad, when he’d made rank, that they’d been made partners.

Usually,
she’s smiling, but that wasn't the case this morning. She started talking as soon as she got within earshot. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

“Good morning to you, too”

“Lieutenant says there's a body over by Canyon State Park. He wants us to take it.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I ignored your
calls, he wanted me here as fast as possible.”

She
wasn’t buying it. “Whatever!”

He laughed. It
was good to be working with his partner again. “Why are we taking a case in a state park?”

“Lieutenant says it’s just outside the park, in the Stanton subdivision, and they’ve asked us to take the lead.”

By now, Jason had turned around, and was walking with Vanessa toward her car. “He give you any other details?”

“Just that it's a female. Uniforms have taped the area off. Medical Examiner and
Forensics are on the way.”

They got to her car, a restored 1971 Dodge Challenger, and
climbed in. She fired up the engine with a roar. Vanessa's husband had restored it for her at his auto body shop.

Jason had been to
the shop a handful of times and seen several of the cars Rob had done for customers. He was good at what he did. Jason had a Ford Thunderbird he wanted Rob to tackle, but the new house had used up all the fun money.

They
were on the Highway 1608 loop heading north toward the suburb of Stanton. Even though it was a hot July day, they drove with the windows open, and the air conditioning off. Vanessa loved to let her hair blow and his comfort came second. Truth was he didn't mind. It reminded him of his college days.

Jason
was just over six feet tall, with jet-black hair and hazel eyes. He wore his dark sunglasses most of the time but, when he wanted information, or wanted to get a read on someone, he took them off. He could be very intimidating with his stare.

He
was muscular in an athletic way, not like a body builder, but strong and very calm under fire. He attributed his calmness to his faith.

Vanessa
was his opposite. She was always going forward, most always talking, and ready for anything. She was also smart, and the two of them complimented each other well. They made a formidable team.

She wheeled the Challenger around a sharp corner and came to s
top at a stretch of yellow tape. The crime scene ran from the road back into the woods for nearly two hundred yards, across another hundred, and then back to the road. Jason could see the forensics team near the middle of the yellow box, bending over a form.

They got out, and even though they were well known to the officers, flashed their badges before ducking under the tape. Vanessa pull
ed on latex gloves while they walked. She had gone quiet.

F
or all the talking she did normally, at a crime scene, she was the quiet one. Jason would ask most of the questions while Vanessa looked at the scene for things that seemed out of place or somehow askew.

When t
hey got up to the body, the forensics team stepped back. Jason nodded at the Chief Medical Examiner, Doctor Leonard Davis.

He
’d first met Leonard Davis at the city morgue during his rookie year on patrol. Jason had gone over to meet a detective who had some questions, and was introduced to Doc.

The years
hadn’t changed Doc at all. Jason remembered thinking the doctor was near retirement when he first met him, and Doc Davis still looked sixty-five, with just a ring of gray hair around his head, and pale skin from too many days in the basement morgue. On the heavy side of two-hundred-fifty pounds, his walk was best described as ‘lumbering.’ He might be the smartest man Jason ever met.

“Doc, what have we got?”

“Female, approximately twenty-five, been dead about two days.”

“Can you tell what killed her?”

“Appears to be single gunshot to the heart.”

She
was naked, and leaning with her back against a tree. A wine glass stood propped in her right hand. Vanessa shook her head. “What kinda’ sickness is that?”

Jason squinted at the wine glass. It ha
d a bloodstain on it. He looked at the medical examiner. “Can you tell if she was killed here or dumped?”

Leonard Davis leaned over and pulled the body away from the tree.
“Look for yourself.”

Jason bent over and looked at the tree behind her.
Blood and tissue could be clearly seen imbedded in the tree bark.

“You find a bullet?”

The medical examiner let the body resume its position against the tree and pulled a baggie out of his pocket, waving it at them.

“It's a
nine-millimeter. Forensics lab will run ballistics when I get back to see if it matches anything on record. I wouldn’t hold my breath though, it’s pretty badly beat up.” He waved a second baggie. “Also found a shell casing. It might be more helpful.”

Jason took out a note pad and started jotting down information. Vanessa reached over with a pen and moved the wine glass in the sun.
“Is there any other blood, where this stain could come from?”

Doc Davis shook his head.
“No. The gunshot is the only wound.”

“So it could be our perpetrator’s blood?”

“Could be. Won’t know until forensics does their testing.

“Any ID?”

“No, and a search of the area hasn't turned up any clothes or personal effects.”

Jason looked around.
“Who found the body?”

One of the uniform
ed officers nearby pointed at a man in green fatigues and a ball cap. “A hunter. That's him over there.”

Jason left Vanessa studying the scene and walked over to the hunter. Even though he hunted animals, and probabl
y killed some, the sight of a human body had clearly left him shaken. Jason extended his hand as he reached the man. “Detective Jason Strong.”

They shook hands.
“Mike Gilbert.”

“You found the body?”

“Unfortunately. A couple hours ago.”

“Can I ask what you were doing back here off the road?”

“Hunting. This is one of my favorite areas.”

“It's July, what were you hunting?”

“Squirrel.”

“Did you see anything unusual before finding the body?”

“Nothing,” he gestured toward the body. “It was a normal hunt up until I saw that.”

There was
no defensiveness in his answers, and Jason found it unlikely he was their killer. “Okay, make sure the officer has your name and number. You can go after that. Thanks.”

Jason
returned to find Vanessa standing about thirty feet from the body, taking in the whole scene. He took his notebook back out. “What do you think?”

“Well,
he was clearly comfortable here,” she pointed at the highway. “It's not very far off the road. Probably stripped her and raped her, if she was raped, somewhere besides here. We know she was shot here, but it feels more like a dumpsite. I don’t think he spent a lot of time here.”

Jason
added her thoughts to his notebook as she continued.

“The wine
glass, and leaning of the body against the tree, indicates a ritual or message of some kind. The choice of the victim could have been random, but the crime itself was clearly premeditated. Assuming she was raped, the final pose speaks more to why she was killed than the sex act itself.”

Doctor Davis waved and pointed at the body. He wanted to know if they were done. Jason gave him
a thumbs up and they started preparing the body for transport. Evidence bags were put over the hands and the dead woman zipped into a body bag.

Jason and Vanessa rounded up the uniformed officers on the scene and began a search line.
Beginning at the road, they walked slowly until they reached a point approximately fifty yards past the body. The only items bagged for evidence were two soda cans and a cigarette butt. Jason didn’t think they would yield anything helpful because of their distance from the body.

The scene
immediately around the body was immaculate, especially for a forest, and it was clear the killer had taken his time making sure very little in the way of evidence was left behind.

Jason and Vanessa headed for the car.

*******

Lieutenant John Patton was waiting for them when they got back to the station.
“What have we got?”

Sitting
in the lieutenant's office, Jason had his notebook open. As he went over his notes, the lieutenant leaned back in his chair and listened intently. When Jason had finished, John Patton looked at Vanessa, then back at Jason. “What's your next step, JD?”

“We wait for the autopsy report and, in the meantime, check our description against missing persons.”

Vanessa spoke up. “I think the wine glass could be a signature. I'm gonna do a search for any similar crimes.”

John Patton's phone rang.
“Good. Keep me in the loop.”

He picked up the phone and the detectives went to work.

*******

Vanessa sat down at her desk opposite Jason.

“I'm going to put together a description of the crime scene and send it out to all bureaus in Texas. I want to see if this matches something done elsewhere.”

“Makes sense. If
same method was used, it almost certainly would be the same guy.”

Jason's phone rang.
“Hello?”

“JD,
Leonard Davis.”

“Yeah, Doc. What have you got?”

“Ran the girls fingerprints through the data base and got a hit. Jennifer Samples, age twenty-four, arrested on prostitution charges three times in the last year,” Jason could hear the medical examiner flipping pages. “Last known address was 224 West Dixon. No phone.”

“Thanks, Doc. Call me when you get the autopsy done?”

“You’re the first. Bye.”

Vanessa,
working on the profile to send out, looked up from her notes as Jason hung up. “Got something?”

“An address. Wanna
’ go?”

“Sure. Let me get this on the wire
, and I'll meet you downstairs.”

Jason nodded, got up
, and stuck his head into the lieutenant's office. “Got an address on our dead girl, we're going to check it out.”

The lieutenant
didn't look up from his paperwork. “Don’t let me slow you down.”

Jason laughed. “Yes, sir”

*******