Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [288]
“There’s a chance it might not be her,” Tully said while Detective Rosen was still busy giving directions. He knew she was expecting this to be the missing real estate agent.
“I want to assist with the autopsy. Do you think we can convince Dr. Holmes to do it tonight?” She avoided looking at him and kept her eyes on Rosen.
It was the first time she had asked anything of him, and he could tell it was not an easy thing for her to do.
“We’ll insist he do it tonight,” he promised.
She nodded, still keeping her eyes from him. They stood quietly, side by side, watching the police cruiser drive up as close as possible to the metal trash bin. He heard her take a deep breath as she set down the black case and threw the pair of gloves she had extracted on top. Detective Rosen met her at the bumper, offering her a hand, but she waved it off. She kicked out of her shoes and crawled up on the trunk with bare feet and little effort.
She paused, almost as if preparing herself mentally. Then she carefully stepped up on top of the roof and stood upright, able to stare down into the trash bin.
“Does anyone have a flashlight?” she called out.
One of the officers from the group who had gathered around to watch hurried to the cruiser to hand her a long-handled flashlight. O’Dell shone a stream of light into the bin, and Tully watched her face. She took her time, sweeping the inside, back and forth. He knew she was trying to examine as much of the scene as she could with her eyes since she couldn’t use her hands. Her face remained composed, indifferent, and he couldn’t tell whether she recognized the victim as the McGowan woman or not.
Finally she crawled down. She handed back the flashlight, tapped the cruiser’s window to thank the driver and then found her shoes.
“Well?” Tully asked, still watching her closely.
“It’s not Tess McGowan.”
“That’s a relief,” he sighed.
“Not really a relief at all.”
Now under a lamppost, he could see she looked agitated, her face tight with tension, the exhaustion clouding her eyes.
“It’s not Tess, but I do recognize her.”
Tully felt the knot winding around his stomach. He couldn’t begin to imagine what O’Dell was feeling.
“Who is she?”
“Her name’s Hannah. She’s a clerk at Shep’s Liquor Mart. She helped me pick out a bottle of wine last night.”
She rubbed a hand over her face, and Tully saw the slight tremor in the fingers.
“We need to stop this goddamn son of a bitch,” she said, and Tully heard that the tremor had also invaded her normally calm voice.
CHAPTER 55
Tess felt the panic seeping into her system as the last bit of light turned everything into shadows. She tried to ignore the little voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her to crawl out of this tomb, to run as far away as possible. It didn’t matter what direction or where she ended up, at least she would be out of this hell pit, this grave of mutilated bones and lost souls.
She sat next to the woman named Rachel, close enough to hear her ragged breathing. Soon she wouldn’t be able to see, but she had made certain the blanket covered her. The woman would not spend another cold night exposed to the elements.
Tess wasn’t sure why she had returned. Why hadn’t she just left for good? She knew it would be best for Rachel if she went for help. But after an afternoon of roaming the endless woods, she knew help was not close by. She had barely found her way back, trying to leave herself a trail of pinecones. Now she wondered if it had been a mistake to come back. If by doing so, she might be guaranteeing her own death. But for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to leave this woman. She wasn’t certain whether she was being gallant or just selfish, because she couldn’t bear to spend an entire night out here alone.
Tess had managed to bring back a shoeful of water, using the broken-heeled leather pump she had unearthed. Rachel had to be incredibly thirsty, yet she drank little, most of it dribbling out of her cut and swollen lips and trickling down her bruised chin.
She had said little since uttering her