Exit Wounds - J. A. Jance [51]
Deputy Valentine was young and seemed ill at ease as Kristin ushered him into Joanna’s office. She directed him to a chair by the small conference table at the back of the room. “If you don’t mind, Deputy Valentine, I’ve asked some of the others to join us as well.”
“Sure,” he said. “No problem.”
Once Valentine was seated, Joanna assembled enough chairs to go around. The others arrived one by one, and Joanna introduced them to Valentine. Only when they were all gathered did he undo the string fastener on the packet he carried and slide the collection of grisly crime scene photos onto the smooth surface of the cherry-wood table.
Four years earlier, the sight of pictures of bloodied corpses would have sent Joanna Brady scurrying for the nearest rest room. Today, even with her rebelliously queasy stomach giving her trouble, Joanna was able to gaze at the photos with the dispassionate eyes of a professional. Just as Sheriff Trotter had said, the two female victims, lying on their backs, were both completely naked. The bloodstains on the bodies and apparent lack of same on the ground told their own complicated stories.
“This isn’t where they were shot, is it?” Joanna asked Deputy Valentine as she passed the first photo along to Ernie Carpenter.
The visiting deputy gave her a somewhat quizzical look before answering. “That’s right,” he said. “We think they were shot over by the stock tank. That’s where the brass was found, but we didn’t find much blood there. Sammy—that’s Sammy Soto, our CSI—says he thinks they were shot there and then dragged away from the stock tank to where they were found. If the guy on the bike hadn’t needed to take a dump—”
Embarrassed, Valentine broke off without finishing.
“But you don’t know that for sure?” Ernie asked.
“No. We didn’t find enough blood at the scene to place the shooting there for sure. It’s a stock tank, you see,” Valentine explained. “A herd of cattle came through the scene to drink several times between the time the victims were shot and when the bodies were found. They stirred up the dirt around the stock tank pretty good. We were damned lucky to find the brass and even a few footprints.”
“Is it possible they were inside a vehicle when they were shot?” Ernie asked. “That would explain the lack of blood at the stock tank, but the shooter would be left with a hell of a mess in whatever he was driving. Or maybe they were all in the stock tank skinny-dipping.”
Joanna knew Ernie Carpenter had just pulled Deputy Valentine’s leg. Valentine, on the other hand, had no idea. “I doubt that’s possible,” he objected with a frown.
Shaking his head, Ernie continued to ask questions. “Any tire tracks?”
Valentine shrugged. “Some. And we made casts of what there were, but we don’t know for sure the vehicle belonged to the killer. And, like I said, it’s a stock tank. There were probably lots more tire tracks at some point, but by the time we got there, the cattle had obliterated all but that one set.”
“So we don’t know if the victims were inside or outside a vehicle when they were shot, but they are both naked. Any sign of sexual assault?”
“None that we could see. We won’t know for sure until after the autopsies.”
“Did your CSI say whether or not he thought the women were naked when they were shot?”
Valentine looked surprised. “He didn’t say. Why?”
Ernie shrugged. “This kind of deliberate posing and sexual assault usually go together. Now when are those autopsies due again?”
“Sheriff Trotter already gave me the bad news on that,” Joanna interjected, answering before Deputy Valentine had a chance. “Because it’s a holiday weekend, Monday is the soonest their ME will be available.”
“Too bad,” Ernie said, shaking his head. “We’ll be losing a lot of precious time.” He passed the first photo along and reached for another. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Those are the casings,” Deputy Valentine said. “Four of them. Two shots each. There seem to be prints on the casings but we haven’t had time to