Quinn - Iris Johansen [26]
“You may not if you keep on talking,” Joe said grimly.
“My lips are sealed.” They had come close to the cave, and Slindak gestured to the opening. “I think they’re ready to bring out the body. Do you want to go inside?”
Joe nodded and moved carefully to enter the cave. Two techs were carefully transferring the body parts to the tarp on the stretcher. The parts were mostly skeleton. The little girl was hardly recognizable as a human being. The anger was searing again, and he took a moment to overcome it before he glanced around the cave. It was a small area, and evidently the child hadn’t been buried or hidden in any way. It was a wonder that the body hadn’t been discovered sooner.
Again, the killer’s boundless arrogance was staring Joe in the face.
“We’re ready to go.” A young forensic tech kneeling beside the body was looking up at Joe. “Do you need anything else, sir?”
“The skull was on that ledge?” he asked.
“Yep, it nearly scared those hunters shitless,” Slindak said. “The field rats had gotten to it.”
“Can we zip her up?” the tech asked again.
“Yeah, go ahead.” Joe turned away as they zipped up the body bag. “Did we get any footprints besides those of the hunters?”
“A possible near the ledge, but it’s badly eroded,” Slindak said. “He didn’t even try to erase his footprint. It’s like the other case. If we could catch the bastard, we could nail him in court.”
“He doesn’t think we’re going to catch him. That couldn’t be more obvious.” Joe watched the techs pick up the stretcher and carry it out into the rain. They were going to take it to the M.E. van.
And Eve was going to see them put that pitiful sack of bones into the van.
“Is there anything else I should see?” he asked Slindak.
Slindak shook his head. “I just thought you’d want to be here.”
“You were right.” He turned toward the cave entrance. “Let me know when we get a definite ID.”
“That may not be easy. I can’t bring in the parents to ID that skeleton. No prints. I can only try to get dental records.”
“Damn,” Joe said in frustration. “We just had a lecture at the Bureau about the potential for using DNA in identifying victims. But that’s still down the road a bit. I want it now. ”
“I’m satisfied with the old tried-and-true methods,” Slindak said. “We get along just fine without your fancy scientific bullshit.”
“Except when all you have to work with is a skeleton.” Joe walked out of the cave. The rain felt good on his face after the stench and closeness of death inside the cave. He moved quickly through the stand of trees toward the road.
The techs were closing the back doors of the M.E. van as he came out of the woods.
And Eve was standing beside the car, watching them.
“Shit.” His pace quickened. He reached her in seconds. “Dammit, why did you get out of the car?” He opened the passenger door and gently pushed her onto the seat. “You’re wet as a drowned rat.”
“I had to see her,” she whispered. “But there was nothing to see, was there? It looked like a bag full of … nothing.”
Joe ran around the car and got into the driver’s seat. “It wasn’t nothing. It was a skeleton, but the bones were … not together.” He started the car and drove past the M.E. van as quickly as he could.
“Animals?”
“Partly.”
Her hands clenched together on her lap. “And what’s the other part? Tell me.”
“So you can hurt more?”
“So I can know what he is.”
She wasn’t going to give up. He said curtly, “He cut off her head and put it on a ledge over her body.”
She inhaled as if he’d struck her.
“And now you know what the bastard is. Does it make you any happier?”
“No. Poor little girl … It’s Janey Bristol?”
“We’re not sure. There’s not much to ID.”
“It’s going to kill her parents. I want to help them.”
“You can’t do anything.”
“I guess not. I’ll think about it. Is there any evidence?”
“A possible footprint. He didn’t try to hide what he’d done. He’s bold as brass.”
“You said that before. Then we should be able to find him.”
“We’ll find him. Stop thinking about him for a while.”
“We may find other bodies. He’s being careless.”
“That’s a possibility.