Speak No Evil_ A Novel - Allison Brennan [82]
“Yes, I’m good to go with them. When I finish setting up the programs to run I’m going to take my team and go on-site.”
“Great.”
“One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I inspected the webcam Gage found at Jodi Carmichael’s apartment.”
“And?”
“It has a wireless connection. The end user would be able to log onto the frequency and see whatever it was aimed at. Gage thought it was motion activated, but it’s not. It’s always on.”
“Can you trace it?”
“I wish. If he was logged onto the frequency, I could trace it. But it’s like a one-way street—he knows the access codes and can view the stream. The stream isn’t being sent anywhere. The battery has a seventy-two-hour life. I tested it and there’s about twenty hours of juice left.”
Carina thought back. “Which means he was in Jodi’s apartment sometime on Wednesday.”
“Yes.”
“Can you put it back?”
“You think he’s going to go for Abby?”
“I don’t know, but maybe next time he logs onto the computer his computer will try to access the stream or something.”
“I think that’s unlikely, but I can put it back.”
“No prints?”
“None. And there’s nothing unique about it. He could have bought it anywhere. There’s a serial number and we’re tracing it, but all it’ll tell us is what distributor had the unit.”
“Dammit.”
“Be careful, Carina. I’ll call you when I know anything.”
Carina and Nick never made it back to the Sand Shack during the day, but Patrick called to say that he was on-scene so she was heading back there when her cell phone rang.
“Kincaid.”
“It’s Jim. We found Jodi.”
“And?”
“She’s dead.”
Carina’s jaw clenched. “Where?”
“Her apartment. In the carport.”
Carina made a U-turn and headed back to Jodi’s apartment. The entire carport area was sealed off, and several dozen onlookers stood behind bright yellow crime scene tape.
She and Nick put on gloves and shoe protectors and went into the crime scene.
“How did the killer get here unseen?” she asked the two cops who had spent all day in the area interviewing residents.
“We were across the street at the other building. We’ve talked to eighty-one people, and no one saw anything last night that seemed out of the ordinary.”
You’re too late.
They were in the carport of Abby and Jodi’s apartment building. Jodi’s body was next to her car, discovered by a resident at nine p.m.
“Go back and get a time line. She couldn’t have been here long.”
Jim Gage was already processing the scene, barking orders to his staff, his normally calm, methodical demeanor frazzled by the brazen disposal of Jodi’s body by her killer. His team finished setting up perimeter lights, and he began to inspect her body under the artificial brightness.
Jodi had been tied in the garbage bags, but during transport they had loosened and her arm had fallen out. The responding officer had partially removed the garbage bag, revealing her face and the telltale black bandanna glued to her mouth.
Her nose was broken, twisted at an odd angle, surrounded with dark blood. Jim carefully unwrapped the body, bagging and preserving evidence as he went. The process was laborious, but necessary.
Jodi’s wrists and ankles still had ropes attached, cut with a sharp, nonserrated knife. Her legs were streaked in dried blood, slut was scrawled across her chest in black marker, but what really drew Carina’s attention and horror was Jodi’s stomach. It looked like pulp underneath blue skin. Her skin was also red and splotchy in places, like a bad sunburn.
“He beat her up?” she asked Jim.
“It’s postmortem. In fact, all the injuries except gluing her mouth shut and the sexual assault were made postmortem.” Jim looked up. “She’s been dead for over twelve hours.”
“Since this morning?” Carina asked, incredulous.
“I’m guessing between seven and nine. The postmortem damage happened several hours after her death, three to six. Her muscles had already started to stiffen, but not enough for full rigor, which occurs at eight to twelve hours.” Jim looked from Carina to Nick. “Want to know my guess?”
Nick said, “She died on him and