Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [37]
“It wasn’t him,” Adam said.
“I guess we’ll need a little evidence of that, won’t we?” The officer tossed over her shoulder.
Adam shook his head and turned back to Miranda. “You might want to take part in that. Don’t let the poor guy get railroaded. This is our man, Miranda. This was his spot. His killing ground. He’d be territorial. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Then I’m on my way.” Miranda turned to leave. “You staying here?”
“Yes.” He gazed back down to the stream. “There’s something I want to check out.”
Adam picked his way down the steep, stony path, then paused, midway from his starting point, and tried to imagine the scene that had played out here just twenty-four hours earlier. Tried to imagine what would have been going through the killer’s head after he’d finished with Julie Lohmann.
Up until now, he’d been so organized. Methodically stalking his victims, learning their habits, so that he’d know the best and most expedient time and place to strike. He’d been efficient in his taking, efficient in his killing, never losing total control. Until he met up with Julie Lohmann.
The more Adam thought about it, the more certain he was that the young girl’s murder had been little more than an impulse their UNSUB couldn’t resist. She’d clearly been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had she perhaps arrived on the path as he’d been carrying Karen Meyer up toward the parking lot?
Adam retraced his steps back to the parking lot, looking for a spot where Karen Meyer’s body may have been dumped while Julie Lohmann was dealt with. He stood near the shrub where earlier he’d found the shred of fabric. Stepping off the path several feet to the left, he knelt down and studied a soft impression on the new growth of weeds that had sprung up over the past month. He leaned forward to study small drops of red-brown that speckled the ground. If, as he suspected, the killer had been surprised on the path by Julie while carrying Karen’s body, he might have tossed his burden in an effort to catch his new prey. Later, after killing Julie, he’d have come back to get Karen to finish carrying her to his car so that he could dispose of her at what Adam suspected was a previously determined spot.
Returning to the top of the trail that led down to the stream where Julie’s body had been found, her chest slashed open by an unknown number of wounds, her face battered beyond recognition. Adam closed his eyes, trying to see what the killer had seen.
Had he stood right here, on this very spot, holding her in his arms, before making his way down the path to the stream? Adam followed the path down toward the water, stood near the blood-covered rock where Julie’s body had been left, like an offering. Why would he have brought her here? Why not leave her in the cave? Had he planned on using the cave again for his future victims, his chosen victims? Did he see Julie’s murder as an aberration, a distraction he needed to clear out from his space?
Why carry her all the way down to the stream? Why not dispose of her when he disposed of Karen?
Too much blood, Adam thought. There had been too much blood.
Had he carried her down to the stream to wash her off? But she’d been covered with blood when they found the body.
Ah, but maybe he’d washed off himself. Maybe the trip down that steep path was to serve a dual purpose. To dispose of Julie’s body in a place that hopefully wouldn’t be found for several days. And to clean himself of her blood.
Adam walked downstream until he reached a spot where the water pooled. There, on the flat rock that overlooked the deep water, he found traces of pale pink water still in the shallow crevices. Closer inspection found several other rocks with similar pools containing darker pink liquid. Their UNSUB had washed off after he’d carried Julie Lohmann’s bloody body down to the stream. And unless Adam was mistaken, he had washed his clothes as well.
Which