Page 22 of In Her Shadow

CHAPTER TWELVE

As Jenna considered the crime scene, the early morning sun cast a warm glow that contradicted the horror it illuminated.Colonel Spelling pointed out marks showing where the body had been dragged across the lawn on its way here, either already dead or barely alive.

Dr.Melissa Stark, in the white of her hazmat suit, was already crouched near Clyde Simmons’ pale form, her gloved hands moving with deft precision.

“Sheriff, I’ve got information for you,” Melissa said without preamble as Jenna drew near.Jenna lowered herself to her knees beside Melissa, careful to avoid compromising the integrity of the scene.Jake stood behind her, jotting notes on his pad.

“What have you found out?”she asked Melissa.

The coroner paused in her work.“Not much about this victim, at least not yet.But about Clyde Holbrook, the blood tox confirmed what I suspected.He suffered a massive heart attack, brought on by extremely high levels of cortisol and adrenaline.”

Melissa shook her head and frowned deeply.

“In layman’s terms,” the coroner added, “Clyde died from sheer pain and terror.”The simplicity of the statement did nothing to mask its horror.

Jake asked, “And Roger?”

Melissa Stark paused, her gaze shifting to Roger Bates’s body, lying in repose upon a bed of wilted flowers atop the grave of his late wife.“I can’t confirm without further tests, but I’d bet my medical license that Roger here died the same way.”

Jenna rose to her feet.“Thank you, Melissa,” she murmured.“Keep me updated on any new developments.”

Melissa gave a curt nod, her attention already returning to the grim work before her.

Jenna’s eyes traced the contours of the scene, the deliberate placement of Roger’s body.“The killer’s evolving,” she said to Jake.The tableau wasn’t just morbid; it was intentional, even symbolic.

“These killings seem deeply personal,” Jake commented.“This wasn’t the random act of a deranged mind; this was calculated, a killer with a vendetta.”

Jenna turned away from Roger’s body.Her resolve hardened, much like the flinty Ozark stones beneath their feet.“Didn’t Roger live alone here after his wife died?”she asked Spelling.“Who found the body?And when?”

“Yes, he lived here alone,” Spelling’s answer came crisply.“It was Deke Bader who found him—Roger’s longtime friend and farmhand.He arrived just before dawn, as he apparently does every morning.”

Deke Bader—Jenna knew him as a fixture in the community, recognized for his reliability and strong work ethic.He had even been at last night’s town meeting.

“I need to speak with him now,” she decided out loud.

With a nod, Spelling pivoted on his heel and ushered them towards the Bates farmhouse, where Jenna noticed that the porch swing had been roped off with yellow tape.

“We think Bates was snatched right from the swing,” Spelling said, noticing Jenna’s shift of attention.

“But how?”Jenna asked.

“Deke can tell you about that,” Spelling said, turning away.“He’s in the kitchen.I need to go check with my team.Give me a yell if you need me.”

Jenna and Jake continued on into the old farmhouse.They found Deke seated at the kitchen table, a portrait of anguish in the neat, orderly surroundings.Deke was a man in his sixties with a face lined with the tracks of grief and time.His hands, rough and weathered from years of labor, were wrapped around a mug that seemed too delicate for such a grip.His eyes, reddened from tears, flickered up to meet Jenna’s, then quickly skittered away, returning to the dark liquid of his coffee.

“Deke, may I sit?”Jenna began, tempering her voice to a gentle timbre.

Deke didn’t respond as if he hadn’t heard.Jenna felt a pang of sympathy for the shock that had consumed him.Without waiting for an answer, she pulled out a chair and sat opposite the grieving man.

“Can you walk me through what happened this morning?”she asked, speaking the words gently.

The old farmhand’s response was laced with the gravel of raw emotion, each word seeming to carve itself from his throat.“I drive out here every morning before dawn.Been doing it for years.”He cleared his throat, looking past Jenna as if trying to see into a normal day, one untouched by tragedy.“Roger always has breakfast ready for both of us before we start work.”

Jenna watched as Deke gathered himself, his hands clenched around the coffee mug.“But this morning...I found him out there, on Marie’s grave.”He looked up, his eyes searching Jenna’s.“God, Sheriff, who would do something like this?”

“When was the last time you saw him alive?”Jenna probed, her eyes never leaving Deke’s face.

“At the town meeting last night.He and I talked a little about what happened to Clyde, said we’d talk some more about it this morning.”

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