Page 44 of Her Frozen Heart

“He was probably assaulted.” Blanchard sat back on her knees. “There appears to be external injuries around the rectum, but I’ll have to confirm at autopsy.”

“Is there any obvious sign of death on any of them? If these are execution-style murders, then different sexes aren’t as much of an issue.” Nikki heard the worry in her own voice. Nothing about the bodies suggested something as merciful as execution. They appeared to have been beaten and tortured, most likely raped.

“These two have marks suggesting asphyxiation,” Blanchard said, gesturing to the couple in the body bag. “But I need to confirm that on autopsy.”

“I can’t tell you anything definite about the skeletal remains right now, either,” Willard said. “Finding cause of death is going to be difficult at best.”

Both doctors shook their heads. “Hopefully we will find it once they’re X-rayed.”

“Look at the body bag,” Blanchard said. “That’s either blood or fecal matter. The latter happens with decomposition, but bleeding out of this area doesn’t unless there’s trauma.”

“If he was sexually assaulted, the bleeding would stop after he was killed,” Nikki said.

“Yes, but the body’s still going to expel any fluid. He could have had an ulcer or something, but his wrists and hands are still bound with some kind of wire. I’ll see if I can find any trace of semen or spermicide from a condom. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell more on autopsy.”

Courtney peered over Blanchard’s shoulder. “What are all of those granules? It looks like there are some in all of the bags. I found something similar with Kesha, although the water had liquidized most of it.”

Blanchard picked up a handful of the granules and sniffed. “My bet is Neutrolene. The smell’s just barely noticeable, but we use it so much it’s ingrained in my memory.”

“Now that’s a smart criminal.” Willard shook her head.

“What’s Neutrolene?” Nikki asked.

“A godsend,” Blanchard said. “It’s an organic odor neutralizer used in funeral homes, hospitals, refrigerated morgues—any place that deals with death. It’s the only thing I know of that doesn’t mask the odor—it actually neutralizes it, and it works.”

“Please tell me you can’t buy that on Amazon too,” Miller said.

“No, but anyone can purchase it off Neutrolene’s site. Gas stations are starting to use it in restrooms. I’ve suggested it to a couple of friends with pet odor issues, and that’s what they did.”

“It works on pet odors?” Courtney asked. “Surely not cat urine? That’s its own molecular beast.”

“My friend claims it does, and so do a lot of reviews,” Blanchard said. “It’s a powerful product. And it wasn’t introduced until 2012. I was doing my fellowship as a pathologist, and the difference it made was incredible.”

“It looks like there are granules with every victim except the one wrapped in the towel,” Nikki said.

“I’ll test the towel for it,” Courtney said. “Can you tell the sex of the partial skeleton?”

Willard looked up from examining the remains. “No, not without testing. Given the number of bones missing, don’t count on dental records, either. I’m only seeing a partial jaw.”

“The dog scented this site, even though five out of the six are in body bags with the odor neutralizer,” Miller said. “Can a dog sniff out old skeletal remains after more than a decade?”

“They’re training cadaver dogs to work on archeological sites,” Willard said. “A few years ago in Croatia, a trained cadaver dog led researchers to a site dating back to about seven hundred B.C. Even if the dog did follow the scent Sheriff Miller gave him, it’s fully capable of sniffing out all six of these—even with the Neutrolene. It’s made for our noses, not animals’.”

“We need to prioritize dental records,” Nikki said. “The sooner we identify them, the better. Victims’ remains always tell a story about their killer.”

The story these victims told scared the hell out of Nikki. Assuming Willard was correct about the age of the remains in the towel, they were dealing with someone who came back years later to bury more victims. That told Nikki that he was not only a local, comfortable enough to move around without drawing attention, but the older remains could very well hold the key to the killer’s identity. This wasn’t the only place to dispose of his victims, which meant he’d come back to Washington County and this location because this first victim meant enough to their killer that he’d remembered where he’d buried her, something many serial murderers forget over time, because the disposal wasn’t important to them. It was the control and power over the victim that mattered. Disposal was about not getting caught.

They were dealing with the rarest kind of monster, and Nikki needed all the help she could get.

FIFTEEN

Nikki stepped out of the tent to get some air and try to clear her mind. She’d worked several serial cases and countless other homicides. She’d seen men and women killed together and whole families wiped out. She racked her brain trying to think of sexually motivated serials who had sought out both men and women to rape and murder. None came to mind, but maybe the cold and shock were just numbing her memory.

Ramirez killed men and women, but he’d only raped women and young girls. Dahmer, Gacy, Nilsen, and Bonin, better known as the Freeway Killer, had raped and killed men and boys, but not women. Spree and mass murderers were different beasts entirely. Rader—known as BTK—had raped and killed women, as had Bundy, the Hillside Stranglers, and so many more serial killers.

The longer she tried to think of names, the more confused she felt. There had to be precedence for a killer like this. She took her phone out and called Liam.

“This is bad,” she burst out before he finished saying “hello.” “There’s at least one man in the pit, buried with a woman. We don’t know about sexual assault yet, but it’s likely. None of the victims appear to have been shot. I sent photos over the secure server.” Her chest felt tight with anxiety.

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