Page 15 of Good Girls Don't Cry

Jenna followed him and they all peered at a single puncture wound in the victim’s back. She watched as Rowley bent closer, with one hand clamped to his face mask.

“I’ll need to look closer once I get back to the morgue but that doesn’t resemble a gunshot.” Wolfe frowned and glanced at Kane.

“A bullet large enough to make a hole like that would have gone right through and blasted a hole the size of my fist out the front.” Kane shook his head. “Not a bullet.”

“Nope, that’s the typical wound I’d see in bowhunting.” Rowley stood slowly. “This guy went overboard. From the size of the wound, the victim was hit with a broadhead arrow with a head size of 125 grains.”

As Rowley’s passion was bowhunting and competition, Jenna had an expert standing beside her. She looked at him. “What kind of arrows are we looking at, Jake?”

“A few types but I’d say maybe the FMJ Dangerous Game or the Carbon Express Piledriver Pass Thru Extreme, although I figure the FMJ would be closer to what I’m seeing.” He glanced around at the trees. “I don’t see any marks from retrieved arrows and these would leave a decent hole. This guy is a marksman if he took her down in a single shot.”

“You’d assume she was running for her life.” Kane looked at him. “It’s a straight trail but has roots all over, so I’d imagine she’d be moving from side to side. You’d be able to make the shot, right?”

“That would depend on the light.” Rowley frowned. “It was a full moon last night and this is a wide trail, so yeah. I’d make the shot, but it wouldn’t be easy.” He indicated to the body. “That is a kill shot. The arrow would have passed straight through the heart and embedded in the sternum. Getting it out wouldn’t have been easy.”

“Look at this.” Wolfe rolled the body onto its back and lifted the front of the T-shirt.

Jenna moved closer. The killer had scratched the words “not mine” deep into the skin. She looked at Kane. “Another message. What does this mean?”

“I figure he’ll kill them all until he makes his point.” Kane shook his head. “We need to be looking at the cases he’s copying and search for anything that could possible connect them.”

Frowning, Jenna shook her head. “This time, I figure you’re wrong, Dave.” She stared into the forest and then her attention rested on Wolfe. “These are our cases, right? Most of our cases are multiple homicides, so I’m guessing this guy is telling us we made a mistake with at least one of the victims.” She chewed on her bottom lip. Did I make a mistake? Did I have the wrong man convicted for murder?

Seventeen

Glacial Heights

“Don’t you dare turn around.” Emily’s voice came through the rush of water.

The night with Emily had been interesting and Raven wondered if she knew she made these cute noises when she slept, like sighs of contentment. He kept sweeping his gaze across the forest searching for bears. He’d noticed bear scat alongside this stream and behind him Emily was bathing in a small waterfall—naked and vulnerable. He shrugged. She’d insisted on bathing and changing her clothes. He’d been more interested in finding a way out. He’d explained they might be trapped here for days, and she washed her underwear and hung them from the windows in his truck.

They’d only moved a few hundred yards when he’d spotted the stream. It wasn’t deep but the small waterfall feeding it came from high in the mountains. He collected water and treated it with one of the pills he aways carried with him. He had a few supplies, and had added to them before he’d left, but they wouldn’t last more than a day. He’d need to hunt for food, and although Emily enjoyed meat, she refused to kill anything. He could hear her argument buzzing in his ears.

Do you want to put the stores out of business?

He’d explained that every hunting season most men in town would go and bag an elk or similar to last them through winter. It was what people did in Black Rock Falls. Her argument was that Kane had all his meat delivered from a cattle ranch. He ate only prime beef, and she believed it was the right thing to do. He tried to concentrate on anything but Emily and stared at the white cloud still blanketing the tops of the trees. It was a little better. An hour ago he couldn’t risk driving it was so thick.

“Ah… Raven. Don’t turn around.” Emily’s voice came out in a squeak.

He stared at his boots. “What?”

“I don’t have a towel.” She cleared her throat. “Do you have anything I can dry myself on?”

He bit back a grin. “Nope. When I’m out alone, I just let the wind dry me.” He strolled to the back of the truck and opened it. He did have rolls of paper towels in a box with his camping gear and he did have a towel, but he’d used it a few times and she’d rather die than have his smell all over her. He dug out a roll of paper towels—he had three—and backing up, placed the roll on a flat rock beside the stream. “I’ll leave this here. I’m going to climb up the rockpile again and call Kane. He might be able to tell me what’s happening and how far the slide extends.”

“What if the bear comes back?” Emily’s voice quivered. “Do you really need to go right now?”

So she did need his protection. Raven shrugged. She’d been giving him a hard time all day. “You’re armed. Shoot into the air and it will run away—unless it’s a grizzly. You know the difference, right?” He snorted. “That’s right, they don’t have them in Texas, do they?”

“I know what a grizzly looks like.” Emily tore off sheets of paper. “I’ve lived here for seven years.”

Raven went to turn around and heard her squeak behind him. He stopped and kept his eyes to the front. How long would it take her to dry herself and dress? “One thing, if you refuse to eat anything I kill, we’ll need to ration the supplies. It might take days to get out of the forest and we have one day’s supplies and no coffee.”

“I need my cup of coffee.” Emily sighed. “Now I’ll be grumpy all day.”

He shook his head. “You’ll be fine. I’ll leave Ben to stand watch.” He gave his dog a hand signal. Ben dropped to the ground and whined. He hated being left behind, but Raven couldn’t risk taking him up the rockslide.

Striding away and heading for the pile of mangled trees, boulders, and loose soil, Raven picked his way around the edge, moving up away from the rock face. Small pebbles moved underfoot and his heart raced. One wrong step and the entire pile would slide again and bury him alive. It took ten minutes to get high enough to get a signal. The low cloud cover wasn’t helping either, but eventually Kane answered. “Hey, am I glad to hear your voice.”

---