Page 66 of Little Girls Sleeping
Giving the emergency vehicles some space, she parked a little ways from the crime scene, noting that the CSI van was already at the location. Then she and McGaven exited the SUV and headed to the area of interest.
The air was extremely cool in the shroud of dense trees. It was a place where the sun rarely penetrated, leaving the surrounding area smelling of moss and wet earth. Katie couldn’t detect any unusual sounds, or even the familiar birds that usually nested in the area.
She stepped to the side to allow the CSI technicians space to perform documentation. Jamie and Don worked seamlessly, as one located the evidence and the other photographed it. For now, the evidence and the body were to remain undisturbed until the investigating detectives had a chance to view everything in place. Generally, one detective identified what they saw and another wrote it down, then they would change roles. Katie knew that Templeton wasn’t going to involve her, but that was okay. She would train McGaven in the procedure.
The CSI team retreated, allowing the detectives to move in with the least amount of cross-contamination possible.
McGaven moved forward, but Katie caught his sleeve. “Let them investigate first,” she whispered. She meant Templeton’s team. “It’s okay. Once they’re gone, it’ll be easier for us without it getting combative and disruptive.”
McGaven nodded, but he was restless, having difficulty standing still.
Katie decided to take a longer-range view of the crime scene as she waited. She moved deeper into the forest, followed by a curious McGaven. She wanted to evaluate the scene with her senses first. It was a technique she had used in the field during her searches with Cisco. Honing her hearing and sense of smell gave her valuable survival skills, and made her more in tune with the surroundings.
She closed her eyes. At first she heard the conversations from the CSI team, and Templeton’s distinctive voice. Taking deep, even breaths, she began to relax and become intertwined in the moment, and the voices grew distant, becoming a nonsensical buzz.
When they’d arrived, she had thought there was no wind, but now she could hear a slight breeze moving through the trees, cooling the area a degree or two. It was a place of almost complete solitude.
Interesting choice of location.
It occurred to Katie that the location had been picked by someone who knew the area well—just as with the gravesite. The perpetrator wouldn’t be easily seen, but the body would be found quickly. It confirmed the reason for this exact location.
Why on top of the ground instead of buried in a coffin?
“Do you think the killer needed to dispose of the body quickly and didn’t have time to make a coffin?” asked McGaven, as if he had heard Katie’s thoughts.
“No,” she said. “He’s toying with us. Letting us know that he’sin charge by changing up his M.O. He’s trying to run us around.”
“How do you know?”
“By the location and timing. He wants to keep us concentrating on the latest murder and not the previous ones,” she explained.
McGaven didn’t say anything, but it was clear that he was pondering everything she told him, and perhaps adding a few opinions of his own.
As Katie walked a little distance into the trees, she discovered a small dirt-and-gravel parking lot for hikers. It wasn’t large, but it would accommodate three to four cars. She turned and walked slowly back toward the crime scene, careful to notice anything out of the ordinary that the killer might have dropped.
“Wait,” she announced, looking down. She put out her right arm to stop McGaven from going any further. “Hey, I’ve found something over here!” she yelled.
Everyone looked in her direction.
Katie saw Blackburn approaching carrying official evidence bags, both plastic and paper.
“Over there,” she said. “It looks like a kitchen towel, and I don’t think it’s been there long.”
Blackburn quickly took a photograph of the location, and then a close-up, before gathering the evidence. Turning back to his team, he ordered, “Jamie, search this area. Let’s give it an extra circumference, double it up.” He smiled and nodded at Katie.
Katie returned to where the body was.
“So what do you think, Detective Scott?” asked Templeton. There was a hiss in his words.
“Specifically?” she countered.
“What do you see?” he inquired with mild interest.
Katie kneeled down and took her first proper look at the body. She had been purposely avoiding it because she wanted her objectivity to be untainted and to have a clear initial impression.
The little girl was lying on her back, clothed in a green-and-blue spring dress, perfectly washed and ironed. There was no immediate indication of trauma to the body. No blood, bruising, or visible injuries. Her long chestnut-colored hair was braided and lay evenly past her shoulders, tied with a yellow ribbon. The bow loops were almost identical in length. Her arms were wrapped around a brown teddy bear with a thicker yellow ribbon tied neatly around its neck. It was difficult to tell at first glance that the child was indeed dead—she could’ve been sleeping.
“Well?” asked Templeton.
