Page 16 of A Touch of Murder
"So, you're a believer now?" Vance arched a brow.
"Not fully, but I admit there's something about what he does I can't explain. He's too accurate not to take him seriously. Hewas either at the scene or can somehow see what happened there. I can't begin to wrap my head around it."
"Have you checked where he was the night Trina was taken?" Vance asked.
"No, but I will. It still won't explain how he knew about Roy, or the claims my sister has that he helped her several times. He can't be everywhere at once to see everything going on." Barret stared at the whiteboard. "So, we know she clocked out of work at one-forty-one in the morning, and she probably took two to three minutes to walk to where her car was parked. She would have been on her own as soon as she left the main gate of the drive-in. According to Adam, she was in her car when they attacked her. We found her keys on the floor of the car, so she hadn't started it or if she had, they pulled the keys out. We haven't found any prints, but I want to doublecheck things like her wallet and purse. Adam claims he saw the second guy not wearing gloves as he went through her things in the car. Have we got a match on the tire marks we found next to hers?"
"No matches, but we're hoping. Our team sent prints off to some specialist who is good at identifying partial tire prints. He's backlogged but hopefully will get to ours quickly since it's now a murder investigation." Vance sighed. "She was found partially dressed. She had her uniform shirt on, but nothing from the waist down. Her shoes were found near her body but appear to have been thrown there. Her hands were zip tied behind her back."
"Autopsy?" Barret didn't want to hear, but he needed to know.
"She was sexually assaulted. Died from asphyxiation. Bruising around her neck from where someone strangled her. It looks as if someone used her as a punching bag. Bruising and cuts all over her body. Medical Examiner think a small pocketknife was used for some of the wounds. Not deep enoughto be stab wounds. More like someone was just barely slicing her to cause pain." Vance shook his head. "I really hope the Wilsons don't request a copy of the autopsy report."
"What about lab work, D.N.A.?"
"Waiting for it to come back. Could take a few weeks. The body should be here sometime tomorrow."
"Good," Barret said. "Adam has offered to try and read the body to get us more evidence. He won't guarantee anything, but I figure it's worth a shot. A chance at information is better than no information. I just hate we can't use anything he says in court."
"No, but we'll work our way around that. Did Adam's description of the man sound familiar to you?"
"Not a bit. Could be anyone traveling through but didn't sound like any locals I know. Doesn't mean it wasn't someone close, and I just didn't think about them yet." Barret pointed to a photo with what appeared to be oil that they'd found puddled near Trina's car. "We should be getting labs back on the oil, right?"
"They said no more than two weeks, so yeah, we should be seeing it anytime." Vance stretched his arms over his head. "I don't know where to go with this. We've been staring at the same evidence for two weeks now. Something has to break. Did you ask Adam to read the body?"
"Hell no. I wouldn't have ever thought of that. I'm still working out how he can touch an object and get a read, let alone a body. He suggested it. Said he'd done it before. I told him I'd have to run it by the family and Captain Russel, but it was fine with me. I'll take any help we can get." Barret went to his desk and sat down. "Any idea why Adam gets so thirsty after a read? He downed four bottles of water, and I swear he probably drank more after I left."
"No idea. I didn't know about that until we watched him read that glove for Mrs. Anderson. When he was done, he looked exhausted. Did you ask him?"
"He said he didn't know why it happened, just that water and sugar help him get his strength back once he's done. I guess any excuse for chocolate is a good one." Barret stared at his computer. "I need to contact the family and ask if it's okay for Adam to see the body. Do I wait until tomorrow when it gets here or call today?"
"Give them today to grieve. We just confirmed her death yesterday. You'll have to set it up with the mortuary as well and you can't do that until the body gets here. Old Man Farley sent his son down to pick up the body, but he'll tell us to back off until he has custody of it here." Vance turned as officers Little and Steller walked in. "Did you get Jefferson's cows off the road?"
"It's the third time this week. More if you count what night shift has dealt with. I swear I'm ready to go out and fix his fence myself." Officer Little went to his desk. "And of course I have to write another report about his damn cows."
"At least this time we did get to write him a ticket. Not that it will do any good. Alfred was already drinking and it's barely noon. No sign of his son. He's probably still in bed sleeping it off. It's his wife who runs that place, but she can only do so much. At this point, they're better selling the whole place." Officer Steller walked over and looked at the whiteboard. "I keep hoping I'll walk in here and find the board erased."
"So do I," Barret said. Erasing the board would mean the case was solved or moved to a cold case file. They'd bring in another board if they needed to work on another case. This one would stay up for as long as they had leads coming in.
"My son and I hiked every night after I got off work, looking for her. This wasn't the outcome we wanted." Officer Steller looked at the photo the family had given them of Trina whenshe'd first gone missing. "My son had several classes with her. They'd gone to some dance together back in their freshman year. He was upset when I told him they'd found her. I guess the kids at school are planning a memorial for her. They'll gather for a candlelight vigil on the football field. And I guess the drive-in theater is going to show Trina's favorite two movies one night this weekend."
"That's good of them. I interviewed a lot of her friends right after she went missing. Seems everyone liked her." Vance moved to his desk. "We'll get funeral plans in a day or two."
"Any new leads?"
"Waiting on labs." Barret sighed.
"Adam Wrecker gave us some info, but we can't use that as evidence. He's going to sit down with a sketch artist," Vance told everyone.
"He's that guy that is psychic, right?" Officer Little asked.
"I guess that's what they call it. He doesn't talk to the dead or anything, but he sees things when he touches items they used. Weird stuff, but if he can help us, I'm willing to listen." Vance smiled over at Barret. "Whitestone here is still struggling to trust what Adam does."
Officer Little laughed. "We've all been there, but I don't know of a single time he's told anyone something false. My mother wanted to know the history of a vase she inherited. Adam told her it came from England and had been inside some castle. Well, Mom got digging into the history of that castle and sure enough, she found a photo taken when the castle was up for sale around nineteen-fifty, and the vase was in the photo. We still don't know how my grandmother got the vase, but at least Mom knows the history behind it."
Barret sighed. "Does anyone have a story where he got it wrong?"
The room was silent.
