Page 60 of Investigate Away
Jenna glanced in his direction. “That your girlfriend stirred up some shit, and the killer isn’t happy she’s back.”
“This isn’t her fault,” Jag said with a tight jaw.
“No shit, Chief,” Jenna said. “I was saying that maybe she’s a trigger for a killer that she spent the majority of her career covering, but mostly I wanted to hear you admit she’s your girlfriend.”
“Five years, to be exact.” He chose to ignore the girlfriend comment. He could only hope that were the case. “But we also have to consider that it’s more likely we have a copycat.”
“Agreed,” Jenna said as she parked the police vehicle behind the sheriff’s car.
Jag stretched before he made his way up the walkway toward where DeSantis and two other uniformed officers stood.
“Jesus,” Jenna muttered, covering her mouth and nose.
Jag did the same.
“Thanks for coming,” Officer Carlos DeSantis said with an outstretched hand.
“Happy to help,” Jag said. “How long do we think the body has been in there?”
“It was rented on the eighth of the month,” DeSantis said.
“That was the day before Ajax’s going away party,” Jag said.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Jenna asked.
“Probably nothing.” Jag planted his hands on his hips and scanned the immediate area, trying to get a feel for the neighborhood. Of course, he’d been in this general area many times. It was a quiet seaside town, just like every little place on Whidbey. “Just grounding myself.” He turned his head and took a deep breath of fresh air. “All right. Let’s get this over with.”
“Follow me,” DeSantis said. “I’ve called in the medical examiner and CSI. They are en route. I thought I’d wait to call Seattle PD until I talked to you since you were the lead on most of the Trinket Killer cases.”
He’d come out to the island to get away from all the insanity that the Trinket Killer had brought to his life, and he’d thought he found a nice quiet little life for himself.
So much for carefully laid plans.
Of course, he thought he’d be married by now with maybe a baby on the way.
Wishful thinking.
He pulled his dark shirt up over his mouth. There were no words to describe a corpse. People tried, using words like rotten eggs. Or urine-soaked clothes left out in the sun for days.
The stench was ten times worse than both of those combined, and it filled your lungs, clinging to the sides, taking hours to expel.
Jenna held the department camera and snapped a few pictures as they made their way to the back bedroom.
“The body was laid out on the bed. Left arm stretched out and right arm resting over the midsection. Head is turned slightly to the left. The victim’s long blond hair has been brushed and styled,” DeSantis said.
Jag could have done without constant commentary. He stepped into the bedroom and did his best not to breathe. He stepped to the left side of the bed and leaned over.
Sure enough, there was a rose gold raven trinket in the left hand, and the victim was wearing a mood ring.
And the victim’s face was bashed in, so he couldn’t even get an image to run through a recognition program.
All the other women had been twisted to their right, not left. Their bodies weren’t shaped exactly the same way.
Except for Renee and Stephanie, who also had impeccable hair.
But the one thing he noticed about Stephanie’s was that it wasn’t a style she would normally wear. Kara had said Renee’s hair was the way she wore it all the time.
He was going to have to compare hair styles of the living.
