I woke up in the early morning from a call about a new body. Images of the woman appeared back into my mind. Did I dream of her, or was I just remembering the horrible scene I witnessed yesterday?
Never had Leweys been the home of something so horrible. There had been deaths in the past, and a murder five years ago, but it was rare in the small town. The only thing that could come close to the body was Daniel being found at the lake. Everyone knew about Daniel’s death. All the kids my age grew up into adults, taking the somber event with them, but the younger kids- they passed it down like a scary campfire story and Jen and Daniel became the local urban legend among them. Kids from the lake towns cherished the story like it was their only outlet to action and suspense in their small-town life. Some even visited Leweys just to see my old high school and the diner as if they were going to find out what happened to Jennifer or see a shrine of some sort about Daniel. If they ever had the balls to ask me about it, I would just tell them to read a book or two and take a hike.
I pinned my deputy badge onto my uniform and rolled up my sleeves, revealing a scar on my arm I had in a hiking accident a while back. Back when I was young and more reckless. I pulled up my long blonde hair into a ponytail and tucked it through the whole in my plain green cap. It wasn’t a standard issue hat, but the sheriff let it slide.
I grabbed an energy bar and shoved it into my pockets before heading towards the door, but I tripped before exiting my small house.
Underneath my legs was a small pile of dinosaurs and stuffed animals. Sighing, I swept them up into my arms and dumped them onto my couch, deciding to save the mess for my next weekend with Paul. I’d have to teach that boy a thing or two about cleaning up after his messes. I only hoped Kevin wasn’t living in a landmine of plastic dinosaurs, drawing tools, and playthings, since he was the one who had full custody over our son.
The drive back to the site was silent, and I tried to keep my mind from wandering to Paul. Being a mother made me feel differently about cases I oversaw. To think someone’s child could turn into that…I shivered and turned up the heat, knowing it wouldn’t help warm me against the chills I got.
Pulling up to the site in the early morning added a whole new atmosphere to the case. The facts about what had happened were colder than the morning air that made my chest feel tighter than usual. A fog hovered among the pine trees, but I didn’t give in to the childish thoughts of phantoms or the ghost of Daniel Webber.
“A new body? Is it… the same?” I asked the coroner, the same man who had hovered over the woman yesterday. I tried not looking over his shoulder, but he beckoned me to approach.
I would have to see it one or another if I were to truly work on the case.
“Don’t worry, this one’s definitely a skeleton now. But yes, same M.O., opened all the way up from the torso.”
I walked closer to the body and found what he had said was true. The skeleton was still partially covered in dirt and stained from years exposed to the mountain soil. The rib cage was open like a set of gates, the bones reaching up to the sky while their hands remained to their side.
“Their sex? Will we able to identify them through dental records?”
“I can’t be certain, depending on if they had any mouth work done back in their day, or if the records are even there. But I can tell you that this skeleton likely belonged to an adult female, maybe around their twenties,” He gestured at the position of the pelvis and the opening that could have been used in childbirth.
“This case just got more complicated,” I sighed, “Thanks. Has the other victim been identified yet?”
He looked at me in a new regard, eyes wide, like he had just remembered a secret, one that I wasn’t in on.
“You should probably go to the morgue yourself. It’s better you hear it from my colleague. They’ll have more information for you.”
I looked at him skeptically, but left him, deciding to wait on until the morgue. The way he looked at me made me feel imbalanced. I didn’t like it one bit.
The sun began rising on my drive and I arrived at the morgue at a decent time, not wanting to waste anymore seconds. Now I had two victims, same M.O. and I did not want to find a third.
“Give me to it straight June,” I walked into the room, the body on one table and another table empty, ready to receive the other victim.
An old woman looked up from her clipboard and smiled at me, her tight wrinkled pink lips curled up, but her eyes saddened.
“My dense husband of mine sent you to me with nothing, didn’t he?”
I nodded and she brought up one of the lab chairs.
“Would you take a seat sweetie?”
“Why…?” I questioned, not liking where the conversation had turned.
I asked people to sit when I had bad news to tell them. When I had to inform a family member about a death.
“Sit.” She wasn’t the sheriff of Lewisville, but I followed her order just the same.
“It’s Jen dear. We finally found her after all these years.”
“Oh God,” I gasped. I glad that my ass was in the seat.
She’d been here… the whole time…when I wished she had run off and escaped the murder of Daniel…when I pretended that she was in college under a fake name, living her life somewhere on the west coast- She was here the whole time. She had been killed and/or tortured and who knows what, then buried in the mountains that overlooked our small town. I cried over her for the first time in years and I looked at the decomposing body, no longer a stranger to the soul it had carried.
June rested her ungloved hand on my back, rubbing it in circles, just like my mother had done to me in that summer, eighteen years ago.
“Are you going to be ok sweetie?” She offered me a glass of water, but I didn’t feel like drinking anything.
“I will be,” I stood and took a deep breath. “I’ll find who did this. Make sure her identity remains a secret, alright? No one else not on the case can know, alright June?”
The old woman nodded and returned to her clipboard.
“Here’s all the information I got off of her. You aren’t going to try and solve this all by yourself honey? Sheriff Hollar and his partners back in the day could never find out who killed Daniel- “
“I won’t be alone- at least, I hope. This case might be serial and it’s time this town asks for outside help on this case. Maybe we’ll actually receive it now that more bodies are connected.”
I look at Jennifer one last time. I’ll have to inform her mother.
With heavy shoulders and drying tears, I walked out of the decrepitly clean morgue, forming up a summary and proposition for help.
243Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJ0YmQNHsS
“We got a case,” a blonde agent walked out of her office and called over to the agents in the BAU.
“What is it? Where are we going now?” David Rossi spoke up once they entered the debriefing room and seated himself at the table.
“Lewisville, Montana. They’ve just discovered two bodies with the same M.O, and it seems the younger one was connected to murder case that was never solved.”
“How long ago was it?” Dr. Spencer Reid asked, his hands already pushed together in deep thought.
“The murder case was eighteen years ago and involved a missing person. That missing person is one of the bodies that turned up.”
“Are you sure this is the best case we could be working on?” The leader of the team spoke up. Hotch wasn’t doubting her ability to choose, but they had to make sure it was the right one. The most pressing one with the most imminent threat.
“From the age difference between victims, it seems like they were killed the same number of years apart. If the killer is a local in the small town, it’s likely he’s heard about it by now. Plus, this year is around the time he’s most likely to kill again if he hasn’t already.”
“Alright, good work. Wheels up in 30,” Hotch stated, initiating the start of a new case.
They had a four-hour flight ahead of them.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
