“Oh, I see you’re angry.” Dr. Weaver glanced from one to the other. “I’m building a local tissue-typing database. I’ve been testing all viable patients. So many children die because they need a kidney and so many healthy people live in Black Rock Falls. I wanted to offer them the option of saving a life, is all.”
Jenna huffed out a breath, not believing what this woman was saying. “Without consent? That’s against the law and there’s already a worldwide database.”
“Well then I’m sorry.” Dr. Weaver peered over her glasses at Jenna. “I guess you’d better arrest me. But I meant no harm.”
Jenna looked down at her feet. The doctor did make a habit of treating uninsured people and taking her out of the community would cause hardship for some. The threat of this woman was melting like the snow on her boots. “I won’t arrest you this time but I’m confiscating the database, and all blood tests go via the ME’s office to be checked from now on.” She narrowed her gaze. “I could have you fired for this, you know.”
“Very well.” Dr. Weaver looked crushed.
“Show me the file.” Kane waved a hand toward the computer on the front desk. “Is it on there?”
“No, it’s in my office.” Weaver led the way. “I have a separate computer for the database.”
Jenna took a sheet of paper from the desk and wrote a declaration stating the doctor had given permission for them to confiscate the computer. “Sign this statement.”
The doctor complied and Jenna followed Kane out to his truck. As he dumped the laptop into the back seat, she picked up an unsettling vibe from him. “What’s up?”
“It’s not my place to say, ma’am.” Kane slid behind the wheel and started the engine.
Ma’am? Jenna climbed in beside him and turned to look at him. “Spit it out.”
“She broke the law and I would have arrested her.” He shrugged. “It was your call.”
“I have two reasons to leave her be for now.” Jenna leaned back in her seat. “She does help people and lives on practically nothing. You can see that too, right?”
“Nope.” Kane flicked her a glance. “I see a very dangerous scheming woman, a bottomless pit of contradictions. She uses the kindly doctor façade to fool people. I’m sure of it. So what’s your second reason?”
“I still have a bad feeling about her too and want to keep an eye on her.” Jenna noted the stubborn set to his jaw. “I want to know the real reason she heads out to Blackwater every Tuesday and see if she was really at the meat processing plant. I figure if I give her enough rope she’ll hang herself.”
“Hmm, maybe.” Kane pulled his hat down over his ears. “Where to now?”
Jenna scrolled through the files on her cellphone. “I think we’ll pay a visit to the proprietor of the meat processing plant. I have his details here. Wyatt Sawyer. He lives on Maple Drive and we can go via Stanton Road. If the plant is in shutdown, he could be at home.” She punched the address into the GPS.
“Wyatt Sawyer? Didn’t the guy at the junkyard have the same last name?” Kane swung the car around and headed back through town.
“Yeah, and he mentioned his cousin Wyatt holds a set of his keys.” She leaned back in the seat. “I guess it would be a stretch of the imagination to believe this guy is involved?”
“As the junkyard came up clean, we have no hard evidence against Bill Sawyer or any reason to suspect his cousin. If we start believing everyone is involved we’ll just be spinning our wheels.” Kane shrugged. “We’ll have to keep digging.”
“I’m thinking outside the box and considering every angle. Wyatt Sawyer works in the area and will be at the plant during the shutdown on the day they process cattle before Christmas. I’ll ask him how often he visits his place of business. He might have seen something.” Jenna pulled out her notebook and scanned the pages. “We’ve no bodies and Sky’s car has vanished. I figure the Axman has somewhere close to town to take his victims. It’d be risky moving them too far.” She shut the notebook. “We’ll interview Knox tomorrow and discover his whereabouts on the nights of the crimes. I know it’s like grabbing at smoke at the moment but the Axman will make a mistake soon enough, they all do. Until he does we’re all stuck with time-consuming grunt work.”
“An isolated place close to town?” Kane made a snort of what could have been amusement. “It would take us years to check all of them. He could have a survival shelter buried under his house or in his yard.” He took his eyes off the road for a second to look at her, and frowned. “We could be dealing with a man who keeps his victims alive then sells them as slaves, or someone who likes corpses as friends.”
Jenna rubbed both hands down her face in exasperation. She had never been so frustrated about a case before. Nothing seemed to make sense. “The complete lack of evidence is driving me crazy.”
“Something will show up. I look at crimes like the shredded pages of a story and we have to find all the pieces and stick them back together to find out what happened.” Kane slowed the truck to allow a couple of kids to cross the road to the park with their parents. “The hard part is finding the pieces.”
“Really, just figured that out, huh?” Jenna laughed. “How about, ‘Confucius says, “Life is like a riddle and we all play a part.” You’d agree with that, right?”
“Yeah. Seems our part is catching killers.” Kane grimaced, then turned into Stanton Road.
Forty
The beeps coming from the hospital machines roused Olivia from a deep sleep. She gasped and shook herself awake. Had she had a dream to escape the terrible reality of her situation? She swallowed hard, refusing to believe she had imagined walking through the dim corridors and finding nothing but a couple of rooms. Think. It felt so real, it must have happened. The last thing she remembered was being in a room with Doug then seeing Jim come through a door and pushing a gurney into Doug but after that, her memory was blank. A wall of fear closed in around her and she fought against the restraints holding her wrists tight against the bars alongside her bed. Pain seared through her as she tore the flesh and blood spotted the white sheets. She let out a scream that vibrated off the walls. “I want to get out of here!”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, tasting salty in her mouth. She sobbed and screamed again. “You have to let me out of here! I can’t stand this any longer.”
Apart from the beeps and hiss of the machines, it was so quiet. Could she be the only person in the building? She turned and stared at the curtains surrounding her bed. “Doug, are you here? Doug, please answer me.”