“It’s all in a day’s work.” The sheriff disconnected.
After Rowley sent the messages, his phone buzzed. It was Deputy Zac Rio. “Yeah.”
“I have something.” Zac sounded excited. “Come take a look.”
Rowley headed out of Sheriff Alton’s old office and went to Rio’s desk. His partner was scrolling through images he’d taken on their trip to and from the crime scene. After finding Harris’ vehicle, they’d arranged for it to be towed to the ME’s office and then decided to view the crime scene. They’d taken the track most likely traveled by June and Payton Harris to the campsite. They’d split up and searched all around. He’d found nothing of great interest along the way. The odd energy bar wrapper tossed onto the forest floor without thought of the environment had caught his eye, but Rio had a different tilt on things and had gone deep into the forest, coming back with soil samples. He stared over Rio’s shoulder at the images. “Did you find anything interesting?”
“Maybe.” Rio scrolled through the images and stopped. “When we were approaching the campsite, I noticed a few holes in the tree trunks. Not a lot but the odd few, plus in some places the forest floor had been disturbed.”
Rowley shrugged. “If they’d been of consequence, Wolfe would have noted them in the crime scene report.”
“Yeah, but these are in an area up to fifty yards from the campsite. On the opposite side of the river. It was a hunch. I looked in the area just over where the river flows under the rock formation. It looked disturbed, so I took some images and walked around some.” Rio turned to look up at him. “I have the ability to process all the information I see at once. It’s like seeing a jigsaw puzzle come together.” He pointed at the screen. “These marks on the trees and ground are progressive. They move away from the crime scene and are spaced almost uniformly. The hunter was collecting his arrows or bolts as he went.”
“Okay.” Rowley looked closer. “I can see that, so why is that unusual? Bolts are expensive and most hunters retrieve them.”
“At first I thought the person doing this was a bad shot, now I’m thinking he was herding something to a better place to kill it.” He shrugged. “Do hunters do that?”
Rowley shook his head. “No, they’d make the shot before the animal moved away. What else did you find?”
“I found what could have been blood.” Rio leaned back in his chair and smiled. “That’s the sample we dropped into Wolfe. He called before and verified it’s human blood. Right now, he’s running it against the ear found at the sheriff’s ranch. If it’s a match, we’ll have to wait for a positive ID on June Harris, but we’ll know someone was hunting a human up there and injured them.” He looked up at Rowley. “I think we need to talk to Jenna.”
Rowley nodded. “Let’s go.”
They headed up the staircase leading to Jenna’s new office. The second floor now housed the evidence room and locker rooms with showers, and toilets. It added a new level of security for the team. Rowley knocked on Jenna’s door. “Rio has information.”
“If it’s about the break-in at my ranch, you’ll need to speak to Kane.” Jenna dropped a pen into the old chipped mug with Welcome to Hawaii on the side and looked up at him. “If it’s about the Harris murder, you can speak to me but if we discover that Riley Adams is involved in both cases, I’ll have to stand down and let Kane take the lead.” She leaned back in her chair. “He should be back soon. He’s chasing down search warrants for the suspect we have in custody.”
“It’s more about June Harris.” Rio explained his theory. “I figure we need to concentrate the search from the campsite back up to Bear Peak. From what I could surmise, the blood seemed to be heading in that direction. We really need an experienced tracker to take a look at the evidence I found and go from there.”
“Hmm, interesting.” Jenna stared at him. “Kane and Atohi Blackhawk took the dogs and lost June Harris’ trail at the edge of the river. Both are excellent trackers. Where exactly did you find the blood?” She raised a dark eyebrow. “I hope you marked everything clearly?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rio went to the whiteboard and drew a map of the forest trails with amazing accuracy. “I found it here. I figure if a tracker heads from here in the general direction, he might pick up a trail. I went as far as I could see any blood spots and then it just stopped. I didn’t push on in case I destroyed evidence.”
“Could you smell anything?” Jenna drummed her fingers on the desktop. “If there was a corpse close by, you’d smell it.”
“Nope. I called out but heard nothing.” Rio passed her his iPad. “These are the images I took of the scene. It’s not much to go on, but as it’s human blood, it might be significant.”
“Good work.” Jenna stood and, using her phone, took a photograph of the map. “The last report I had from search and rescue and the other teams is they found no trace of her. They’ve been concentrating along the trails and have been searching the rivers and lakes as well, in case she fell into the water somewhere. I’ll contact Atohi and if he’s available, I’ll need you both to head up there with him first thing in the morning.”
Rowley shuffled his feet. They had a suspect in custody and someone would be needed to stay with him. “What about Adams?”
“Sam Cross will be here at five, and knowing him, he’ll have him out by six, but I’ve asked Deputy Walters if he’s willing to come in from six to midnight to watch our suspect should
we need to keep him overnight, and I have a relief deputy on standby from Louan for the second shift. I’ll be here to take over by seven if the need arises.” She looked from one to the other. “There’s nothing to keep you back. Head off home at five and I’ll see you in the morning.” She reached for her phone and then looked at Rowley. “How is Sandy?”
Rowley smiled at her. “Everything is going along just fine. The doctor says to expect the babies the end of January.” He laughed. “I hope she doesn’t decide to have them in the middle of a blizzard.”
“Me too.” Jenna chuckled. “Unfortunately, when it comes to babies arriving, when they’ve made up their minds it’s time, their moms don’t have much choice.”
Twenty-Six
The case Jenna’s team had compiled against Riley Adams gained momentum the moment Kane walked into her office with the search warrants. She stood and took them from him, scanning the pages. “Oh, you have gotten everything you asked for. This is amazing.” She smiled up at him. “I figure Wolfe will want to be on scene. I’ll give him a call. As I need to keep a low profile in this case, I’ll give you the pleasure of serving them on Adams.”
“Maybe they’ll wipe the smile off his face.” Kane collected the documents from her and tapped them into a neat pile. “I’ll give them to him when his lawyer gets here.”
“I hope this is our guy. I guess at some point in our murder investigations we’re due for a break.” Jenna leaned against her desk. “Rowley and Rio discovered evidence of a possible struggle some ways from the murder scene.” She filled him in with the details. “Wolfe is running the DNA from the ear attached to my house against the blood Rio found. I’ve contacted Atohi and he’ll get a group of trackers together to hunt down June Harris. He’s meeting Rowley and Rio at first light out at Bear Peak.”
The phone on Jenna’s desk buzzed and she lifted the receiver. “Sheriff Alton.”