CHAPTER EIGHT
May couldn’t believe the shocking sight, as she and Owen rushed over to the shoreline. This situation felt like a horrendous repeat of what they'd just been through yesterday.
The scene was fifteen miles away from Fairshore, in a small town on the northwestern shore of the lake called Misty Vale.
But otherwise, everything was disturbingly similar. The same ambulance. The same police cars. The same crime scene tape, flapping in the breeze. The same hard look on Jack's face as he turned when she and Owen approached.
This time, in the gloomy daylight, the scene was even more difficult for May to take in.
Jack led them over to the crime scene tape that demarcated the body’s location. The lake felt hushed and silent, the somberness broken only by the crackle of radios and the muted murmurs of the police.
May stared down at the body of a young woman. She was on her back at the muddy edge of the lake. Her face was turned away.
She caught her breath as she saw the selfsame wound, a deep stab to the woman's heart.
Undoubtedly, this was the work of the same killer.
"Do we know her identity?" May asked in a soft voice.
They turned and paced back toward the road, leaving the rest of the team to do their work in examining and moving the body.
Jack nodded.
"We do. Her name is Shelby Ryan. She was a first-year student at Lakeside Technical College. But here's where it gets complicated. Shelby was reported missing two weeks ago."
"How long was she in the water?" May asked, feeling thoroughly confused. She didn't have a lot of experience in murder cases, but to her, the body hadn't looked the way it should have after an extended time in the lake.
"Not long. The pathologist has estimated a day at most," Jack confirmed. "Which adds a very troubling dimension, because it means that this killer might be holding his victims somewhere, for differing periods of time, before killing them."
May knew there was a possibility that Shelby could have run away, or been holed up with a boyfriend, and the killer targeted her more recently, but that was by far the less likely scenario.
Owen whistled. "That's - that's some sickness."
"It is," Jack said grimly.
"What did her parents say when they reported her missing? Could she have been away from home, or with a friend?" May asked, wondering if this would shed light on the strange time gap.
"I've just had a copy of the report sent to me, as I was wondering the same. Here it is. Have a look." Jack handed May his tablet. She read through the report.
It didn't take her long to reach the point of it. Two weeks ago, Shelby had been last seen by her parents when she left the house at seven p.m. after coming by to pick up some belongings.
"She wasn't staying at home. She had fought with her parents the week before she disappeared and was staying with a friend. The friend said she used to go running in the evenings," May said, reading. "She'd been fighting with the friend too and threatening to move out of state. So they didn't actually report her missing until the following day, when they realized she hadn't come back from the run, and wasn’t picking up any calls."
May could see that all these complications would have diluted the police search, making it appear more likely that she was a runaway. This was a troubled girl, an unstable person who had problems.
Hence, she guessed, why this missing girl hadn't been flagged on their local database two weeks down the line.
"If she was held somewhere for two weeks, where would that be?" May asked. "In a town near the lake, if that's where he's disposing of the bodies?"
"It seems that way," Owen agreed.
May shivered, feeling a sense of threat as she considered this possibility.
Jack shook his head. "This is clearly a serial. And, as such, we need help solving it. We need more resources, more manpower than we can summon up."
With a chill, May saw where this was going.
Sure enough, Jack voiced her worst-case scenario.
"We need to get the FBI involved," he said.
May's heart accelerated. She didn't want Kerry back here! And she was sure that Kerry was the person they would send, since she was originally from the area.
"You don't think the FBI might slow things down?" she asked, anxiously trying to provide a logical counterargument.
"There's too much going on here," Jack replied grimly. "We need all the help we can get. And they’ll shorten the timeframe to get things done, not lengthen it."
May nodded unhappily.
"The FBI knows how to handle this sort of thing," Jack added calmly.
May had no idea if he knew how she felt about her sister. Most probably, he didn't, and she desperately wanted to remain professional and not tell him.
And Jack was right. This looked like it was going to be a very serious case, and they could not afford any more deaths. She could see why he wanted additional help. But why not call in more local detectives? Surely, in Tamarack County, they had all the expertise that was needed?
Or did they?
Suddenly, May felt small and worthless all over again, and as if she was not good enough. She was just a local cop, in the big scheme of things. Only capable of handling local crimes.
The thought was humiliating.
"So what's the next move?" May asked in a small voice.
"I'm contacting the FBI Minneapolis office now," Jack said. "I'll ask them to send agents who have experience in serial killer cases."
Again, that was pointing back to Kerry.
"I don’t think we need someone with local knowledge, though," May said hastily. "I mean, we have all the local knowledge we need. We need someone who’s had experience in serial killer cases where victims were held before being dumped."
She didn’t remember Kerry having handled that exact type of case in the past.
Jack looked surprised.
"I'll mention that. I think you're right. We have the local knowledge, and really what we need are the skills we don't have."
May felt a flare of relief. Perhaps her worst nightmare would not occur, and Kerry would not be arriving.
"What will the timeline be?"
"I hope we'll have a team here by this evening. They like to move fast on cases like this, and not waste time."
"What can we do until then?" Owen asked.
"In the meantime, let's head back to the police department and get everything in order. The FBI will be based there, so we must make sure the space and resources that they'll need are available, and that all our paperwork is up to date."
May knew she had a busy day ahead of her. But still, she dreaded the moment when they would arrive.
Who would be sent?
In just a few more hours, she would either be off the hook, or else she'd have to face the worst.