"Courtney Flax. This is Gary, my boyfriend.”
Gary’s clothes were drenched, and May guessed he’d dived into the lake for a nighttime swim.
"Can you tell me what happened?" May asked.
"Gary and I were swimming. On the way back from a friend's house, for fun."
"What time was this?"
"About - about half an hour ago now,” Gary said.
“Gary jumped in off the pier, and I went in on the side. I was in up to my ankles when - when my foot touched her!" Courtney started sobbing again.
"What did you do then?"
"We got out. I was freaking out real bad and crying a lot. I called 911. Or rather, Gary did. I didn't have my phone with me."
"Yeah. I c-called them," her boyfriend repeated. He looked as shocked as her.
May nodded.
"You did the right thing," she consoled the two. "And it's lucky you stumbled upon the victim and that this didn't go undiscovered any longer."
"I - I guess so," he said.
"Do you recognize the victim at all, Courtney?"
She shook her head.
"No. I - I didn't look too close. But I don't think she's anyone I know."
"Thanks," May said. “I think you two need to get somewhere warm now.” She turned to the officer standing with them. “Will you escort them home and make sure they get inside okay?”
“I’ll do that, Deputy,” the young man said.
May walked back to the clustered group, where the pathologist was supervising the body being loaded up, and spoke to Owen.
"We've had no missing people reported recently. So this woman could have been killed elsewhere. But she could have been brought here."
Owen nodded, and she saw he was on the same page.
"I don't want to miss any evidence that might be in this area," May said, her mind going back to that bloodstained piece of fabric that had provided the only link to her sister's disappearance on this same lake shore.
“You want to do a search? Let me grab two flashlights,” Owen said.
"If the killer came here, he – or she, I guess - might have left fresh tracks, or some other evidence.”
“He could even have dumped her clothes somewhere,” Owen added.
“Let’s take a walk along the coastline and see if we can pick up anything that might be important," May said.