“The grass is trampled here, and look at that.” She pointed out the places where the overgrown grass had been disturbed as they made their way from the car to the barn’s entrance. The old door was barely hanging on by a thread when she pushed against it with her fingers.
The place was dusty, with rotted beams hanging from the ceiling, missing siding that left gaping holes in the dangerously leaning shell of a building, and a heavy scent of mold.
Certainly not the kind of place you’d expect anyone to come to for an assignation, not when they were so many more pleasurable prospects. “I can’t see her in this place. Not for any reason and especially not for what the widows were implying.” Officer Bailey offered as he brushed a string of cobweb out of his way.
Detective Sparks was wont to agree with him and said as much, but it didn’t take long for them to know that they were on the right track.
It was when they made their way upstairs, after climbing the treacherously dangerous rotted stairs against her better judgment.
As soon as she walked into the loft she smelt it. If the stale scent of sex in the air wasn’t a dead giveaway the blanket that someone had left behind on the matted hay would’ve told the tale.
“What have we here?” She moved over closer to get a better look, her heart picking up speed when she saw the newly discarded cigarette butts strewn across the old hay. “Go back down to the car Pete and bring me the evidence kit.”
She felt silly now that she hadn’t quite believed the women’s account enough to expect to find anything; the place was a treasure trove, not least of all were the obvious semen stains on the blanket that was obviously relatively new.
They collected the butts and the blanket and searched the place for what else it had to give up but there was nothing more of use to be found. Her mind was already working overtime and she resolved to go full steam ahead now, no holds barred. No way was the mayor giving her case to some stuff shirt.
She wasn’t sure about Mrs. Connors’ assumption that it had been Niall Davis following his wife, but somebody had been here with her and hopefully those cigarette butts and the spilled semen held the answers.
Her last thought as she put the car in drive was that she hoped it didn’t lead back to Riley O’Rourke as she tried to remember if she’d ever seen him smoking. She’d hate to think that she had a sick attraction to a man who was capable of murder.