“Welcome,” I say as I shake her hand. “We … weren’t expecting you.”
“You didn’t get my message?”
My expression makes her laugh.
“Sorry,” she says. “I was teasing. There wasn’t a message. Intentionally so. If I told the council what I was doing, they’d have stopped me, even if it meant putting sugar in my fuel tank. What would you have said if I told you I was visiting?”
“We … are more than happy to host you,” I say. “This just…”
“It isn’t a good time, to put it mildly? You’re already hosting a Danish tourist who was attacked by hostiles. Hostiles who killed three other tourists, while the settlers are already grumbling that you’ve set the wild people off.”
I hesitate, but she’s already turned away, glancing at Dalton, who has taken her bags from the plane.
“Thank you, Eric. Now, I know this seems very poor timing, but I didn’t just happen to show up at the most inconvenient moment. I’m here to help. This mess with the hostiles is spinning out of control, and you need someone on the ground to mediate with the council. First, I want to see this woman you’re caring for. While I’m not fluent in Danish, I did spend a year in Copenhagen, which is one reason I jumped in my plane when I heard you had a Danish tourist. We’ll begin my visit there.”
* * *
Émilie stands over the exam table, looking down at Sophie’s body. I explained the situation as we walked. Dalton took her bag to Petra’s place, and I’m now in the clinic, alone with Émilie, having sent April on a break.
“I’m not sure whether this complicates matters or…” She taps her chin. “No, at the risk of sounding like a complete monster, it does help our situation.”
“I know. I hate admitting it, but now we don’t need to worry about how to get her back and what she’ll tell the authorities. However, it doesn’t solve the underlying problem. It just means that we’ve lost our sole witness to multiple homicides.”
“We know the hostiles are responsible.”
When I hesitate, she looks over sharply. “I understood that conclusion wasn’t in question.”
I walk to where a sheet has been drawn over the three settlers. When I lift it, Émilie inhales sharply and says, “Those aren’t her fellow tourists, are they.”
“A settler family. No connection to Rockton. They appear to have been killed by hostiles. The wound patterns suggest makeshift knives, and they’re similar to what we saw with Sophie’s companions. However, when April autopsied the boy, she found that he’d been killed by a bullet.”
Émilie frowns. “Do we have any evidence of the hostiles using firearms?”
“None. Maryanne’s group didn’t. Even if the others somehow got one, they wouldn’t be using a nine-millimeter.”
“A handgun? That…”
“Makes no sense? Agreed. April needs to autopsy the other two bodies so we can get a fuller picture of the situation. She was about to do that when Sophie was killed.”
“And then I showed up, further delaying her investigation. I’ll remedy that last part by getting out of your way. This is definitely not my area of expertise. I’ll go settle in with Petra while you and April handle this, and then we’ll discuss how to present the updated situation to the council.”
“Thank you.”
* * *
April has completed the autopsies. She did not find another bullet. However, knowing that a bullet killed the son, she paid more careful attention to the parents’ internal injuries. While we can’t say conclusively that all three settlers died of bullet wounds, we find evidence of several through-and-through shots and of another bullet that had been removed. Intentionally removed.
This family didn’t die from a hostile attack. Someone shot them, and the killer removed any embedded bullets except the one they missed. Then they exacerbated the wounds with a knife to cover the entry and exit holes and simulate a frenzied knife strike.
Staged to look like a hostile attack.
I don’t know what to make of that.
It casts doubt on the events surrounding the deaths of the hikers. Were they attacked by hostiles? Or by someone pretending to be hostiles, who then ravaged the bodies to simulate a hostile attack? They’d disguised themselves as hostiles, in case someone survived, as Sophie did. Maybe they even left her alive as a witness—she would describe her attackers, which would leave no doubt they were hostiles.
The problem, though, is that we found zero evidence that the hikers weren’t killed by hostiles. Also, at no point did Sophie mention gunfire.
I believe that Sophie and her companions were attacked by hostiles. I also believe that the settler family was attacked by someone pretending to be hostiles.