Shadows from the Grave (31 page)

“It’s pretty rough, Wyatt,” the detective said. “She’s very messed up.”

“Any idea who it is?” Wyatt asked.

Ethan’s mouth tightened before he answered. “Yeah. The ID we found from the purse near the body says it’s Parker Riley.”

Wyatt stopped walking and just stared at Ethan for a moment as the name and the implications sank in. “No. That can’t be right,” he finally said.

“I’m afraid it probably is,” Ethan responded. “The basic physical description matches, but there isn’t enough of her face left for a visual identification. Harvey said he’ll have to use dental records or DNA.” He fell silent as they reached the remains, which the coroner was getting ready to zip inside a body bag.

“Holy mother of God,” Wyatt breathed. It had been a while since he had seen the level of violence that had been directed at the woman lying on the black bag. There was not an inch of skin Wyatt could see that hadn’t been mutilated. “What happened, Harvey? Shotgun?”

The coroner straightened and nodded for his assistant to continue. He walked over to stand beside Wyatt and Ethan stripping off his gloves on the way. “I don’t know. Possibly, I suppose, but I would say not. I think she was bludgeoned. That’s just a guess, though, until we can get the autopsy done.”

The three men exchanged a look. They knew the level of rage it had to have taken to inflict so much damage.

“Any idea of whether it’s Parker or not?” Wyatt asked.

Harvey nodded. “Yeah, I’m fairly certain it’s her. There was a tattoo on one of her arms that I seem to recall Parker having.”

A weary sigh escaped Wyatt before he could stop it. Parker Riley was the younger sister of Simone Grayson, former first lady of Leroy. Simone’s husband, Arthur, had been mayor for nearly ten years. He had lost his bid for reelection last year after a sex scandal involving another murder victim, Charity Vaughn.

“The good news, if you can call it that, is that the killer was damned sloppy,” Ethan said. “We’ve got DNA evidence in the form of semen, the tire tracks down the lane, and a boatload of trace.”

“Added to that, judging from the amount of tissue under her nails, she managed to get her claws into him but good,” Harvey said. “Whoever he is, he’ll have some nasty scratches. If you guys can find him soon, he’ll be easy to identify.”

“When was she killed?” Wyatt asked.

Harvey thought about it. “Probably late last night,” he said. “It’s eleven-ish now, so I’d say about twelve hours ago, give or take a couple hours.”

Wyatt thanked him and turned to Ethan, who nodded back toward the road. As they walked back up to the highway, they didn’t say much. Upon reaching their vehicles, they saw Beth approaching with a camera. Ethan cursed, low so that she couldn’t hear, and Wyatt sent him a questioning look.

“She’s just been stressed out lately, what with everything that’s been going on with Chase,” Ethan explained. “I’d hoped Julius would get this assignment. I don’t want Beth near this sort of thing.”

Beth had stopped to take a few shots of the men carrying the body bag, and Wyatt took the chance to speak. “Son, I’d advise you strongly to not say that sort of thing to your wife, not if you don’t want to end up spending quite a few nights on the couch. She’s good at her job, Ethan. She can handle it.”

The detective sighed. “I know. Still doesn’t make it easy for me to watch. And I did mention it to her once. She pointed out that I’m not exactly in the safest profession in the world, and called me sweet for worrying.”

Wyatt smiled. He laid a hand on Ethan’s shoulder and squeezed. “It’s good to see you happy, Ethan. Despite the worry. You know you wouldn’t change a thing about her.”

“It’s good to finally be happy, and no, I wouldn’t,” Ethan responded as Beth approached. When he enveloped her in a hug, Wyatt saw the pleased surprise on her face and guessed that Beth hadn’t been the only one under extra stress lately. She tried to pull back, but Ethan held her close.

“Ethan?” she asked.

“You can ask your questions from here,” he told her. “Wyatt won’t think less of you. He just got through bragging on how good you are at your job.”

Beth sent Wyatt a bemused smile, but she didn’t protest. “Okay, then. What can you tell me, officially?” she asked, pulling her digital recorder out of her pocket.

“Officially, we have one body, an unidentified female. It appears to have been a homicide, and we’re asking anyone who might have seen something odd last night to get in contact with us,” Wyatt responded.

“Harvey thinks she was killed about twelve to sixteen hours ago, probably around twelve, and probably right down there next to the pond,” Ethan added.

“Cause of death? Any idea who she is?” Beth asked.

“COD yet to be determined, and no comment on the ID,” Wyatt answered. “Pending positive identification and notification of the family.”

Beth nodded. She understood what Wyatt wasn’t saying, as well as what he was. She turned off the recorder, making a show of the process, and put it back in her pocket.

“Unofficially? Can you tell me anything more?”

Wyatt hesitated. “Completely off the record, I’m on my way to Simone Grayson’s house to let her know that we probably found her sister murdered this morning.”

Beth was shocked, and she pulled out of Ethan’s embrace to meet his gaze. He nodded.

“Parker Riley—that’s who you’re talking about, right?” she asked. “Wow. That’s um, actually not as surprising as it should be, I guess.”

Ethan frowned. “Why not?”

Beth chose her words carefully. “When Grayson was mayor, Simone kept a much tighter rein on Parker. You know she’d been in rehab twice for drug and alcohol addiction, right?” When both men appeared shocked, Beth shook her head. “How can you not know that? Anyhow, after Grayson lost, whatever hold Simone had on Parker disintegrated. She’s been spiraling more and more out of control ever since.”

Wyatt rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about the implications of what Beth had told them. “I knew she liked to party, but not to the degree that she was an addict. So she probably had a particular druggie crowd she ran with, and a favorite dealer or two. I should know this. Why don’t I know this?” he asked, frustrated. “I’m the damned sheriff, for crying out loud. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this job.”

Beth protested with a frown. “Wyatt Dixon, you’re barely fifty. Too old, my ass! And if not knowing about Parker’s addictions makes you too old, then I guess Ethan’s ready to be put out to pasture, as well.”

“Hey, now,” Ethan said.

“I turned fifty-one a couple of months ago, but thanks for the pep talk,” Wyatt said. “That’s neither here nor there, though. Any idea who Parker ran with?”

“No,” Beth responded. “The only reason I know as much as I do, well… it’s a little embarrassing to admit. I overheard Simone telling someone about Parker a couple months ago. I was in the restroom at the Lighthouse, and Simone didn’t know I was there. After I heard that, I did some digging and found out the rest. It’s apparently not common knowledge, and I’d guess some money has changed hands to keep it that way. I figured you all might be aware of it, just given the nature of the problem, but I guess they’ve done a better job at covering it up than I thought.”

Wyatt accepted her explanation. “Okay, then. Ethan, when you’re finished here, you’ll want to talk to those friends of Parker’s. Make sure you take someone with you.” He sighed. “I guess I’ll get this notification over with.” He tipped an imaginary hat in Beth’s direction and started to walk away, but turned after a few steps.

“One more thing. I brought Maria out here. Can you make sure she gets back into town?” he asked Ethan.

“Absolutely,” Ethan assured him.

Wyatt gave a final wave as he resumed the walk to his SUV. He got in and radioed in to dispatch before starting the engine. When traffic cleared, he pulled out in a U-turn. With the SUV pointed back toward Leroy, he let down his guard and relaxed. Julie, his wife, had been gone six years now. Seeing Beth and Ethan together reminded him of just how much he had lost. Involuntarily, his mind strayed to thoughts of Maria. Before it could get started, Wyatt ruthlessly clamped down on that tangent.

“You know better than to even think about going there, old man,” he told himself. “Maybe it’s time to take Neva up on that blind date she keeps trying to set me up on.” When he realized he was talking to himself, he laughed. Yes, it was definitely time for him to talk to Neva, the ageless woman who sat guard at the reception desk and kept the department running smoothly from behind the scenes. As soon as he got back in the office and had a free minute, he would make a beeline to her desk and let her know he was ready to take a chance.

~ * * * ~

Back at the crime scene, Ethan walked Beth to the Beast. He leaned against the door frame as she rolled the windows down and started the engine.

“What do you think that was all about?” she asked.

Ethan shrugged, understanding that she was asking about Wyatt’s behavior. “Probably just this whole mess with Chase, and now Parker’s murder. I’d say it’s getting to him a little.”

Beth studied her husband’s face. “It was bad, wasn’t it?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, it was very bad.” He changed the subject. “Where are you headed now?”

“To Joe’s, to see if they’re okay,” she said. “So I’ll see you there. Ethan, did you notice anything about the way Wyatt said Maria’s name?”

Ethan shot her a puzzled glance. “No, why?”

Beth smiled. “It was probably nothing. I just thought there was something about the way he said her name. Reminded me of the way Chase talks about Annie.”

Ethan leaned in the vehicle to give her a soft kiss. “You’re just seeing hearts around everybody these days, Mrs. Moore.” Beth caught him before he could draw back and gave him a more thorough kiss.

“That comes from being blissfully happy, Detective. I’ll see you at the farm.”

Stepping back, Ethan closed the door, and Beth drove off with a quick wave. He stopped to speak with the CSU team one last time before he headed toward Joe Pace’s farmhouse. As he drove the short distance, he didn’t know whether to hope Beth was right or wrong about Wyatt and Maria. One thing was certain, though. If Beth was right, it sure would be interesting to watch things play out.

About the time Wyatt was delivering the bad news to the Graysons, the killer was waking up just a few miles away. He’d gone home and cleaned himself up, his whole body aching and his left arm feeling like it had been burned with a branding iron. It wasn’t until he had stripped naked in his bathroom that he had seen the deep bite mark on his forearm, and when he did, he knew he was in trouble. He had disinfected it as best he could and wrapped a tight gauze bandage around the wound. He had then promptly fallen asleep, exhausted from the night’s activities. He had woken up about seven o’clock that morning and managed to stay awake long enough to call work to let them know he wouldn’t be in, and then he fell unconscious again.

Now, as he got up and dragged himself into the bathroom, he winced at the sore muscles in his legs, arms, and back. He relieved himself, and then went to the sink. When he saw the angry red welts and scratches on his chest and neck, he cursed. However, the scratches were the least of his concern. His arm was still throbbing, and he could see red streaks crawling up toward his elbow from underneath the bandage.

With extreme care, he unwound the gauze. The closer he got to the broken, oozing skin, the more the bandage stuck. The killer turned on the water in the sink, and when it was warm, he stuck his forearm under the flow until he felt the gauze loosen. He turned off the water and, sucking in a breath, pulled the gauze the rest of the way off. As soon as air hit the wound, the pain intensified three-fold. Grasping the edge of the bathroom counter, the killer waited for the agony to die down.

Though he had done his best the night before to clean it, the bite mark was deep. Overnight, it had become infected, and his entire forearm was burning hot. He tried to close his hand in a fist, but the muscles didn’t want to cooperate, and the pain that shot up to his shoulder when he tried cautioned him to not repeat that mistake any time soon. The killer knew he was left with very few options. He had to have medical treatment, or he would lose the arm.