The Body Hunters (9 page)

 
          "Is the body still with the medical examiner?" Aiden asked
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          "Yes. What's left of it! It's all skeletonized" Gaines answered in a sultry Texas drawl. "We knew you were on your way down here so we kept the remains for you. Old man Cavender wants his baby girl's murder solved so he understands having to postpone her memorial service. I'll be happy to take y'all down to the morgue. You might be in luck, and Doc might still be there.
"

 
          Gaines, who had been blatantly flirting with Aiden since he and Alejandro had arrived, volunteered to show the two agents the way to the morgue. The woman had made it a point to let Aiden know that she wanted him with every bat of her eyes and sexy smile she shot his way. She was very attractive! There was no doubt about that. If he said the word, Stone was sure he could have her anyway he wanted her. Maybe he'd catch up with her when the case was solved
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           The coroner's office was a ten-minute drive from the Dallas Field Office. Dr. Wilson, the medical examiner, a hawk-faced older gent with a thick Texas accent, was waiting on them. Stone could imagine him conducting autopsies with a Stetson on his head. Donning loose scrubs over their clothing and face masks, they accompanied the coroner into the lab.        The smell of decay, of rotting bones and earth, slammed into their noses as soon as they entered the lab. If Aiden wasn't mistaken, his new partner was turning several shades of green behind his face mask. The medical examiner removed the sheet covering the skeleton. The contrast of it and the vivacious 11th grade yearbook picture of the girl, they had received from the detectives, didn't go unnoticed by the Agents
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          "How was she found?" Stone asked, walking the perimeter of the stainless steel table and scrutinizing the bones with his eyes
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          "A hiker and his dog found the body over a week ago. The hiker's dog got away from her and he caught the dog nosing and digging around a makeshift grave site. I tell you this is the end of times. I remember a time when you could leave your house with the door unlocked. People are crazy.
"

 
          "How did she die?" Alejandro inquired breathlessly, trying his best not to puke in his mask
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          "There are cut marks on the atlas, the first cervical vertebrae. Someone sliced her neck all the way to the bone. The good thing is she was probably dead before her body hit the ground. The poor girl bled out right there in the grave. Luminal found blood in the dirt all around her.
"

 
           Aiden's next question was, "Excuse my ignorance but since she is only skeletal now, can we determine if there was a rape?"

 
          "No unfortunately no tissue remained, and I haven't found any other DNA except the victim's. Keep in mind that she was a prostitute. I reckon it was a john or her pimp that did her in.
"

 
           The man shook his head sadly. "Sorry I don't have better news for you. I have two teenage daughters myself. I can't imagine what the Cavender’s are going through right now. If it were one of my daughters I'd find and kill the sumbitchmyself. Excuse my French.
"

Aiden came to the realization that this case would not be easy to solve using conventional means. There were virtually no clues and no leads. He would definitely have to rely on his abilities to bring a conclusion to this case. If he could get his hands on something tangible that the victim was wearing at the time of her death, it would act as a compass, pointing him in the right direction as far as the investigation was concerned
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          "Was there any clothing with the remains?
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          "Not even a rotted patch. I'm guessing she was stripped before or after she was killed." Realization dawned on the medical examiner, and he immediately snapped his fingers. "You know what? She was wearing something." The doctor consulted his autopsy notes. "She was wearing a necklace, a cross. It was costume jewelry, which is why she probably was still wearing it. Otherwise she probably would have sold it for drugs. The investigators checked it for fingerprints, which was a long shot. They gave it to her parents.
"

The necklace was the answer. Aiden would visit with Sherry's parents later on and get the necklace. Things were looking up quickly. At least he felt he had a place to start
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           After a few more questions, Ramirez and Stone thanked the coroner for his time. They had removed their scrubs and were glad to be out of range of the fetid smell.

 
          Dr. Wilson was cleaning his glasses with the hem of his lab coat. "You know? I think, and I'm just gonna throw it out there, you may have a serial killer here.
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           "A serial killer?"Ramirez repeated
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          The doctor bobbed his head. "I was thinking we had a murder case about a year ago that fit this exact same description except this time the body was found partially decayed in a secluded area. She had a knife wound in the neck, and there was no DNA on the body and she was not raped. The victim was a young female, probably around the same age as Sherry Cavender. As far as I can remember she was a Jane Doe. The body was never identified. We were thinking at the time she was probably a prostitute.
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          "Thanks for that doc, I appreciate it." Stone shook the older man's hand
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           "You don't have to thank me. Just find that sumbitch!
"

 
          Aiden and Alejandro would have to put off their meeting with the Cavender family. If there were in fact another victim, then they would have to look at those files and see if there was anything connecting the two cases. If so the killer might have slipped up leaving evidence behind
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           Hours later, Stone was sitting on the full-sized bed of his motel room. After visiting the grieving Cavender family and the Dallas Police Department, he and his rookie partner had decided to call it a day and start fresh tomorrow. They met Holmes and Gaines at a local barbecue joint for dinner. Holmes had conveniently had something he wanted to discuss with Ramirez in private, leaving Gaines alone with Aiden. She had tried her best to get him to come home with her: trying to play footsy, using innuendo, and semi-inappropriate touching. Ashley she said her first name was. She was a single woman and it had been awhile since she had a man in her bed. After spending thirty minutes nodding and looking sincerely interested as she droned on and on about her no-good dad, her no-good ex-husband, and her no-good ex-boyfriend, Aiden had had all he could stomach of Agent Gaines. Her constant blathering and negativity turned him off. He didn't want sex bad enough to put up with her bashing the men in her life. As soon as Holmes was back with the rookie, he and Ramirez made their escape
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          Photos and paperwork from Sherry Cavender's murder case were spread across the surface of the ugly floral bedspread. The visit with the Cavender’s had gone as well as could be expected in cases like this. The grieving couple had given more insight into the kind of girl Sherry was. Their conversation was unedited, and they provided explicit details about the girl's drug addiction and the trials she had put her family through. They also did not mind when Aiden asked if he could hold on to her necklace for a while. The object may be the link to whether he could solve this case or not
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           Before he and Alejandro called it a night they paid a visit to the Dallas Police Department to retrieve the files pertaining to the Jane Doe whose murder was similar to Sherry's. The DPD had been more than happy to hand over the files hoping the Feds could bring a resolution to the case. Like the teen, this woman was found buried in a shallow grave. She was partially decayed and nude, with not a sign of rape or any of her attacker's DNA. Similar to Sherry, the woman had been killed with a knife wound to the neck, killing her in seconds. The bastard seemed as if he was just getting his jollies from the killing.

He and Ramirez could go back to the witnesses even though it was redundant. According to the interviews conducted by the local police, one of the hookers in the area where Sherry had been working had reported her getting into a nondescript sedan with a nondescript white male. The remaining hookers, pimps and hustlers in that rundown section of town weren't very
forthcoming with information about the missing girl. The neighbors were just as bad. Nobody paid much attention when a drug addicted hooker disappeared. In a crime riddled ghetto where shootings, carjacking, and murder were the norm, the murder of a hooker wasn't a very high priority on the list of unsolved crimes
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           Frustrated and tired, Stone put his face in his hands, willing the weariness away. Sometimes these types of cases drove him crazy. Most serial killer cases were solved when the killer slipped up, either leaving DNA evidence or some kind of trail leading back to him. Some serial killer cases took years or even decades before they could be solved.

 
          Seeing that conventional detective work wasn't getting him anywhere at the moment, Stone emptied the Ziploc bag with the necklace into his palm. He closed his fist along with his eyes hoping for any type of clues
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          As always, his visions were distorted, like a television that needed an antenna. He focused harder, flashes of Sherry's life coming to him. Neon lights from a corner liquor store flashed and surrounded him, which quickly melted into a nonprofit, free clinic, which formed into the interior of a sleazy motel room. Image after image collided into a mishmash of sights, sounds, and smells. Through her eyes he saw the groping hands of one of her johns followed by the feeling of euphoria after a dose of meth. Nothing in his vision provided a clue as to who killed her
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           Pissed off, he dropped the jewelry back into its bag and sealed it. Things were not off to a good start. Calling it a night, he cleared the bed of the files and paperwork and placed them back in their appropriate boxes. A little on the desperate side, he once again opened the file belonging to Danielle La Blah Blah something or other, whatever the hell her last name was.

 
           According to the file Lucius had provided him, she was working as an editor for the government funded e-zine, Body Hunters. She had just moved to some Arizona suburb with her fiancé and was working from home. If the rumor of Johnson's reputation for clandestine projects were correct, then there was a little more to this magazine than what was in the file. Johnson didn't strike him as the type of man who would waste a talent such as hers working on a magazine. She very well may be his only hope in getting some footing in solving Sherry's murder. Not one to admit defeat and ask for help, Aiden decided to give his investigation a couple more days before calling in reinforcements.

Chapter 7

 
            
 
 The air in the trunk of the late model Buick was stifling, the Florida heat making the vehicle's insides as hot as a conventional oven. Her bound hands searched for purchase against the trunk's lid, retreating as the metal scorched her fingers. Taking cues from a television news special she had seen a few weeks ago about kidnapping, she tried to tear out the wiring of the brake lights, hoping the absence of the lights would attract attention from the law. The contents of the trunk, a shovel, black garbage bags, and gasoline were a prescription for disaster and she knew she was likely meeting her end. Every pothole along the road was amplified, bouncing the woman's head against the lid, further disorienting her. After an hour of riding, gravel ground against the tires, sounding like radio static. The Buick lurched forward as her tormentor, her ex-husband, applied the brakes
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             What had started as every girl's fantasy marriage had quickly devolved into a virtual nightmare. During their courtship he was thoughtful and romantic, remembering important dates and anniversaries. There were symptoms of the evil that was within him, which she had ignored. He was on the possessive side, which she thought was innocent and cute at the time, and he constantly checked up on her whereabouts. After the wedding the charming prince she had married became a brutish bully, using violence when he couldn't have his way. She had forgiven his abuse for the first few months until he had blackened her eye. The stares she had received at the hospital that employed her were mortifying. She had gotten a restraining order and pursued a quick divorce. All seemed fine after the documents were signed. After a few weeks the threats began anew. She had taken all the precautions, but he had finally caught up to her. The man she had loved could possibly be her undoing
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"Get out!" He roared, yanking her out by a handful of hair. Defenseless, she surveyed her surroundings, her hope of survival evaporating into thin air. On her hands and knees, she tried to scramble to safety and knowing it was fruitless
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