B00CCYP714 EBOK (27 page)

She looked over at the colonel, who stood anxiously waiting by his car. Rainey understood that he needed to be involved, and also knew she could not let him see what was beyond the gate.

She tapped Wiley on the shoulder. “Hey, can you find someone to stay with Colonel Asher? He isn’t to come on the property under any circumstances, so you better make sure it’s someone that can handle him.”

Rainey and Sheila went to the SUV parked in front of the gate and climbed in. While they waited for Wiley to join them, Sheila said, “If there aren’t any bodies in here, I’m going to look really foolish.”

Rainey stared straight ahead, where the headlights illuminated what was to become a gated community much like her own. “No, the people feeling foolish will be the folks that just bought this land. No one is ever going to forget what was found here.”

“You’re that positive? How do you know?”

“I listened to the recorded call. Pure narcissism. He planned to reveal his body farm from the beginning. This is his artwork. He needs it to be appreciated, and not by some developer or local hiker stumbling on it by accident.” Rainey indicated the massive law enforcement presence with a sweep of her hand. “This spectacle he’s created is all part of the grand theatre in his mind.”

“So why play into that? Why didn’t we just come with a few cars and check it out on the down low?”

Sheila was really trying to understand how Rainey thought and why, after listening to the recorded call, she had recommended storming the location with lights and sirens blaring.

Rainey turned to face Sheila. “While he’s watching us, Bladen Asher has a chance of surviving. Keep him busy. That’s the only chance she has. The press will be here soon. I’ll make sure they see me. You make sure they have ample reason to stay live on the site, or at least continue breaking news. He won’t be able to stop watching.”

Sheila started nodding her head. “I get it. And while he’s watching us, we will be looking for him.”

“If I’m right about this guy,” Rainey said, “he will think he is so far out in front of us, there is no way we have a clue who he is.”

Sheila’s eyebrows rose. “We don’t, do we? We have a truck description, but that could turn out to be a dead end, just some college kid with a girlfriend in the apartment complex.”

Rainey grinned at Sheila. “A coincidence?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know—no coincidences,” Sheila said, with a chuckle.

“Brooks should have something on the truck for us soon. The UNSUB doesn’t know we have that picture or that we’re looking for his truck, and we should keep that advantage. We can’t tip him off. His behavior will become very unpredictable, if we do.”

Sheila nodded that she understood and informed Rainey, “I called Danny, told him of the search about to take place. He asked that you be on site and I assured him you would be. They were on the tarmac, about to take off.”

“Good,” Rainey said, “and if you could get the ME to hold off on moving the bodies, that would be even better. Let Danny and the team get a look at the scene first. They should be here in a couple of hours.”

“Are you going to stay on site, after they arrive?” Sheila asked.

Rainey looked out the window at the colonel. “I need to help that man find his daughter. The BAU can profile the UNSUB for the task force. I’ll get you started, but Danny will be the one leading this investigation.”

Sheila sighed. “I sure hope you’re right and that girl is still alive, though Lord knows what he’s done to her.”

Rainey saw Wiley approaching the colonel with a large uniformed officer. “If she’s half the young woman her father thinks she is, she’s fighting for her life. As long as she is a challenge to him, this UNSUB will keep her alive. The moment she gives up, she’s dead.”

“Unh, unh, unh,” Sheila said, shaking her head from side to side. “I used to think I wanted to know what you know about these sickos. After that body this morning, I am damned glad I don’t.”

Rainey turned back to Sheila. “I think you are about to get more education in sexual murderers than you could have imagined. When this is over and the nightmares come, you call me anytime, day or night. I’ve been there.”

Sheila had no time to respond, but the anticipated horror showed on her face, as Wiley climbed in behind the steering wheel. A video technician joined him on the front seat, camera already rolling.

As the tech swept the inside of the vehicle with the camera, recording all present, Wiley said, “Shall we, ladies?”

Not waiting for a reply, he put the SUV in gear and moved through the now open gates. The construction company had paved a road through the prospective neighborhood and cleared off a few home sites. A small lake had been created on the left of the entrance. When Rainey crossed through the gates, she closed the mental boxes she would not need or could not afford to have open at a crime scene. She opened the ones that allowed her to think like a killer. By studying their behavior, the FBI analyst had learned how these types of killers thought. Part of Rainey’s job had been to suspend her revulsion at their horrible acts and walk in the killer’s shoes.

She eyed the lake, as Wiley aimed a searchlight across the surface. “How deep is that water?”

Sheila pulled a printout of the architect’s plans for the community from her leather binder. Using her flashlight, she searched for the information. “It’s not on this drawing. Should I have someone check it out?”

“If this guy studied Schaefer, then there’s a good chance you’ll find some of the victims in there.”

Sheila got on the phone and called in the dive team. Before hanging up, she said, “Don’t touch anything. Just tell me if you find something.”

Beyond the lake, a sign indicated the foundation work behind it was to have been a large swimming pool and athletic complex. The helicopters arrived and joined in the search, sweeping their bright lights over the unfinished pool.

“If you were coming out here to look at the land, you’d probably drive around and stop to look at the only construction available,” Rainey said. “The UNSUB would know that. It’s worth a look, but I doubt he put any bodies there. He needed to be able to come visit them. He didn’t want them disturbed until he was ready. Again, control and manipulation of events are important to him.”

Wiley crept the vehicle along the paved road. Nightsun searchlights lit up the landscape around the SUV, as the choppers hovered over the area.

Rainey looked over the architect’s plans. She had a gut feeling, and leaned up to tap Wiley on the shoulder. “Go on down to the very end of the road and stop. I think that’s where we should start.”

Wiley sped up and the searchlights followed. When they arrived, everyone exited the vehicle and waited for Rainey to lead the way. She saw where an old one-lane path came out of the woods and started toward it. Once she reached where the path met the pavement, she stopped and looked around. She waved the others over to her.

“Wiley, do you still have that map on you?” Rainey shouted over the rotor blades chopping the air above them. They were far enough away not to disturb the crime scene with the blade wash, but the constant engine noise forced conversation to a higher decibel.

Wiley pulled the folded map from his back pocket and handed it to her. She held it out in the light from the helicopter. “You see this?” Rainey pointed at a dark squiggly line that cut through the forest on her right. “It looks like a trail, but I think it’s a stream feeding into Jordan Lake. Let’s go back that way. Water draws these guys for some reason. If he knew about the paths, then he knew about the stream.”

They started into the woods, the searchlights illuminating the ground around them. Sheila walked beside Rainey. “So, you think he’s from around here?”

“Oh yeah,” Rainey said. “There’s no question about that. He’s close, probably drives U.S. 501 to work every day.”

The undergrowth was low and the foliage sparse in the dead of winter. The only bright color in the woods came from the evergreens. Copper-colored pine needles and prickly brown pinecones carpeted the forest floor. Broken limbs and old fallen trees littered the ground, but there appeared to be a worn trail toward the stream. They tromped a few more yards before coming on a small clearing and a valley where a dry streambed lay. There were no large trees in the depression, opening up the area to the sky above, where one of the searchlight beams poured through. Rainey grabbed Wiley’s arm, before he could take another step forward.

“Stop,” she shouted over the constant chop-chop-chop above.

Sheila, Wiley, and the cameraman froze in mid step. Rainey squatted on the ground, looking at the oblong bowl shaped depression.

She pointed up at the helicopter. “Call the search light off for a minute. I need to see what he sees.”

Wiley barked orders into his radio and seconds later they were plunged into darkness. After a moment to let her eyes adjust, Rainey began to scour the ground in front of her. There was no moonlight. The sky reflected the illuminated haze of the not too distant metropolitan areas, allowing only the brightest stars to shine through. Rainey clicked on her flashlight and held it close to the ground. She swept it over the bank closest to her and saw no anomalies.

Rainey stood and turned to the others saying, “Wait here,” before walking down the slight slope to the dry streambed. She knelt, holding the flashlight parallel to the slope of the other bank. As the beam skipped just above the surface, three distinct piles of leaves, branches, and pine needles appeared, and were too symmetrically spaced to be naturally occurring. Rainey shouted back to the others.

“You can turn the lights back on. I found them, well, three of them anyway. Tell the ME to come on in, so we can take a look.”

Rainey flashed her light around the area, while Wiley and Sheila made the appropriate communications. She noticed a small tree standing alone at the crest of the embankment, obviously planted there. It did not look like the other evergreens in the area. The cameraman came down into the streambed with her, recording the scene. He focused where her light was shining and commented on the tree, the first words Rainey had heard him speak.

“That shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“Why? What kind of tree is that?” Rainey asked.

“It’s a Western Hemlock. I’m from Seattle, Washington. That’s our state tree.”

Sheila worked her way down the slope to stand beside Rainey. “The ME is on the way,” she said.

The light from the helicopter popped back on and focused on the spot where they were standing. The three piles of debris were more obvious now that Rainey had located them. She pointed them out to Sheila and Wiley, who had just stepped down into the streambed. “See those three evenly spaced piles of leaves and branches? Shallow graves on a stream bank with a Western Hemlock planted above them. This is either his homage to Gary Ridgway, The Green River Killer, or Ted Bundy, both from the state of Washington. I’ll have to see the bodies to determine which.”

“How will you know?” Shelia asked.

Rainey said matter-of-factly, “If they were strangled and still have their heads, then it’s Ridgway. The UNSUB mentioned ‘his study.’ If he truly conducted a study on serial killers, then he could not have skipped over old Gary. He was originally convicted of forty-eight murders, had another tacked on in a plea bargain, but confessed to committing more than ninety in his sixteen-year killing spree. If this is his Ridgway staging, then these bodies will be the missing prostitutes. We’ll need to check for signs of necrophilia, as well.”

Wiley stared at the shallow graves for a moment. “So where do you think the others are?”

“Let me see that map again,” Rainey said, holding out her hand.

Wiley handed over the map and leaned in for a better look, as Rainey held it out in the light.

“See how the main road branches off into these planned cul-de-sacs? I’d have your search grids start at the end of each turn around and expand out from there. He took the time to plant a tree here. If you stand back on the other bank, this looks like a museum exhibit. He used the paved road to create pathways to his exhibits. If he’s done what I think he has done, then this will be the least horrific of his displays.”

Wiley’s radio cackled loudly with an excited voice. “Captain Trainer, come in. Captain Trainer, respond.”

Wiley put the radio to his mouth and answered, “Trainer, go ahead.”

“You’ve got to come back to the lake, now. Oh man, you need to come right now!”

“I can’t come right now. I’m waiting for the ME to get here. Have they started back this way?”

“Well, yes and no, sir. They started that way, but then they saw—Really, you need to come as soon as you can.”

“I counted five ME vans out there on the road. You send one of them to my location and I’ll be back to the lake in a few minutes.”

“Ten-four, Captain. And hey, you better bring that profiler back with you, too. She’s never going to believe this.”

Rainey smiled when Wiley looked at her and spoke into the radio. “Son, the only person out here that can believe this shit is that profiler. The rest of us, well, we’re going to have to suck it up. Now, calm down and get that ME rolling to me.”

“Ten-four, Captain.”

#

The site was photographed from all angles, before Rainey was allowed to move some of the debris aside. She only had to brush away a pile of dried pine needles to see that she was correct. Uncovering the upper body of a young woman, with the panties he used to strangle her still tied around her neck, Rainey recognized the posing from having viewed the photographs of Gary Ridgway’s victims’ gravesites.

“These are going to be the working girls he kidnapped,” she said, standing and removing the latex gloves she had donned before approaching the body. She spoke directly to the medical examiner’s evidence collection team. “Do what you must to uncover the bodies, but please don’t move them until the FBI team arrives. They should be here soon.”

An evidence technician whined, “Man, we’ll be standing around out here waiting on the feds for hours.”

Rainey smiled at the young man. “There will be plenty for you to do, before your shift ends. In fact, I doubt you will ever forget this night.” She looked back over her shoulder at the skull staring up at the stars. “And don’t worry about her. She’s been waiting three years for us to find her. I’m sure she has the patience to wait for the people that are coming to help solve her murder.”