Find Me If You Dare (The Chronicles of Elizabeth Marshall Book 2) (28 page)

                      Chapter Seventy
-Three

I had heard it all before. They planned on gathering DNA from several of the crime scenes and comparing it against the remains left in the burning truck. We were warned that DNA that had been burnt to this degree was hard to get a good sample of, but we did have the best in country, the FBI, doing the tests.

“Director Phillips!”
Special Agent Ludlow came jogging up from a nearby field. I hadn’t seen him since the coffee shop. “We found this. About fifty yards away in the brush.”

He held up a light tan cowboy hat, a woman’s cowboy hat. He’d used the tip of an ink pen to pick it up and carry it, not wanting to contaminate the felt. I took a step forward for a closer look. It was singed on the edges of the brim with dark smudges across the crown. It smelled of smoke and gasoline.

“The forensics team is just getting here. I’d like the fire marshal take a look at it before they take it into evidence. Do you smell what I smell?” The question from Phillips was open to either one of us.

“Gasoline.” Agent Ludlow answered and I nodded.

The fire marshal, Chief O’Brien, walked over to join us as well as Logan. O’Brien looked to be in his fifties, with a broad girth and once red hair fading into white-gray.

“What do you think, Chief?” Phillips asked, letting Agent Ludlow hold the hat out gingerly for him to inspect.

“It does smell of gasoline,” O’Brien answered immediately.

“Do you think an accelerant was used?” Logan asked. “Have you found any traces of it on the truck?”

“From what we can see so far, the fire was fast and very hot. We won’t know for certain until we run chemical tests, but I would say it has all the signs of an accelerant present.”

I looked back at the burnt out shell of a truck. I couldn’t imagine pouring gas over yourself, taking a match or and lighter, then…..

“Have you found any witnesses?” It was Logan’s question that distracted me from my dark thoughts.

“Right now, there were just a few teenage kids that called it in after they saw the fire. They said they didn’t see anything be
fore they noticed the smoke. They were back on the main street when they noticed it. We haven’t found anyone yet that saw anything before the fire.” O’Brien answered.

One of the firefighters called him and he gave us a short nod before he walked back towards the wreckage. The CSI team as well as the paramedics wanted to speak with him. They were discussing the best way to remove the remains without destroying any forensic evidence.

The remains. I sucked in a breath. It was Elizabeth they were talking about. That was her, really her, just a few yards away from me. Or what was left of her.

“Caitlyn, let’s take a walk.” It was Madeline again, tugging on my arm and pulling me away from the scene. It wasn’t a request as much as it was an order. I didn’t have the energy to fight it. She probably didn’t want me there to watch as they removed the body from the charred vehicle.

There wasn’t much of a path along the dusty field. I didn’t know if she had a destination in mind as much as just wanting me away from there. We were about fifty yards away from the scene, kicking sage brush and weeds out of our way as we walked when she finally spoke. The powdery dirt puffed up onto her freshly pressed pants, blending into the light brown color. She didn’t seem to mind or notice.

“Think, Caitlyn.” Her words were insistent, almost bossy.

I looked up from the rocks and light tan desert grass that seemed to hold my attention for a short moment. She looked directly into my eyes from her small height, head tilted back, hands on hips. What was she talking about? Think? How could I think right now? I was just existing at the moment. What did she expect?

She must have seen the blank look in my eyes.

“Think about it, Caitlyn, did you ever know any of the personalities to be suicidal?”

         
          Chapter Seventy-Four

Madeline was quick to bring it up when Director Phillips and Logan joined us a short time later.

“It doesn’t fit the profile.” She argued. “As many different personalities, family members, or whatever you want to call them that were running around inside of Elizabeth Marshall’s head, none of them were suicidal.”

“The truck, the description, fit. Right down to the cowboy hat.” Phillips was ready to stand his own ground on this one. “She knew we were close. She knew we had patrols watching at every major highway. She probably made it here shortly after she killed her father. She had to realize that we were closing in. Rather than get caught and arrested, then have to endure a lengthy trial, she decided to end things on her own terms.”

His words were confident, compelling. He would have made a good lawyer.

“Besides,” it was Logan this time, he seemed to be on Phillip’s side, “we don’t know the full scope of all the personalities inside of her. There were definitely many with serious mental health issues. Some were very unstable. Suicide isn’t beyond the realm of possibilities.”

He looked to me to back up his statement. They were all silent for a moment, waiting for me to speak. I had to think this through. I tried to take a step back from the many pieces of the different crime scenes, the clues and messages she had left behind, and see things from a more objective perspective.

“Madeline and I had talked several times about the possibility that there was a conflict inside of Elizabeth.” I looked at Madeline as she acknowledged the conservations we had shared in the past. “We discussed that there might be some family members that were good. Innocent might be the wrong word for it, but at least not willing participants in the murders. There might have been an internal struggle. There might have been those that were trying all along to stop the bloodshed. Maybe the struggle reached a crisis point. There could have been just one of the family members that thought death was preferable to killing more people.”

Madeline didn’t seem too happy that I had sided with Phillips and Logan but I saw in her eyes that she respected my opinion.

“So you think this is the end?” She asked quietly. We had started walking back to the car we had arrived in. By the time we neared the scene of the fire we could see a black body bag on a stretcher being lifted into the waiting ambulance. I stopped for a moment and watched in silence as the wheels of metal stretcher were folded up so it would slide into the back of the ambulance. The hard slam of the doors as they closed shook me.

“We’ll know for certain as soon as we get the DNA results back.” Logan answered for me. He must have sensed I was drained.  I didn’t have much to add to the conversation at this point. “Do we have a timeline on that?” He asked the director.

“We brought our own forensics team in for the scene in Las Cruces.” He answered briskly. “They took a few samples here. They’re taking the body to the county morgue for further testing. I’ve asked that it be a top priority so we can get the results back as soon as possible. It will depend on how viable the samples are. It could take a day or two or a few weeks.”

A few weeks. That was the only part I heard. I didn’t know if I could take
staying here in this dry desert landscape for a few weeks while we waited for the results. In a strange sense, I didn’t want to leave Elizabeth. It felt like I was deserting her, leaving her all alone in a strange county morgue, her body left to be picked apart and tested by a medical examiner, a bunch of strangers. On the other hand, I felt like I might lose my own mind if I stayed here any longer.

I had reached the car and was just opening the door when there was a shout from Agent Ludlow.

“Director!” He was calling from the back end of the scarred truck. “Over here. You need to see this.”

The others headed over to where he was standing. He was
near the large ladder fire engine. I followed at a more reluctant pace. There wasn’t much of interest for me here at this point.

“We couldn’t see it at first.” Ludlow was explaining excitedly, “One of the fire fighters noticed it when he climbed up onto the back of the fire truck to check
a pressure gauge. Step up here. You can only see it from a higher vantage point.”

I watched as one by one the director then Logan stepped up onto the back of the
fire engine and looked down into the inside bed of the burnt truck. Philips eyes widened at the sight.

“Do you still have any doubt it was her?” Phillips asked Madeline as he took her hand and helped her up onto the high step of the fire engine.

Logan stepped down then helped me up to where he had been standing. He pointed into the flat bed of the truck.

There, burned into the once white paint of the truck bed was a large blackened circle with a very familiar symbol inside of it. I had seen that symbol written in blood before. This time it was burned into the paint and steel of the surface.

She had obviously wanted us to find this.

                 Chapter Seventy-Five

The test results still weren’t back yet. We’d spent five more days back at the hotel in Las Cruces and we were all feeling a bit stir crazy.

The media hadn’t died down. In fact there were now national news networks staking out the hotel, waiting for any word or news conferences. The dirt road in the small town of Truth or Consequences had to have twenty-four hour security. Everyone wanted to see where the mysterious serial killer, Elizabeth Marshall, had ended it all.

It was eight in the morning, another hot desert day without a cloud in the sky, the sun making an awe-inspiring appearance as it rose over the Organ Mountains in the east.

It was too early for the frantic phone call from my sister. She had caught a glimpse of me on TV
during a news story. A stubborn reporter had followed Logan and me as we had tried leaving the hotel that morning to go get some breakfast.

The first five minutes she spent chewing me out because I hadn’t told her I was in New Mexico. The next five were spent with her upset that I had been caught up in such a notorious national news story. The last fifteen minutes were her worrying that I wasn’t going to be back in time for her baby shower
next week.

Next week? Really? I wasn’t even certain what day of the week it was anymore. The minutes, hours, days seemed to all blend into each other. I didn’t seem to have many conscious thoughts. I was just going through the motions.

Was it too early in the day to get a migraine?

Logan had been busy working with Director Phillips and the other federal agents, trying to handle the crime scenes, deciding what information they wanted to give the media and at what point. It was still an active investigation and they were cautious about what they wanted the general public to know.

Madeline was corresponding with her counterparts in New York. There had been another body discovered there that they thought might be from the same serial killer who was dumping bodies on Long Island. Her profiling of the suspect was an important part of that investigation.

We were in the hotel lobby now.
For the most part the Bureau had just taken over the hotel at this point. They’d reserved every room and had around the clock security at every entrance.

Madeline at been sitting at a table reserved as a
Wi-Fi spot, typing away on her laptop. I didn’t realize she was finished with what she was doing until I heard the loud click as she snapped the top closed.

“If we don’t get those test results soon, I might have to leave for New York.” She let out a quick breath of frustration. I had usually found her to be a solid, patient person. I guess the wait was even getting to her. “What about you, Caitlyn? Are you going to head home, back to Utah?”

“I should.” I answered slowly. “There’s not much left for me to do here. I have things that I need to get done back there.”

I thought for a moment about the baby shower. I was thrilled at the prospect of having a new little nephew. Lewis and I had tried to get pregnant for a brief time at the beginning of our marriage.
After everything that had happened over the last few years, it was a good thing that it hadn’t happened then. My sister’s new little addition to the family was a welcome change from all the death and destruction I had experienced lately.

The biggest problem was enduring my sister through it all.

“I could start arranging a flight back for you.” She offered.

I knew she had a lot on her plate. It was considerate of her to ask. It wasn’t such a bad idea really. I needed to get back there anyway. All
I was doing here was pacing a hole into the carpet and watching non-stop news coverage.

I was just about to open my mouth to accept her offer when I remembered something.

“Madeline.” An idea started forming within me. It wasn’t much, but the small thought started to give me a tiny jolt of energy I had been desperately missing lately. “Do you remember when we were going to take that trip up to Iowa? We were going to see Elizabeth’s extended family?”

“Yes,” she answered, nodding. “I had it all arranged.”

“Do you think we could still go?” I was already mentally packing my over-night bag and thinking though the travel arrangements.

At first I didn’t think through why I wanted to go there. It was just something I knew I had to do. Then it struck me. This could be my last connection with Elizabeth. I knew I needed to go there. It might be the last thing I could do for her.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll book two tickets to Albuquerque then Chicago.” She already had her laptop open again typing away.

“Make that three tickets.” Logan had just entered the room and must have heard the last of our conversation. “I’m going too.”