Declan
I had seen some nasty bullet wounds, stab wounds and even running overs. Sometimes on rare days you'd find torture victims that made your stomach turn when you imagined what that person went through. However the last thing I had ever seen was what looked like massive claw marks.
However, their execution was perfectly clean. By their distance between each gash they were precise and mathematical. The skin up to the spinal bone being perfectly sliced that there were no jagged claw marks you would find from an animal. However in that field I was no expert.
"Was it not a bear attack? Maybe a wolf?" I frowned as I leaned down slightly to get a closer look.
"There hasn't been any spotted by the game rangers and if it was they wouldn't just leave one mark. The entire body would have shown signs of a struggle," Ken explained as he grabbed forceps and pushed the skin slightly apart. "No animal is strong enough to leave a mark on a spinal bone."
"A weapon then?" I rubbed my chin thoughtfully as I tried to think of what I knew was on the market these days. "Could it be a custom made blade? Maybe a knuckle duster. That doesn't explain the lack of blood though."
"We had a pretty massive downpour before the body could be discovered," Jason explained. "We're not sure if he bled out and the rain just sort of washed it away."
Ken shook his head instantly disagreeing. "I took soil samples where the body was found and no trace of blood popped up. No DNA or anything."
"Possibly he could have been killed somewhere else and dropped off," I furrowed my eyebrows. "Meaning whoever did this could have done the murder at a different location. Who found the body?"
"The man's daughter when she went by to visit him. She lives in town and heads out every two days to visit him."
"Anything missing in the house?"
"Not that she could recall. Everything seemed to be in order. However, the front door was open."
"Suggesting he probably stepped out therefore he must have seen his attacker," if only the dead could talk. That would make my job a lot easier. "Did you question the daughter?"
"Everything is in the file. She told us everything she could," he handed it to me and I quickly skimmed through the pages.
"I'll take a look. Maybe we should head out to the house tomorrow. Get a new point of view," I sighed before looking at Ken and Christian, "thanks for taking the time to take us through everything."
"No problem," Ken smiled, "I'll be sending in a detailed report soon. We took the body to the MRI scanning to see if there was any other internal damage I missed. We'll be getting the full reports tomorrow."
"Excellent. I'll see you then." We said our goodbyes before we went out.
My mind was swimming with thoughts of what could have possibly happened to the man. It didn't seem to be a murder of passion, nor did it seem to just be random. Every killer had a fingerprint. This one however had given us a lot without giving us anything at all.
By the time we got into the car I let out a sigh and shook my head. "Enen wasn't at all what I thought it would be."
"Trust me I had the same thought the first time I came here. We have more cold cases with little to no clues. I'm not sure if there's something we're missing here," he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
"There has to be a link somehow," I pouted my lips in thought. I knew that I would probably be spending a lot of time breaking down these cases. Even though it was sick of me to admit. I was grateful because it could take things off of my mind.
When we got back to the station, we still had a good chunk of the day to make up for. Therefore I kept myself extremely busy with reading the file Jason had given me and comparing it to the second last murder.
Truth be told so far both were out of town. In the forest. This time however a woman had what looked to be puncture wounds throughout her body. Ken couldn't come up with a definite clue on what they possibly could be caused from which caused another question.
Was this the same killer or just two different incidents?
I got so engrossed in my work that it wasn't until Donny gently tapped my desk that I realized that the sun was close to setting outside.
"You should probably get going," he smiled, "driving out to Malachi's ranch at night is a pain in the ass."
"Ah," I looked at the clock on the wall and realized how quickly time had slipped through my fingers. "Thank you Donny."
"No problem," he smiled and quickly went back to his cubicle.
The office was practically empty besides myself and Donny. I remembered a few of the detectives stopping by my desk to say something and I just smiled then hummed in recognition. They were probably calling it in for the day but I had barely noticed.
Donny was the first to leave and I took a minute to pack up my things before I went out to my Jeep. I had a box of files on the passenger seat as I drove back to Malachi's.
Once again I was so deep in my thoughts that as I drove down the long stretch of road along the forest line, I didn't notice the dark shadow pop up from the width of the road.
I quickly pressed onto the brakes as what looked like a deer scrambled across the slippery wet road then went shooting back into the forest line.
My heart caught in my throat for a second as I tried to calm down my heavy breathing.
Deer jumping out of the woods.
Another thing for me to get used to.