“I should really call your parents. I’ll speak to your dad if you prefer, and he won’t be going anywhere near the pool, I can assure you. First, I need you to answer a few questions.” She laid one hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I need your help to find out who did this to Kate. How come you are here?”
“We planned to meet outside the gym at eight thirty.” Chad took a sip of the water and his dark brown eyes rested on her face. “It was going to be six thirty then she changed the time. I got here about eight twenty and found the main gate locked, so I went through the woods and came out halfway up the driveway.” He met her gaze. “Everyone cuts through the woods. If you look, you’ll see the path, although you don’t have to use it to get past the gate.” He pulled a tissue out of his jeans pocket and blew his nose. “When she didn’t show, I called her cellphone. I heard the ringtone she uses for me and thought she must be close by but some guy answered. I thought it might be her dad. I asked to speak to her and he told me she was waiting for me by the pool. I was worried then because her dad didn’t know we were meeting in secret and if he was with her I would be in deep shit.” He swiped at the end of his nose. “I found her, and when I couldn’t open the padlock, I called you. The combination has been changed so I don’t know how Kate got into the pool area.”
Jenna frowned. “How did you know the combination to the lock?”
“Everyone does. It used to be one, two, three, four.” His mouth turned down. “The janitor must have changed it recently.”
I’ll need to speak to the janitor. She made a few notes then looked at him. “You said you thought Kate’s dad answered her phone. Did you recognize his voice? Does her father have an accent or anything that might distinguish him from anyone else?”
“I guess it could have been him but men around here sound much the same, most times. I mean he didn’t have a Boston accent or anything. It sounded like her dad, a deep voice with a normal accent.”
“What’s Kate’s cellphone number? I’ll call and see if he answers.”
Jenna jotted the digits down in her notebook then took out her cellphone and called the number. She received the “this number is out of service” message and disconnected. She chewed on her bottom lip, weighing up what to ask him next. “You didn’t see anyone here at all, is that correct? Or on the way here, any cars, anyone at all?”
“No one, like I said before.”
“Okay, how many people knew you had a date with Kate this evening?” She did not want to push him too hard. He was shaking so much he might go into shock. “Anyone you can think of at all?”
“I doubt anyone knew she had messaged me online to change the time. Unless she told Aimee. Aimee and Lucas both knew we made the date for six thirty. They knew she had to sneak out too so I don’t think they would blab it all around town, especially as you warned us all to stay home and not go out alone.”
“Do you know where Lucas is tonight?”
“Yeah, at home. I was playing games with him online from six until I left to come here, then I chatted to him on the phone on the walk here. His dad called him to do some chores just before I reached the gate.” He looked stricken. “Holy shit, Lucas had nothing to do with this.”
“I’m sure he didn’t but I have to check the whereabouts of everyone she knows, it’s normal procedure.”
Jenna made a few notes then took down his parents’ number. She walked some distance away and called his father. Not giving any details, she asked him to come and pick up his son alone. She would explain Kate’s murder when he arrived, and insist he not discuss the homicide with the media.
Leaving Chad with the paramedics, she sucked in a deep breath, and conscious of every shadowed doorway she passed, she strode toward the crime scene. Kane had finished his search of the immediate area, had marked all possible evidence with yellow circles, and was assisting Wolfe with his examination. Gritting her teeth, she dragged her feet toward the body and forced her gaze to move over the mutilated body of Kate.
The young, vibrant woman now resembled a mannequin in a waxworks recreation of a torture chamber. The skin on her face stretched like thin parchment over her cheekbones, stark white against her crude red lips and cheeks. She had cuts across both eyelids as if to prevent her closing her eyes but she lacked the defensive wounds found on the other two victims’ arms and legs.
Bile rushed up her throat at the sight of the vicious yet competent, almost surgical-like cuts in her torso. The killer had taken his time with her and the fact Chad had heard Kate’s ringtone close by proved he had remained to witness Chad’s distress at finding her mutilated body. The monster must have lapped up the young man’s horror and remained long enough to wallow in his grief.
Boosted by the professional calm of Kane and Wolfe, she gathered her wits and stared at the scene, noting the similarities, the lack of blood, the flowers. The killer had planned this murder too. She had seen no flowers anywhere close to the aquatic center but a wooded area ran along the roadside leading to the campus. The hairs rose on the back of her neck and she had the strange feeling someone was watching her. I bet the killer is still here—watching us.
The sound of Kane’s voice made her jump and she lifted her gaze to him. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“He killed her in the recovery spa. It’s a small pool the divers use to warm up during competitions.” Kane wrapped one large hand around her arm and led her toward a covered area. “He probably raped her here as well.” He narrowed his blue gaze at her and a worried expression crossed his face, then as if making up his mind, he cleared his throat. “This murder is significant. It proves the killer is looking for more sadistic ways to kill and needs a bigger fix to satisfy him. He has experience in killing, as in military or has medical training. As you know, in combat training they teach us where to stick a knife to kill or disable. He cut her spinal cord and paralyzed her from the neck down but didn’t cut her throat like the others. Wolfe is under the impression the lacerations on her eyelids cut the muscle preventing her from shutting her eyes. The bastard made her watch him until she bled out.” He shook his head. “He feeds on suffering, likes seeing fear, and it turns him on. He craves the power he has over his victims.”
This is way out of my comfort zone. Jenna swallowed hard and shuddered in disgust. “So, we might find trace DNA or something in the recovery spa?”
“Not a hope. There is blood in there and we can pull out the filters and pumps, but being summer vacation, it has so much chlorine in the water nothing will be viable. Hundreds of people have used the pool, we wouldn’t find anything conclusive. However, there are a few fibers attached to her nails. Wolfe placed bags around her hands to preserve any latent DNA. He is collecting samples from every possible area and we might hit pay dirt.” Kane rolled his wide shoulders. “Did you get anything out of the boyfriend?”
Jenna went over the conversation she had with Chad. “If the janitor changed the combination to the padlock, how did Kate get in here?”
“I believe the killer had the combination to the lock and opened the gate before she arrived. This guy is smart. He knows how to cover his tracks but anyone watching a crime show would know chlorine destroys DNA.” He pointed up to the CCTV cameras. “Every one of them is disconnected but the janitor could have disabled them to save power during the break.”