Stone Cold Heart (Tracers #13)(21)
Sara stared down at the screen, not sure what she was looking at. It was a video showing a bird’s-eye view of something. A rocky canyon? A creek bed?
“What—” The question vanished when she saw the blue tent. “Is this our dig site?”
Kelsey nodded.
Sara’s stomach filled with dread as what could only be a drone camera flew closer to the pit. Aaron was hunched over the northwest quadrant with his boar’s-hair brush. He leaned back and wiped the sweat from his brow.
The camera zoomed in on a cranium.
“What the hell?” Sara looked at Kelsey. “Who took this?”
“Some kids, I’m guessing. A student in my Anthro 101 class sent it to me.”
Sara stared down at the image, which would likely end up on TV. Meaning that Jane Doe’s family, whoever they were, would someday get a look at their daughter’s skull being pulled from the dirt. A hot lump of anger lodged in Sara’s throat.
“Where was this posted?” Sara asked.
“My student saw it on Twitter, but it’s probably made the rounds by now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned up on the news tomorrow.”
“Unbelievable. This poor family.”
“I called our cybercrimes lab and asked Alex about getting it taken down, but I’m not sure what good that will do since it’s already gone viral. When you talk to Hess, you might want to let him know whatever security he had at that crime scene was compromised.”
“Damn right I’ll let him know.”
CHAPTER 8
Nolan bypassed his desk and went straight to the break room, where he filled a mug with coffee before heading into the meeting. Hank and Talia were already seated at the conference table.
“You two keep your radios on today,” the chief instructed as Nolan grabbed a chair. “We’re liable to be busy.”
Triple-digit heat combined with alcohol meant a spike in tempers and assaults. Plus, they were anticipating the usual holiday-related uptick in motor-vehicle accidents.
“The sheriff’s office already has one fatality,” Hank said.
“Jeez, it’s only ten,” Talia said. “DUI?”
“Plain stupidity. Some guy was cliff jumping over at Dove Lake. Guess no one told him about the drought.” Hank turned to Nolan. “All right, catch me up. What do we know from the bone doc?”
“The victim is a female, probably early twenties, most likely Caucasian,” Nolan said. “Height approximately five-two, and she’s a brunette.”
Talia sighed. “Not Kaylin Baird.”
“No.” Nolan looked at Hank. He’d already called the chief last night with the news after visiting the Baird family.
“And it’s definitely a homicide?” Talia asked.
“That’s right. She’s still working on cause of death. Hopes to have that soon.”
“How soon?” Hank asked.
“I’ll get an update later today.” If Sara didn’t call him, Nolan planned to track her down. “A DNA sample’s been submitted, so we’ll see if we get any hits in the database.”
“That’s if she’s been reported missing,” Hank said, homing in on a scenario that had been eating away at Nolan. They got a lot of migrant workers in the area, and many of them avoided police. “There might not be a report on her, much less a DNA sample,” the chief said. “What’d she say about time of death?”
“Nine to ten months ago,” Nolan told him.
“So, between September and October of last year.” Hank shook his head. “Case is ice-cold. And we’ve had no MPs in that time frame.”
“I’ll put out some feelers in the community,” Talia said. “I can talk to Father Uribe.”
“Good idea.” Nolan opened the file folder in front of him. “Meantime, I’m going to check in with some of the park regulars. The climbers, the mountain bikers.”
“Don’t they have a climbing ban?” Talia asked.
“Yeah, but people do it anyway,” Nolan said. “I’ll ask around, see if I can find anyone who remembers anything unusual from last fall.”
“Ha. You’ll be lucky if they remember last week,” Talia said. “Those kids are baked half the time.”
“What about the video?” Hank asked.
“Video?” Talia looked at him.
“Some kid posted a video of the remains being dug up,” Nolan told her.
“Where the hell’d they get that?”
“Sent a drone over the gorge. I haven’t seen it, but I hear there’s a close-up of the skull.”
“I saw it,” Hank said. “Damn thing was on the news this morning. The bones were blurred out, but still. It’ll come back to bite us if we ever get an arrest in this case.”
“Bite us how?” Talia asked.
“A defense attorney will say our crime scene was penetrated,” Hank told her. “Contamination of evidence, whatever they can think up.”
“That’s crazy. How are we supposed to keep out a drone?”
“I’ve seen crazier.” Hank folded his arms over his chest. “Anyway, this video’s all over everywhere.”
“Are you worried?” Talia looked at Nolan.