Page 54 of Race to Save Her

“How was your talk with Ames?” he said.

“It happened. I’ll fill you in later.”

“Okay…” he drawled.

The detectives approached the scene. Patrol was still rolling out yellow tape and they seemed to be making a large perimeter, as Katie usually requested. Then she realized perhaps why when she saw Deputy Anderson. He nodded at the detectives.

“Who found the body?” she asked Gav.

“It was called in anonymously.”

Katie sighed. “Of course it was…”

“Anderson was the first to arrive,” said McGaven.

“Good.” Katie knew Anderson paid attention to details.

John joined them. Katie was happy to see him.

“Hi.”

John smiled. “We’ve documented and photographed what we could, but this is a difficult one. Let me know if you need something else as you both check it out.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. Looking at their isolated surrounds, she said, “Maybe take some photos of the location in a three hundred sixty visual.”

“Copy that,” said John as he left to get his equipment.

The detectives slipped on their gloves.

“I’ll follow you,” said McGaven to Katie.

She had a ritual at crime scenes when she was preparing to study the body and surrounding areas. She never wanted to rush in; rather, she wanted to be completely focused and thorough.

Katie walked past the officers and saw the naked body sitting up, as if she were alert and waiting for something—or someone. Katie knew it had to be Shelby, but she needed to look closer.

Shelby had been placed in a sitting pose on the other side of the drainage—which was moving slower than Katie had first witnessed. The water trickled with a nice relaxing sound. The ground where Shelby sat had a slight incline and was bordered by large pine trees. Obviously, the water made a big contribution to sustaining the trees.

Katie turned and asked, “Do we have anything to put across the drainage ditch?” She kept her voice level but authoritative.

She looked back at Shelby, who was about six feet from them. Kneeling down, Katie focused on getting a better look. Shelby’s left arm was gone and she was missing a finger on her other hand. The scene intrigued Katie. The body looked clean, without any injuries—at least from the front. Shelby’s legs were together and nothing in the posing appeared to be disturbing or sexual in nature. She’d seen very few bodies posed in this way. Shelby’s dark hair appeared to be combed and fell around her shoulders even though it was wet. She had been stripped of her clothes and shoes, but her feet looked clean.

“This should work,” said John, standing next to her, holding two six-feet-long two-by-fours. He laid them across the drainage and pressed down to make them sturdy and not slip. “They’re eight inches wide…”

“Great, if I fall in, I’m blaming you,” McGaven joked. “Ladies first.”

Katie cracked a slight smile. She studied the boards and felt she would make it easily. She placed her right foot on the right side, pressing her weight down slightly, then hurried across. Letting out a breath, she said, “It’s easy.” She smiled at her partner. “C’mon.”

McGaven decided to do the fastest cross possible and ran. “Okay, then…”

Katie focused on Shelby, unable to take her eyes away from her face. It was definitely her. Katie’s heart was heavy that she didn’t have close family. A young woman who didn’t get a chance to realize her dreams; instead, was a victim of a brutal killer.

Up close, Katie could see the gray-bluish skin color. There looked to be only slight rigor mortis, which should have meant she hadn’t been there long, though that didn’t make sense since she was most likely killed a couple of days ago.

She gave a sigh of bittersweet relief. At least they had found her. But Katie still felt trepidation for any other women out there trapped with whoever was doing this.

Upon closer inspection, Katie could see Shelby’s body had been carefully placed, hair neat, and her remaining arm lying gently on her lap. Where the arm had been removed, was a clean, straight cut that could only have been made with a precise tool—like a bone saw.

Katie found it curious that the body was so erect—not slumped to the sides or forward as a body usually would be. She looked further and found that Shelby’s back had been attached to the massive tree trunk with a metal object she hadn’t seen before.