SO LONG, page 3
Agent Tucker stepped up to the examination table first and unzipped the bag slowly, as if he were paying his respects to whoever lay beneath it. He looked up at Fiona before he pulled back the material. "You ready for this?"
She nodded resolutely. "Don't worry, Agent Tucker. This is my job."
He fully unzipped the bag, and even through her mask, Fiona was hit with the smell of death and dirt from the dead body. The pungent stench of death filled Fiona’s nostrils, a musty aroma of damp dirt and decay mixed with the faint scent of something else that she couldn’t quite place. The smell was overpowering, cloying, and sickening in its intensity.
"Sorry," Agent Tucker said, stepping back and scrunching his face.
Fiona gave him a look. "You're welcome to take a mask, Agent Tucker."
"Ah--right." He grabbed one and slipped it on.
Fiona looked down at what was inside the bag and felt her stomach shift. A young woman in a white dress was covered in dirt and insects that writhed inside of the bag. She was very clearly dead, her bluish eyes staring blankly ahead, and her skin was in a severe state of decomposition, which only emboldened the insects. Fiona's heart raced; this was real--it wasn't some abstract puzzle she was trying to solve from behind a computer monitor--and it was up to her to figure out what had happened here.
"I am glad you left the insects," Fiona said, squinting as she leaned in closer for a better look. "It's most likely they came from the forest, but if the woman had first been decomposing somewhere else, then we can examine the species and try to figure out if that is the case. It might give us more insight into what happened here."
"That's... nasty," Jake managed.
Fiona looked up at him. He rubbed the back of his neck, oddly bashful. Perhaps Jake Tucker wasn't someone to be so intimidated by?
Fiona grabbed tweezers and began to pick live insects off the body, putting them each in their own sterile container. She recognized many species just by memory, beetles and larvae, but she'd need to look closer at the others.
"And this is the second victim?" Fiona asked as she worked. She looked up to see Jake making a squished face at the body as Fiona plucked bugs from it. What had he expected her to do?
"Uh, yeah," Jake said. "The first woman was found in a similar manner and a similar area. But the other woman was quite a bit older than this one. Still, we're involved because two bodies in one week along the same trail is obviously bad for business."
"Indeed," Fiona said, refocusing on removing a worm from the girl's flesh. "And have they been identified?"
"The first woman has," Jake said. "Her name was Jane Ives, forty-one, and she'd been missing for eight months. As for this one, you're the first to examine her outside of the crime scene, and we don't have an ID yet."
Fiona kept her gaze--and hand--steady. She had to make sure she collected a sample of every species.
"It looks like she was just dumped in the forest post-mortem, and then the bugs turned her into a buffet," Jake said. "I mean, we brought her here so you could find any potential data we missed, so all the bugs..."
Fiona smiled. "Yes, all the bugs," she said.
"What exactly can you tell us about them?” Jake asked.
"Insects are sometimes more reliable than people when it comes to giving us an idea of how long a body has been in one place and what kind of environment it's been exposed to. Depending on the species of insect we find on or near the body, we can sometimes determine if there was a period of time during which the body was moved around or left somewhere else before being placed in its current location." Jake didn't look convinced, but Fiona smiled knowingly. "Bugs are often overlooked," she explained, "but trust me when I say that they can tell us a great deal about what happened here. Insects are some of the first creatures to arrive at a decomposing body."
She gestured to the containers of bugs, each to be labeled.
"These beetles, for example," Fiona said, pointing to one of them. "They're known as carrion beetles, and they usually appear within the first twenty-four hours after death." She moved on to another container filled with larvae. "And these little guys are blow fly larvae; they don't show up until at least twelve hours after death."
"Wow,” Jake managed. “You really do know a lot about bugs.”
Fiona could tell he thought she was strange. But that didn't matter. She had a job to do, and she had to remind herself not to place his opinion above any others, just because he was handsome.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Fiona looked up to see a toned woman with her blonde hair tied back in a very tight ponytail enter the room, wearing dark jeans and a blouse, similar to Jake's all-dark outfit. She had green eyes and a beautiful, feline-like face, but she also had a cold air around her. When she looked at Fiona, Fiona instantly felt judged.
"Any progress in here?" the woman asked.
"Not yet, she's just getting started," Jake said. He gestured from the blonde to Fiona. "Fiona Red, this is Agent Lauren Price, my partner."
Fiona nodded as she worked. "Thank you for coming in, Agent Price. Right now, I'm collecting as many insect samples as I can, and then I will go into a deeper examination of the body and see if I can determine a cause of death and extract any further forensic data."
Lauren's face was stoic, unreadable. "We heard you could be the right girl for the job. I hope our trust isn’t misplaced.”
Fiona’s face flushed. Suddenly, she felt an immense pressure on her that she hadn’t felt from Jake. He wasn’t the intimidating one… Lauren was. She was the exact type of person who had never liked Fiona. She reminded herself to stay in the moment, to stay professional, and not think about her past. This was real life now. And Fiona knew she was more than capable of doing this job to the best of her ability.
“Thank you for your confidence, Agent Price,” Fiona said sweetly. “I’ve worked on a few cases like this so far. I’ll do everything I can.”
“Good.” Lauren’s eyes lingered on Fiona’s for a moment too long. “We look forward to your findings then.”
“Likewise,” Jake added in. He offered Fiona a warmer smile that helped ease her tension. At least he was nice.
Just then, a buzzing sound. Jake took out his phone and pressed it to his ear, turning away slightly. He was still in the room, but for a moment, Fiona felt like she was alone with Lauren. She clammed up under Lauren’s intense gaze, turning her attention to the body as Jake answered his call.
“This is Agent Tucker… yeah… you found him? Okay, great. Yep. I’ll be right there… thanks.”
Jake hung up the phone, and Fiona stole a curious glance at him. But his eyes were on Lauren.
“They found Devon Chambers,” he told her.
Lauren nodded. “We better go talk to him.”
Questions flitted through Fiona’s mind; who was Devon Chambers? A suspect? A witness? She was always in the lab, so the more hands-on work of actual FBI agents intrigued her. Chasing down suspects, interrogating witnesses… she wondered what it would be like.
Jake’s eyes fell on her and, with her face hot, she looked away. “Anyway, we’ll leave you to it, Fiona,” he said. “Thanks again.”
Fiona nodded with a nervous smile.
With that, Lauren and Jake turned and left the room. Once alone, Fiona’s throat tightened as she looked down at the body, swarming with insects. The poor girl had lost her life way too soon. She thought of the girl’s family, how distraught they would be.
Fiona knew that feeling all too well. The feeling of loss. Of losing someone before their time.
She swallowed hard, determined to keep working.
Whoever did this would not get away with it.
CHAPTER THREE
A scrawny man in his early thirties sat across from Jake and Lauren in the interrogation room, shaking in his seat. Jake had interrogated a lot of perps before—but this guy was jittering more than he’d ever seen, and his eyes bulged out of his skull, as though terrified.
Jake eyed him, judging his nervous, twitchy gestures. Maybe Devon had taken the woman out into the woods, the same way he’d taken Gina, and killed her there.
“All right, Mr. Chambers,” Jake said, leaning forward on the table. “Start talking. We know you tried to assault Gina Laurent in Forest Park. What were you thinking, Devon? That you could just run away and never get caught?”
Devon swallowed, his pronounced Adam’s apple bobbing. He glanced around the room before he managed, “P-please, man, you’ve gotta let me go. I didn’t mean to scare Gina. Really. I—I have a wife, and a kid, come on, man, you’ve gotta know what that’s like.”
Jake and Lauren exchanged a glance. Lauren arched a brow, clearly unimpressed with Devon’s confession.
“So, you have a wife and child,” Lauren said, “but you still attempt to assault women you meet with online dating apps?”
“I know how it sounds,” Devon stammered. “But I’m a good guy. Really! I was just trying to make Gina feel good… like she was wanted, you know?”
“And you did that by assaulting her,” Jake clarified. This guy was a real piece of work, and he definitely deserved jailtime. The real question was—did he also leave the mystery woman murdered in the woods?
After Gina fled the forest, she claimed to have no idea where Devon went. She just got to safety and called the police, both about Devon’s assault and the body.
Jake sighed and pulled out a photo of the murdered woman, her body pale and lifeless against the dark forest floor. He slid it across the table to Devon, watching as his face contorted in fear.
"Do you recognize this woman?" Jake asked, his voice low and menacing.
Devon stared at the photo for what felt like an eternity before he finally shook his head, no. He looked up at Jake with wide eyes and said, "I have never seen her before in my life."
"Really?" Lauren asked. "You didn't see her when you chased after Gina?"
"What?" Devon asked, somehow going paler. "This dead chick was in the woods? I didn't see that at all! Who is she?”
It could be an act, Jake mused, rubbing his chin. He eyed Devon and said, "So you just happened to take your date, a woman you intended to assault and hell, maybe even murder, into the forest where this body was found?"
"I wasn't gonna kill Gina! Or even assault her! I just was scaring her a bit, that's all, I swear!"
"Oh, give me a break," Lauren muttered under her breath.
Jake had to share her frustration. Devon belonged behind bars, not on the streets, even if he didn't kill the woman in the woods.
"I'm tellin' you, man," Devon said, looking at Jake with pleading eyes that made his stomach sick. "I've been in Cuba with my family for the past two weeks. I've been talking to Gina for a few weeks, and she had no idea about my family. We got back yesterday, just as I convinced Gina to meet up with me. No way in hell could I have killed some random woman."
If that were true, then chances were, Devon wasn't the killer. Judging by the state of decomposition and insect infestation on the body, she'd been there for at least several days. Not weeks, but not one day, either. So, if Devon was truly gone...
"And your wife can confirm this?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, but you can't tell her anything about Gina man, she'll kill me!"
Jake sighed. He looked over to Lauren, who nodded in agreement. It seemed they had no choice but to take Devon at his word and confirm his alibi.
"Okay," Jake said with a sigh. "We'll look into your alibi and see if it checks out. But sorry, buddy, your wife is going to know everything about Gina. She's pressing charges."
Devon slumped in his chair, the reality of his situation finally settling in. He was facing serious jailtime for his actions, and he knew it. Jake and Lauren stood up to leave, but before they could reach the door Devon spoke up again.
"Wait," he said softly. "You still haven't answered my question. Who is the woman in the woods?"
Jake turned away.
If only they knew who she was. Right now, she was nothing but another Jane Doe.
***
As they were set up in a briefing room on the other wing of the headquarters, Jake sat with Lauren, his laptop open in front of him.
Devon’s alibi had checked out. He’d called the wife, and she’d willingly forwarded receipts and photographs proving Devon had been in Cuba for two weeks, and returned to the United States yesterday. So, Devon wasn’t the killer—but that didn’t mean he was off the hook. He had a long road ahead of him in court. Worst of all, his wife had seemed like a nice woman, and Jake felt for her and the difficulties she was about to face, learning who her husband really was.
But that meant they were still at square one. They had no suspects, and still no identity on the victim. In all honesty, as interesting as Fiona Red was--Jake wasn't so confident about the forensic data they might get out of the woman's remains. She was severely decomposed, but for now, Jake had to put trust in the science. Maybe something would come out of it, and Fiona seemed confident the insects would be able to tell them something.
Until then, the biggest hurdle he was having was identifying the victim. The last woman, Jane Ives, had been a missing person for some time--eight months, in fact--so Jake had the database of missing women in Oregon open in front of him. It might take a long time, but it was all he had right now. No luck so far.
Across from him, Lauren wore a concentrated expression. Jake wondered what was going on in that mind of hers. Lauren Price was like a lion, deadly when she needed to be, but elusive and hard to read. It made being her partner--and being something more than that--even more of a challenge and mystery. There was a time when Jake had liked the chase, but these days, it had grown frustrating.
"What angle are you working?" he asked her.
"I'm reading up on Jane Ives," Lauren said. "And you?"
"Cross-referencing the missing persons database with the victim. No matches so far."
"Hm." Lauren was quiet for a moment, but Jake knew her. He knew when she wanted to say more. "What do you think of her?"
"Who?" Jake asked. "The victim? I don't know anything about her yet."
"No. Fiona."
"Oh." Jake thought back to the woman he'd just met. Fiona was definitely an odd one; she had curly, dark red hair and amber eyes, hidden beneath a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. He supposed she was pretty, in a nerdy way, and he admired the fire she had when it came to her work. Still, a girl that obsessed with bugs was very weird, in his honest opinion. "She's an odd ball," Jake finally said. "But she seems like she takes her work seriously. I'm happy to work with her. Why, what’s up?”
Lauren looked back at her computer. "No reason."
"Okay?" Jake didn't know what to say, but Lauren had been in a mood with him all day.
He shook his head and returned his focus to the laptop, scrolling through the list of missing persons once more. He had a feeling that he was missing something, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. He kept going through the entries, looking for any clue or hint of who this victim could be.
He double-checked the various characteristics, paying extra attention to any information that seemed out of place. He studied the names and faces, both past and present. But try as he might, nothing jumped out at him. A wave of frustration washed over him; he'd wanted this case to be solved quickly so that they didn't have to see another body drop.
But then, near the end of the list, Jake happened upon a photo of a woman that made him look twice. A blonde, like the victim. Sarah Zimmer. With her Z last name, she was right at the bottom. The photo showed a smiling blonde woman who just might resemble the decomposing face of the girl he'd seen earlier.
Jake's heart quickened. He looked back at the photo of the victim's corpse and then back at Sarah Zimmer's photo. A chill ran up his spine; what if this was her? With his fingers shaking, he opened the file of the victim he'd seen earlier and began to compare photos.
The similarities were unmistakable; from the shape of her eyes, nose, and lips to her hair color. Jake couldn't believe it—Sarah Zimmer was their Jane Doe.
He sat back in his chair and took a deep breath, feeling a mixture of relief and sadness. Even though he had finally identified the victim, it didn't make him feel any better about her death.
"Lauren," he said softly, turning towards her with a solemn face. "I think we found our Jane Doe."
Lauren looked up from her laptop, her face alight with curiosity. "What?"
"I found a photo of a woman that resembles our victim," Jake said, showing Lauren the picture on his laptop. "Her name was Sarah Zimmer."
Jake silently motioned for her to come over and take a look at the photos he had found. She quickly got out of her chair and leaned over the laptop, studying the pictures carefully. After a few moments, she finally looked away and nodded in agreement.
"It's definitely her," she said quietly.
"We'll have to notify the family." Jake sighed. This was the hardest part of the job: talking to families of victims and knowing there was nothing he could do to change the outcome of their situation. All he could do was promise to try to help future families, but he couldn't change the past, as much as he often wished he could.
Jake knew the feeling all too well. His family had suffered a great loss once, too. Coming from a family of fire fighters, Jake had always been raised around heroes. His dad and mom were both firefighters, as was his older brother was. Jake had always thought he’d end up the same way.
Until his mom was taken from him, and not because of the job. The way she’d been taken was far crueller, changing the trajectory of his entire life, and he couldn’t stomach the memories. Not now.
"We'll tell them ourselves," Jake managed. "I don't want it to be some... cold phone call from a faceless cop."
"Always the hero," Lauren muttered, going over to her laptop. Jake shot her a look that she promptly ignored. He was getting sick of her biting comments, but he kept his mouth shut to keep the peace.
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