lead.
“We’re due for some luck.” God knows last night hadn’t brought any. “The kids who found the body last night voluntarily surrendered their cell phones. They claimed they hadn’t taken any pictures…” There was an audible snort of disbelief from one of the agents. “…but I left the phones with the cyber-crime unit to make sure. Channing’s neighbor’s boy, Carter Hammel is at the hospital. While he’s unharmed, we’re having swabs done to see if he has any of the offender’s DNA on his body.” The chances of that were slim, but no avenue would be left unexplored. “Turner is conducting formal interviews with the three witnesses from last night, and finishing up sketches of the UNSUB with two of them.”
“Any chance this offender will head to Vance’s house to lay low for a while?” This from Agent Samuels.
Cam resisted the urge to look at his watch. Gonzalez’s absence from this briefing, after her stated intention to attend was beginning to worry him. He hoped like hell that whatever had kept her away wasn’t associated with this case. But he suspected otherwise. “Polk County Sheriff Jackson has had the house under surveillance since we arrested Vance and got proof he hadn’t been working alone. If the UNSUB heads there, he’ll be picked up.”
He wasn’t pinning his hopes on that. It would be too easy. And nothing about this case so far had been simple. “But you can head over to Alleman and talk to the townspeople. Show Rhonda Klaussen’s picture around. See if you can get a feel for whether she was seen in public, how freely she moved around.” A thought struck him then. “Take a copy of the first sketch Turner did of the UNSUB. May as well see if any of Vance’s neighbors recognize him.”
In addition to the events of last night, they were still faced with the task of building an airtight case against Vance. Discovering the true nature of Klaussen’s involvement with Vance was a priority. And Vance had to have met with the accomplice somewhere. “Beachum, you’ll work the BOLO tip line. Robbins, head back to Channing’s place. Once the crime team is done, I want her condo kept under surveillance.” Hopefully he’d be able to get the DMPD to take over that duty. He needed every agent actively working this case.
A startled expression on his face, the younger agent questioned, “You think the offender will go back there?”
“Well the guy does seem to get lonely for his victims,” drawled Beachum, drawing a few laughs.
The remark brought an answering tightness to Cam’s chest, but he tamped down the emotion. “That he does. We got a positive ID on the container by the river that the corpse was kept in. It’s called a Ziegler Transfer Case, commonly used by funeral homes to transport dead bodies without a casket.” He turned to the computer on the table next to him and brought up the photos of it. “It’d also work to keep animals away.”
“Was this body doused with insecticide, too?” Beachum wanted to know.
“We’ll find out when the ME has time to examine the body.” But if it had been, that would be another clear link to the other six victims they’d found. Cam brought up another set of pictures. “The case was mounted on this flat gurney so the UNSUB could move it in and out of the cave more easily.” The next pictures were of the cave they’d found yards away from the clearing used for the assault. It was directly below the rocky area the teenagers had watched the man from. “This chamber is barely wide enough to house the cart, and about eight foot deep.” He switched to close ups taken of the interior. “One small bone was discovered near the back of the cave, near the river. We’ll know soon if it’s animal or human.”
The next picture showed a stack of stones next to the cave’s entrance. “We think the UNSUB collected
“We’re due for some luck.” God knows last night hadn’t brought any. “The kids who found the body last night voluntarily surrendered their cell phones. They claimed they hadn’t taken any pictures…” There was an audible snort of disbelief from one of the agents. “…but I left the phones with the cyber-crime unit to make sure. Channing’s neighbor’s boy, Carter Hammel is at the hospital. While he’s unharmed, we’re having swabs done to see if he has any of the offender’s DNA on his body.” The chances of that were slim, but no avenue would be left unexplored. “Turner is conducting formal interviews with the three witnesses from last night, and finishing up sketches of the UNSUB with two of them.”
“Any chance this offender will head to Vance’s house to lay low for a while?” This from Agent Samuels.
Cam resisted the urge to look at his watch. Gonzalez’s absence from this briefing, after her stated intention to attend was beginning to worry him. He hoped like hell that whatever had kept her away wasn’t associated with this case. But he suspected otherwise. “Polk County Sheriff Jackson has had the house under surveillance since we arrested Vance and got proof he hadn’t been working alone. If the UNSUB heads there, he’ll be picked up.”
He wasn’t pinning his hopes on that. It would be too easy. And nothing about this case so far had been simple. “But you can head over to Alleman and talk to the townspeople. Show Rhonda Klaussen’s picture around. See if you can get a feel for whether she was seen in public, how freely she moved around.” A thought struck him then. “Take a copy of the first sketch Turner did of the UNSUB. May as well see if any of Vance’s neighbors recognize him.”
In addition to the events of last night, they were still faced with the task of building an airtight case against Vance. Discovering the true nature of Klaussen’s involvement with Vance was a priority. And Vance had to have met with the accomplice somewhere. “Beachum, you’ll work the BOLO tip line. Robbins, head back to Channing’s place. Once the crime team is done, I want her condo kept under surveillance.” Hopefully he’d be able to get the DMPD to take over that duty. He needed every agent actively working this case.
A startled expression on his face, the younger agent questioned, “You think the offender will go back there?”
“Well the guy does seem to get lonely for his victims,” drawled Beachum, drawing a few laughs.
The remark brought an answering tightness to Cam’s chest, but he tamped down the emotion. “That he does. We got a positive ID on the container by the river that the corpse was kept in. It’s called a Ziegler Transfer Case, commonly used by funeral homes to transport dead bodies without a casket.” He turned to the computer on the table next to him and brought up the photos of it. “It’d also work to keep animals away.”
“Was this body doused with insecticide, too?” Beachum wanted to know.
“We’ll find out when the ME has time to examine the body.” But if it had been, that would be another clear link to the other six victims they’d found. Cam brought up another set of pictures. “The case was mounted on this flat gurney so the UNSUB could move it in and out of the cave more easily.” The next pictures were of the cave they’d found yards away from the clearing used for the assault. It was directly below the rocky area the teenagers had watched the man from. “This chamber is barely wide enough to house the cart, and about eight foot deep.” He switched to close ups taken of the interior. “One small bone was discovered near the back of the cave, near the river. We’ll know soon if it’s animal or human.”
The next picture showed a stack of stones next to the cave’s entrance. “We think the UNSUB collected
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