Tess Gerritsen - Die Again

“There’s more to this than just the bound ankles and the cord.”

“Yeah, I know. There’s those three cut marks, maybe made with a knife, maybe not. This is just a distraction. Maybe Tam will play fetch for you, but I’ve got my own case to focus on. And you still can’t tell me when Jane Doe died.”

“I gave you an estimated time of death.”

“Yeah, somewhere between two and twenty years ago. Really specific.”

“Detective Crowe, your partner has put hours of work into this analysis. The least you can do is hear him out.”

“Okay.” Crowe tossed down his pen. “Go, Tam. Tell us how the dead people on this list are all connected to our Jane Doe.”

“Not all of these are,” said Tam. Tempers might be rising in the room, but he appeared as unruffled as ever. “The first list you saw was just our initial set of flagged homicides, based on type of cord and the fact they were found hanging upside down. Then I did a separate search, using the term evisceration , because we know it was done to Gott. And Dr. Isles suspects it was also done to Jane Doe, based on the cut mark in her sternum. VICAP gave us a few additional names, of victims who were merely eviscerated, but not hung by a rope.”

Jane looked at Frost. “There’s a phrase you don’t hear every day. Merely eviscerated .”

“While I was reading through those cases of evisceration, there was one in particular that caught my eye, from four years ago. The victim was a thirty-five-year-old female backpacker in Nevada, camping with friends. There were two women and two men in the group, but she was the only one who was ever found. The others are still missing. Based on insect evidence, she’d been dead between three and four days. The body was still intact enough for the ME to determine that evisceration had occurred.”

“Three to four days outdoors in the wild, and there was enough left of her to see that?” said Crowe.

“Yes. Because she wasn’t left on the ground. The body was found up in a tree, draped over a branch. Evisceration and elevation. I wondered if that combination was the key. It’s what a hunter would do with wild game. Hang it and gut it. Which brought me right back to Leon Gott and his connection to hunting and hunters. I went on the VICAP database again and started all over. This time, I looked for open cases in wilderness areas. Any victims who had sternal cut marks or anything else compatible with evisceration. And that’s when I found something interesting. Not just a single victim, but another missing group, just like those four backpackers in Nevada. Three years ago, in Montana, a trio of elk hunters vanished. All three were men. One man was later found partially skeletonized, and wedged up in a tree. A second man’s jawbone turned up months later—just the jawbone—near a cougar den. A bear or cougar attack was the ME’s theory, but a bear wouldn’t drag a body up a tree. Which led the ME to conclude it might have been a cougar attack. Although I’m not sure if cougars would drag a kill up a tree.”

“You said they were hunters, so they would have been armed,” said Frost. “How does a killer take down three men with guns?”

“Good question. One rifle was never found. The other two firearms were still in the men’s tents. The victims must have been taken by surprise.”

Up till now, Jane had looked skeptical. Now she leaned forward, her full attention on Tam. “Tell me more about that woman backpacker in Nevada. What did the ME say about manner of death?”

“In that case, a cougar attack was also considered a possibility. But we’re talking about four backpackers, and two of them were men. The manner of death was left ‘undetermined.’ ”

“Could a cougar take down four adults all by itself?”

“I don’t know,” said Tam. “We’d have to consult with a big-cat specialist. Even if a cougar did kill all four backpackers, there’s one detail that bothered the ME. It’s the reason why the female victim was added to the VICAP database.”

“A sternal cut mark?”

“Yes. And three bullet casings. They were found nearby, on the ground. The backpackers weren’t armed, but obviously someone else in the area was.” Tam looked around the table at the three detectives. “I started off looking at nylon cord, and ended up with a completely different set of common denominators. Evisceration. Elevation. And areas where hunters might be found.”

“What about that petty thief in Maine, the one found sliced open and hanging in a tree?” asked Frost. “You said they identified a suspect for that case.”

Tam nodded. “The suspect’s name is Nick Thibodeau, the victim’s so-called buddy. White male, six foot two, two hundred pounds. He has prior convictions of breaking and entering, theft, assault and battery.”

“So a history of violence.”

“Definitely. And get this: Thibodeau’s an avid deer hunter.” Tam rotated his laptop to show them a photo of a young man with close-cropped hair and a direct gaze. He stood beside his trophy, a partially skinned buck that hung suspended by its back legs from a tree. Even in bulky hunting garb, it was obvious that Nick Thibodeau was muscular and powerful, with a thick neck and beefy hands.

“This photo was taken about six years ago, so picture him a little older now,” said Tam. “He grew up in Maine, knows the wilderness, and knows his way around a gun. Based on this photo, he also knows how to take apart a deer.”

“And maybe other large game,” said Maura. “There’s our common thread: hunting. Maybe deer got boring for Thibodeau. Maybe killing a man gave him such a thrill, he decided to pursue more challenging prey. Consider the timing of these kills. Five years ago, Thibodeau’s buddy is killed, hung, and gutted. Thibodeau vanishes. A year later, four unarmed backpackers are attacked in Nevada. A year after that, it’s three armed hunters in Montana. This killer keeps raising the stakes, making the challenge more exciting. And maybe the risks as well.”

“Leon Gott would have been a challenging target, too,” Frost agreed. “He was armed to the teeth and well known to the hunting crowd. The killer would have heard about him.”

“But why would this hunter go after Jane Doe?” Crowe said. “A woman? Where’s the challenge in that?”

Jane snorted. “Yeah, ’cause we’re such weak, helpless creatures. For all you know, she could have been a hunter herself.”

“Don’t forget Jodi Underwood. She was a woman,” said Frost. “And her murder seems connected to Gott’s.”

“I think Jane Doe’s the one we should focus on,” said Tam. “If she was killed more than six years ago, she might be one of the very first victims. Identifying her could be key to cracking this case.”

Jane closed the folder and regarded Tam. “You and Maura seem to be quite the team. When did that happen?”

“When she asked me to search VICAP for any similar cases,” said Tam. “I took it from there.”

Jane looked at Maura. “You could’ve called me.”

“I could have,” admitted Maura. “But all I had to go on were my instincts. And I didn’t want to waste your time.” She stood to leave. “Thank you, Detective Tam. You covered all the bases, and there’s nothing I have to add. So I’ll get back to the morgue.” The place where I really belong, among the obedient dead, she thought, and walked out of the conference room.

As she stepped into the elevator, Jane slipped in beside her.

“Talk to me,” Jane said as the door slid shut, leaving no escape from this conversation. “Why’d you go to Tam?”

Maura stared straight ahead at the floor light indicator. “He was willing to help me.”