Lara Lacombe - Ranger's Justice

“You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’m just...” He trailed off, rubbing a hand over his breastbone to ease the sudden ache in his chest. “I’m going to sit over here, if you don’t mind. Take your time.” He walked a few feet away to a large rock on the edge of the trail and sat, leaving Rebecca free to study the area to her heart’s content.

Even though the site was free from any reminders of his discovery, Quinn’s mind had no problem picturing the woman on the ground, her hair strewn across her face. Not again had been his first thought when he’d stumbled across the second body. Initially, he’d thought he was seeing things. He’d been thinking of the first victim as he’d walked, unable to get her out of his head. So when he’d come across the second woman he’d assumed he was simply having a very vivid hallucination brought on by emotional distress and the heat. But then the smell of death had hit him, and he’d realized the sight in front of him was very real.

Why me? he thought for what must have been the millionth time. Why had he been the one to find both victims? Was it simply an awful coincidence, or was there something more sinister at work?

After what seemed like an eternity, Rebecca walked over. “I’m ready.”

“Did you get what you needed?” He rose to his feet, glad she was done. Maybe someday he’d be able to hike this trail without being assaulted by the memories of his gruesome discovery, but not today.

“More or less.” She was quiet for a moment, the crunch of their footsteps the only sound. “I appreciate you bringing me here,” she said. “I can see it was hard for you.”

Quinn jerked up one shoulder in a shrug, trying to appear nonchalant. “I’m just glad you got the information you were searching for.”

“I did,” she murmured. “In more ways than one.” He shot her a quizzical look and she shook her head. “He’s physically fit, that much is obvious. Probably a frequent visitor to the park—I’m willing to bet he had this spot picked out for a while. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. He probably fantasized about bringing a woman here to kill her.”

A wave of revulsion hit Quinn and he bit his lip to keep from vomiting. “We can check visitor logs at all the ranger stations,” he said, his voice coming out a little hoarse. “But there’s no guarantee he registered with us.”

“Have the police already started combing through camping permits?”

He nodded. “Yes. But not everyone follows the rules.”

“True.” She sounded thoughtful. “And a man who was so careful to scrub the site probably wouldn’t make the mistake of applying for a camping permit.”

“You’re sure it’s a man?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Statistically speaking, yes. Most serial killers are men. And the women were strangled to death, which takes brute strength.”

Quinn digested her words, nodding as he realized she was likely right.

“You think he’s staying in the park?” The thought sent a chill down Quinn’s spine. If the killer was camping in the backcountry, they might never find him. It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

“Anything is possible,” Rebecca said. “I want to focus on the victims first, though. If they had a permit, we can try to retrace their steps in the days leading up to their deaths. If we’re really lucky, we’ll find a shared location or some other point where they may have crossed paths with the killer.”

“You think he met them here?”

“More than likely. It’s possible the first victim came with him, but the second one was definitely someone he picked up recently. And given the identical display of the bodies, I don’t think he knew the women on more than a superficial level.”

Quinn’s curiosity got the better of him. “How can you tell that?”

“When a killer really knows his victim, he usually treats the body differently. Some murderers are overcome with guilt and treat the body almost tenderly, while some have a surge of anger and do further damage to the remains. Either way, there is usually a sign that the crime was personal. But in the case of our two victims, the bodies were staged identically. That makes me think he didn’t know either one of them on an intimate level.”

“He must be pretty charismatic,” Quinn mused.

Rebecca’s gaze sharpened. “What makes you say that?”

“He got two women—strangers, you think—to trust him enough to set off on a strenuous hike alone with him,” he pointed out. “Most hikers and campers are friendly, but they’re also savvy about safety. If a man I didn’t know approached me and wanted to take on a remote trail together, I wouldn’t go. And I’m a fairly big guy.”

“Very good,” she said softly. “I’m impressed you picked up on that. We’ll make a profiler out of you yet, Quinn.”

He blushed but didn’t reply.

“There’s just one thing that bothers me about this,” she said.

“Only one?” Quinn joked lamely.

Rebecca acknowledged his point with a nod. “Why haven’t we heard from anyone who knows the victims? These women didn’t pop out of thin air. They had families, friends. Why has no one reported them missing? You just said hikers are savvy about safety, so it’s unlikely they came to the park alone. Someone should have noticed when they didn’t return.”

“Maybe he’s not meeting them in the park,” Quinn said. “What if he’s bringing them in from one of the neighboring towns?”

“Good point,” she said. “Sounds like I need to widen my search.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said impulsively. Rebecca raised one eyebrow in surprise. “The people in these little towns aren’t always welcoming to outsiders. I’m not going to get in your way, but I don’t think you should go by yourself.” He didn’t like the thought of her going off alone, especially not with a murderer on the loose. As an FBI agent she’d probably had self-defense training, but she still could be overpowered by the brute strength of a determined assailant. Quinn didn’t have any illusions regarding his fighting prowess, but he was on the larger side and knew how to throw a punch.

When Rebecca didn’t reply, he added, “If you don’t want me to tag along, at least take a police officer with you.”

“That won’t be necessary,” she replied. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I think you’ll do just fine.”

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