At lunchtime, Chief Clarke wasn’t at his desk. Instead, he was standing on top of a tall retaining wall along Cripple Creek Parkway. His lead detective in the case had brought in a bloodhound, which had followed Treasure’s scent through the woods to this point overlooking where she was found. “So why am I up here, Detective?”
“Because other than our footprints, there isn’t anything up here but dog prints. Hell, the whole way here, there were no human footprints found, just a big dog and a really fucking big dog.”
“So we tracked a couple of dogs?”
“The bloodhounds were given Treasure’s scent. Treasure was found right down there on the road. In between, no Treasure, just two dogs. The small dog’s prints end here, the big one goes along the edge and across the road a hundred yards west.”
He was getting a headache again. “You got pictures of the tracks?”
“Yes, but no casts, the ground is frozen and the snow isn’t solid enough to take plaster.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe she was taking a fucking ride on his back and fell off. This whole case just sucks,” he said. “I’m heading back. Did we get that blood we found tested?”
“Yes sir, DNA testing will take a few days but blood typing shows it’s not Treasure’s, and Jenny didn’t have any injuries that bled. Type AB positive.”
“As soon as the DNA comes through, run it through the databases. Make sure we’re using the sex offender database.”
“Already on it, boss. I talked to a FBI profiler this morning, it’s rare for sex offenders to work together like this, but he’ll have a report for us in a few days.”
He was doing all he could. “Come on, let’s get some lunch. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Later that afternoon, Todd returned to the rooms with a bag of supplies. He sent his Beta into the bathroom with a hair dye kit; he couldn’t make him grow hair, but he could get rid of the distinctive grey. The younger one had his long hair cut off, leaving behind a military-style cut that was dyed a dark brown. He had gone to the hospital, taking a photo of the identification cards used there, then bought blank badges and a photo printer at a local store. Using his laptop, he took pictures of both of his men and edited them in to the file he had made. In ten minutes, he had badges printed and ready, each using the barcode he had captured from one of the workers.
A quick trip to a uniform store allowed him to purchase scrubs with the Mayo logo. Visiting hours ended at nine PM, they would be there around eleven when the floor was nice and quiet.
Chief Clarke sat with his detectives as they finished off the delivery Chinese food in the conference room that had become headquarters for the investigation. His detectives were exhausted, and the nightshift was going over what the dayshift investigators had learned.
There wasn’t a lot.
The drawings of the suspect hadn’t gone without tips getting called in, but so far they had found nothing. They had compared the drawings to photos in the sex offender database, bringing the most likely matches to the hospital to have Jenny and Treasure review them. None of them generated a positive identification. The press was demanding updates, and the young women of the city were afraid.
“We’re missing something,” he said. “What doesn’t seem right to you guys, other than the whole dog track thing?”
Detective Jones was looking through the victim statements. “It doesn’t seem right for a sexual assault,” he said. “They already had them out of sight, deep in the woods in the middle of the night. If they wanted to rape them, why not do it there? Why take Treasure away?”
“For that matter, why choke Jenny to near death?” Detective Anderson was looking through her statements. “They never even touched her except to put her in the chokehold. Treasure had given up, if they just wanted to use her as a threat or take turns with them, they wouldn’t have needed to kill her. All it did was make her fight them more. It’s more like they weren’t after Jenny at all.”
Clarke nodded, the scene was too clean for a rape. Treasure had been found naked, but they never found her clothes and she hadn’t been assaulted. “Do you think they figured out she called for help, and that’s why they took her away from the scene?”
Detective Jensen shook his head. “We had the necklace dusted for prints, there weren’t any except Treasure’s. There aren’t any lights or anything on the panic button to show it was activated, either. It’s all tactile.”
The Chief leaned back, pinching his nose. “In Treasure’s statement today, she said they called her Charlotte. Jones, you check Missing Person reports around the time she was found for a girl named Charlotte. Check everything from a year before she was found to a year after, and do it nationwide.”
“On it, Chief.”
“Jensen, if this was a kidnapping instead of a sexual assault, that changes our list of suspects. Talk to the FBI, bring them in on our suspicions.” He looked at his men. “The rest of you get some sleep, you two call me if there is a break. I’m going to the hospital to see if Jenny, Treasure or her Mom have any other ideas.”
The three men parked their SUV in the lot of the Mayo Clinic. Todd looked at his men, they all knew how serious this was. The two were dressed in scrubs, with their fake badges hanging from chains around their neck. “I’ll have the car ready, bring her down the freight elevator to the loading dock. Get the gurney and don’t waste any time with her.” He passed back the autoinjector, one they used to incapacitate werewolves or humans. The strong sedative would knock her out in a few seconds. A female who had shifted, even one untrained like she was, could be dangerous and they didn’t need to attract any attention. “Get in there, dose her and wheel her back out before anyone notices. You guys packing?” They nodded, both were carrying pistols under their scrub tops. “If it goes bad, do whatever you have to do to get out of there. You can’t get caught. The Council will figure out what is going on and our whole Pack would pay for it.”
“It will be done, Alpha,” his Beta said. He took the injector and put it in the shirt pocket of his scrubs. “We’ll link you on the way down.” The two men got out of the truck and ran across to the employee entrance. They were in luck, a man came out to grab a smoke as they arrived, and they mumbled a thanks as they went inside through the door he held open. They walked through the corridor, finding a wheelchair they pushed it to the elevator and pressed the button for the fourteenth floor. They kept their faces away from the camera as much as they could, and the surgical caps covered their hair.