The Collie Murders: A Serial Killer Crime Thriller (2 page)

Cornelia felt as if she had a hangover, as if during the night she’d been transported back in time and had revisited her wild days in college. The stiffness in her body was readily explained, since upon waking she’d found herself curled up on the tiled area of her doorway, though the pounding in her head remained a mystery. She brewed some coffee, nibbled on some toast and then hauled herself into the shower. By the time she was dressed, the world looked less like a glass of dirty water and more like an inviting vat of chilled iced tea.

As she passed the house phone in her living room on her way out the door, she noticed that its message light was flashing. Vaguely, she remembered that the phone was what had her rising from the abyss of sleep and what had kicked off the headache she‘d had to endure all morning.

Cory lifted her hand toward the phone, but stopped halfway. She knew it was another message from Jon, and since she was already feeling a lot better, there wasn’t a need to open up another can of Woe-is-me.

********

“I went over your work regarding the Kinsey case. I guess it wasn’t something you could really make a mistake on, however I felt the need to take a glance myself to make certain. I want the secondary release papers and the death certificate on my desk by tomorrow.”

Cory was glad that she was facing away from her Chief Medical Examiner. Randall Willis was a small man with an equally small mind whose views on the opposite gender needed a long overdue update. She could feel his beady little eyes staring at her from underneath his glasses and she wanted to slap the
smirk of his face that was undoubtedly twisting his lips.

“Do you understand me, Dr. Lance?”

Cory put down the pen she was using to sign forms with and stared at the wooden patterns of her desk. She wasn’t surprised that Randall was harassing her; it was common for him to make the rounds at least once a day.

She replied, “Yes sir, I understand.”

“Good, and see if you can’t get that intern of yours to do something useful today. She’s a walking disaster looking for a place to happen.”

Cory heard the door to her office open and then close. She looked up to the ceiling and wondered why she chose to put up with a man like Randall. She could have worked anywhere in the country, let alone a small town like Collie.

She let her eyes drift from the ceiling to a framed photograph of a handsome man hugging the tiny body of a blond-headed boy. The boy’s green eyes seemed to twinkle at her, and she realized that she wouldn’t leave Collie because it was the place David was buried and because it would feel like leaving him.

“Liar,” she said as a lopsided smile crossed her face.

At least in part, the reason that she couldn’t leave Collie was because of Jon. Shortly after their divorce she quickly discovered that the man didn’t function so well without her. She’d planned to leave, had her bags packed with a job lined up in a bigger city, but the knowledge of what that would do to Jon had her chickening out. She never thought to attempt it again.

Cory shook her head at the smiling face of her ex-husband and stood to walk out of the room. She wanted to go check on Drew, since Randall’s latest rounds must have rattled her pretty badly. If she was this irritated by their latest battle, then Drew was probably huddled in a corner somewhere crying her eyes out.

She had just enough time to set one of her toes out into the hall.

“Dr. Lance! Dr. Lance!”

Drew came running down the hall toward her, her face a contorted mixture of random flashing emotion before it decided to settle on panic. When she was just a foot away, she skidded to a halt and expounded.

“Dr. Willis is out to lunch and there’s an ambulance parked in the drop off and I don’t know what to do! There’s two of Sheriff Harper’s deputies out fron
t
”

“Slow down, Drew.” Cory interrupted calmly.

Cory put a hand to Drew’s bony shoulder and she felt the up and down motion of her frame as the frazzled woman tried to get out what she had to say. For one horrible moment, a second frozen in mental torture, Cory had the image of walking out to meet the deputies and listening to them tell her that it was Jon’s body out in that ambulance.

“Someone found a body behind Pete’s Grocery. The deputy out front said it was one of the checkout girls.”

Cory exhaled, glad that the morbid pictures of Jon’s corpse were gone. She refocused on Drew, “Go into the lab and prepare a table. Put out what I’ll need to examine the body with and let me go handle our visitors.”

Drew visibly calmed down, her face going back to its neutral state. No matter what Randall said about the woman, Cory knew that in a pinch, Drew was capable. She walked off towards the lab as Cory took her cue and headed in the opposite direction.

Inside of the reception area, Travis Harper and his partner Louis Kale were waiting on her.

“There you are. You know that ditz of an intern almost fainted when we showed up?”

Cory watched as Louis folded his arms to his chest. Like Travis, the man was built cleanly out of candy, with all his muscles toned in all the right places. He happened to be two years older, but it couldn’t make a difference between them if he’d tried. When off duty, the duo worked in tandem to woo as many women as would have them, although lately she’d heard word that Travis had gotten more than he’d expected with a girl in town and that he might be permanently off the market. Much to Louis’ dismay.

Cory said, “How can I help you two?”

“Didn’t Drew tell you? A body was discovered behind Pete’
s
”

“Really sorry to interrupt you Louis, but I know that much. What do you want me to do? Is there an apparent cause of death?”

Travis stepped forward. “Just tell us what you can. The coroner told us that asphyxiation was the cause of death. If anything, we know this wasn’t an accident.”

Cory nodded. That would explain why Drew was such a mess; there hadn’t been a murder in Collie since she’d started working and there had only been one in the length of her career.

“I’ll go out and meet with the paramedics. You two can go for now, I’ll be calling the station when I’m through with the examination.”

“Louis, go tell the boys out back that they have the go ahead to bring the body in.”

Cory could feel the impending conversation Travis wanted to have with her like a ton of bricks waiting to be dropped on her head. She knew that the guy loved his brother, but the fact was that she handled things in her own way and the constant butting in of other people made the job all the more difficult.

After Louis was gone from the room, Cory was on Travis before he could even open his mouth.

“Look, I already know what you’re going to say, and you can just keep it to yourself.”

“Cory, if you know what I’m going to say, then you know that going to the cemetery alone hurts Jon. He wants to move on, but he’s still locked inside of the past. He goes to work and comes home, never going out. The man has stopped living.”

Cory folded her arms to herself and gave a quick squeeze. “Just stay out of my life. Don’t you think this is hard on me too? We‘re divorced, Travis.”

Travis opened his mouth but then closed it. The paramedics were wheeling a body through the hall, the corpse zipped head to toe in a black Zip-Loc.

“I’m going to go handle my job. You do yours and we’ll all be happy.”

********

Jonathan Harper stood over the grave of his son and read over the inscription of the headstone. He’d done it several times already, but he didn’t have anything to say. He liked to think that David knew his heart, that wherever David was, that he was at peace.

“I miss you. You mother loves you too.”

Jon pulled a small airplane from his pocket and set it next to the flowers.

“I bought that for you today. I thought it would be nice to have another one to add to the collection.”

He fought against the tears that wanted to rise, fought like so many times to keep from breaking down. He wanted to tell David he was sorry, that he’d tried to keep Cory with them. She was beyond his help, for now, but not beyond the love he knew he still felt for her.

The divorce had been rough, but it had been mutual; they both saw that if they stayed together and tried to make it work, that at some point they’d be ripping each other’s throats out like wild dogs. So much anger and frustration and pain filled both of them, that the love just took a back seat to observ
e
unwilling to prevent their destruction.

Jon slumped down on his butt to stare at the grave. The sun was getting higher in the sky, but the day was his to take his time. He’d considered bringing his trusty best friend of a flask with him, but found it inappropriate to drink alcohol in front of his son. Somehow, it made the habit worse if David knew that this was what he had been reduced to.

“I miss her so much, son. If I could take back everything, I would.” He’d known that his drinking, in part had made it difficult to handle the anger, and therefore keep himself from losing control at Cory. Their arguments had been epic battles worth writing home about and history would be documented with the horrible things he’d said to her.

The ground was wet from the morning dew, and the moisture was starting to soak through his jeans to his boxers, but he wasn’t about to move. He’d spent long hours like this with David while he was alive, just being in the kid’s company. He’d never gotten tired of watching David play, or laugh, or make faces at him when he didn’t get his way. It was surreal to think that a little being that had been that full of life was just gone.

The vibration from his cell phone jarred him from his thoughts. He pulled the thing out of his pocket, pressed the call function and placed it to his ear.

“Sorry to call you on your day off, Jon. But you need to come in.”

Jon sighed, “What is it? That farmer off the highway got his shotgun out again?”

“No, brother. We’ve got us someone who likes to strangle women behind grocery stores.”

Jon pinched his cell phone between his neck and shoulder as he used his hands to stand up.

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s been a murder. Just saw Cory, and she’s doing the work up on the body as we speak. I was wanting you to come with my partner and I over to the crime scene. Maybe your eyes will see something we didn’t. As of right now, we don’t have a thing to go on.”

********

Cory peered down at the face of the woman on her table. She’d been a friendly girl, never a bad thing to say about anyone, and she’d let you slide on change if you were a little short. She had also been beautiful, though not so much now. Her features were badly distorted by the work of the person who’d stolen her life and had done this to her.

She looked away from the body, as she’d done a few times since beginning the examination. It was always difficult when someone came through that, in life, you’d known and in death, you’d wish you didn’t have to know.

Amber Montgomery didn’t deserve to be on that cold table, her torso bereft of clothes, open to the air for inspection. She hadn’t asked to have the life choked from her, or needed to be tossed out onto the ground like trash.

Cory sighed and returned to the body, her tape recorder had been left running, and now she began her report.

“Death by asphyxiation caused by strangulation. Ligature marks, seems to have been a garroting wire, possibly thin fishing line. Trauma to the face, possible broken cheekbone.”

Cory stopped the recorder. She lifted Amber’s shoulder so that she could see underneath her. On her shoulder blade heading in towards her spine was a small opening. It was the size of a pencil eraser, and it appeared to run deep. Cory picked up a utensil, normally used for making points internally during dissection, and she nuzzled around in the hole. The tip of the tool struck against something solid, and using the tip of a scalpel, she was able to lift a small object out of the opening.