The flashing blue and white lights atop the Jeep bathed the clearing in haunting shades of shadow and light. The howl of biting winds didn't help settle the nerves of the young man standing huddled near the thin yellow crime scene tape he had stung up only minutes ago. Silently, he prayed the snow held off, at least until his superior officer arrived.

To Deputy Harry Finn's immense relief, he soon saw the bright headlights approaching in the distance and scant minutes later, another Fort Yukon Police department jeep slid to a stop on the icy ground. The headlights helped those from his own illuminate the area, as the two front doors opened, and Harry gave a wave to his colleagues.

Sheriff Richard Lake, a tall, striking, 40ish man of native descent, exited the drivers side, big, warm boots crunching on the icy crust that had formed atop the snow during the brief hours since the last storm had passed. Used to the winter's chill, his face was still visible, not hidden by a muffler or goggles, as it would have been had the snow fall begun again.

From the passenger side, Deputy Dani Winchester, laden with a pack of crime scene equipment that, at times, seemed nearly as big as her, appeared. At 27, she was few years Harry's senior and she had grown up in the department, her late father being the Sheriff until his death five years earlier. Unlike Lake and Finn himself, she was mixed race, slightly fairer skinned and blue eyed, so her cheeks had taken a fetching rosy hue as the wind buffeted her face.

"What've we got?" Lake questioned, stepping past the tape as the first few flakes began to fall. Dani made a disgruntled noise and dropped her heavy kit by the tape, pulling a camera from inside her coat as she picked her way carefully to the body to get photos before the snow obscured it.

Finn looked at his CO and said, "I have no idea. Never seen anything like it."

"Get the tall markers out of my bag," Dani called back to them. "Mark off each of those footprints. I'll cast them when the snow stops."

Having seen her recover snow covered footprints with the help of a leaf blower, spray paint and Sulfur casting, neither of them questioned the directive and quickly compiled. Harry hung back while Lake approached the body.

What he saw shocked him.

"Christ," he breathed, eyes roaming over the bare, mostly skinless body. "What could of done that?"

The body lay on the snow, bare and curled into itself almost a defensive posture. The skin was gone, looking worn off, and the visible muscle and bone had odd striated patterns and patches. The ridges of the spinal column looked wrong, almost blunted and strangely smooth.

From her spot crouched by the corpse, Dani looked up at Lake and said, "Belt Sander."

He blinked in shock and looked down at his deputy. The younger woman was still facing him, and he was surprised to see all color had drained from her face. "Seen this before?" he questioned, though he wasn't sure when she would have. He had been on the job before she came back from college to join the department.

Still looking sick, DanI swallowed and nodded. "Fifteen years ago," she said. "Dad's case. He used to go over his files at the kitchen table at night. I always wanted to help…."

Fifteen years was a few before Lake joined the department, so it was no wonder he didn't recognize what was obviously a pretty clear MO. "Any idea who did it back then?"

"No," she shook her head, then straightened. "We need to get the body into storage, then call the FBI. If this is the same guy, he's just getting started."

TBC

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