Chapter 2
"What do we have?" Jane called out to Frost as she walked up towards the scene. She was carrying three cups of coffee she had stopped to get for Frost, Maura and herself. She stopped about fifty yards from the actual body so she could survey the area.
The area was wide open. The Charles River Loop was one of the most popular jogging and biking paths in the Boston area. From Jane's vantage point the victim was not hidden and it seemed a guarantee given the logistics that the body would be discovered at first light. Jane made a mental note that the killer didn't seem concerned about hiding his...or her...crime.
Frost looked up from where he was standing to see his partner approaching the area. Before Jane had even stopped he started to make his way towards her. He was used to Jane's habit of taking in the entire crime scene before she walked up to look over the victim. That part of her crime scene routine was one of the very first things she ever taught him when he transitioned into homicide.
"Female victim," he started. "24 years old. Responding officers recovered her ID and cell phone." He gratefully accepted his cup of coffee from Jane. It was early and he hadn't had a chance to get a cup yet. He knew Jane would come bearing the much needed beverage. She never let him down.
Jane looked over to Frost a little surprised. "Really?" she couldn't help but ask. That seemed to be an unusual piece of good fortune for the detective duo.
Frost nodded. "Victim's name is Allyson Montgomery. I ran her but no record was found." Frost could find DMV and vehicle information for Montgomery but she did not have any kind of criminal record nor had she received any citations.
Jane turned back to look over the crime scene. The body was discovered along the jogging loop just off the Esplanade and just west of the Reservation IV Park. She took in the surroundings and turned to Frost. "What did you see?" she asked.
Frost smirked. It had been awhile since Jane quizzed him about a scene. He turned to face the area and stood next to his partner. "It's quiet. Even with the commotion of the CSRU team started to mark off the area it was still quiet. There was more light than when she was first discovered but given her location I believe she would have been seen easily if someone had been jogging at night."
"What does that tell you?" she asked more curious about his initial conclusions than any concern that he had missed a detail.
"She was found not too long after she was placed here," he answered immediately. Given the popularity of the trail it was an easy assumption that she hadn't been out here for very long.
Jane smiled. Frost was getting better and better over the years. "What else?"
"No tire tracks near the body and she isn't dressed for any exercise so this seems to be a dump site and not our murder scene. The walk from the lot by the park is not a long one. Our killer could have pulled up and parked over there and carried her here."
Jae looked over towards the park and saw where a vehicle had easy access to drive and park without leaving tire tracks. The entire route was paved. Looking from the lot to where the body currently was laying Jane made a note of something else. She was about to say something when Frost spoke again.
"Our killer seems to have walked past several better dump sites to leave her there," he said and pointed to a few areas where the shrubs and bushes could have done a better job of hiding the body. "It appears she was meant to be found."
It was the same feeling Jane had as she looked over the scene. While she was happy with Frost's observations they worried her. She had a feeling this case was going to be complicated. "Anything else?"
Frost thought for a moment and then answered. "Just an impression our suspect is male," he answered.
"Why?" she asked already knowing what Frost's reasoning would be but asking anyway.
"She was carried here," he answered. "That kind of dead weight and the need to walk her and not drag her, I see a male suspect and not a female one." Sure, some women had that kind of strength and conditioning and he wouldn't rule the possibility out this early in the investigation but for an initial assessment he played the percentages and the odds told him they were looking for a male.
Frost had hit on everything Jane had seen as she looked over the area. She couldn't help but be a little proud at how far he had come as an investigator since partnering up with her. "Who found her?" she asked.
"A jogger," Frost answered as he motioned towards a man who was talking to a uniformed officer.
Jane nodded. "At least it wasn't by a kid," she said quietly. Looking down at her watch she knew, at 6:15 am, it was too early in the morning for the nearby park to be full of little kids. "Cause of death?" she asked still looking around trying to take in all of the surroundings.
Instead of answering Frost just turned his attention towards the victim. "I think you need to see this for the first time yourself," was all that Frost would say.
Jane turned her head to look over towards the victim and saw for the first time that Maura was on site. Maura was hovering over the victim and appeared to be checking the victim's extremities for signs of injuries or broken bones. Jane couldn't help the small hint of a smile that crept across her face. There was just something about seeing the ME in action that Jane loved to watch.
Slowly, both Jane and Frost made their way over to the victim. Frost seemed intent on letting Jane just see for herself what was going on so she didn't bother asking any other questions. However, the moment she laid eyes on the victim she understood why Frost hadn't answered her.
The very first thing she noticed was that the victim's eyes had been removed. Her years as a homicide detective had steeled her from reacting to most crime scenes no matter the brutality. But looking down at this young woman Jane couldn't remember seeing anything as unnerving as what she was looking down upon.
"Maura?" she asked but didn't look away from the victim.
"Enucleation," Maura answered back.
"Try that in English for me please," Jane responded. "And the short version if you would be so kind," she added. A full anatomy lesson on the structure of the eye wasn't what Jane had in mind that early in the morning. She handed over to Maura her cup of coffee as she waited for a better explanation.
"Thank you," the ME said as she removed her gloves and stepped away from the body to accept the coffee. "Enucleation refers to the removal of an eyeball from the orbital socket while leaving behind the eyelids and the eye muscles. As opposed to exenteration which would have described the removal of all of the anatomical structures of the eye." That was as short an explanation Maura could think to give Jane.
"Professional?" Jane wondered aloud. As crazy as it sounded Jane was aware that there was a black market for all kinds of organs. Including eyes.
"I won't be able to say for certain until I perform a complete autopsy but the dissection appears to be very crude. The superior oblique and inferior rectus muscles as well as the optic nerve appear to be severed more than cleanly dissected." Maura answered Jane. It would be as close to an assumption or guess as Maura felt comfortable giving Jane.
"Think you will be able to tell what was used to make the cuts?" Jane asked. She knew what Maura's answer was going to be but she asked anyway.
"I can't say at this point," Maura answered.
"Can you tell if she was still alive when that happened?" Jane asked. For the sake of the victim Jane hoped the answer was no.
"I can't say for certain yet but my initial assessment leads me to believe the eyes were removed post mortem." Maura never liked to commit too much during an initial field assessment.
"Cause of death?" Jane asked as she moved to the other side of the victim now trying to look at the rest of her condition and not just the missing eyes.
"There are ligature marks around her neck," Maura pointed out, "with significant bruising but again…"
"You'll be able to confirm strangulation only during autopsy," Jane finished Maura's sentence. It didn't bother Jane that Maura was so precise. In fact, she always appreciated Maura's meticulous nature. As much as she sometimes wanted Maura to speculate and guess she fully understood it was for everyone's benefit that Maura simply would not jump to any conclusions. It made them all better at their jobs.
Maura half smiled. "Sorry, but I will need to do a complete autopsy to determine what exactly happened here. There does not appear to be any other signs of physical injuries. No extremities appear to be broken. Also, I do not detect any visible signs of tissue or blood under her fingernails but we bagged her hands to preserve any evidence that may exist on a microscopic level."
"Thoughts on time of death?" Jane asked.
"Rigor has not yet set in so your window is within the last three to four hours," Maura answered.
By habit Jane looked back down at her watch. The victim was found close to 5:30 am so that window put time of death between 2:30 and 5:30 am. Not too bad of a window to have to deal with. They had gotten lucky that the body was basically discovered at first light.
Jane turned her attention to Frost and looked down at the victim again. "A victim who still had ID and a cell phone. On a popular jogging path. In plain sight. Someone made this very easy for us," Jane said in a worried tone. "I don't like that." It seemed to go against what was 'normal' for a homicide.
"What are you thinking?" Frost asked his partner.
"I'm not sure. But something tells me there's more to this than what is in front of us." She looked around the scene again trying to see if she had missed anything. Not seeing anything left to review Jane turned to Frost. "Let's go handle notification. We can have Vince run the details through ViCAP and see if we get a hit," she said.
"You think something like this has happened before?" Frost asked only now considering for the first time that there could be a similar case.
"I'm not sure but I have a feeling," she answered.
Frost simply nodded. Jane's feelings were always good enough for him. "I'll call in the details to Korsak on our way to her apartment," Frost offered.
Jane nodded. She turned to Maura. "Do you need anything?" she asked.
Maura shook her head. "We are almost done here. I'll follow her in and start the autopsy. I should have some preliminary findings for you in a couple of hours."
R&I
"So, what do we have?" Korsak's voice came across Frost's cell which he had put on speaker so both he and Jane could talk with Vince.
"We need you to run something through ViCAP for us to see if we get any hits," Jane offered up.
"Alright," came Vince. There was a pause and both Jane and Frost could tell he was trying to access the ViCAP program. "What exactly am I looking for?"
"Female victims ages 18-24. Cause of death asphyxiation with ligature marks. Disposal of body in a public, well traveled area. Removal of the eyes," Jane spoke as she heard Korsak's fingers typing on the keyboard.
"What?" Korsak said as the typing on the keyboard stopped suddenly. "Did you just say removal of the eyes?"
"Yes," Frost answered. "Both eyes were cut out of our victim."
"No wonder you wanted this run through ViCAP," Vince replied as he finished typing in the query criteria.
"She was found on a public jogging trail with ID and cell phone," she offered as they all were waiting for the records to be searched. "That bothers me more than the missing eyes."
"That is awfully convenient," Korsak pointed out understanding what Jane meant.
"Too convenient," Jane confirmed back.
"Sexual assault?" Vince asked.
"Not sure," Jane answered. "Maura will check back that the lab but from what we could tell on scene I would say not likely."
They were quiet for a few minutes all waiting for the ViCAP results. When they finally heard from Vince again they couldn't make out what he was saying as it appeared as if he was reading the results more to himself than out loud for Jane and Frost to hear.
"That's interesting," they heard Vince mumble. Jane couldn't make out much more from Korsak as his mumbling continued. "Oh…." which was very clearly heard by both Frost and Jane and then there was an odd silence after that.
"Vince, want to include us in on what it is you are looking at? Your mumbles aren't really helping us here." Jane asked waiting for an explanation.
"Oh, sorry," his voice came suddenly across the phone. "Jane," he said and paused reading through some of the information that was on the computer screen, "you're going to want to see this. Handle the notification and get back here."
Jane glanced over at Frost trying to understand why Korsak just wasn't giving her any details but he seemed clueless and just shrugged his shoulders.
"Vince?" Jane tried again. "What hit did you get?"
"Not hit. Hits," he answered. "Two of them and according to this the killer is already in prison in Cedar Junction."
"Cedar Junction?" Jane responded surprised. "Our ViCAP hits come back to cases with someone already in prison?"
"The cases are from 2002," Vince answered.
"That was ten years ago," Frost pointed out. He couldn't remember hearing about any cases that involved someone cutting out the victim's eyes before. Even from ten years ago.
"Yes," Korsak answered. "The cases were closed when the suspect plead guilty and was sent to Walpole ten years ago."
"Is he still there?" Jane asked wondering if maybe they were dealing with a recent parolee going back to old habits.
"He's still incarcerated," Korsak confirmed. "He's serving multiple life sentences and he isn't eligible for parole."
"How similar is the MO?" Frost asked now wondering if there was just small similarities between the ViCAP hits and their current case.
"Looks like the same MO," Vince answered. "Age of the victims, strangulation, disposal of the body in a well traveled public area and removal of the victims' eyes." He hadn't seen the crime scene but from what Jane and Frost had said and what he was looking at it appeared to him to be the same MO. "Plus there's something I doubt will be a coincidence."
"What's that?" asked Frost.
"The ViCAP cases are from ten years ago," Vince answered as if that explained some major point.
"Yeah," Jane answered a little confused. "You said that already. 2002 was ten years ago. I'm not sure I see your point."
"The first victim was found in May of 2002," Vince replied and knew that would help Jane understand what he meant. "May 8th to be exact."
"That's makes it ten years ago to the day," Frost pointed out. "That definitely can't be a coincidence."
Not one of the three partners believed in coincidences. They all had been cops too long to subscribe to the notion of coincidence. The minute Korsak said the first victim of the 2002 case hits was found on the same date as their current victim all three detectives were convinced that their case was linked to the ViCAP hits Vince had found. What remained now was just figuring out that link.
"Clearly there is a link of some kind," Jane said. "We will handle the notification and get an idea of our victim's timeline. Frost will send you the cell phone number of our victim so we can get started on the phone dump. Can you pull the case files on what you found in ViCAP? We can start to try to piece together what all of this could be when Frost and I get back to the station."
"I'll pull the files as soon as I get off the phone with you," Korsak answered. He paused and debated telling Jane one last piece of information. Part of him wanted to just wait for her to get back to the station to review the case files but he knew she would be more upset that he didn't warn her before she saw it. So he needed to tell her. "Jane,' he said and paused. "There's one more thing."
"Yeah?" she replied picking up on the sudden change in Korsak's tone.
"Just so you know, Jennings was the primary for the cases from 2002."
Frost turned to look at Jane after hearing this. He, too, had noticed the change in Korsak's tone but he was not sure what it meant or what to make of the look that his partner now had on her face. He knew the name but he didn't understand why Korsak was giving Jane a heads up or why it sounded like it was the last thing he had wanted to say out loud. No one said anything for a few moments.
Finally, Jane broke the silence. "Pull the case files. We'll be there as quickly as we can."
Even through the phone, Korsak heard the edge to Jane's voice. And he knew without a doubt that Andrew Jennings was the cause of that edge.
