Mike felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as they circled the large white pickup truck. The hood had been left open, exposing a well-used engine that was missing its battery. Travelling around the front, Mike crouched down to inspect the grill, surprised to find dried blood and tissue between the metal bars and the cage of the radiator.
The bumper and tires were covered in thick mud, much like the type they'd travelled through on their way up.
"Mike…"
Steve's voice was urgent and filled with worry, causing him to straighten back out and walk over to the young Inspector, who had opened the passenger door of the truck. Staring at the inside of the cab intently, Mike could see all the color drain from his partner's face.
Following his glance, he noted that the window of the passenger door was cracked in two spots, causing tiny spider webs to form at the point of impact. Several crimson streaks signaled somebody attempting to wipe the window clean but not doing a thorough enough job. The bench seat inside was covered in blood as well. One larger spot could be found near the headrest, and two smaller pools had formed on the seat cushion.
"Looks like somebody was knocked out; then left strapped in and bleeding all over the place…"
"Well, at one point he got dragged out…", Steve said and motioned at the running boards below, where several drips of blood stained the metal. Bending down, the young Inspector examined the floormats for further evidence but couldn't find anything.
Reaching for a napkin in his coat, Mike wiped the inside of the truck window top to bottom, hoping that enough of the blood residue would stick to it for a lab analysis.
"This is pretty dry. I'd say it's at least a couple days old…"
Steve nodded from his crouched position and went on one knee to look below the truck.
"Goes along with their timeline. Seems like they grab one or so a week…"
"Well, what we found here should give Gerry more than enough to get us a search warrant and turn this place upside down. I am going to have the lab analyze this and see if its human blood, but my gut says it is."
"You really think there's some sort of surgery suite somewhere on this property?"
Mike nodded somberly, his eyes tracing the outline of the stains on the passenger seat.
"Even if they don't do any surgeries here, it's an attractive place to hide the victims before shipping them off to some other place. It's obvious that he wasn't dragged out into this pole barn. As secluded as this park is, there could be other buildings they utilize. Heck, the one we saw coming down the road earlier could be used as well."
Straightening back out, Steve rubbed his eyes briefly, before meeting his partner's intent stare.
"These guys know the area a lot better than we do. Should we bring our park ranger friend from the magazine along tomorrow?"
"That's what I was thinking…", Mike said and nodded, before pointing back at the door, "Let's get out of here for today. We're running out of daylight. Once we're back in Lucerne, I will give Bernie a call and get the paperwork started. This way we'll be ready to leave first thing tomorrow morning, giving us all day to check this area out top to bottom."