Jack of Spades by Diane Capri

Author:Diane Capri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AugustBooks
Published: 2019-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Saturday, February 26

4:45 p.m.

Laconia, New Hampshire

Smithers took the last turn leaving town and toward the motel site, away from the Laconia police station where his team had been headquartered for the past two weeks.

Kim said, “All nine of the previous victims were found within a mile of the motel. Did they do a wider ground search today?”

Smithers shook his head. “A black bear alerted them to the location in the woods, about a mile off the two-track. They saw the bear first and then located the bodies with a drone.”

“Lucky break.”

“Yeah. Otherwise, what’s left of these two victims would probably have been buried tonight and stayed buried until Spring. We might never have found them at all.”

Kim nodded, thinking things through. “Only one bear?”

“So far. There’s more in the vicinity. Bears don’t generally travel in packs, but that doesn’t mean they’ll show up only one at a time,” Smithers said. “Why are you so interested? Still think one of the victims could be Jack Reacher?”

Kim remained silent.

He drove along the county road at a rapid rate of speed too fast for the driving conditions. The blizzard had picked up strength. Wind and snow buffeted the big vehicle on all sides. At least a few inches of new accumulation blanketed the ground. The windshield was covered with icy snowmelt, even with the defroster blasting and the wipers slapping time.

Kim cinched her seatbelt tighter and held onto the armrest as the vehicle bounced and swayed. “How’d they get rid of the bear? We’ve got black bears in Michigan. They don’t hunt humans, but they definitely can be deadly. Especially if humans interfere with their feeding ground.”

“They didn’t find the bodies until about half an hour ago. They chased the bear off using flare guns before they realized he was feeding or that he was possibly feeding on human remains. But he made it pretty clear he didn’t want to go. And they figure he’ll be back tonight.” Smithers swiped one of his big palms over his face. “My team is working on getting the bodies out of there before he comes back. I called Amos. She and a deputy are on their way with a couple of snowmobiles. That’s the only way we’re going to get in and out of those woods before Spring.”

He didn’t say it, but Kim knew the working conditions had to be brutal. Lifting bodies and carrying them more than a mile through the deep snow and the dense woods would be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. There was no way to get electricity back in there without a generator. Battery operated lights and heaters were probably not in the cards tonight, either. All of that would need to wait for daylight.

Tonight, the area would be cold, dark, windy, and with the bear involved, extremely dangerous. Bears were fast. Strong. They could do serious damage to members of the team before anyone could stop them. Collecting evidence safely, or at all, would be close to impossible.

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