Into Darkness

Chapter 21

Jim Weiland tossed his cell phone on the front seat of his squad car and looked back to the assortment of police officers and the forensics team that were all working around him. He had been on the scene for more than a few hours, was already disgusted by the local swill that he was told was supposed to be coffee, and frustrated that he had to play so nice with what he felt was his best suspect in the homicide of a police officer.
So Officer Alletto would make him wait for an hour. That's fine. Maybe by then they would have some physical evidence and the questioning would become more formal than the little dance he was having to play. Jim didn't believe for any of this that the man had used his son to find the body. Maybe the kid's friends had been the ones to find it, and Alletto had to use his son for a cover story. Convenient, though he was sure Alletto would have been happier had the body never been found.
Someone was looking over at him. It was the lead medical examiner. Samantha Palmer had been on the scene before he had gotten there and had been able to get many of the pieces out of the old mine shaft, checking them and tagging each on as she had. He had arrived to see a stretch of human body parts laid out on a long sheet, bagged, tagged and positioned to identify the different elements. She still needed to find the right foot and the bodies mid section when he had arrived. He had helped her to find, well, the insides of the midsection, the few pieces that he could, there was some of the intestines, and what looked like had once been the victim's stomach before he had to walk away.
That morning was the first time he had ever came close to desecrating a crime scene. It had been close, but had made it out to the road before the bacon and egg remnants of his breakfast had erupted onto the asphalt. When he had looked around, he had seen that he had not been the only one as their were various splatter marks along the side of the road and different kinds of organic debris that was a many of officer's breakfast.
He walked over to her, feeling for the woman as this couldn't be easy working her way through this. This was going to stay in all of their nightmares to come.
"Find the rest of him yet?"
"Not yet. They are probably farther down in the shaft."
He nodded at her, finding that he was having a hard time looking at her. His eyes kept darting off to look out at the woods. He couldn't shake that nagging feeling as though they were being watched. It sure as hell didn't help, the gloomy day, the chill in that wind that kept bursting through his jacket, and that itch that there was something there.
There probably was someone out there, he was sure that half the town had heard by now, and there were probably gawkers in the woods somewhere watching them investigate the scene.
"Have you sent off the second body?"
He saw her shaking her head out of the corner of his eye and this made him turn to meet hers.
"No, we haven't gotten it up yet. The shaft isn't easy to navigate. They are setting up a lift now, so we should have it up in less than a half hour. Hanson was just about to go down, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else you needed?"
"Okay, just let me know when we have that body off, let me know if it's one of the two missing kids." Let me know so I can drop that on Alletto. Just what had the chief caught you doing with that kid that made you kill them both. Or had you been killing the chief and the kids saw you? Yes, I can see how that makes more sense. You finally get the permanent position by getting rid of your boss. He's old anyway, single, no one will miss, just get rid of him and move on. Then the kids must have been playing around up here, saw, and you did what with them? Did you just kill them? It was hard to say what dirty thoughts went through sick minds nowadays.
He watched as she walked away. She seemed like a good kid, a good forensic's. She wasn't Eddie, who he had dealt with a few times before this, but that might be a good thing. Eddie never was one to fill him with too much confidence. There hadn't been any mistakes yet, but Jim wasn't sure if the mistakes were there and just not found out yet. And he'd seen Palmer around occasionally, and was glad to get the chance to work with someone new.
It was also nice to admire her ass as she was heading away from him. She must work out quiet a bit, she's got some nice shape to that tush.
His lip curved up in that little smirk that he loved to flash to the ladies on a Friday night as he turned away. She was already disappearing into the trees, so the show was pretty much over. Too bad, but he would deal with it.
He really didn't have much more to do until Alletto showed up. It was all just a waiting game on forensics and body identification. There were no witnesses for him to question, and the closest house, they had already interviewed her the other day when the boy had first gone missing. It wasn't so much that she claimed to not have seen anything, but according to the county deputy that talked to her, the old coot was nuts and blind as a bat who could barely get out of the chair, let alone be outside and seeing anything happening half way down the block. The rest of the land around the slag pile was all empty lots, so yeah, that would all just be a waste of time.
A car went slowly by. Two kids, both teenagers from the looks of it were staring at him, gawking as they inched past. He watched them, but turned away when he was they were getting ready to turn into (insert Wendy's last name) house. Probably more people who wanted to wish her some condolences. Jim was sure news was already flying around town that they had found a body. No one knew it was the chief yet, so people were probably assuming it was the boy.
Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Which would be worse, not knowing if your son was dead, or to not know what happened to him or where he was? He'd never had children, so he would never know.
He decided that maybe he would make his way back up the mine shaft. He doubted that if he walked around it, there would be much physical evidence, but you never knew. Sure, Alletto was a cop and he's from the city, so he has some decent background, but that was just it. Alletto was a city boy, he might have over looked something out in the woods. It would be hard to identify something in such a popular area, so much garbage was scattered though the woods, tagging something that might be involved with the crime would be nearly impossible. At this point, it was better than nothing.
Besides, he wouldn't mind watching Palmer's ass end as she bent over collecting evidence. Since he just so happened to forget to bring any evidence bags, he'd have to all her over to pick it up for him. He'd need to make sure to find as much evidence as he could.