pretty girl, talented. I guess she has lots of interest.”
Heath nodded, a frown creasing his eyes. “I’ve just started digging into her personal life and business. There could be something there.”
Maybe it was something to do with the makeup line, Ellie thought. All beauty and fashion, yet look at how the killer had posed her.
A noise in the bullpen made them all look up, and Angelica Gomez appeared, her cameraman in tow. Ellie clenched her hands by her sides. She had been running from the press for weeks now. She’d gone as far as hiding in the woods to escape it all. But there was no escape. And she refused to tuck her tail and run now when Courtney Wooten needed her. The reporter was tenacious but she had been helpful in the last case––Ellie just had to manage her.
“I’d talk to her, but since you obviously left me out of the loop yesterday, I guess you’ll have to,” Bryce said to Ellie.
“No problem. I’ve got it.” The whir of phones and computers buzzed in the room as Ellie crossed to the reporter. Two new deputies had been brought in and were in training to assist on routine calls.
“Detective Reeves,” Angelica said. “Do you have a minute?”
“If this is personal, then no,” Ellie replied, arching a brow.
Angelica’s dark eyes narrowed. “It’s about the body you found yesterday.”
She was about to ask how Angelica knew, but the reporter could have spoken to the sheriff. Many journalists had police scanners and picked up information that way. Besides, it didn’t really matter. The public would find out. It was best to get ahead of it.
Angelica pushed her microphone towards Ellie. “This is Angelica Gomez, WRIX Channel Five news coming to you live with Detective Ellie Reeves.” Angelica smiled for the camera. “Many of you remember her as the detective who broke the Ghost case a few weeks ago. But just yesterday, in Bluff County, another murder has occurred. This time the body of a young female.” She gestured to Ellie. “Detective?”
Ellie hated the limelight, but she forced herself to concentrate on the job. “Yes, I’m sorry to say that a woman’s body was found on the Appalachian Trail late yesterday. I cannot divulge details of the case until family has been notified, but if you have any information regarding a crime committed in the area, please call the local police department.”
Her phone buzzed on her hip. “I will make a statement once we learn more,” she said, pushing the mic aside and checking the message.
Laney was almost finished with the autopsy. She had to go.
Fifteen
Bluff County Medical Examiner’s Office
Ellie would never get used to the morgue. Formaldehyde blended with cleaning chemicals, made more potent by the scent of decomp clogging the air in the sterile room.
Laney’s office, the autopsy room and refrigerators were housed on the same floor.
The walls had been freshly painted, and the stainless-steel table and its instruments shone beneath the bright light.
Lifting her face shield as Ellie approached, Laney wore a scowl.
“I have a likely ID on her,” Ellie said as she moved up beside the woman’s body. Her blue skin accentuated bruises on her torso that Ellie hadn’t seen when the woman was clothed. Now she lay draped in a sheet, the Y incision Laney had made snaking down her chest.
“Is she from the area?” Laney asked.
“Atlanta,” Ellie said. “Heath is digging into her. But her sister lives not too far from town.”
Laney gently brushed her hand over the woman’s pale blonde hair. “She was pretty,” she said, a sad note to her voice. “And so young.”
“Twenty-nine,” Ellie replied, explaining about the YouTube makeup videos. “Now, what can you tell me?”
Laney sighed. “Just as I initially thought, she died of exsanguination due to her throat being slashed.” She pointed to the laceration on the woman’s throat. “He went deep, but it appears to be one clean cut, not multiple stab wounds. Looks like a hunting knife of some kind.”
“Fast and efficient, and hunting knives are a dime a dozen in these parts,” Ellie murmured. She even had one. “And the bramble around her neck. That has to mean something.”
“That was postmortem, so he didn’t strangle her with it.” Laney angled the woman’s head to the side. “There’s also a deeper line of bruising around her throat, as if he put something around her neck.”
Ellie leaned closer to examine it. “It’s wide, almost like a band.”
“Possible asphyxiation sex gone bad,” Laney suggested. “Although there were no signs of sexual activity