Even though May knew that in an organic farm this scarecrow would provide a valuable and necessary deterrent to predators, she still thought it looked spooky, almost creepy, as it tilted and swayed in the field.
At that moment, May saw another car pull up. She was pleased that Owen Lovell, her deputy, had arrived on the scene. With the tall, dark-haired Owen striding down to join the group with an expression of concern on his strong-featured face, May felt reassured that they could solve this strange crime that seemed so out of place for the area.
May couldn't help remembering what fun they'd had just two nights ago, when Owen had taken her on a date.
A real date, at a fancy restaurant. They'd had dinner, they'd danced. At the end of the night, outside her front door, they'd kissed.
It had been a wonderful evening. It had felt right. May knew it was scary, in a way, to be getting closer to someone again, but she trusted Owen. And she liked him. A lot.
And now, standing here at this murder scene, she was reassured that not only was he becoming closer to her personally, but he was also the best investigation partner she could wish for. Now, she knew, he would be focusing only on the situation at hand. This was not a time for anything personal to be thought or talked about. Not when a woman was dead.
“I can’t believe a crime has happened here,” Owen said to May in a low voice, sounding troubled. “Where would the killer have come from? How did this victim end up a couple of yards into a cornfield?”
"Owen, it seems as if Jenna fled through the field from the opposite side. She might have been trying to run away from the killer," May said. "While Andy is doing the preliminary work on her body, shall we see if we can look for any footprints or other evidence?"
"Sure."
They headed into the field, with May pushing the corn carefully aside, not wanting to accidentally erase any important evidence.
But as they stepped carefully through the field, she saw that there was going to be no footprints visible. The ground was too hard and well-trodden. Too many feet had walked along these paths, which were lined with old corn leaves, leaving no place for a footprint to be seen in the soil. And between the paths, in the corn itself — well, there were simply too many places to look. It was a huge field, covering a few acres. There was no way they could walk the entire length and breadth of it, looking for tracesof prints that might or might not belong to the killer, because farm workers would also be walking these rows and tending the corn.
"I don't think we're going to pick up anything here," Owen said reluctantly, after they’d walked a couple hundred yards without any success.
"I agree with that," May said. "Let’s head back and talk to Andy. Sheriff Jack said there was a similar murder a day or two ago, in the north. He reviewed the crime stats yesterday while we were on that takedown. Andy might know about that."
They walked back to the crime scene, their feet crunching the crisp leaves and dry soil.
"What have you found so far, Andy? Do you know what the approximate time of death was?" May asked, hoping for a clearer picture of when this murder had occurred. From now on, she knew, every piece of evidence they could get might be important in catching this killer.
"I would think it occurred in the early evening," Andy said. "We might be able to confirm more accurately in the postmortem, but she's been dead for probably twelve hours."
May nodded. That would fit with an early evening walk.
"And the cause of death?" she asked.
"A direct strike to the heart with a sharp blade. A forceful, accurate blow. She would have died instantly," Andy said, sounding sad.
"It looks like it was a knife?"
Andy shrugged. "It could have been a knife. A dagger of some sort, perhaps. It's a deep wound, made by a long blade. Again, I might be able to pick up more detail in the postmortem."
"Andy, do you know if there was a similar murder in the past two days? Sheriff Jack was worried that this might be the start of a serial," May said.
Andy nodded. "I've only just got back on duty. I was off work the past two days, traveling to attend a family birthday. But I heard about another recent stabbing that sounded worryingly similar."
May glanced at Owen, her lips tight. Sheriff Jack's instinct was seldom wrong.
"The pathologists at the county coroner's office will have done that postmortem, and it will probably be quicker if you take a drive there and ask them. Dr. Edgar will have handled that, and she's on duty this morning."
"We'll do that now," May agreed.
There seemed to be nothing more, right now, that they could learn from this remote crime scene. But the urgency now was to find out if this was the start of a new spate of serial crimes.
The body at the county coroner's might hold answers, May hoped, as she and Owen headed for their cars.
CHAPTER FOUR
Twenty minutes later, May and Owen arrived at the county coroner's office. Here, May knew, they urgently needed to get answers from Dr. Edgar about the other recent murder victim.