Tessa looked up at Logan. “Not now. If we need him, he’s only a few minutes away.”
“My back and neck are fine.” Patsy demonstrated by turning her head and moving her shoulders.
Tessa sighed. “How did you get down here?”
“I was walking this morning—I walk three miles every day. Anyway, I saw this house. You know Bruce is looking for a fixer-upper.”
“Is he?” Tessa hadn’t known. The young deputy was recently engaged. His fiancée was a nurse who worked at the urgent care center.
“The location is nice. At first, I was only going to peek in the window.” Patsy swallowed. “But the front door was open, and I went inside. Obviously, that wasn’t the best idea. The floor seemed okay until I stepped on it. Then it just collapsed.”
“That smell didn’t keep you away?” Tessa pressed a knuckle to her nose.
“It wasn’t so bad until I went through the floor.”
“Probably a dead animal.” Tessa went to a narrow window high on the wall. Standing on a cinder block, she pushed open the window, creating a cross breeze for ventilation.
She walked a few feet away, taking care to step only between the piles of debris. “When I was a kid, a skunk crawled under our chicken coop and died. The smell was horrible.”
The odor grew stronger as she approached the north corner. She picked up a stick and moved aside some dead leaves. Flies rose in a swirling black cloud. The odor intensified, coating Tessa’s mouth and clogging her throat. She swallowed bile.
Probably a raccoon.
But the hairs on the back of her neck were waving danger flags.
She moved a few more leaves and startled.
“What is it?” Patsy asked.
“Nothing.”
“Bull. I spent most of my life married to a cop. You found a body, didn’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tessa stared at a human hand. She moved a few more leaves. The hand was connected to a partially decomposed corpse.
2
Glad to be out of the basement, Logan waved down the fire truck. The crew chief stepped out of the engine, and Logan summarized the situation. They all went into the basement. Three firemen and Logan were able to lift the beam enough for Tessa to pull Patsy out from under it.
The fire crew left.
Bruce jogged down the stairs. “Mom!” He stopped next to her and dropped to one knee.
“I’m okay.” Patsy patted his hand.
Bruce wrinkled his nose. “What died down here?”
“Not what, but who.” Logan pointed to the corner.
“Seriously?” Bruce asked.
“Yes.” Logan nodded.
Bruce shook his head. “Shit. I thought Solitude was bad, but there’s just as much death here.” Bruce had moved to Widow’s Island from a small rural town in Oregon.
“Take care of your mother, Bruce,” Tessa said. “Call me when you’re done.”
“Thanks. I will.” Bruce scooped up his petite mother from the floor. “Let’s get you to Dr. Powers, Mom.” He carried her up the stairs, leaving Logan and Tessa alone with the remains.
Tessa headed for the stairs. “I need to secure the scene and call Henry. When he’s done treating Patsy, I’ll need him to view the remains.”
In addition to being the only doctor on the island, Henry also served as coroner. They were lucky to have an actual medical professional. In some remote areas, the mayor or a funeral director held the office.
Logan followed Tessa to her vehicle. Ever practical, Tessa had chosen cargo pants over tailored trousers for her uniform. Her blonde hair was tied back in a neat bun, and the flat scan of her blue eyes was all seasoned cop.
“How can I help?” he asked.
She handed him a roll of crime scene tape. “Could you mark off the scene with this?”
“Yes.” Logan had no police training, but he was willing to do the grunt work. “Where do you want the perimeter?”
“The whole lot if possible. This corpse is already decomposing. It’s been here long enough that I doubt much trace evidence has survived the weather. But it’s better to start off with the scene too large than have to expand it later.” She removed her camera from its case. “I’ll start taking pictures.”
Logan walked the perimeter, stringing the yellow tape between trees. He progressed to the rear of the property, where the weedy yard abutted the woods. He looped yellow tape around a tree. Sunlight filtered through the canopy and glinted on something at ankle height. He squatted to examine a thin metal wire tied between the trees. The wire led to a few aluminum cans tied together and dangling from a low branch. A trip alarm.
Flashbacks of booby traps in Afghanistan instantly filled his head. When he’d first left the military and returned to Widow’s, he’d been plagued with nightmares. His posttraumatic stress had peaked back in December, but he’d been working with a psychiatrist on the mainland for the past five months. Burying his memories wouldn’t stop them from coming. On the bright side, he was learning to cope.
Logan breathed and focused on the forest around him. He grounded himself in the present. He inhaled the smell of the trees and grass and tuned in to the sounds of leaves rustling in the wind. The breeze was cool on his skin. His senses confirmed what his brain knew but sometimes forgot. He was not in the Middle East. That was in his past. He was home. Gradually, the flashbacks faded, and the forest returned to the forefront of his awareness.
Better.
He took photos of the trip alarm, then marked it off with crime scene tape. As he secured the rest of the rear yard, he found two additional trip wires.
When Logan had finished, he’d blocked off a chunk of land slightly bigger than the actual lot. He found Tessa taking pictures. He told her about the wires and showed her the photos on his phone. “I saw something very similar this past week. Someone had set up trip alarms on the trails leading into their camp.”
“Interesting,” she said, looking at his phone screen. “These don’t look dangerous, unless someone actually trips over one.”
Logan shrugged. “These wires look like they’re meant to warn, not cause harm.”
“The alarms are only across the back of the property?”
Logan nodded. “Between the woods and the house.”
“What—or who—was our squatter afraid of?” Tessa asked.
“There aren’t any dangerous animals on the island. Humans are the most dangerous species here.”
Cougars, wolves, and bears had once roamed the island, but settlers had wiped them out. Now, the island was overrun with tiny black-tailed deer. The largest remaining land predators were foxes.
“If our squatter is the body in the basement, then maybe he had good reason to be afraid.” Tessa lifted her camera. “Could you pick up the portable lights? We need light to search the basement.”
“Sure. Be right back.” He drove to the station and picked up portable lights. Back at the scene, he filled the generator with gasoline and started it up. It chugged to life and began to hum. Logan lugged the lights into the basement and set them up, illuminating the space like a football stadium.
Tessa couldn’t disturb the body until the coroner gave permission. For the next hour, she recorded the scene with photos.