But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

the woods that leads to this spot,” I said thoughtfully. “If we can find where they entered the woods, we might get lucky and find a house with surveillance cameras pointing right at them.”

Susan raised an eyebrow. “Good idea. Anyone else?”

“No, it’ll just be you and me. I don’t want anyone else trampling up the scene.” I shot a thumb toward the path I’d taken to get here. “I’ll retrace my steps back to my truck and get my gear. I’ll also bring my shotgun and some beanbag rounds.” I indicted the buzzards. “We might need to fight them for Ty’s body.”

Susan looked up at the legions of birds that circled angrily above us. She shook her head and cursed. “Bring two shotguns and a lot of rounds.”

I left and headed for my truck. I called the coroner’s office as I walked and they connected me to Dr. Wong.

“Are you available for another one today?”

“Did you find the son?”

I told her I did.

“And?” she asked.

“He was murdered—apparently beaten to death.”

She sighed and told me she’d be available any time after two o’clock. She asked if I had any leads. I told her what I knew so far, and she told me to stop finding bodies.

Next, I called Amy and thanked her for nothing.

“Told you,” she said smugly. “I know you were hoping to find him alive, but he was just gone for too long.”

“It looks like he’s been beaten to death.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, he was bound and gagged.”

“Logan Pitre?”

“I don’t know.” I took a breath. “This looks like the work of someone who was pissed off at him, that’s for sure. Neal Barlow was mad at him for stealing his drugs, but Logan was also mad about not getting enough sleep. I could see either one of them doing it, but I don’t think they acted alone.”

“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “It would be hard to tie up a man and carry him into the woods alone.”

I agreed. “You might be able to do it if you had someone at gunpoint, but a gun wouldn’t compel Ty to sit still. He can’t help himself.”

“He could’ve been knocked unconscious,” Amy suggested. “But it would still be hard for one person to carry him through the woods.”

I had reached my truck by then and stopped to stomp the mud from my boots. It made my feet lighter. I opened the tail gate first and grabbed one of my crime scene boxes. Next, I retrieved my camera from the back seat and looped it over one shoulder and my neck. Lastly, I slung my shotgun and pocketed a handful of beanbag rounds.

When I was heading back along the trail, I told Amy I’d have to go, but that I would call her when I knew more.

“I sure wish I could be there to help,” she said. “If there’s anything I can do from home, you’d better call.”

“I promise I will.”

After ending the call with Amy, I hurried back to the crime scene. I broke out into the clearing to find Susan still on the opposite side, but working her way along the outer edges toward my original location. She looked up when I reappeared.

“Did you find a weapon?” I asked.

She shook her head. “So far, all I see is dried blood and trampled grass. The ground was dry when they came out here, because I don’t see any tracks in the mud.”

I set down my box and grunted as I tried to see Ty’s head from my vantage point. His feet were positioned in my direction, so I could only see part of his left jaw.

“Sue, can you see his head?”

She stopped what she was doing and glanced in his direction. She moved from left to right and then nodded.

“Does it look like a hammer did him in?” I asked, thinking about the hammer I’d taken from Logan. If the lab recovered Ty’s DNA from that hammer, then Logan would be done.

Susan scowled. “It’s hard to tell. I can see his bare skull in places—thanks to the state of decomposition—but it’s hard to see if the bone is cracked. The grass is too thick.”

I nodded and set out to photograph the area so we could move closer. I would know soon enough.

  CHAPTER 37

It took Susan and me about an hour to photograph and thoroughly search the entire grassy area that had been trampled by the killers. We had been unable to find any weapons that might have been used to attack our victim.

The rain from last night had not done us any favors, but we were lucky enough that the incident had happened long before the rains came, and the blood had been fully dried before last night. Although most of the blotches of blood were still intact, there was evidence that portions of them had been washed away by the downpour. Still, we were able to piece together most of what had happened, and it wasn’t pretty.

It seemed that Ty’s attackers had dragged him to this field and begun beating him with their personal weapons—hands and feet, maybe even knees and elbows. Although Ty was probably already tied up by that point, there was a lot of movement within that space. This was evidenced by the amount of blood that had been spilled in various locations within the crime scene, and it probably meant the killers had kicked him, shoved him, and dragged him around while they beat him. It also could’ve been him squirming and rolling to try and escape from his attackers.

It was unclear at what point his pants had been pulled down, but when we got closer to his body and were able to see beyond the blotches of blood