Free Ray Elkins mystery - 02 - Color Tour by Aaron Stander Page A

when she encountered the couple, so his view would have deteriorated in the fading light. He sees the attack, or he wanders down in the dark and finds them. He might have even come on the scene the next morning.”
    “How do you explain the sandal?” asked Sue.
    “I don’t know, perhaps he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing, just picked something up and ran.” Ray slowed, “Arnie is a fragile kid. Just seeing the bodies would have been enough to put him in a complete panic, and if he saw the attack, well… ” He remained quiet for a few moments as he visualized Arnie at the scene.
    “Why wouldn’t he try to get help? That would have been such a natural thing to do.”
    “He isn’t normal. His thinking is confused.” Ray looked across at Sue’s neatly organized evidence stacks. He gestured with his hand, “So, what else do you have?”
    “Here,” she slid a drawing across the table, “is the diagram of the crime scene. You can see the position of the bodies, clothes, food, and wine bottle. There was a small pocketknife next to the cheese, one of the Swiss army ones with a corkscrew. Not big enough to be the weapon.” She lifted up a plastic bag. “That’s about it. We searched the whole grid in that diagram, even raked through the sand on our second go, just some typical beach debris. Then we used a metal detector—can tabs and bottle tops. The hours of heavy rain didn’t leave much. The photos,” she pushed a stack of 8-by-12-inch glossies in his direction, “are keyed to the numbers on the diagram.”
    Ray sat silently and studied the diagram, then he carefully looked at the photos, examining the scene again, taking in all the details, attempting to visualize the murderous rage of the perpetrator. He closed his eyes and put himself on the beach. He could smell the damp shore, hear the lulling waves and the lovers breathing, sense the shared pleasure, and then feel the sudden yank, slash, and pain.
    “And here,” Sue, interrupting his musing, slid a second diagram across the table, “I’ve placed the scene against the wider area using a geographical survey map as the basis for this diagram. The purpose was to look for possible routes to and from the scene. The most obvious one, of course, is the beach, but there’s also this trail.” She reached across and traced the path. “It starts here at the parking lot, runs through the woods behind Nora Jennings’s cottage and up along the ridgeline. Then it turns and runs back across the dune and into a two-track that winds back to the highway.” She hesitated. “But I’m probably telling you something you know.”
    “This was one of my favorite beaches when I was a kid. I’ve covered that trail hundreds of times.”
    “We searched the trail from one end to the other.”
    “Find anything?”
    “Nothing unusual, just ordinary litter left over from the summer. Food wrappers, pop and beer cans, plastic water bottles, discarded clothing, and a few condoms off to the side.” Sue had a look of mild disgust on her face. “I’d hoped that our perp might have dropped something, or perhaps we’d even find tire impressions in the protected area in the woods, but nothing. We’ve checked the beach in both directions for about a mile, and sorted through the trash basket in the park. I don’t think there’s much,” Sue paused, a look of frustration covered her face. “If the perp didn’t take the knife with him, it would only take a few minutes to bury it and with miles of beach and dune… ”
    “Or,” Ray continued, “he could have thrown the knife out into the waves, or even swam out, past the second bar, and buried it.” He looked at Sue. “So, what’s your theory? How do you think this was done?”
    “I think they were either followed or the perp knew where Ashleigh would probably take someone. The killer could have pursued them up the beach, but I think the trail would have been a better bet.”
    “But… ”
    “Right, the perp