Free Once Taken by Blake Pierce

think she ever made any real enemies, even there.”
    While Blainey spoke, Dwight Slater looked around the room, enjoying his own share of memories. He said, “I talk to the warden from time to time, and he still says she probably did more genuine good there than the social workers on his staff. She was like that with everybody.”
    Riley looked at Lucy and saw that she shared her surprise. Who would have thought that a female prison guard would have been such a beloved character? And why on earth had someone chosen to take her life in such a hideous manner?
    Blainey’s hospitable smile widened.
    “Well, I’m sure you’ve got more questions,” he said. “Would you like something to drink? Maybe some iced tea? I brewed some fresh just a little while ago.”
    “That would be nice,” Riley said.
    “Yes, please,” Lucy said.
    Riley nodded in agreement, but her mind was already elsewhere. She was beginning to feel familiar nudges just beneath her conscious awareness. She knew that her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer was rare, and she also knew that she was usually right about whatever came to her.
    That meant there was something else she really needed to see.
    Something important.

Chapter 11
    A short time later, Riley and Lucy were in their car again, following along behind Slater. As always when approaching a crime scene, Riley felt her senses quicken into sharper alertness.
    It hadn’t been easy to persuade Slater to lead them there. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing at all to see—especially after all these years. Even so, Riley was anxious to get a look at the site where Marla Blainey’s body had been left. She knew that photographs couldn’t tell her what actual places sometimes could.
    A short distance out of town, the two-lane road crossed the railroad tracks and continued along the edge of the river. Slater pulled onto the shoulder of the road. Riley pulled their car in behind him.
    “I think this is where it was,” Slater said, getting out of his car. “It’s hard to remember after all these years.”
    “Let me look at those photos again,” Riley said.
    Slater handed her the folder full of photos of the Blainey crime scene. Riley peered through the trees at the side of the road. The bank sloped sharply down to the river’s edge, which was only about fifteen feet away.
    Riley compared the spot to a photo of the body that had been taken from the road. The underbrush had changed over the years, and for a moment it was hard to see any resemblance between the photo and the actual place.
    In the photo, she saw that Marla’s body, bound in chains and a straitjacket, lay in a heap against a fallen tree trunk. Riley stepped into the long grass beside the road. There it was, the same tree trunk down there next to the water’s edge.
    “You’re right, this is the place,” she told Slater. “How do you think he got the body down there?”
    Slater shrugged. “There wasn’t much to it,” he said. “He pulled his vehicle about where we are right now. Then he just rolled the body down the bank. The grass and brush were mashed down all the way.”
    He pointed to the photo Riley was holding.
    “You can see just the edge of a tire track right there on the shoulder,” he said. “Probably a van, but we couldn’t track down the vehicle. Nobody noticed the body for several days—not until someone saw buzzards circling.”
    As Riley compared the photo and the actual scene, she realized that she was standing on the exact spot where the killer had dumped the body. She gazed down the slope for a long moment, taking in the scene. She began to picture the chained and straitjacketed body rolling down the hill. Then she noticed that Lucy was staring at her intently. It struck her as odd. She returned Lucy’s gaze with quizzical look.
    “Oh, I’m sorry for staring,” Lucy said, a bit embarrassed. “It’s just that … well, I’ve heard you’ve got uncanny instincts when you’re at a