“Women work in all trades these days.” Kane raised an eyebrow and smiled at her. “You’d use one, wouldn’t you?”
“It would be easier than swinging a hammer. I’d imagine you’d turn on the compressor and then fire it.” Jenna frowned. “I wouldn’t know how to load it, but we can assume it was loaded. This is beside the point. What if this is a love triangle? We need to find out the connection between Dakota Storm and Longfellow. If they had an affair and caused a breakup, maybe the injured party could’ve done this.” She looked at Kane. “Can you actually shoot the nail gun like a pistol?”
“Most of them have a safety mechanism to avoid unintentional discharge, but it can be overridden, and that’s an old model.” Kane examined the nail gun. “This is a framing nail gun, so it fires three-and-a-half-inch nails, which I believe is code for structural framing. Most nail guns must be pressed onto a surface before they work. On this one, holding both triggers down together allows it to shoot nails, but it becomes less effective over distance. I’d say probably twenty percent effective as a twenty-two-caliber pistol, at best.” He turned his attention back to Jenna. “There are easier ways to kill someone if that had been the intention. This indicates this method of murder means something to the killer. Finding a nail gun wouldn’t be easy, so the killer must have scouted out the place before they lured the victim here.”
“I think it’s staring us in the face, Dave.” Jenna stared at the evidence bag in her hand. “Longfellow’s book is called Nailed It. It seems too much of a coincidence not to be part of the killer’s plan.”
“I guess we’ll need to read it for ourselves.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh boy, if the killer is murdering authors because of fictional crimes they created, it hits the dog barking messages to the Son of Sam out of the ballpark.”
Jenna swallowed hard at the implications. “So, a deliberate act and lack of empathy would indicate psychopathic behavior. It would be classed as an organized psychopath, right?”
“Yeah, especially if the killer encouraged the victim to come here in the middle of a blizzard. They do have charm in spades.” Kane indicated to the floor. “From the evidence in front of us, it’s clear the victim didn’t try to fight back. Look, not so much as a scuff mark from a shoe. The place would’ve been in a shamble if someone I didn’t know had come at me with a nail gun.” He pointed to a hammer on the floor. “There are weapons everywhere and look down here. The victim was an arm’s reach away from the electric cord running to the compressor. He’d only have to pull it out and his killer couldn’t shoot again. It seems to me there was a lot of discussion going on before this went down.”
The crime scene didn’t make any sense. Who just stands there and allows someone to shoot nails into them? Jenna watched Wolfe roll the body over and bent to take a closer look. “I’m seeing chest and leg wounds, none on his arms. From what you’re saying, Dave, to make the nails penetrate, the killer must have been close, and it’s as if this guy
just stood there and took it. Anyone being attacked usually has marks on their hands. I’d expect him to be shielding his face at least.”
“Maybe he didn’t believe his friend would kill him?” Kane stared down at the body. “Disbelief, shock maybe. What do you think, Shane?”
“Yeah, both shock and disbelief can render a person almost paralytic.” Wolfe frowned. “His eyes are closed as well. That’s unusual. It’s as if he’d given up.”
Jenna looked at Wolfe. “You’ve seen violence in all its forms. Why didn’t Longfellow defend himself?”
“From my experience, some men wouldn’t try to defend themselves against a woman they knew.” Wolfe shrugged. “Maybe they’d start out by trying to talk them down and reason with them. I know spousal abuse happens, but thank God it’s not the norm.”
“That makes sense.” Kane narrowed his gaze. “Although, the pain would’ve been unbearable—those nail guns hit with force and everyone has their limit—and yet he just stood there and took it, rather than disarming his attacker.” He shot a look at Jenna. “What kind of idiot does that?”
Jenna shrugged. “A devoted idiot or a very close friend, maybe?”
“It’s not easy to kill someone with a nail gun, as Kane explained, it doesn’t shoot nails at the same velocity of a bullet.” Wolfe lifted his gaze to Jenna. “Most people could survive random shots, but whoever did this had some knowledge of anatomy. I see nails concentrated around his femoral artery, his carotid artery, and abdominal aorta. This would have caused the major blood loss needed to bring him down. The kill shot, if you like, was well placed, and I’d say when I open him up, I’ll discover the shots to the base of the skull severed his brain stem.”
Amazed by the lengths people would go to to kill, Jenna straightened. “He must have suffered.”
“Yeah, but not for very long.” Wolfe used a probe to take the body temperature, removed the victim’s glove, and scanned his prints. “The aim of the killer was to inflict pain rather than kill. No head shots, at first, all legs and torso. I’d say from the amount of blood, the time between the body shots and the kill shots would have been a few minutes at most. This was torture and I’d say time restraints rather than choice forced the killer to cut it short. I figure we have a link. This murderer gained gratification, same as in the strangulation of Dakota Storm. Up close and personal.”
“This would tell me not only an organized psychopath but a controlled psychopath.” Kane’s mouth formed a thin line. “There’s no frenzied attack, both murders are methodical and well planned. We’ve one of the most dangerous of psychopaths in our midst. Most follow a pattern and this one is random and impossible to predict.”
A cold chill crawled over Jenna. “Then there’s the earrings. One left at each crime scene.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “It’s deliberate. It has to be. Maybe they’re a trophy from a previous crime?”
“It must tie the two murders together.” Kane stared into space. “It’s all part of the big picture inside the killer’s mind, like a jigsaw puzzle. We just have to find more pieces. It’s as if he’s laying out clues for us like in a game. Maybe this is the conference game? Us against an organized psychopath.”
“Oh, I hope not.” Jenna rubbed her arms, suddenly cold. “I’m sick of being dragged into criminals’ delusional minds.”
She watched Wolfe and Kane roll the victim into a body bag. Once zipped up, Wolfe moved around, taking samples of blood from every location. “Anything we can do to help?”
“Call Webber and see how close he is. I told him to come directly here as soon as he could get through the back road.” He straightened and looked at Jenna. “I’ll take the hammer and the nail gun with me as well. We’ll have to seal this chalet. I’m not finished with it yet.” He huffed out a cloud of steam and shook his head. “I’ll do what I can to get formal IDs of the bodies and then you can notify the next of kin.” He waved a hand toward the door. “This weather slows down everything.”
A phone buzzed and everyone checked their pockets.
“It’s me.” Wolfe stared at the screen. “Where are you, Colt?” He paused a beat. “Uh-huh, look out for Kane, he’ll guide you in.” He disconnected and looked at Kane. “He’s on the road looking for the entrance. Can you go find him?”
“Sure.” Kane put on his sunglasses, pulled up his hood, and vanished into the snow.
Jenna sighed. “You head off with Colt, we’ll grab the girls’ bags and take them back to the lodge.”
“Keep a close eye on them for me.” Wolfe looked suddenly anxious. “Trust me, when it comes to killers, those two are like magnets.”
Seventeen