Author’s Note: Please be warned, that this chapter is slightly NSFW. There will be blood and some graphic descriptions.

Kate needed a moment for her eyes to be accustomed to the dimness of the barn. The body lay near the middle, her red hair covering her face. A sizable pool of blood started to congeal around her head, and Kate saw smears of it on the woman’s fingers as well. There was a hay bale near the body. It looked like someone tried create a little nest in that corner. There was a colourful quilt in the middle, thrown across a worn blanket.

“That’s a lot of blood”, Kate said, and squatted on the edge of the biggest pool. “Did the farm owner move anything?”

“Nah”, Ellers shook his head. “Adam tried to turn the body to check for pulse. But when he realized there was none, he left everything as he found them. As I told Detective Peterson just now, we will need to wait for the autopsy, but the forensics think the cause of the death is blunt force trauma. Someone hit her on the back of her head, probably more than once.” Ellers then waved a hand at the ceiling, and Kate’s gaze followed it to the splatters of blood above them.

The Sergeant continued. “The murder weapon has not been recovered. Time of death is sometime between 11pm and 2am, but we’ll know more later, when Doc Franklin and Aruna are done.”

“Is she a local? Do you have an ID on her?”, Kate asked and did not miss the sour look that passed over the sergeant’s face.

“Local, yes, kind of…”, he grumbled. “Her name is June Sanders. One of the girls from The Red Cow. Moved here when that establishment opened up about five months ago.”

Kate looked questioningly at the sergeant but he did not seem to be willing to give up more details about this place he referred to as “that establishment”. She did not bother asking, she will find out soon enough, she was sure about that. She returned her attention to the woman on the ground. Poor girl… who did this to you?

Although the crime scene techs already took photos, Ben took a few of his own too. He liked having his own versions as well. Not that he thought the other guys missed anything, it was just a habit he couldn’t seem to get rid of. He looked through the list of items found at the scene: two bottles of beer, both open, but seemingly one of them untouched, a brown leather purse, two cigarette butts, an oil lamp and various gardening tools. The crime scene team also collected hair samples, a few finger prints and two partial footprints. They will also pack up the blankets later to check them for any further samples.

“That one is probably Adam’s”, Ellers said, indicating one of the footprints. “He stepped in the blood when he ran up to her. Poor fellow.”

“Could he be involved?”, Ben asked.

“Who, Adam? Nah, not him”, Ellers seemed truly horrified by the idea. “I know him for 40 years, since he was a kid. He’s a good guy. He has an alibi as well. Officer Williams is on it now, and I’m sure it will check out.”

Ben did not press the issue, just hoped the sergeant was right about his friend. There was a time when Ben thought it is possible to truly know another person. Life taught him that there are always surprises. When his wife left him five years ago, it was one of them. In spite of being a detective, working with the small details, and making people to reveal their secrets to him, he was oblivious to the failing of his own marriage. The perfect case of “forest from the tree”.

When a few minutes later they left the barn, the journalist was still waiting outside, taking pictures as they walked past. Ben heard him asking questions to Kate, who in turn informed him that they are not ready to make a statement just yet. She was good at it. Firm, but not hostile. Ben was glad to have a partner like Kate. She was young, only twenty-six, but had huge potential under proper mentoring, and he was determined to get the best out of her.

Back at the police station Sergeant Ellers lead them to a room that looked like something between a kitchen and a briefing room. There was a table in the middle, currently adorned with a bowl of fossilized cereals.

“We are a small station”, the sergeant said, not really apologetically, but more as an explanation as to why there is a fridge and a coffee machine opposite to the board waiting to be filled with gruesome pictures about their latest case. Officer Williams was preparing cups, milk and sugar for the coffee that was brewing in the ancient looking filter machine. As they settled around the tables, Ellers went through the details they already knew.

“The victim is June Sanders, twenty-nine. Father dead, mother is in an old age home. She was informed, but apparently she wasn’t even aware she had a daughter, or what date it is today. The victim was found dead this morning around 5am by Adam, in his barn. The previous night she attended the Autumn Festival concert, just like most residents of Hillrose. We’ve already spoken to Adam, he doesn’t know anything about the incident.”

“Isn’t that strange?”, Kate interrupted. “The place was set up, there were blankets, like somebody had planned a little romantic escapade. In his barn.”

Ellers looked at her with slight annoyance as he replied. “Adam’s farm spans across quite a few acres of land. It was not the first time someone sneaked into one of the barns to have some fun times. Just last week he caught two teenagers kissing behind his shed on his horse ranch. His farm is on the way back to town, and folks at the festival often get drunk and have ideas, if you get my meaning.”

Kate did, but she remained silent. On the other side of the table Ben was sipping on his coffee, seemingly not paying much attention to the conversation. At the beginning when they first met, it worried Kate. By now she knew it was just his way of processing the information.

Ellers spent a few more minutes talking about the concert the previous night. It seemed it was a big thing, and most of the locals were there.

“Was that journalist there?”, Ben asked when Ellers finished talking. “That what’s-his-face, we met this morning.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much the only thing worth writing about around here”, Ellers said and chuckled under his nose.

“Apart from the murder”, Kate added.

“Aye, apart from that”, Ellers agreed dryly.

“He surely took some pictures that could be helpful for us”, Ben said.

“We should head over to his office and have a look at them”, said Kate.

“Good thing he likes you”, Ben winked at her.

“I learned my lesson”, muttered Kate, remembering the incident a few months ago, when she told an irritating reporter to piss off and threatened to arrest him, and he in return did not hurry to share important findings with them, delaying their case out of spite. It did not sit well with Kate’s superiors.

The rain stopped by the time they left the station. Ellers stayed behind to to arrange the search at the victim’s house, while Ben and Kate made their way to the local newspaper’s office. It was not far, so they decided to leave the car at the station. The town was quiet, they only passed a few people on the streets. Where’s everyone? Kate mused.