The urban landscape gradually gave way to small towns and long stretches of roads. Giant trees loomed over the travellers, dark and silent. The boring gray sky was replaced by an oddly cheerful pink, but the snow continued to fall in chunky fluffs. With the directions from Lieutenant Mendoza it was not hard to find the place where their victim was discovered only a couple of hours ago. As Kate pulled up near the police cruiser, a uniformed officer ran up to their car. Ben flashed up his badge, and relief flooded the officer’s face.

“Detectives, it’s good to have you here. I’m officer Sadie Briggs, I’m here with–” she said, then turned, her arm still outstretched, when they heard crashing footsteps from the bushes. A policeman came rushing out and leaned on their car with shoulders heaving.

“Mike!” Officer Briggs yelled and ran towards her colleague, followed by Ben. It took a moment for Kate to shake off her numbness, and she trotted after the others. When she caught up with them Officer Briggs had her arms around the man whose face was streaked with tears. Officer Briggs looked around in confusion before she called her fellow officer’s name again. “Mike? What’s wrong?”

The officer shook his head and took a shuddering breath before he wiped at the tears with the back of his hand. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” he said, “… that girl… she… looks like my daughter.” Officer Briggs held on to him tighter but was turning her head left and right, craning her neck towards the woods.

“Your daughter?” Kate asked. “Are you sure?”

The officer let go of Briggs, suddenly calmer. He shook his head. “No… I mean yes…”

“Are you saying that’s Carly there?” Officer Briggs asked, her lower lip trembling ever so slightly.

The man shook his head and pressed his fingers to his brows. “No, not Carly. But that girl… looks almost exactly like her. I just… I’m sorry… I just thought it could have been her and I… “

Ben patted the officer on the shoulder, but said nothing.

“This is Officer Simmons, by the way,” Briggs said after regaining her composure, and they all shook hands.

“Who found the body?” Kate asked.

“Vera,” said Briggs, and her gaze shifted towards the woods.

“Vera who?”

Officer Briggs seemed confused for a moment, then the realization that the detectives aren’t local took over. “That would be Vera Meyers. She was walking her dog here.”

“Where is she now?” Kate asked as she looked around.

“Probably at home,” Briggs replied.

Kate looked at Ben with her eyebrows raised before addressing the officer.

“You let her–?”

With a touch on Kate’s elbow Ben interrupted her. “We will need her address. She should have been kept here, but it’s too late now.”

“I… of course, Sir,” Briggs said, her face turning beetroot red. “It was just so cold, and you see Vera is quite old, we didn’t want to keep her after such a shock.”

Kate was about to comment on this incompetence when another figure emerged from the bushes with some rustling. The shiny black hair in a bun and the red boots seemed familiar to her.

“What a nice surprise meeting you here, Miss Sharma,” Ben said, and greeted the forensic technician they met on a case about a month ago in Hillrose.

Aruna Sharma knitted her eyebrows together and regarded Ben with an icy look. “Well, not really. A surprise I mean. As you know these small towns don’t have their own crime labs, so we are called to every crime scene in the area.”

Ben just shook his head, but did not offer a reply.

“So, what do we have?” Kate said.

Aruna’s face softened when she noticed Kate. “A female, early twenties. Looks like someone strangled her. No ID on her.”

“Can we go in now?”

“Sure,” Aruna said and shrugged. “But I need to warn you. It looks bad.”

Kate and Ben made their way through the thick undergrowth and were met by another crime scene technician, combing through the ground for clues. The body lay near a tree, forlorn, miserable. Aruna was right. It looked awful.

“She’s naked from the waist down,” Kate said and squeezed her eyes together like that would wipe the image she just saw away.

“She was strangled with her own pants, in my opinion” Aruna’s voice came from behind and the two detectives turned to see her standing a few feet behind them. She moved without a sound. “We found some partial footprints, but pretty much everything is covered in snow. The building behind us is locked and abandoned, and nobody lives in the close vicinity, so it’s unlikely that you’ll find witnesses here.”

“Was she raped?” Kate asked as she squatted down next to the dead girl.

“Likely,” said Aruna and pointed at the bruises on her thighs. “We haven’t found her underwear though. The shoes are still missing too.”

“Is she local?” Ben asked.

“The woman who found her did not recognize the girl. But she’s quite old, and after she realized what she came across she did not stay to look at her. The officers who arrived at the scene first did not recognized her either. They were relieved by Officer Briggs and Simmons just a few minutes before you arrived. As you know Mike first thought it looked like his daughter, but…” Aruna shrugged.

“How did she get here?” Kate asked and looked around. “They haven’t found a car around here as far as I know.”

“I’d say the killer got her somewhere else, killed her, and dumped the body here,” the other woman said, and with that she turned around and was gone.

Kate took a moment to absorb the information. She squatted next to the girl, and gently swept her honey coloured fringe out of her face. “Who are you?” She whispered to the girl.

The girl stared back with her mysterious blue eyes.

By the time Kate and Ben got back to the Pine Creek Police Station, the sun managed to find its way through the clouds but the weak light was not enough to lift the dark mood they were both in. Officer Briggs led them to a break room that was surprisingly cozy for a police station. The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the door and a few minutes later another uniformed officer arrived with a tray full of hot drinks and cookies.

Just as they settled around the table, sounds of commotion and excited chatter came from the corridor. A flushed Officer Briggs appeared at the door.

“What happened?” Kate asked.

“I think we know who she is,” she said, panting.