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Authors: K. C. Greenlief

Cold Hunter's Moon (30 page)

BOOK: Cold Hunter's Moon
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Sara had stayed at the Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington, Minnesota. She had driven to Minneapolis, but she didn't have any valet-parking charges. She did have sporadic room service and movie charges throughout her bill.
The three of them discussed their findings as they picked up a pizza and headed home. They settled down to eat around 9:30, and after planning the trip to Madison, they went to bed.
NOVEMBER 30—SWENSON
Lark stumbled out of bed at 6:30 to the sound of running water. He cranked his shower taps on and looked out the window. The sky to the east remained overcast. He stepped into a steaming hot shower, thankful at least one thing was going right.
He dressed quickly and headed downstairs. He found Lacey and Joel reading separate sections of the morning paper. Lark read the front page while he made a pot of coffee for their thermoses.
The trip to Madison was fast, despite the icy roads and the on-again, off-again snow. They hit the outskirts of Madison at 11:30 and threaded their way down East Washington towards the state capital. Lark's only exposure to Madison had been driving the interstate around it when he and Maria had vacationed in northern Wisconsin. He'd heard how big the campus was, but was surprised at how much of the city it usurped.
They pulled up at the side entrance of the student union just as Katey and Sandi walked out the door. The girls wore jeans, hooded ski parkas, and hiking boots. With mounds of snow on every street corner, it wasn't hard to see why they were dressed to climb Mount Everest.
They climbed into the Jeep and Lark drove to the University police headquarters. Joel went to talk with Ann's friend, Barbara Danner, and everyone else went to the interview room.
“I'm going to interview each of you separately and I'd like to talk with Katey first,” Lark said, his smile gone, his voice all business. Sandi left the room.
“Why didn't you to tell us about your affairs with Terry and Gemma?” Lark asked.
“I didn't tell you because it isn't true,” Katey replied, glancing at Lacey, looking for support. “Well, it's not exactly true,” she said when Lacey scowled at her.
“What was your relationship with Gemma?” Lark asked.
“We were very good friends.”
He snorted and glared at her.
“OK, OK, we were lovers.”
“Why didn't you tell us this earlier?” Lacey asked.
“I didn't think it was important. We only slept together a few times. Gemma wasn't sure whether she was gay or straight. She was experimenting.”
“Was Sandi also one of her lovers?” Lark asked.
Katey drew back from the table and looked away. “You'll have to ask her,” she said, unable to meet his eyes.
“I'm asking you,” Lark yelled. “Two women are dead and I'm trying to figure out why before someone else gets killed. I've had just about enough of your evasiveness.” He slammed his fist down on the table. “Tell me what the hell's going on. Now!”
“If I knew, believe me, I'd tell you.” Katey's voice was full of sadness. “I've been gay as long as I can remember. I've known Sandi since kindergarten and she's always been crazy about boys. Despite that, we're very close.
“Sandi was very promiscuous when she was in high school. She loves sex. I, on the other hand, didn't have sex until I came here. I think I was the only gay woman in Big Oak, maybe even in northern Wisconsin. No one ever guessed. They think I'm straight because I'm pretty. I went out with a few guys in high school, but it was always just a friendship thing.
“I went a little wild, when I got here. I joined a lesbian group and had a few short affairs, nothing serious. Gemma was one of those relationships.
We spent most of our time talking about how unclear she was about her sexuality. I think she was bisexual but would have gotten married and had a very happy hetero life.”
“What about Terry?”
“Terry was a lesbian and knew it just like I did. We were soul mates.”
Lark nodded. “How does Sandi fit into this?”
“I told you, you'll have to ask her.”
“I will, but right now I'm asking you.”
“It's not my business to talk about Sandi. She can tell you what she sees fit.”
“Have you heard of obstruction of justice?” Lark asked.
“Yes, but I'm not under arrest so that doesn't apply.”
“You've got that wrong,” Lacey said. “You can be arrested for obstructing justice.”
“Ask your questions,” Katey said, glaring at her.
“You said earlier that Sandi loves men and sex.”
“That's correct.”
“Have you had sex with her?”
Katey's face turned beet red. She looked past Lacey at the wall behind her.
“I repeat …”
“Yes, we've had sex, but that doesn't make her a lesbian,” Katey snapped.
“What does that make her?” Lark asked
“Someone who loves sex.” She gave Lark a withering glance. “She's in love with David and will probably never sleep with anyone else. She just wanted to try a few things.”
“And you didn't have any problem with that?” Lacey asked.
“No, I was trying a few new things myself,” she replied, not making eye contact with either of them.
“Did Sandi have sex with Gemma?” Lacey asked.
“Once or twice.”
“Did Sandi have sex with Terry?”
“We both did.”
“Meaning?” Lacey asked.
“We all three had sex together one time,” Katey said, staring at the floor. “Sandi wanted to try it with two women.”
“Does David know about this?” Lacey asked.
“You'll have to ask Sandi.”
“Who else knows about it?” Lark asked
The color drained from Katey's face. “I don't know. I haven't told anyone. Terry may have told her brother Brian. He knew she was gay. I don't think anyone else knows.”
“Anyone else you all were sleeping with who may have wanted to hurt Gemma or Terry?” Lark asked.
Katey studied him for a second before she spoke. “I'm sure this is all very shocking, but I can assure you, it was harmless sex. It was consensual and no one meant to hurt anyone. I've racked my brain and I can't imagine who would want to kill Gemma and Terry.”
“Any jealous girlfriends in your past who might want to get at anyone you're close to?”
“No, my most serious relationship has been with Terry, and Sandi, of course, as a friend.”
“And lover,” Lark corrected
“Sandi and I aren't lovers. We just fooled around a little. It didn't mean anything to either of us.”
“Do your parents know about any of this?” he asked.
“Are you kidding? My parents think I'm straight as an arrow.”
“It's bound to come out that Terry was gay. Your relationship with her may also come out. I'd want to tell my parents before they heard it from someone else,” Lacey said.
“It'll kill my dad.”
“You may be surprised,” Lark said. “I haven't talked with him, but I have talked with your mom and I think she can handle it.”
They escorted Katey out and went to find Sandi. They started questioning her as soon as everyone was settled in the interview room.
“We don't think you've been honest with us about your relationship with Gemma and Terry,” Lark said.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because you weren't honest about having sex with them.”
“What does that have to do with them being killed?”
“We're not sure, but it would have been helpful to know,” Lacey interjected.
“OK. I had sex a couple of times with Gemma and Katey, and once with Katey and Terry together. Do you want all the lurid details?”
“That isn't the point,” Lacey said, maintaining eye contact with her. “We don't care who you sleep with. We're trying to piece together enough information to solve these murders.”
“I'm not a lesbian,” she said with defiance.
“But Katey is,” Lark said.
“Yeah, so what's the big deal? God, you're as bad as my parents. My dad's always going on about how being gay is a sin.”
“Who knew about your affairs with Gemma and Terry?” Lark asked, ignoring her outburst.
“I told David about Katey, but that's it.”
“What did he think about it?”
“He was surprised but OK.”
“Do your parents know about any of this?” Lacey asked.
“Hell, no,” she shouted. “My father would go insane.”
“Do you know anyone who might want to hurt Terry or Gemma because they were gay?”
“First of all, Gemma wasn't gay. She was just experimenting, sowing a few wild oats, like me. I can't think of anyone who'd want to hurt them, let alone kill them.”
Their interviews finished, they offered to drive Katey and Sandi back to the student union but the girls declined. They found Joel sitting in the captain's office, his interview completed.
NOVEMBER 30—SWENSON
The sun came out as they left Madison. They spent the first part of their trip discussing the next steps, having exchanged information on their interviews over lunch. Joel's interview had not yielded anything new. He had blustered throughout lunch about how beautiful Barbara Danner was and how he was sure someone that gorgeous couldn't possibly be a lesbian. After a firm lecture from Lacey, he got back on track. There was no question that Barbara had seen Katey and Terry at campus lesbian group meetings. She identified their pictures to confirm it. She did not recall seeing Gemma or Sandi at any meetings, although she had seen Sandi and Katey together on campus.
They agreed that the students had alibis that would hold. With a growing sense of futility, they decided to reinterview Sara Waltner and Cathy Lowery and bring their husbands in for questioning. They agreed that they also needed to reinterview Jim Kryjack and the Chevskys. Lark called the station and asked Flo to make appointments for the following morning.
The remainder of the trip was spent rehashing the case. They discussed
the two stolen Tauruses, coming to the conclusion that their appearance in Big Oak at the same time as the girls' deaths had to be more than coincidence. Lark called George and asked him to follow up with the employees at Grezetski's Market to find out if they had seen any of the suspects around the time the car was noticed in the lot. Joel suggested they interview employees of businesses around Lippert Motors in Wausau to see if they could get any leads. George was asked to assemble pictures of all the people they had interviewed so the state police could use them in their Wausau interviews.
It started snowing with a vengeance once they got to Marshfield. They spent the remainder of their time discussing the weather and watching for the deer and snowmobiles that seemed to be everywhere now that hunting season was over. Most of the bars and restaurants along Highway 13 had more snowmobiles than cars parked in their lots.
They were south of Park Falls when Lark got a radio call at 6:30 P.M. Flo told him that John Ranson had called, asking if anyone had reported his wife's car in an accident. He was concerned that she had not come home on time. She told Lark they were inundated with accidents due to the road conditions and George had authorized more overtime.
Lark called John. He answered on the first ring, sounding disappointed when it wasn't Ann. He told Lark that he had come home to find a note from Ann saying that she had to run a few errands. She was supposed to be home by 5:30 with pizza. Lark offered to stop by, but John told him it wasn't necessary. He asked Lark to be on the lookout for her. Lark called the station, requesting that an alert go out to all Mason County officers.
They made it into Big Oak just before 7:30 and had polished off a dinner of burritos and tacos when Lark's phone rang. The dispatcher asked him to call John Ranson ASAP. After finding out that none of the officers had seen Ann's car, he called John.
John was frantic. Lark cut him off when he began muttering about where Ann was and told him he was on his way. Lark and Lacey headed for the Ransons' while Joel got on the phone to round up staff to canvas Wausau the following morning.
John opened the front door before they even got out of the Jeep. While they took off their winter gear, he gave them an update on his attempts to find Ann. He walked them into the family room where there was a roaring fire.
John had already called friends as well as the various stores they frequented in Big Oak and Park Falls. Ann had stopped by the Martens' about 4:30 to pick up a box that Melissa had made for them. Melissa assumed that Ann was on her way home. The dogs began howling in the garage.
“They've been crazy since I got home,” he said, as he went to let them in. “I don't know what's wrong with them.” They snorted and wagged their tails and ran to the front door. After admonishing them to be good, John let them out.
“The deer must be moving.” he said when he got back to the family room.
“Has anyone else seen Ann this afternoon?” Lacey asked.
“No one. It's not unusual for her to be thirty minutes, maybe even an hour late, when she's working, but this,” he said, looking at his watch, “this isn't like her at all. She would have called me. Something's wrong.”
“I put Ann's license plate number out right after our first conversation, but no one has reported her car,” Lark said.
The dogs, barking and jumping at the front door, stopped their conversation nearly an hour later. John went to let them in. Lark slouched down in his chair and stared at the fire as he waited for John to return. He was startled back to reality when John yelled his name. Lark rounded the corner to the hallway with Lacey right behind him. They were met with a blast of ice-cold air. John was standing in the doorway, holding a red scarf caked with snow. Snow was blowing into the hallway, leaving traces of white on the tile. One of the dogs barked and pranced about in the snow. When John said nothing, Lark pushed past him and went out on the stoop to call the dog in. He darted away and ran towards the woods.
Lacey reached for the scarf but John held it tightly, staring down at it. “Ann must have dropped this in the driveway,” he mumbled.
“Let me hang that up for you,” she said. He gave it to her just as Lark walked in.
“That damn dog won't come in,” Lark said, brushing snow off his sweater.
“I'll get them.” John went back outside and called the dogs.
“There's only one out here,” Lark said, following him.
“Buck's got to be close by, they're always together.” John called the dogs' names over and over, oblivious to the snow and the cold. Duke ran
up to him but pranced out of reach, barking and running towards the woods.
“Something's not right here,” John said. “Duke acts like he wants me to follow him.”
“That dog isn't that smart,” Lark said as they walked back to the house.
“Yes, he is.” John went to the utility room and began putting on his boots.
“What are you doing?” Lacey asked, sitting down beside him.
“I'm going to find Ann,” he said, lacing up his boots. “Duke found her scarf and won't come in. He knows where she is.”
“Like you said, she probably dropped her scarf in the driveway, that's how the dogs found it,” Lark said
“No, now that I think about it, Ann couldn't have dropped her scarf out there. She gets in the car in the garage so there isn't any reason it would be outside. She has a car phone. She would have called and left a message if she was going to be this late. Something's wrong. Duke had her scarf and this is how he acts when he wants us to follow him. Buck's nowhere to be found. I think the dogs know where she is.”
“We'll go with you,” Lark said with a sense of foreboding. He and Lacey hurried to the foyer to put on their boots. Once they were dressed and armed with flashlights, they headed outside. Duke led them down the driveway, keeping about fifty feet ahead and trotting back to them when they got behind. While he waited for them to catch up, he ate snow and scanned the woods, his nose in the air. Once they got to the woods, he took off through the snow, leaping like a jack rabbit through drifts nearly up to his neck. John and Lacey took off after him but Lark called them back.
“This is the same trail we followed when we found the bodies,” he said.
“I'm going to follow Duke,” John insisted as the dog ran back to them. He reached down to pet him and Duke grabbed the arm of his jacket, pulling him forward. John shook him off. When Duke grabbed his arm again, John commanded him to sit. The dog sat down but continued to fidget, whining and craning his neck towards the woods.
“I agree with John,” Lacey said, watching Duke. “something's wrong. We need to find out where Buck is.” She cocked her head, listening to what she thought was a faint bark. “Did you hear that?”
“Yep.” John watched Duke squirm. “Go on,” he said, flinging his arm out. Duke ran barking into the woods.
“I'm going back to the house and get the Jeep.” Lark said, grabbing John by the sleeve. “I'll go with you as soon as I get back. We'll take the radio and the phone to make sure we maintain contact. Wait for me here. OK?”
When John said nothing, Lark shook him by the shoulders. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you,” John said, “but I can't guarantee I'll be here when you get back.”
“Keep him here,” Lark said to Lacey. He was back with the Jeep in less than ten minutes. He and John set out after Duke, leaving Lacey to wait for the additional officers and the county snowmobiles Lark had requested.
The snow was getting worse, making it slowgoing. It was above their knees in most places and drifted to the top of their thighs in others. Despite all the snow they'd had since finding the two bodies, their original trail was still visible. Lark also noticed fresh dog and deer tracks.
As they moved deeper into the woods, the wind cut down, but Lark was still amazed at the amount of noise it made as it blew through the leafless trees. Duke barked frequently, and as they got closer to the marsh, Lark could hear another dog.
By the time they got halfway across the marsh, John and Lark were winded. They stopped and bent over, hands propped on their thighs, as they sucked in air.
“Damn, I wish we had snowshoes,” John said between breaths. He looked down at the snow that was just above their knees.
“I wish we had a snowmobile,” Lark said, his chest heaving. “Slogging through this snow is harder than running a marathon.” He radioed Lacey for an update. She told him the snowmobiles were due any minute.
As soon as they caught their breath, they trudged across the rest of the marsh. The snow continued to come down in small biting flakes. An owl hooted several times and Lark heard a faint response in the distance. Five minutes after they crossed the marsh, they walked into a grove of trees and Buck ran towards them, covered with snow. The dogs took off together back into the woods. The men picked up their pace, and within a few minutes found the dogs lying by a mound of snow. Buck whined
and nuzzled the snow, revealing something red. John and Lark dug snow away to expose a coat. The dogs barked and leaped around them as they dug Ann out of the snowdrift.
She was breathing but her pulse was very slow. Her lips were blue and her skin was as white as the snow she was buried in. As they dug the snow away from her, Lark noticed that the hair on the right side of her head was matted with blood and her right arm and leg were bent at unnatural angles. His mind raced as his hands worked, taking in the fact that she had injuries like the two girls who had been murdered and dumped in the marsh.
Once they had Ann out of the snow, Lark radioed Lacey. Although it seemed like forever, it only took a few minutes for the snowmobiles to arrive.
Watching John rock his comatose wife back and forth, begging her to be all right, was more than Lark could stand. Memories of Maria flashed through his mind. He was unable to do anything more than step out of the way when help arrived. He watched as they put Ann on the portable litter. When they had her ready to go, John rode back with Paul. For once, the Mason County ambulance was free and waiting for them in the Ransons' driveway, but the medical helicopter was out on another flight. Lark and Lacey stayed behind to secure the scene until the state police got there.
They found a snowmobile trail that led away from the woods in the opposite direction from the Ransons' house. They followed it out to the road, where it was obliterated by fresh tire tracks. When they got back to where Ann was found, Joel and the state troopers were searching the area. They found footprints and a drag trail leading from the snowmobile trail to the area where Ann had collapsed. Someone had tried to cover them by dragging an evergreen branch over them. The few remaining footprints were good for little more than identification of shoe size.
They tracked Ann's attempts to get out of the woods, noting where she had fallen at least twice. Tears of anger froze on Lacey's cheeks as she imagined what the woman had gone through. Joel gave additional instructions to the two state troopers and they headed back to the Ransons'.
It took them forty-five minutes to wend their way back through the snow. Lark, worn out from his walk in, was quiet during their trek. Even
Joel said very little. Lacey was having trouble reconciling the horrors that had happened on this property with the incredible peace and beauty that surrounded her. The stillness was broken only by the crunch of their feet and the wind in the trees.
Paul radioed them to put the dogs in the garage, so they weren't surprised when Buck and Duke greeted them as they came out of the woods. The dogs rode to the house in the back of Lark's Jeep. Lacey and Joel cleaned them up in the mudroom while Lark called the hospital.
“She's still unconscious. The helicopter's grounded for weather. They're taking her to Marshfield by ground. Let's go,” Lark said, brushing past them on his way out the door. They put the dogs in the garage and followed him to the Jeep.
BOOK: Cold Hunter's Moon
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