Before He Longs. Блейк Пирс

nodded as she looked to the back, where Locke’s belongings were stacked to the ceiling in neat little rows. The fact that it was her storage unit did add a degree of eeriness to it, but, she thought, might work to their advantage in eventually establishing motive or even tracking down the killer.

      “Are there security cameras around here?” Ellington asked.

      “I just have one right up at the front entrance,” Quinn Tuck said.

      “We’ve watched all of the footage from the last few weeks,” Deputy Rising said. “There’s nothing out of the ordinary. Currently, we’re speaking to everyone who showed up here anytime during the last two weeks. As you can imagine, it’s going to be tedious. We still have a dozen or so people to question.”

      “Any chance we could get our hands on that footage?” Mackenzie asked.

      “Absolutely,” Rising said, though his tone indicated that she was nuts to want to go fishing through it.

      Mackenzie followed Ellington to the back of the unit. Part of her wanted to rummage through the boxes and bins but she knew it would likely not lead to much of anything. Once they had leads or potential suspects, they may find something worthwhile but until then, the contents within the unit would mean nothing to them.

      “Is the body still with the coroner?” Mackenzie asked.

      “To the best of my knowledge,” Rising said. “Want me to call and let them know you’re coming?”

      “Please. And see what you can do about getting us that video footage.”

      “Oh, I can send that, Agent White,” Quinn said. “It’s all digital. Just let me know where you want me to send it.”

      “Come on,” Rising said. “I’ll lead you to the coroner’s office. It’s just happens to be two floors below my office.”

      With that, the four of them exited the storage unit and walked back out into the rain. Even under the umbrella, it was loud. It came down slow but hard, as if trying to wash away the sights and smells the unit had seen.

      Chapter Six

      As it turned out, Quinn Tuck was extremely helpful. It seemed he wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened just as badly as anyone. That’s why, when Mackenzie and Ellington got to the police station, he had provided a link for them to access all of his digital files from the security system at the storage complex.

      They decided to start with the security footage rather than the body of Claire Locke. It gave them a chance to sit down and somewhat collect their bearings. It was nearing nightfall now and the rain was still coming down. As Deputy Rising got them set up with a monitor, Mackenzie looked back on the day and found it hard to believe that she had been standing in a picturesque garden and thinking about her wedding less than nine hours ago.

      “Here are the relevant time stamps,” Rising said, slipping Mackenzie a piece of paper from his notepad. “There aren’t many.” He tapped his finger at one entry in particular, written in slanted handwriting. “This is the only time we see Claire Locke enter the complex. We pulled her DMV info and got her license plate number, so we know it’s her. And this,” he said, tapping at another entry, “is when she left. And these are the only times she shows up on the footage.”

      “Thanks, Deputy,” Ellington said. “This helps tremendously.”

      Rising gave a little nod of acknowledgment before backing out of the tiny spare office the agents had been given. The monotonous work took a while, but as Rising had indicated, the local PD had already done some of the work for them. They were able to fast-track the footage when there was no activity on the screen. They started by checking the time stamps on the sheet of paper. When the car said to belong to Claire Locke came onto the screen, Mackenzie zoomed in but was unable to see a driver. She waited, watching the featureless entrance of the complex for twenty-two sped up minutes before Locke’s car was shown leaving. In the time she had spent there, no one else had arrived and no other cars had left.

      “You know,” Mackenzie said, “it’s entirely possible that she was not attacked at the storage unit.”

      “You think someone killed her elsewhere and brought her to the site?”

      “Maybe not killed her somewhere else, but potentially abducted her. I think seeing her body will help determine that. If she shows signs of starvation or dehydration, that basically tells us that she was dumped there.”

      “But according to the report, the lock was bolted from the outside.”

      “So maybe someone else has the key,” Mackenzie suggested.

      “Probably someone in one of the other cars on these days and days of footage.”

      “Most likely.”

      “You want to stay here and roll through this while I go check out the body?” Ellington asked. “Or the other way around?”

      Mackenzie pictured the poor woman, alone in the dark and unable to so much as scream for help. She envisioned her stumbling in the dark to try to find some way to at least try to get that door open.

      “I think I’d like to check the body. You good here?”

      “Oh yeah. This is streaming at its finest. No commercials or anything.”

      “Good,” she said. “See you in a bit.”

      She leaned down and kissed him on the side of the mouth before leaving. She did it naturally and without much thought, even though it wasn’t the most professional thing. It was a good reminder of just why they wouldn’t be able to work together in this capacity after they were married.

      Mackenzie left the little office space in search of the morgue while Ellington watched time unroll in fast-forward motion on the screen.

***

      The question as to whether or not Claire Locke had experienced starvation or dehydration of any degree during her time in the storage unit was answered the moment Mackenzie saw her. While Mackenzie was not an expert on the subject, there was a hollow look to the young woman’s cheeks. There might have been a similar look to her stomach as well but it was not clear due to the incision the coroner had made.

      The woman who met her at the morgue was a rotund and eerily pleasant woman named Amanda Dumas. She greeted Mackenzie warmly and stood back against a small steel table that was adorned with the tools of her trade.

      “Based on your examination,” Mackenzie said, “would you say that the victim experienced severe hunger or dehydration before she died?”

      “Yes, though I don’t know to what extent, exactly,” Amanda said. “There’s very little fatty acid in her stomach—hardly any at all. That, plus some signs of muscle deterioration, indicates that she experienced at least the first pangs of starvation. There are telltale signs of dehydration as well, though I can’t be sure that either of those is what killed her.”

      “You think she bled out first?”

      “I do. And quite frankly, that would have been a blessing for her.”

      “Based on what you’ve seen with the body, do you believe she was alive when she was placed in the storage unit?”

      “Oh, without a doubt. And I’d say it was against her will as well.” Amanda stepped forward and pointed to the abrasions on Locke’s right hand. “Looks like she put up a fight of some kind and then tried her best to escape at some point.”

      Mackenzie saw the cuts and noted that one of them looked rather ragged. It could have easily been placed there by the grooved runner that the unit door ran within. She also saw the fingernail that had been torn.

      “There’s also bruising along the back of her head,” Amanda said. She used a comb-like tool to move Claire’s hair aside. She did so with a loving sort of respect and care. When she did this, Mackenzie was able to see an angry purple bruise along the upper base of her neck where her skull joined it.

      “Any signs that she was drugged?”