Siobhan pulled her cell phone from her pocket. She thumbed through the directory she had until Doc Knight's name came up. The phone rang and the doc answered.

"Hi, Doc. This is Deputy Hennessy. John, the sheriff and I are at the scene of a suspicious death. We're at the lake on the property that was just sold to Travis McGee. Could you put your coroners hat on and come out here?"

"Sure Siobhan, be there in ten." The doc picked up her kit and wrote a hurried note.

Siobhan turned to John. "She said ten minutes, boss." With his acknowledgement, Siobhan turned around quickly. It felt to her as if someone were watching but maybe she was just jumpy. This was not the type of crime they handled in the Glen. It was the first murder. She figured she'd left all of this kind of stuff behind in the big city. No such luck. Poor Marce looked as if she'd be brutalized and it made her stomach turn. She warned her last time she saw her about this Hando character. Seems that Marce didn't heed it.

John looked distant as he stood waiting for the coroner. God knows what was going through his mind.

The "doc" arrived 10:01 minutes later. "What do we have here, John?" M touched his arm. "John."

The women exchanged glances. "Show me the body Siobhan." 

With a nudge of her head Siobhan led the doc toward the remains. "She's pretty beat up, Doc. Looks to me like she put up a hell of a fight and then someone drug her here. Brought her here from the cabin up the shore a bit. Hando's cabin."

As they arrived by the body, Siobhan uncovered her to show the Doc. Rigor was past and Siobhan would have guess she was there over twelve hours.

M looked over the body then pulled out a thermometer. "Time of death 0800. We need to get her into the morgue before I can tell you anything else but, someone beat this woman senseless, not a great way to die."   

"No," John spoke up. "and we're going to find who done this and prosecute them to the fullest extent. Siobhan, call Tom and get the rig over here to remove her. Get her and the Doc into Coffs to examine her."

John went into Coffs with the Doc while Siobhan stayed behind to guard the scene.

An hour later, the two of them were in the morgue at the hospital and the exam began.

"Time of death 0810. He had fun with her first. Beating her, goading her.  Sperm on the inside of her legs in her hair and vagina. This bastard raped her after death what kind of guy does this John? She looked at the sheriff.  "You have to get this maniac John before he kills again."  

John nodded. He of all people didn't want this element in the Glen. It sickened him. "We'll get him," he promised. "There's debris under her finger nail's doc. I guess you'll get a good DNA sample from the other samples.

Hopefully he'd have the perp or perps collared long before anything came back from the lab.