Michael arrived back at the DA's offices before eight thirty. Despite the late hour, the place was buzzing, and almost all the desks that should have been empty at that time of night were occupied. While there was always someone in the office working around the clock, most of the staff worked a normal, if not extended, day.
Michael went right to Nick's office and knocked on the door, popping his head in since the door was ajar.
"Hey, boss," he said and entered when Nick waved him in. "What's up?"
"We're working on a crash site near Clear Lake. We're thinking Kincaid was involved."
"Kincaid?"
"Yep. The man lived within ten blocks of the location where Eugene escaped. We think Kincaid must have hidden in the garage overnight and killed the driver in the morning when he came out to go to work, then took the truck into the mountains, deliberately drove it off the road and set it on fire but we're waiting on the ME's report. The police dogs did signal that Kincaid had been at the garage, so we're pretty sure it was him. Keller should have results back from toxicology any time now."
"Dr. Keller doing the autopsy?"
"Yes. Maybe you could go and take a look for me tomorrow. Given the man's house was in the general neighborhood of the escape and that he went missing from work the next day, and the dogs signaled Kincaid's presence in the area, I'm thinking the deceased man didn't skip out from work to go fishing and ran off the road accidentally. Keller's sure that someone bashed in his head."
"Kincaid was looking to escape and used the man to get out of town."
"Why not steal the vehicle? Why kill the driver?" Nick asked. "It would raise less suspicion. It doesn't sound like something Kincaid would do."
Michael shrugged. "He must be pretty desperate. You know what they say, desperate men use desperate measures. I agree it's not like Kincaid to kill random strangers, but perhaps he's going for a big kill count before he gets caught. I wouldn't put it past him. He told Tess that he wanted to make the record books, so..."
It wasn't like Kincaid to kill random strangers, unless they got in his way. He was focused on young girls, which he used for his perverted pleasures. He'd killed others but they were incidental. He didn't need to kill someone to get a vehicle. They were easy enough to steal.
"Maybe Kincaid wants his trail to be found. Or maybe he's laying down a false trail, to divert our attention."
"Maybe," Nick said. "Whatever the case, go up to the site, take a look around, and then speak with Dr. Keller. I want your report on my desk by tomorrow night with a recommendation on how to proceed. Go find that bastard for me, will you? Before he kills someone else?"
"Okay, boss," Michael said and stood. "Your wish is my command."
"Remember that," Nick said, mock officiously, smiling to himself.
Michael grabbed a copy of the police reports and report from Fire and Rescue before he left the office so he could read both over and get his mind around the task he would undertake the next morning. He checked the map to find the location and saw that it was a remote road near Silver Peak. That was the kind of deeply forested area Eugene liked to work in, so it definitely could be something Eugene would do.
Michael left the office and went home. Tess was asleep so he got into bed quietly, trying his best not to wake her. Of course, she did wake up briefly.
"What's up?" she said, her voice sleepy.
He kissed her. "I got an order to go to the scene of the crime tomorrow morning and check it out for Nick. We should go to sleep, because it's going to be an early rise for me tomorrow."
"Okay," she said and snuggled down into his arms.
The next morning, Michael had a quick breakfast with Tess and then took his Jeep, driving to Clear Lake, which was five miles south of Interstate 90 on the way to the Snoqualmie Pass. The road was narrow with a sharp drop off on the right side of the road. Only on the sharpest curves was there a guardrail, and that was not continuous, but in three separate parts. The crash site was still surrounded by yellow tape, and all that remained was a burned patch of ground and a broken guardrail at the location where the car went off the road.
He parked his Jeep and inspected the guardrail, taking photos for his records. He pulled up the police report on the accident scene and read over the officer's comments. There were no skid marks on the road to indicate that the driver realized at the last minute that he was in danger and tried to correct himself, so either he'd fallen asleep or was otherwise unaware of the curve in the road. There were signs to mark the curve leading up to the area, so it wasn't likely that the man failed to see the warning signs.
Michael bent down and examined the guardrail. It seemed less damaged than he would expect if the vehicle had been traveling at a high speed. The damage to the rail looked more like it had been pushed or nudged out of the way and that made him suspect that all wasn't what it seemed. He'd attended many crashes before where a vehicle had run off the road and the damage to the guardrail was much more intense. So that was issue number one. He was glad to know that the state highway patrol officers who did the accident report felt the same.
Issue number two was the damage to the tree that the vehicle crashed into. According to the patrol officer, it was likewise less intense than one might expect if the vehicle had been traveling at a higher speed. The tree itself wasn't huge, and given the weight of the vehicle, it should have at least pushed the tree back some, disrupted the roots. There was nothing indicating the vehicle struck the tree at a high speed. There was some damage to the trunk, and scorch marks from the fire, but less damage than Michael would have expected.
Michael took photos of the tree to add to his own file on the case. It wasn't that he didn't trust the police and forensic team who had initial control of the site, but he liked to use his own photos to document what he saw or was concerned with.
When he was satisfied with his review of the accident scene, Michael took a few more photos of the location, and the road leading to the spot where the vehicle left the road and went down the embankment. He suspected that someone had actually pushed the vehicle over the embankment rather than the vehicle drove over at speed, crashing through the guardrail.
He drove back to Seattle, and went to the King County ME's office, located in the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. When he arrived, he parked in the visitor's lot and texted Dr. Keller, in case she was out of the office. He was in luck -- she was in her office doing some paperwork and could speak with him, go over the case.
He entered the building and went to Dr. Keller's second floor offices. He checked in with Dr. Keller's admin assistant and was ushered into Dr. Keller's office.
"Come in, Michael," Dr. Keller said, motioning to the chair across from her desk. "Have a seat. I was going over my report on the crash near Clear Lake as a matter of fact."
Michael entered the office and sat across from Dr. Keller. He liked her, for no matter how dark the subject matter they were dealing with, she always seemed upbeat, with a wry sense of humor. Michael supposed it helped when you were dealing with dead bodies, having suffered any number of terrible injuries and in all kinds of conditions, all day every day.
"I was at the site," Michael said and leaned back.
"And? What was your assessment?"
He took in a deep breath. "I don't think it was an accident. It looks like the car was pushed over the embankment."
"My thoughts exactly," Dr. Keller said, nodding her head. She opened a file and took out a photograph. "Look at the condition of the guardrail. It's hardly damaged. Looks like someone pushed it aside."
"We're sympatico in our thinking, then," Michael replied. "I examined photos of the car and while it's badly damaged due to the fire, most of the fire damage was limited to the interior and the front end was largely intact. There was no big scrape along the front left bumper to indicate that the vehicle ran into the guardrail at a high speed. Almost like it was pushed over the edge."
Dr. Keller nodded. "It's not my area of expertise, of course, but I did notice the highway patrol officers were commenting on how spotless the front of the vehicle was and that the vehicle wasn't traveling very fast at the time it went off the road."
"Yes, and given that the victim was already dead at the time, it's highly suspicious."
"Police didn't know that, of course. All they saw was a body burnt beyond recognition by the time fire services and police arrived. It wasn't until I did the autopsy that I was able to determine that the victim was deceased prior to the accident."
"How did you determine that?” Michael asked. “What was the evidence?"
"The airway was pristine, indicating that the victim was dead before the fire. If he had still been alive, his airway would have shown evidence of inhalation of soot particles, usually found below the vocal cords. As well, I checked the victim's blood carboxyhemoglobin levels, which is a measure of how much carbon monoxide is present in the blood. A high level of CO-hb indicates that the victim was alive at the time of the fire, because it shows they actively breathed in the smoke. A low level doesn't always show that the victim was dead before the fire started since flashover fires can result in extremely low CO-hb levels, but the absence of soot in the lower airways is a sign. But it was the presence of severe damage to the back of the victim's head that was the clincher. That kind of damage would have been clear evidence that the man was dead when the fire started, even if I didn't have any other evidence. Those injuries were fatal."
Michael nodded. "He was found in the driver's seat, though," he said. "Strapped in with a seat belt."
"That he was," Keller replied. "Amazing, considering the poor bastard was dead at the time. Whoever did this had to know that we would find evidence that he was dead before being put in the driver's seat."
"You don't think they might have expected the fire would destroy any evidence of the murder?"
"I suppose it's possible, but those kinds of injuries would be preserved even if the body was burnt even worse than it was. There was nothing in the accident itself that could have inflicted that kind of injury on the deceased, so in addition to the other forensic evidence, we know the injuries were inflicted antemortem. More than likely with a heavy blunt object like a crowbar or pipe wrench."
Keller flipped through her file for a moment and showed Michael the autopsy photos. He reviewed them, noting the drawings of the damage done to the victim's skull. He handed them back to her and she closed the file. "That's what I have. Any questions?"
Michael shook his head. "No. I think we're in agreement. Someone killed him using a blunt instrument and put him in the driver's seat. Then, they pushed the car off the road. After it struck the tree at the bottom of the embankment, they set his body on fire."
"That's exactly what I think happened."
Michael didn't say anything about it being the work of Eugene since that wasn't yet anything more than a theory. He thanked Dr. Keller and left the office, glad he'd gone to the scene and had viewed it himself.
One thing was clear: the death was a murder and the crash was staged, the fire set afterwards. Since dogs had tracked Eugene to the victim's garage, it was probably a slam-dunk.
It felt to Michael like something a freshly escaped Eugene Kincaid would do. The whole crash felt like Kincaid thumbing his nose at police and investigators.
He hoped he was wrong, but he was resigned to the fact he was more than likely right.