John’s wood-paneled study was on the ground floor. As Gannon stopped before the glass of its French door, he saw inside that all the wooden blinds were down and there was only a single lamp on at the desk where Barber sat hunched at his computer.
“John?” Gannon said, tapping at the glass as he came in.
“Hey, Mike. Thanks for coming,” Barber said, standing up from the swivel chair.
“Sorry about your mom,” Gannon said, patting him on the shoulder. “Lynn filled me in.”
“Thanks, buddy,” Barber said as they shook. “She’s been sick for a while, but I guess losing Owen is just overwhelming.”
Barber brought them to the office’s left-hand corner where there were a couple of leather chairs. When Gannon was seated in one of them, Barber went over and closed the French door and came back and sat.
Between the chairs was a leather ottoman and from the top of it, Barber lifted a slim black iPhone.
“This is what I just got in the mail,” he said, holding up the phone. “My brother’s buddy, Don, just shipped it down from Wyoming along with some other effects Owen had at work. Because Owen was out of contact so much, he had a work knapsack he kept in his truck with first aid and survival stuff along with a pair of spare boots. This phone was stuffed down inside of one of the boots.”
“Is that right?”
“Let me show you something I came across after I recharged it,” Barber said, thumbing at it.
“You know Owen’s password?” Gannon said.
“No, but I guessed it pretty quick.”
Gannon smiled.
“Let me guess. His old girlfriend’s birthday?”
Barber smiled back.
“No. Close. Momma’s.”
He thumbed some more buttons and handed the phone over to Gannon.
“Now check this out,” Barber said.
It was outdoor footage. Raw gray rocks and mountains in the distance.
“Grand Teton?” Gannon said.
“Yep, watch.”
The camera was descending a steep trail and then the view showed a flat sort of clearing. The camera blurred as it zeroed in on something. Then there was a shot of a foot between some rocks. Pale and delicate. It looked like it belonged to a young woman.
“This is from the crime scene?” Gannon said. “This the body Owen found? The serial killer’s victim?”
Barber nodded.
“Owen had a work phone that they took into evidence, but it looks like when he found the body by himself, he actually recorded his first walk-through with his private phone and must have stuffed it into his boot. Brace yourself for this next part.”
The camera came in closer. The footage showed a naked woman. She was small, about thirty. Her head was turned to the side. There were blood splotches and splatter marks on the rocks all around her. As the camera focused in closer, it looked like there were bite marks in her neck and back.
The camera zoomed in on the half-turned blood-splattered face. Gannon looked at her wide-open shocked eyes. She was an Asian woman.
“Man, this is sick,” Gannon said. “Look at the wounds. This crazy NATPARK son of a bitch must have bitten her to death or something. Then just threw her away like a bag of garbage.”
“I know,” Barber said. “That’s what I thought, too. It looks like she was attacked by zombies.”
Gannon was still staring at the real-life horror movie footage when there was a knock on the glass of the French door.
“Hey, hon. What’s up?” Barber said as his wife stuck her head in.
“We’re not expecting that group from Phoenix until next week, right?” Lynn said.
“Right. Why?”
“The driveway perimeter alarm by the road just went off,” Lynn said.