WILD [JENLISA]

26

"It's feces."

Jennie  set down her pen, blinking, and looked up at Kai towering over her desk. From the excitement on his face, she knew he was talking about the substance from the mysterious photograph left on her doorstep. She'd speculated about a number of different possibilities for the results of Kai's analysis over the past couple of days, but she could honestly say that excrement wasn't one of them.

"Seriously?"

"Oh, yes. Not human." He bounced on the balls of his feet, clearly thrilled by whatever he had to share. He always seemed to get the biggest charge out of the most disgusting things.

"Well, that's... gross. Do we think he planted it there on purpose, or did the killer's dog just decide to relieve itself on his masterpiece?"

"It's not canine, and I'd say he definitely left it there on purpose." Kai paused, probably for dramatic effect, but Jennie didn't take the bait and ask. Sighing, he said, "I find it very unlikely that our suspect managed to accidentally smear bison dung on his message."

Jennie's awareness of time slowed even as her heartbeat thundered into overdrive. She knew where he was leading them. "Bison. He's sending us back to Golden Gate Park."

"That's a very reasonable assumption."

Bison had resided in the park since 1891, and the buffalo paddock in the western section was created in 1899 to house the growing herd.

As a child, Jennie had visited the paddock several times with her parents, and the incongruity of such giant, wild creatures living peacefully in the middle of one of the largest cities in California had always intrigued her.

The presence of bison dung in that envelope was a message so obvious, Jennie cursed that it had taken them so long to identify the substance. "I'll call Irene. We need to canvass the area inside and around the paddock to see what we can find."

Jennie dreaded the possibility that they were looking for a body, but her gut told her that was exactly what they'd find. Unfortunately the photo analysis hadn't given them anything to go on, so they'd had to spend the time required to scientifically analyze the evidence. That the killer had apparently given them such a clear, distinct direction that they'd been so slow to recognize was frustrating, to say the least.

"Are you going with her to the scene?" Kai asked. They didn't often join the police in the field, especially when a body hadn't surfaced yet. Still, Jennie couldn't imagine staying behind in the lab for this one.

"I am." Jennie picked up her desk phone. "I'll be back soon, hopefully."

"I'll cross my fingers that you don't bring a body with you."

"That's a change." Kai wasn't cold-hearted, but his love for his work sometimes outweighed his sympathy for the people his cadavers had once been. Truthfully, it was probably part of the reason he was so good at his job. He never let emotion get in the way of logic and scientific fact.

"Tell me about it." Shifting uncomfortably, he looked almost painfully sincere as he said, "I know how you'll feel if we didn't find her in time. Just remember that it's not your fault, okay? Even if we are too late."

Jennie gave him a weak nod. "I know. It's his fault."

If only it were that simple.

***

They found the body only fifteen minutes into their search. With twelve men and women sweeping the area in and around the bison paddock, it didn't take long to discover the naked corpse of a female in her mid thirties stashed among the trees near the corner of Chain of Lakes and John F. Kennedy Drive. The killer had slaughtered her in an area that probably didn't get much foot traffic and was out of view of the well-traveled roads nearby, but was still near enough to civilization that Jennie was struck once again by his sheer nerve.