“Probably what they were noticing was the blood. Blood plus heat equals an odor. Kind of a metallic smell? Like a hair dryer maybe? And her blood’s going to be decomposing for sure in no time at all because of how hot it is.”

“Unless you want to swap jobs with me, Investigator Barclay, that’s another detail you really shouldn’t be discussing.” I glance back at the sound of footsteps and wheels rolling slowly along the gritty path.

“Another detail? As in more than one?” He might be flirting now. “But hell yeah. I’ll swap jobs anytime. I’ve always thought I’d be a good doctor.”

I DETECT LOW VOICES, and Rusty and Harold with all their gear and equipment are two floating lights and a shadowy caravan. I can just make them out as they enter the woods that lead to the clearing.

They wear hands-free headlamps like miners to light their way as they steer two trolleys. I don’t have to see them to know they’re loaded with a mountain of scene cases, boxes, sandbags, and the privacy barrier, which is disassembled and packed inside what looks like a stack of long black body bags. Tied down with bungee cords, the bulky dark shapes of the advancing cargo bring to mind a morbid Santa’s sleigh as it lumbers closer. I send Harold a text:

Once inside the tape, begin to unload. Will check with you in a few.

“It should take no more than twenty minutes to get all this set up,” I say to Barclay. “While this is going on Marino and I will do a walk-through, taking photos, getting an idea what we need to identify, protect and preserve before we assemble the barrier in place over the body. Once that’s done we’ll turn on the lights and I’ll examine her inside an enclosure that affords us privacy.”

“How big an area can it cover?” Barclay stares back at my transport team.

“Big enough to enclose the bike and the body,” I explain. “What we’re putting together is basically a tent. And if you’ve never been through this before, we have to take steps in a well-thought-out logical order so one procedure doesn’t mess up another.”

I watch the twins talking to Marino, and I look at the bicycle some twenty feet ahead of where I’m standing, and then the body a good ten feet beyond that. Usually when I conduct a high recon or preliminary walk-through I get the lay of the land and a good idea of what I’m dealing with. But what I’m seeing out here is a contradiction. It’s haphazard, almost quirky, as if someone staged the scene but didn’t have a clue what it should look like.