The medical examiner, Robert Lisicky, scans the victim silently for several minutes before pushing at the nose of his wire-rimmed glasses with a gloved hand. “Caucasian from the hair. Here a few months, I’m guessing, based on the state of the body. But let’s seal this up. We’ve got to get the car to an enclosed space so you don’t lose evidence. Can you bring in a flatbed?”

“Sure thing,” Denny says, and peels away to make the call. One of his deputies steps back as if to follow him, and then rushes toward the woods, where he heaves and then vomits.

I glance at Will, wondering how he’s managing. He’s a professional, but even so, this will be new for him. And men always seem to have a more difficult time compartmentalizing at these times than women, I’ve found. Women are stronger because they have to be.

I watch him wobble a little next to me and then right himself again as Lisicky takes two baby food jars out of his pocket and carefully collects specimens from the blossom of bugs on the body. An entomologist will be able to help us determine how long she’s been here, hopefully. The autopsy report will too. For now, the trunk is dusted for fingerprints and then sealed with crime scene tape, and the car is photographed from every angle.

One strange thing is that the fire didn’t spread beyond a large scorched ring surrounding the car. It doesn’t make sense. Summer is the dry season up here. The flames should have taken acres if not more, half the damned park, but they didn’t.

Will has noticed too. He points to the bald, blackened vegetation under the wreckage and then above to the tree line. “If this guy’s an amateur he got lucky.”

“Maybe he knew exactly what he was doing,” Denny says, chiming in. “He could be a ranger, couldn’t he?”

“Shannan didn’t have any reason to be in these woods,” I add. “She wasn’t camping, she was carjacked and then lured here. Her killer’s familiar with these roads. He knew the car wouldn’t be found right away.”

“We’ll start running a list of park personnel through the database to see if there’s anyone who looks right for this,” Denny says. “Usually the Forest Service does a thorough background check before hiring, but I don’t know. Somehow he was able to stop the blaze from spreading after setting it. That’s not easy unless the weather turned.”

“I don’t remember rain up here in early June,” Will says. “But we’ll confirm with the National Climatic Data Center right away.”