“You mean from cupping her mouth?” Robby asked.
“Exactly.”
“Let’s check.” Abbott gently parted the lips and rolled the upper portion into position. Shined her light. “Yup.”
“Okay, so he confronts her face on,” Vail said.
“So he might’ve known her,” Robby said, “or sweet-talked her, to get close enough.”
Vail nodded. “Reasonable conclusion.”
“So what do you think is going on?” Owens asked.
“Hard to say,” Vail said. “Not enough information to formulate an opinion.”
“Best guess?”
Vail looked back at the body. She understood the desire of cops to know what she was thinking, but she also hated being pressured into drawing conclusions before there was enough information to make an accurate assessment.
But it did give her the opportunity to ask a question for which she still wanted an answer. “Have there been other murders like this one?”
“If there was a woman murdered with her breasts cut off, even you would probably have heard about it, all the way at Quantico. You gotta realize we don’t have many murders here. About two a year. That’s it. Been that way far back as I can remember.”
Vail looked over at Robby through the window. “And you think Vienna is quiet.” To Owens: “Sheriff, right now, all I can say is the guy is likely intelligent, organized, and confident. More than that will have to wait.” Vail turned to Abbott. “Thanks for the look. Technically, I guess, I wasn’t here.”
She found her way back down the hall to the conference room and pushed through the door. She pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to Owens. “If you find anything else we should know about, would you give me a call?”
Owens took the card. “Sure thing. But . . . and I probably should’ve asked this up front . . . how are you involved with this case?”
Robby cleared his throat. “We’re not.”
“But we found the body in the cave,” Vail said. “We secured the scene until Lieutenant Brix could get there.”
“Redd Brix?”
Robby said, “Yeah, know him?”
“Not many people in this town don’t know Redd.”
“He doesn’t seem to be too cooperative,” Robby said.
“He doesn’t like outsiders looking over his shoulder. Can’t say I blame him.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Vail said, “but a killing like this could be a big problem. And with only two murders a year, you guys may not be . . . equipped to handle this type of thing. Nothing to be ashamed about, it’s just a matter of getting some help from someone who’s been down this path before.”
“Tell you the truth, if it was up to me, I’d give your ASAC a ring and get you hooked up here. But I have to tread carefully. Don’t wanna step on toes. You know what I’m saying.”
“I do, but—”
Owens held up a hand. “Let me do my thing behind the scenes. Be patient. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.”
Robby dropped her at the spa and had the next few hours to himself. When he returned to pick up Vail, she walked into the glass enclosed lobby by the front desk with her hair back in a headband and a smile on her face.
“Good time?”
“If I closed my eyes, I could sleep for hours.”
He carried her duffle to the car and tossed it into the back seat. “So how was the mud bath?”
“Interesting. I mean, I’m lying there, totally relaxed, then I realized that I’m lying in a pile of warm cow shit. And I paid a lot of money for it.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Once I got the thought out of my mind, it was very soothing. Not as relaxing as the massage. I had this hunk named Pedro, and he had these really strong hands—”
“Do I want to hear this?” Robby asked.
“Apparently not.” She looked over at him and grinned. “Jealous?”
Before Robby could answer, Vail’s phone started ringing. She reached into the rear seat and fished it out of the duffel. “Karen Vail.”
“Yeah, this is Stan, Stan Owens.”
“Stan . . . you got something for us?”
“Sort of. I had a chat with Redd Brix. I think you should go and talk to him, see if you can get him to request the BAU’s involvement.”
“You think he’ll go for it?”
“I softened him up for you, told him about my experience with the National Academy. He did a lot of listening, didn’t say much. Thanked me for the call.”
“Well, thanks, Stan. We’ll go chat with him right now. Any idea where he is?”
“Matter of fact, yes. It’s his day off. He’s at a buddy’s house digging out an old wine cave.”
“Digging out an old wine cave? Is that like spelunking?”
“Not sure what that is, but that cave is legendary stuff here in the valley. A hundred years ago there was an earthquake that caused a cave-in at one of the premiere wineries in the region. Black Knoll Vineyards, been around since 1861. Legend is that there were some special bottles in that cave, and when the earthquake hit, they were buried alive, so to speak. Some old geezer convinced his neighbor he knew where the cave was located, and it happens to be on land belonging to Brix’s friend.”
Vail took down the address, thanked him, and plugged it into their GPS.
“You don’t really want to go there now,” Robby said. “You’re oiled, massaged, and relaxed. Let’s go shower, get dressed, have a nice dinner—”
“Proceed to the highlighted route,” Stella’s GPS voice announced.
Vail shrugged. “You heard the lady.”
Vail compared the address to her notes and said, “Indeed we have.”
Robby nodded at the portable electronic device in Vail’s hands. “You like that thing, don’t you?”
“She’s grown on me.” Seeing Robby’s twisted mouth, she said, “What, don’t tell me you’re intimidated by a female voice telling you where to go.”
“You tell me where to go all the time.”
“Exactly. Turn right.” Vail thumbed a hand at the signpost. The numbers were lettered in block gold leaf on the label of a magnum wine bottle in the hands of a large statue of a waiter dressed in a tuxedo.
“Something tells me this is going to be interesting,” Robby said as he swung the Murano onto the driveway.
They drove a hundred feet before they came to an electric gate, which sat splayed open. To the right was a well-maintained mushroom-colored guard shack, which stood empty.
“Guess we just let ourselves in,” Vail said.
Just past the small security shed was a cutout in the fine gravel and compacted dirt that lined the paved
