Sinclair said YPD was doing all the obvious things, including checking for her car, talking to people in her classes, and looking at the video footage from the security cameras on campus.
“But if she stopped for gas, or at some fast food place, she could have met up with anyone,” Sinclair said. “I’ve got a gut feeling that this is the work of our guy. I hope she phones her sister and tells her she decided to go with a classmate to the Tri-Cities to visit a sick grandma or something. But my guess is it isn’t going to happen.”
McCain, unfortunately, agreed.
“Well, there’s not much I can do to help in town,” McCain said. “If it is the killer, he’s going to take the body to the mountains. I know it’s a needle in a haystack, but once I get done with some of this paperwork, I’m thinking about heading up that way.”
“Okay, well I definitely appreciate your help. Holler if you think of anything else.”
When McCain hung up the phone, he tried to turn his attention back to his computer and the four more reports that needed to be filed, but he couldn’t concentrate. There were nearly a million acres of public land in the Cascades, a bunch of it in Yakima County. Where would he begin?
He started thinking it through. Yes, there were hundreds of square miles in the mountains of Central Washington, but only a small portion of that was accessible by roads. And, even though the killer seemed to show an almost superhuman ability to get the dead bodies away from the roads, the farthest any body had been found was the last one, the woman from Enumclaw. Her remains had been found a little over two miles off the road. That helped narrow the search a little. Still, that left who-knows-how-many hundreds of miles of old logging roads, Forest Service roads, and other two-tracks to try to cover.
McCain also thought about where the three other bodies had been found. One had been located off Highway 12, and the other two most likely were accessed via Highway 410. Earlier, both he and Sinclair had wondered why the woman who went missing last Halloween in Enumclaw had been transported all the way around Mount Rainier and was dumped off White Pass.
Then McCain remembered that sometime in late October, Chinook Pass had been closed for a couple weeks due to a big rock slide up by Government Meadows. Several elk hunters from the west side of the Cascades were ticked off because they had to drive all the way around on I-90 and I-82 to Yakima, and back up to their camps off Highway 410. Or, they had to go around Mt. Rainier and up over White Pass, and down to the “Y”.
He wondered if the killer would have dropped the body somewhere off 410 had he had the chance, but because of the slide he decided to take one of the trails up the mountain off Highway 12 to save time. Maybe the killer had to be at work, or somewhere else where he’d be missed, and decided to just get rid of the body.
McCain also thought about how he would dispose of a body if it were him. He decided he would do it at night, and he would do it on a night when there was little or no moon. He looked at his phone. Tonight called for a new moon, which meant it was the darkest night of the month.
He wondered what the moons were on the nights the other women disappeared. He googled “Moon Phases” and studied a new moon chart.
“Holy crap,” he said aloud.
Within a day, the dates the three other women had gone missing aligned with a new moon. He’d definitely share that with Sinclair the next time they spoke. He was only on duty until five, so he figured he’d finish his work day by running up the Yakima River to check on a few fly fishermen until it was time to knock off.
After his shift ended McCain ran home, changed clothes, grabbed Jack, jumped in his Toyota Tundra and headed up the highway toward Chinook Pass. It was his guess that the killer was dumping the bodies up there because he was familiar with the territory. He was probably a hunter, or a hiker, and knew the mountain roads and where they went.
Back in the day, before the logging on Forest Service lands slowed, the timber companies cut roads in all over the Cascades. Most connected with Forest Service roads, but others would go for a ways and then dead end at an old burned-up slash pile. If you didn’t know the roads, especially in the darkest of nights, you could easily end up on a dead-end road. Not a good idea if you had a dead body in the back seat and needed to get away in a hurry.
Chapter 15
McCain ran up Highway 410 about fifteen miles and turned right onto Bald Mountain Road, an arterial that led up to several different Forest Service roads, including a couple that dropped back down into the Wenas. While it certainly wasn’t the only road off the highway up into the mountains, McCain thought it was the most popular because it was in the best shape. He’d seen sedans and SUVs up the road plenty of times, including some sheep hunters who were up there on Cleman Mountain in a BMW sedan of all things.
He drove up the gravel road a ways, found a good turn out, and pulled over to eat the sandwich he’d packed for supper. He hopped out, let Jack out, went to the back of the truck, dropped the tailgate and jumped up to
