The wind rustled the leaves and an owl let out a its eerie cry. The young woman shivered as the cold night’s breath brushed against her skin and again at the sound of a raven cawing. An owl she could understand but not a raven at this late hour. The young woman cut through the park to the dimly lit sidewalk. She was running in a mad dash to catch the last bus ride of the evening to the college dorms, but she never reached the safe haven of the bus stop. Everything was silent before the gurgling scream ripped through the air.

Gavinmire was a quiet town with a population numbering just over fifteen hundred. There was a small college campus in the center of the town and most of the town’s activity was centered around the students. Despite that, nobody was a stranger to the residents and students. The extent of criminal activity within Gavinmire’s city limits consisted of petty crime. So why, Detective Stephanie Hughes wondered, was she being called at just after five in the morning when her shift didn’t start for another three hours? Maybe they were being requested by the chief of another police station in one of the big cities an hour or so away.

Stephanie rushed to answer her cell phone in hopes that it wasn’t something that would require her to leave right away. “Detective Hughes speaking,” she spoke in the most polite voice she could muster. She was not a morning person.

“Stephanie dearie,” Carmen Thompson’s voice was apologetic, but she could hear some urgency there. “There’s been a murder in the Aspen Street Park. The chief needs you there as soon as possible.”

“Did he give you any details?” Stephanie asked as she grabbed her uniform from the closet.

“Not many, just that I was to call you and Hale immediately and that the victim appears to be a college student,” Carmen sighed. “I’ll let you go so you can get moving.”

“Thank you, Carmen,” Stephanie murmured before the phone went dead. Stephanie rushed through her apartment to get cleaned up and dressed. She opened her door just as Hale was about to knock. He was wearing his uniform as well.

“Ready?” her partner asked. Detective Hale Simmons was her partner at the station and best friend off the job.

“Yeah,” Stephanie frowned. “What’s your take on the situation?”

Hale remained quiet until they made it to the car. “I’m not sure. We don’t get murders out here. This situation could escalate. When the chief told Carmen that the victim appears to be a college student, I assume there’s a reason. I mean, the victim is either a college student or not so why would he say that? If he knew for sure he would have just said. Isiah doesn’t beat around the bush like that. I guess we’ll see when we get there.”

Stephanie had noticed that too. It worried her. “Do you know if the medical examiner has been called yet? We’re going to need a cause of death.”

“I assume she’s been called too, but I wasn’t able to get anything from Carmen,” Hale frowned.

When they arrived at the scene, Stephanie narrowed her eyes. The other officers had established a wide perimeter around the park. Most of the officers were focused on maintaining the barrier, and a few were with the medical examiner. The rest were redirecting traffic away from the park. Even the bus stop on the North side of the park was blocked off. Stephanie was out of the car before Hale was fully parked. He let out a startled noise but immediately shut his mouth. She ignored it as she headed for one of the officers maintaining the perimeter.

She took in the grim look of one of the officers as he let her pass. Stephanie headed down the small hill to the small gathering of officers with the medical examiner. When she saw the haunted eyes of her comrades, she realized that this was not their average case. Most of them had gone to the police academy in the big cities where crime was rampant. Some had training officers in the homicide divisions before transferring to Gavinmire. “Detectives,” the medical examiner said grimly. She was pale as a sheet as she greeted Stephanie and Hale.

“What do we have?” Hale said gruffly.

“Might want to brace yourself. I don’t know if I can give you a definitive cause of death until we’re sure we have everything. The victim was dismembered, and we still have some officers looking for a few parts that might have gotten carried away in the rainstorm this morning. I doubt we’ll get much in the way of forensics, but I’m hoping we’ll find the rest of the body soon.”

Stephanie’s stomach sank. This was why Chief Thompson had said that the victim appeared to be a college student. “Show us,” Stephanie said quickly.

The medical examiner’s assistant pulled the sheet away from the body carefully. Stephanie took note of all the details she could before the sheet was replaced. The photographs of the scene as it was discovered would be on her desk when she got back to the office, but some details could be lost in translation. It seemed that the medical examiner was right. The rain had likely washed away whatever forensics they could hope to gather from the young woman’s clothes. “Why do we think the victim is a college victim?”

“This student ID was found near the body, but it could have just as easily washed here in the storm,” an officer responded immediately, handing her one of the evidence bags containing a card.

“Detective Hale and I will go to the college after this and see if the student has been seen today. At the very least we need to determine if the student is the victim or a potential witness.”

Another officer noted the evidence changing hands before nodding. “Do any of the businesses across from the bus station have a view of the park?” Hale asked.

“I’ve already checked. None of them have security cameras facing the park, and none of the business owners or employees working yesterday noticed anything strange,” the first officer responded.

“Hale, let’s give the rest of the park a quick look before we head over to the college. Call the dean so he has some time to clear his schedule,” Stephanie sighed.

Hale nodded and dialed a number on his cell. He didn’t give any details, just that they needed to speak to the dean about a crime and the potential involvement of a student. Stephanie started heading for the more wooded areas of the park, hoping to find something to help identify the poor woman. The name on the student ID read Kaylie Summers. She hoped that Miss Summers was a witness and not the victim. They would tell the dean they needed to speak to her if she had been seen this morning. Most of the classes wouldn’t start for another hour, but there were still study groups, dorm rooms, counseling offices, as well as doctor’s offices. Hopefully she had been seen today.

Stephanie had walked this park several times, but now the air felt different against her skin. “Do we know who found the body?” she asked after a few moments.

“The officer at the perimeter told me that it was a local. The chief is questioning him personally, but he doesn’t appear to be a suspect. He goes for a jog through the park every morning at five, lives a couple blocks away. Once we have a time of death, we’ll confirm if he has an alibi. The chief will put an officer on him until we clear him.”

“Good,” Stephanie frowned as she noticed a large black feather stuck to the wet grass. “Weird,” she wrinkled up her brow.

“What?” Hale asked.

“I didn’t know that we had ravens out here in Gavinmire,” she said gesturing to the feather.

“It’s just a feather,” Hale sighed. “It could have come from anywhere.”

“True,” Stephanie was about to write off the concern when she saw something else near the feather. “Hale,” she said louder to alert him.

“What?” he sounded startled and she took a tentative look around the massive tree trunk blocking her view.

“Call the medical examiner and an officer here,” she backed away from the arm. This one had the fingers intact. Hopefully they could get a print to see if the victim was in the system for any reason.

Hale nodded, and did as she said without question and tried to get a look at what she found without leaving the path. His eyes widened like saucers when he saw the arm.

After ten minutes of the medical examiner looking at the arm she spoke, “We’ll have to wait to pull the print until I get back to the lab. This arm looks better preserved than the rest of the body so it’s possible that it might have been carried here by the killer. It is better sheltered from the rain, but it is just as likely that it washed away here.”

“Call us with the results if we haven’t been by already,” Stephanie frowned. “Log the feather as well. It probably isn’t related, but if the killer brought the arm here, they might have left the feather as part of a signature. This killing feels like a serial.”

The officer and the medical examiner nodded grimly. Stephanie and Hale didn’t see anything else noteworthy in their search of the park. “Are you going to check the directory of open cases when we get back to the office?” Hale asked.

“Yeah, unless you want to,” Stephanie grimaced.

“How about not?” Hale grumbled. She didn’t doubt that there would be other murder cases where dismemberment was a signature, but she didn’t want to think about how many criminals did that. From what she understood, those were usually drug war related deaths. She hoped a gang hadn’t extended its territory into Gavinmire. That being said, the killer wasn’t likely to be a local. She didn’t see it being a student or professor, but she couldn’t discount anything yet, especially without a cause of death or a clear identity on the victim.

“I’ll handle it,” Stephanie sighed as they reached the car and started towards the campus.

They remained quiet as they drove to the college. It wasn’t until they parked that Hale asked, “How do we want to approach this?”

“Tell him that we need access to any information about Kaylie Summers. With any luck, she might be staying in the dorms and we can catch her before she goes to class.”

“Yeah,” Hale didn’t sound hopeful and she understood. They had both seen the body. It had been that of a young woman, but without a face, they couldn’t confirm if the victim was indeed Kaylie Summer. Even the fingerprint analysis might not turn out any results.

“The dean has told me to send you to his office immediately,” an older woman said from her desk next to the entryway of the waiting room.

Stephanie nodded and walked into the room ahead of Hale. “What brings you two fine detectives here?” the dean greeted them with a firm handshake.

“We need access to any information you have on one of your students, Kaylie Summers. Her student ID was found near the scene of a crime,” Hale was quick to reply.

“Right,” the dean nodded before sitting down and typing a few things into his computer. “I’ll print out what I have. She hasn’t used any of our medical or counseling services, but I would need a court order to give you that information anyways. No disciplinary records, good academic standing, and it seems she is a member of a few small college organizations. She’s staying in the dorms, so you might be able to catch her before her first class.”

The dean passed the documents over to Stephanie, and she gave them a cursory glance for any important information. “Has there been any incidents reported relating to Miss Summers?”

“No. Is she in some kind of trouble?” the dean sounded worried.

“We can’t comment at this time,” Hale replied quickly.

Understanding reached the dean’s face. The only reason why they would be silent is if this was an active case, which it was. Stephanie hoped that the student ID was only present at the scene by chance, or that she was a witness and not the unidentified victim.