Don’t Look Behind You

She left it draped on the table and dialed the King County Police Department.
    Patrol Deputy Jess Hill responded to the call. He agreed that the sodden coat in almost new condition was, indeed, a peculiar discovery. It wouldn’t have taken much mending of the torn lining to fix it, and it looked expensive.
    While Hill was talking to the young woman, a teenage boy who lived with his parents in the Echo Lake Motel, which was several hundred yards from the lake’s edge, made an even more ominous discovery. Attracted by the popping of firecrackers near the lake, he had wandered down the path that was an easement for motel visitors to reach the beach. He’d stopped for a few moments in a grassy clearing to watch a father and his three youngsters as they lit firecrackers. Then the boy headed toward the lake.
    He was surprised to find some things on the ground directly ahead of him that didn’t belong there. There was a woman’s black purse—its contents scattered all over the grass. There was an address book, papers, cosmetics, and a checkbook in addition to the myriad items most women carry in their handbags. There was also a bra, a ring, and a broken necklace.
    Near the purse, the grass itself appeared to be soaked in a wide pool of thickening blood that was at least three feet long and two feet wide.
    The teenager backed away and ran to tell the man he had seen setting off firecrackers. Warning his own youngsters to stay back, the man walked to the bloodstained area. He, too, viewed the scattered possessions, noting there was a bloodstained card from Seattle Children’s Hospital and a pack of Kool cigarettes, its label almost obliterated with drying blood.
    He stepped to the shallows where he stared with apprehension into the weed-choked water. A pair of red hot pants and a single nylon stocking floated lazily near the shore.
    “You stay here,” he told the boy. “Don’t let anyone down here. I’m calling the sheriff.”
    Detective Sergeant Bob Schmitz and Deputy Ben Colwell of the sheriff’s north precinct sped to the Echo Lake address. They found Deputy Jess Hill already at the lake, and he had just learned from the radio dispatcher about the newest clothing discoveries that had been found just around an outjutting section of the shoreline.
    The torn jacket and the hot pants and single stocking had probably been thrown in the lake at the same spot and then drifted apart with the tide.
    Whatever had happened here at the now-serene lakeside didn’t look good. Detectives Dan Nolan and James McGonagle soon arrived to join in figuring out the mystery at Echo Lake.
    Viewing the blood-soaked patch of grass and the jumble of feminine paraphernalia on the ground, the detectivecrew had little doubt that someone had been grievously injured on the spot—if not killed.
    They hoped that the woman—clearly it
was
a female—who had bled this much might have been rushed to a hospital by someone who had witnessed an accident or even a fight.
    Already a group of curious bystanders had been drawn to the scene when they saw the ever-increasing number of squad cars parked on the road above. The investigators immediately cordoned off the lakeshore before anyone could edge too close and trample what could be vital physical evidence.
    The sheriff’s detectives stepped out on a dock adjoining the beach area. Despite the weeds, the water near shore was relatively clear and they could see not only the hot pants and stocking the teenager had discovered but several other items that did not belong in the lake: a multicolored change purse, a lipstick case, and a small plastic-bound case. There was, however, no sign of any victim of an attack that had surely taken place.
    The woman who had shed so much blood had either managed to escape, naked, or she was in the lake floating silently just beyond the scope of their vision.
    The detectives on the scene asked the police radio dispatcher to contact sheriff’s divers George Zimmerman and Joseph Dollinger. The expert swimmers cut short their own Fourth of July celebrations with their families at once and drove to Echo Lake.
    They arrived about 6:30 p.m., entered the water, and began to swim slowly side by side out into increasinglydeeper water. The detectives waited tensely on shore as the silent search was carried out.
    It only took ten minutes before Deputy Zimmerman suddenly dove toward the bottom and surfaced holding the body of a woman. He had spotted her lying facedown on the