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murder scene has not been heavily contaminated.
    The problem with this particular crime scene was that it had been.
    All criminologists will agree a crime scene begins to deteriorate the moment a person enters it—just the very act of examining a crime scene damages the scene. And the more people who enter it, the more damage is done and the greater the potential for an irrevocable error.
    The MBPD crime scene technicians didn’t have the luxury of working an undisturbed crime scene. The biggest obstacle they had to overcome was there had already been half-a-dozen people or so who had entered the murder scene. It wasn’t that the damage done to the crime scene had been committed out of ignorance or lack of training, but all with good intentions. Brent Poole was still alive when EMS responders arrived and granted it was more important to try and save his life than worry about preserving the crime scene. Crime scene technicians would have to determine what was trace evidence and what had been brought in or taken out by the emergency responders. Any of their trace evidence could have been deposited or taken away by any of the responders at any time. The technicians knew from the very beginning how easy it could be for them to make a mistake and have it come back to haunt them at a later date.
    One advantage to the crime scene, however, was that the murder had been committed in a public place. Since the beach was a public place and there was a fair amount of traffic in and around that location, the odds were in the police’s favor they’d find witnesses who had observed what had occurred. Witnesses are always easier to find and talk to during the embryonic stages of investigation, and their memories are generally more accurate and susceptible to recall soon after the crime has occurred. Collecting verbal evidence from witnesses was as vital to solving this crime as collecting the physical evidence.
    The MBPD would be diligently searching for any clues that would lead to a suspect and help solve this case. Using high-intensity lights, they would be required to spend the majority of their time on their hands and knees sifting through the sand and closely examining the ground around them. In general, they’d hoped the evidence collected that early morning would tell them not only what the killer left behind, but what he left that shouldn’t have been and what wasn’t there that ought to be.
    Supervising officer Aiossa began collecting a few of the fifty-five-gallon drums that were being used as garbage cans and taped off a fifteen-by-fifteen perimeter around the crime scene. While the others were taking care of the crime scene, he walked back to where the six people whose cars had been blocked, and now were sitting at the Eighty-second beach access, waited to be interviewed. The frustrated bystanders told him in colorful language they didn’t recall seeing anyone coming out or going on the beach or any vehicles leaving suddenly, but thought they had heard something that sounded like fireworks on the beach.
    While the crime scene technicians waited to work the murder scene, the Horry County tracker and his dogs continued to work the area around the beach access and in the dunes in hopes the dogs would be able to pick up the scent of the killer. There was also a very narrow window of opportunity for the tracker’s hounds to locate and capture the perpetrator, but they would utilize any and all attempts.
    Perhaps, the tracker shrugged to the officers standing nearby, this just might be our lucky night . If this mysterious killer—this man dressed in black—was somewhere in the area, he wanted to make sure the dogs found him and put him away before he killed again.
    â€œYou guys continue to keep a close watch out for the killer,” Corporal Kalkwarf admonished his men. “We’ve already got one innocent victim dead, we don’t want to make it two.”

CHAPTER 6
    Renee