soon as she cut it open, a much stronger odor emerged.
Maggie stole a glimpse of the young deputy who had vomited earlier. What a difference an afternoon of smelling death made. He continued to watch without expression or a single gag.
Janet spread the top opening just enough to be able to look inside. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t wince. The only look on the woman’s face appeared to be one of disappointment. She eased back into a squat and let her colleagues take a peek. Then she looked to Maggie and Tully.
“I’m guessing it belongs to the victim inside the black garbage bag,” Maggie said without leaning in or coming any closer to see.
She had already felt the heft of the item and had recognizedthe smell of decomposing human flesh. A month ago in the woods behind a rest area in Virginia she and Tully had found another of this killer’s victims. Not always, but often, a killer repeated certain things, developed a pattern. The body of Zach Lester had been lying at the base of a tree, the intestines strung up through the lower branches. He had been decapitated.
She heard Tully release a sigh. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his jaw tighten. He didn’t, however, make a move forward either.
Janet dipped her right hand into the bag and gently, slowly brought up … a piece of paper. Almost in unison, several of the men expelled the breaths they had been holding. Janet handed it off to Matt, who had another evidence bag ready, but before placing it inside he took a good look at it.
He showed his colleague Ryan, and then his eyes found Maggie and Tully. “You two might want to take a look at this.”
Rather than expose the paper any further, Matt slipped it into a clear plastic ziplock bag. He pulled a marker out of his jacket pocket and popped the cap off in his mouth so he didn’t need to use the hand still holding the bag. He scrawled a date and number on the side of the bag, recapped the marker, then held the bag up for Maggie and Tully.
Maggie immediately understood why Matt didn’t want to tell them out loud what they had found. Despite not telling the construction crew and Sheriff Uniss’s men to back off or leave,
this
was information that would need to be kept quiet.
Maggie took the plastic-encased paper while Tully pushed up his glasses. It was a sales receipt, in rather good condition despite a rust-colored stain at the corner. It had been carefully placed on top of the bag’s contents to be easily found. The retail store matched the logo on the white plastic bag. The first thing Maggie noticedwas the bold type in the middle of the receipt that read: # ITEMS SOLD 1. Above, it clearly listed that item: SOCKS, $8.98.
She took no comfort in being right. The orange socks were obviously not the victim’s. They had been added later, most likely postmortem.
Maggie searched for the store’s address. There wasn’t one, but the store’s number (#1965) would tell them where it was. The manager and a phone number were also included. What surprised her was the date at the bottom of the receipt. The socks had been purchased just two weeks ago. Which meant the body had not been here as long as they had initially suspected. It also meant that it had been buried after she had received the hand-drawn map, the one that had started their scavenger hunt.
She gave Tully the receipt for his own closer inspection. She waited, watching him. In seconds he came to the same conclusion and when his eyes met hers she could see he was thinking the same thing she was.
There were definitely more bodies here.
CHAPTER 15
Ryder Creed sipped coffee from one of the three thermoses Hannah had prepared for the trip. He didn’t bother to pour it into the thermos’s cup. He had been on the road for almost eight hours now. Drinking directly out of the thermos was easier.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. Behind him, Grace sprawled on her dog bed, which took up half the back of the Jeep. Her empty kennel and their
Maggie stole a glimpse of the young deputy who had vomited earlier. What a difference an afternoon of smelling death made. He continued to watch without expression or a single gag.
Janet spread the top opening just enough to be able to look inside. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t wince. The only look on the woman’s face appeared to be one of disappointment. She eased back into a squat and let her colleagues take a peek. Then she looked to Maggie and Tully.
“I’m guessing it belongs to the victim inside the black garbage bag,” Maggie said without leaning in or coming any closer to see.
She had already felt the heft of the item and had recognizedthe smell of decomposing human flesh. A month ago in the woods behind a rest area in Virginia she and Tully had found another of this killer’s victims. Not always, but often, a killer repeated certain things, developed a pattern. The body of Zach Lester had been lying at the base of a tree, the intestines strung up through the lower branches. He had been decapitated.
She heard Tully release a sigh. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his jaw tighten. He didn’t, however, make a move forward either.
Janet dipped her right hand into the bag and gently, slowly brought up … a piece of paper. Almost in unison, several of the men expelled the breaths they had been holding. Janet handed it off to Matt, who had another evidence bag ready, but before placing it inside he took a good look at it.
He showed his colleague Ryan, and then his eyes found Maggie and Tully. “You two might want to take a look at this.”
Rather than expose the paper any further, Matt slipped it into a clear plastic ziplock bag. He pulled a marker out of his jacket pocket and popped the cap off in his mouth so he didn’t need to use the hand still holding the bag. He scrawled a date and number on the side of the bag, recapped the marker, then held the bag up for Maggie and Tully.
Maggie immediately understood why Matt didn’t want to tell them out loud what they had found. Despite not telling the construction crew and Sheriff Uniss’s men to back off or leave,
this
was information that would need to be kept quiet.
Maggie took the plastic-encased paper while Tully pushed up his glasses. It was a sales receipt, in rather good condition despite a rust-colored stain at the corner. It had been carefully placed on top of the bag’s contents to be easily found. The retail store matched the logo on the white plastic bag. The first thing Maggie noticedwas the bold type in the middle of the receipt that read: # ITEMS SOLD 1. Above, it clearly listed that item: SOCKS, $8.98.
She took no comfort in being right. The orange socks were obviously not the victim’s. They had been added later, most likely postmortem.
Maggie searched for the store’s address. There wasn’t one, but the store’s number (#1965) would tell them where it was. The manager and a phone number were also included. What surprised her was the date at the bottom of the receipt. The socks had been purchased just two weeks ago. Which meant the body had not been here as long as they had initially suspected. It also meant that it had been buried after she had received the hand-drawn map, the one that had started their scavenger hunt.
She gave Tully the receipt for his own closer inspection. She waited, watching him. In seconds he came to the same conclusion and when his eyes met hers she could see he was thinking the same thing she was.
There were definitely more bodies here.
CHAPTER 15
Ryder Creed sipped coffee from one of the three thermoses Hannah had prepared for the trip. He didn’t bother to pour it into the thermos’s cup. He had been on the road for almost eight hours now. Drinking directly out of the thermos was easier.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. Behind him, Grace sprawled on her dog bed, which took up half the back of the Jeep. Her empty kennel and their
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