Chapter 26
Giovanni slid into the passenger seat of my car with a travel mug in one hand and his phone in the other. As we drove, we talked about the conversation I’d just had with Logan’s parents, and he was pleased to hear the conversation went as well as it could have.
The forest seemed to swallow sound the closer we got to the cabin, the road narrowing until we reached a wide expanse, and what remained of the cabin came into view.
The area looked nothing like it had the day before.
The cabin was now demolished, and yellow tape marked a wide perimeter.
Stakes and string were crisscrossed across the ground in careful squares, turning the clearing into a patchwork map.
The forensics team and a couple of members of the police department were working inside the grid. They wore gloves and kneepads as they crouched close to the earth, moving around with deliberate care.
Silas was easy to spot. He stood near the center of the grid, his clipboard tucked against his chest, directing the team with calm precision.
They weren’t shoveling. They were coaxing the ground open, inch by inch, using trowels and soft brushes to lift thin layers of soil without disturbing what might be hidden beneath.
“Silas is a lot more organized than I realized,” Giovanni said.
“He knows how important it is to go over every inch of this place,” I replied.
We got out of the car and walked toward the edge of the grid, careful not to step into any area that might disturb the ground. Foley spotted us first. He lifted a hand and came over. Whitlock was close behind, his tie already loosened, jacket slung over one shoulder.
“Morning,” Foley said. “You picked a good time to show up. We’re just getting into the second layer.”
“Find anything yet?” I asked.
“A couple of pieces of vertebrae,” Foley said. “That’s it.”
Whitlock smiled at Giovanni. “You bring coffee? It’s going to be a long day.”
Giovanni held up his mug. “I came prepared.”
I filled them in on what had happened since we last spoke. Not every detail, just the pieces that mattered the most in this moment.
Logan.
The note.
The reason he ran.
And the reason he was now under our roof.
Foley and Whitlock listened, nodding along until I’d finished.
“That explains a lot,” Foley said.
“Now we know why he ran,” Whitlock added. “Can’t say I blame the kid.”
Foley glanced toward the grid. “Let’s hope we find something today.”
“Oh, we have something for you.” I reached into my bag, pulled out the plastic bag Logan had given me the night before, and held it out. “When Logan got to Lost Prairie, he found this under a rock pile.”
“How’d he know to look for it there?”
“Two things. First, not long before she died, Audrey made a comment about Lost Prairie being a place secrets go to hide. And second, they’d been there together before and built a stacked rock pile. When Logan arrived there, he noticed the shape of the pile had been changed. This was under it.”
Foley took the bag, craning his head as he glanced inside to get a better assessment. “Looks like a piece of bone to me.”
“I think it’s a part of a pelvis,” I said.
Foley nodded and turned, shouting for Silas to join us.
Silas came over, and Foley handed him the bag. Silas opened it and lifted the fragment, turning it in his hand. I told him how it had been found, and he said, “You’re right. It does look like a pelvic fragment.”
“Let’s say it is, can you tell whether it’s male or female?” Whitlock asked.
Silas pointed to the curve in the bone. “A female pelvis tends to be wider and rounder. Oval inlet. Lighter structure. This fits that profile.”
“Could it be another piece of skeletal remains belonging to the same person?”
“Might be. I’ll take it back for testing.”
He placed it back into the bag with care and tucked it away. Then he gave the four of us a nod and headed back to the grid.
The hours passed, and we waited.
As the sun climbed higher, the team worked together, lifting soil, brushing dirt away, and marking each find with flags and notes.
Giovanni and I took turns pacing the perimeter.
As boredom set in, Whitlock told a story about a case he’d had two decades ago.
The case had gone nowhere until an old key surfaced from the ground, a key that changed everything.
It gave me hope.
Late in the afternoon, Silas called us over, saying they’d found something.
We gathered near the grid as two small fragments were lifted free. More vertebrae from the looks of it.
Silas studied the finds and shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?” I asked.
“The vertebrae we’ve dug up today should have all been together, but they were not.
I’m thinking …” he said, rubbing his chin.
“I’m thinking the site has been disturbed.
I believe someone may have buried a body here at one time.
Then they came back later and moved it. Except when they did, they missed a few pieces. ”
“Why move it?” Whitlock asked.
“Fear of the skeletal remains being found,” I said. “Or guilt. Or both.”
Silas nodded. “Either way, this is an unnatural scatter. The pattern doesn’t fit.”
Foley ran a hand along the back of his neck. “I guess I was hoping we’d find more, a lot more.”
“We got enough,” I said. “Enough to know someone was buried here.”
“We’ll start again in the morning,” Foley said. “Fresh eyes. Fresh soil.”
“And a fresh chance,” Whitlock added.
The light began to fade, and the team covered the grid, the stakes they’d set remaining in place. Tomorrow, they’d widen the search, covering the area surrounding the one they searched today.
As we walked back toward the car, my frustration mounted.
I looked back at the cabin, at the strings stretched tight over the earth, at the place where secrets had been buried and almost never found.
I believed Silas was right, and someone had come back here, someone with hopes to erase the misdeeds of the past.