Chapter 20
Although Kelsey’s process was faster than ground penetrating radar alone, Abby wanted the process to go even faster.
After taking a few minutes to say hello to Coop, who was at the helicopter dealing with some sort of mechanical issue, she’d stood next to Burke for nearly an hour.
The tension between them was even more pronounced after the kiss last night, and each moment Abby hoped Kelsey would call them over with a hit.
No such luck, and she was running out of lichen area to search, but Abby wouldn’t lose hope.
At least Burke finally stepped away to make phone calls, one to ask his sheriff to apply for a warrant to search Dr. Shore’s house to look for the lichen.
The ferry horn sounded from below, cutting through the quiet and drawing Abby’s attention. Sam and her assistant should be arriving on this trip to finish processing the mansion’s interior. Once finished, they would head back to her lab and start sorting through all of the recovered fingerprints.
Unless Kelsey located a body. Then Sam’s full attention would be on the grave.
Gabe strode up the hill toward her. Burke was hot on Gabe’s heels. Gabe’s determined stride and the journal clutched in his hand seemed to indicate he’d located something of interest.
She went to meet them. “Did you find something?”
“He did,” Burke said. “But he wouldn’t share it unless you were with us.”
She wanted to smile over her teammate’s loyalty, despite Burke’s frustrated tone, but she didn’t want to irritate him more. “So spill, Gabe.”
“Read this.” He opened the journal and pointed to the bottom of the right-hand page.
She leaned closer, and Burke came to stand behind her, and together they studied the page.
“Whoa!” He jerked back. “Estelle really was having an affair.”
“Not simply an affair,” Gabe said. “But one with Victor’s brother.”
Abby’s heart raced as she skimmed ahead in the reading. “And she was pregnant and planning to run.”
“She didn’t want Victor to know about the baby,” Burke said. “She was going off somewhere to have it on her own.”
“What I don’t get,” Gabe said. “If Vincent was the father, why go off on her own? Why not stay with him?”
“Doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t match what Sylvia said about Estelle needing money for the ‘finer things of life.’ Unless…” An idea hit Abby. “Unless she somehow embezzled money from Victor all along.”
“We need financial records from the day they got married until she disappeared,” Burke said.
Abby agreed, “We can ask Victor for them, but what’s the likelihood he’ll have the files readily available?”
Gabe shrugged. “We can hope records for part of their marriage are computerized, but accounting software was just introduced for home computers in the early eighties.”
“Victor an early adopter of computers? Not likely.” Burke scowled. “But if he uses an accountant, the accountant might’ve been.”
“We should definitely ask.” Abby jotted in her notepad to follow up.
“Abby! Abby!” Kelsey’s voice broke through Abby’s concentration as she frantically waved them over.
Abby and the others bolted toward Kelsey, but carefully picked their way over rocky soil.
“What do you have?” Abby asked and resisted dancing in place as she waited for the answer.
“Looks like a clandestine grave.” Kelsey’s voice lacked Abby’s excitement.
To be fair, Abby shouldn’t be excited about finding a body, but she was glad this might bring Victor some closure on Estelle’s disappearance. “Is there lichen in the area you located the grave?”
Kelsey nodded. “I’ll start marking off the coordinates with flags. Shawn is getting the GPR from the helo. A quick scan, and I can confirm the presence of remains.”
“Do you need any help?” Burke asked.
“Shawn’s getting equipment from the helicopter, but he might need help to move it over this rough terrain.”
“I’ll do it.” Gabe shoved the evidence bag for the journal in Abby’s hands and took off before either of them could argue with him.
Kelsey picked up small red flags and strode to a section near the cliff.
By the time she had the suspicious area marked out, Shawn and Gabe returned carrying what looked like a lawnmower.
The machine had wheels with a yellow box mounted close to the ground, and the top of the handle held a video device.
They set it down in front of Kelsey.
“Perfect,” she said. “Thank you for working so fast.”
“Mind if I tag along to watch?” Gabe asked.
“I don’t mind at all, as long as you stay behind me.”
Abby looked at Burke. “The question I was about to ask, but he beat me to it.”
“Me too,” Burke said. “I could always order him to step down, but you’re right about him. He’s done a lot of grunt work and deserves something more exciting.”
Okay, that did it. Her heart flip-flopped. Burke showed he cared about others. Her family didn’t do that either, and wasn’t that, along with faith, really the basis of a person’s motivations?
“That’s kind of you,” she said.
“Only fair. But I’m not hanging back here and waiting.” He headed toward the cordoned off area.
She didn’t linger behind, but took long steps to keep up with him.
By the time they reached Kelsey, she’d completed walking one length. Questions raced through Abby’s brain, but as much as she wanted to know what was going on, she didn’t want to interrupt Kelsey’s concentration. Instead, she tapped her foot.
Burke’s phone dinged, and he glanced at the screen. “Estelle’s missing person files are on my desk.”
“Then we need to make a point of picking them up as soon as possible so we—”
“Hey, wait,” Gabe called. “Is that something on your screen?”
“It is,” Kelsey said. “I can’t be certain it’s human remains, but one more pass will help with that.”
Abby listened to the machine hum, counting down the moments in her head until they would know if a body had been buried on this cliffside. She wanted to clutch Burke’s arm, but restrained herself.
At the end of the last pass, Kelsey looked up. “Something the size of human remains is buried here.”
Abby’s heart sank for Victor. He would be devastated when he learned Estelle was on his property this whole time.
Kelsey turned off the machine and closed the short distance to Abby and Burke. “Although the size suggests human remains, I won’t be able to confirm my suspicions until I unearth them.”
“When can you get started?” Burke looked like he’d lost all patience and wanted to push her into action.
“Give me five minutes to get some water, and we’ll begin the dig.”
“How long will it take?” Abby asked.
“The remains aren’t buried terribly deep so we should be able to do it fairly quickly.”
“What is ‘fairly quickly’ for you?” he pressed.
“If the GPR is correct on the depth, and I have no reason to believe it wouldn’t be, just a couple of hours,” Kelsey answered, not seeming to be bothered by Burke’s pushy behavior.
“But you’d be wasting your time to stand here and wait.
Pay attention to your phones and I’ll contact you the minute I find anything. ”
She stepped to her team, who’d taken a seat around a large cooler, each of them drinking bottled water. Kelsey grabbed a bottle for herself and settled on a nearby rock.
Abby changed her focus to Burke. “If you’re able to obtain the search warrant for Dr. Shore, we’d have enough time to serve it now.”
“If we succeeded, it should be in my inbox.” He took out his phone and swiped his finger over the screen several times. “Got it. Let’s grab Sam to process the forensics and head for the mainland.”
Abby didn’t have to be told twice but hurried toward the house. Their investigation had just changed. Or had at least likely changed. And it was time to find out if Dr. Shore had anything to do with the theft of the crown and Estelle’s death.
Burke had wanted to race to Dr. Shore’s house, but it made sense to pick up Estelle’s missing person file on the way.
To ensure things moved faster, he left Abby in the car where he wouldn’t have to introduce her to everyone.
Or maybe he left her behind because his feelings for her weren’t under control.
Either way, he ran in, grabbed the file, and bolted for the door before anyone tried to talk to him.
Then he raced over the speed limit to Dr. Shore’s house.
Since Sam knew the evidence she was looking for, he and Abby left her in the entryway to do her thing and escorted the doctor into her small office.
“Take a seat,” he instructed.
“I thought I answered all of your questions before.” Sitting, she looked up at him. “What’s this about?”
She twined her hands together in her lap. “And why do you have the forensic tech here? What could I have possibly done?”
Abby sat next to the doctor, and Burke perched on the corner of the wooden desk holding neat piles of paperwork.
He took a slow breath, pushing down the accusatory edge in his voice.
She was older, and everyone had moments where memory faltered.
He would try to be more gentle in his questioning, even if she could be a murderer.
“When we last talked, I don’t think you told us everything about your visits to Victor. ”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know what else there is to say.”
“Maybe it helps if you know we’ve located a clandestine grave on the property,” he said, hoping to shock her into revealing anything she might know.
She gasped. “Estelle?”
“Could be. We hope to know more in a few hours.”
Abby scooted forward on her chair. “If you had anything to do with her disappearance, tell us now, and it will go better for you.”
“I didn’t.” She flashed her gaze between Abby and Burke. “Honest. I’d even take a lie detector test to prove it.”
“But there’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there?” Burke pressed harder. “Maybe something that could’ve contributed to Estelle’s death, but you don’t see the connection yet.”