“You want to do the honors, Johns?”
Johns shrugged before diving into the details again. Had I known Dr. Stowe would be so quick on my heels, I would have waited and only put Johns through the telling once.
“So, three bodies?” Dr. Stowe asked.
“As far as we know,” Johns answered. “But there could be more.” He looked my direction. “Hate to say it, but I’d kind of hoped your better half would show up with you, O’Hare.”
“My better half hopefully fell back asleep after I left.” I rubbed my cheek before rolling my palm over my hair. Selfishly, I wished Boone were here too. “He would have come, but we’re expecting company in an hour or two.”
“Company?” Johns glanced down at his watch. “At this hour?”
I didn’t want to get into a lot of detail and simply said, “They took a late flight.”
Johns’s eyebrows were still raised, but he thankfully let it go.
“Boone offered to come out later. If needed.” I really hoped we wouldn’t need him, but realistically it would be a good idea to have him scan the area, if only to make certain we hadn’t missed anyone.
“Looks like it’s just us paltry humans,” Dr. Stowe said as she took a step toward what appeared to be the nearest gravesite. “I’d say we’re wasting daylight, but…” Dr. Stowe pointedly looked at the night sky. “I suppose the principle’s the same. Sort of.” She sounded unsure but shook it off.
“I’ll speak with our witnesses while you check on our victims.”
“Sounds good.” Dr. Stowe waved me off.
“I’ll go with the doc,” Johns said, leaving me alone.
Carefully picking my way through the already trampled weeds, I hid my grimace. We could be walking on evidence without even knowing it. Given that options were currently limited, it was what it was, and I would need to mentally move past it.
I hadn’t thought it possible, but Cody and Shirly looked even younger the closer I drew to them. Sharing a standard police-issued blanket, they sat huddled together on the rusted-out tailgate. I could hardly believe the hinges held the tailgate on, let alone the combined weight of the teenagers.
“Mr. Babcock. Miss Gunther. I’m Detective Franklin O’Hare. I know you’ve already spoken to the responding officer, but I’d like to ask some—”
“Please don’t tell my mom and dad,” Shirly blurted, her eyes red rimmed and round. “God, they’re going to be so pissed. They’ll never let me see Cody again. You can’t tell them. You—”
“Miss Gunther, that’s a conversation for a later time.” There was no way we couldn’t alert their parents. Had they been overeighteen, then maybe. But they were both minors and legally my hands were tied.
Shirly collapsed in on herself, shoulders rounding, sobbed, face cradled in her hands. “I told you not to go out there.” The censure was muffled, but still held an accusing sting.
Cody flinched, but to his credit, he didn’t back down. “I had to see what it was, and I’m glad I did. Those are human bones, Shirly. Somebody died. They’ve probably got loved ones that are worried and wonderin’ where they are.” I noticed that Cody spoke as if only one body had been found. I hadn’t really thought our witnesses had anything to do with the found remains, but Cody’s supposition that there was only the one body certainly placed them even lower on the suspect list.
“Miss Gunther, your boyfriend’s right. He did the right thing.”
Shirly huffed, furiously scrubbing at her eyes. “Of course you’d say that.” Arms crossed, she pointedly turned her head away from Cody, physically leaning away from him and stretching the blanket’s capabilities.
Cody forlornly stared at the side of his girlfriend’s face while I desperately attempted to wrangle any ounce of patience I could muster. Inhaling and counting backward from five, I started again. The answers I got were stilted. It was obvious my two witnesses just wished I’d wander off somewhere else and leave them alone. While their answers were brief, they meshed with the story I’d already gotten. Content for now, I indulged their wishes and made myself scarce.
Retracing my original footsteps as best I could, I closed the distance between myself and Dr. Stowe. Her blue, nitrile gloves practically glowed under the fluorescent overhead lights. Crouching low, I was thankful for Warlock Holland’s pain charm. It would probably wear off in an hour or two, but I’d already found its replacement stuffed in my pocket. I wasn’tsure when Boone had managed that but wasn’t surprised. Boone typically kept my pockets full of his pops’s charms.
“More female victims?” I asked
Dr. Stowe’s head shake surprised me. “This one is male. I’m not sure about the others.” She tossed a hand outward. “From my initial observations, I’d say the MO on this one is different than the ladies.”
“How so?” I leaned over Dr. Stowe’s shoulder as she pointed something out. “His neck is broken. The hyoid bone is crushed, and he’s got more than a few fractured ribs. This one didn’t go quietly into the night.”
I was starting to doubt whether or not this new site had anything to do with our first six victims. “Anything on him that gives an ID or speaks to how long he’s been here?” The one similarity this body did have to the others was that it appeared to be skeletal remains only.
“Not so far,” Dr. Stowe said. “I haven’t found any clothes with this one and so far, no wallet. I also haven’t gotten very deep, so there could be something here I haven’t found yet.”
“That’s fair. How long do you—”
