I responded:
I’ll be there soon. I have much to tell you.
I turned the car toward home to pick up Giovanni who, having met Logan, was now just as invested in the case as the rest of us.
And I hoped today we’d find what we wanted most—answers.
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.”
