“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.
27
I woke in the middle of the night to find myself inside the cabin. Not the ruined pile of splintered beams that had been scattered like broken bones after being torn down earlier that day. It was the way it had once stood, in the quiet weight of its history.
I leaned against one of the walls, my bare feet cold against the plank floor. Looking down, I was still dressed in a long, vintage black satin nightgown that skimmed the top of my feet.
As I took in where I was and why I was there, I heard something.
Not footsteps.
