“There is. Deeper into the soil, I was finding some interesting things. Things that would indicate there are human remains buried.”
“What the fuck?” muttered Bone.
“Again, it’s not surprising. This land was indigenous land and could very well have been the site of burials or even fighting. Except.”
“Okay, here it comes,” frowned Patrick.
“Except the remains appear to be fewer than thirty years old,” she said staring at them.
“I don’t understand,” said Major. “You actually found bodies?”
“No. We found the remains, not even remains,” she said shaking her head. “This is hard to explain. There were no visible signs of bodies. No skulls, no bones, no flesh, no clothing, at least not yet. The composite of the soil tell us that they either decomposed in that area or were cremated or decomposed somewhere else and placed in their area.”
“So, someone killed some people and dumped their bodies in the land here?” asked Chief.
“That would be my guess. They knew what they were doing. They buried the remains deep. It’s why I thought it could have been a battlefield or burial site. Over time the soil would have built up. But that’s not the case at all.”
“What the fuck is going on here?” muttered East. “Was it the same on every property?”
“That’s a good question,” she said pushing a few sheets of paper to them. Each one contained small scale models of the farms. “Initially, we just looked at sample areas selected randomly. We chose spots near the center of the fields, and then at the corners.
“On Pat’s farm, he was working in one of the corners, so we decided to move along the perimeter. That’s where we found the initial pieces. So, we decided to do samples at the perimeter of all the farms.”
“They were all found at the perimeters?” asked Major.
“Yep. Every single one. So much so that you could count the steps from the property’s perimeter line to the location where the remains were found. This was calculated.”
“Shit,” muttered Chief.
“I’m not the expert,” said Rachel, “but I did make a call back home and spoke to the medical team. They all said for me to be able to see it in the soil, in all those places, we’re talking hundreds of bodies. Hundreds.”
“Fucking hell,” muttered Sebastian. “They’re trying to cover that up. They need for people to not discover what’s been buried in those fields. But why? Was it Grant and Morgan that did it?”
“I’m not sure,” said Rachel. She nodded toward Lucy who gave them all the results of the animal deaths.
“Mine is easy. They were all poisoned by injection. Given massive doses of barbiturates. Their hearts gave out and they died within minutes. It’s no mystery. Those animals were intentionally killed.”
“Well, this changes everything. We’ve got buried bodies from at least twenty or thirty years ago, lots of buried bodies. We have dead cows by injection. A suspicious mayor. Two obviously suspicious land developers. We need to find out what the hell those two are doing and where they are really from,” said Chief.
Dialing the team back home, Hiro and AJ were on duty this morning and answered the call.
“We were listening and are trying to dig into what we heard,” said AJ. “I can tell you there hasn’t been a violent death in that county for more than sixty years. And the volume of bodies potentially buried doesn’t fit with that area either. There were indigenous people on those lands who probably died and fought there, but we’re talking a hundred years or more. Just from the initial discussions, we agree with Rachel. Those people were killed somewhere else and placed there.”
“What about Grant and Morgan?” asked Sebastian.
“I’m looking into that,” said Hiro. “They started their company about four years ago and have bought out farms all across the Midwest, mostly Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. None of that makes sense because there are no major thoroughfares that follow the line of purchases.
“The other thing that rings suspicious is that the land was bought, farms were cleared, but subdivisions were not built. In some cases, the land was sold to other developers who built all sorts of different things, including in some instances, new farms. In other cases, the land remains cleared and nothing is getting built on it.”
“What the fuck is actually happening here?” asked Bone. Chief shook his head staring at the men.
“I don’t know but we’re damn sure going to find out.”
CHAPTER NINE
“What do we do now?” asked June staring across the table at Theo.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who the fuck these guys are but that agreement is air tight. The farmers can’t sell without their express approval and all negotiations go through them.”
