“Who’s a weirdo?” she teased.

“You!”

She tickled him in the ribs and he squirmed uncontrollably underneath her. “No! Not tickling! I can’t control myself!”

“Who’s the weirdo?” she repeated.

“I am! I am!”

“Damn right you…!” She stopped.

He squirmed for a second longer and then realized something was wrong. He looked up at her above him and saw her staring at something behind his head.

“What?” he said, breathless. “What is it?”

Silent, she got up off of him and stood staring. He rose up and looked behind him. He didn’t know what he was looking for at first, but then he saw it. Sticking up about two inches above the ground, just under the maple tree, was an animal’s paw. The brown fur and black nails clearly visible above the dirt. A single fly buzzed around it and then landed on a toenail. He stood up next to her and then walked over to the tree. It was a dog’s paw. Pretty good sized dog from what he could judge. The soil he was standing on was loose and squishy and he stepped back away from the area, uncomfortable with the way it felt beneath his bare feet. Ellie stood next to him and stared.

“Do you have a shovel?” he whispered, his voice sounding funny in the shade of the tree.

She looked at him. “In the garage, but…”

“Go get it.”

She looked at the dog’s paw again, her lip trembling, and then she left to get the shovel. He looked at the area around the paw and could tell it had been disturbed. The grass looked funny. He reached out and pulled a piece and it shifted easily in the soil. It had been dug up and then put back. He would never have noticed it unless he was standing right on top of it. Another fly buzzed around the protruding paw and then a third. Luke could now smell a whiff of decay and he backed away, unsure if he wanted to dig up the rest.

Ellie came back with the shovel and she handed it to Luke. “Are you sure?” she said.

Luke grabbed the shovel and started to dig. It only took a minute for him to realize the dog was not the only thing buried here.

“Bingo!” Sally shouted. “We got him!”

Jaxon rushed over and peered at the picture she was holding in her hand. Dead Ringer. Their John Doe now had a real name.

“Stewart Alan Littleton,” Sally said. “He’s been missing since October 31, 1984. Last seen by his Mother, June Littleton, before he went out Trick-or-Treating.”

Jaxon scanned the statistics on the sheet. “He lived right here in Fairfax. Reston. Last address Southgate Square.”

“Twenty seven years ago,” Sally said.

“Yeah,” Jaxon said. “Unbelievable huh? Let’s see if we can get a contact. Parents, brothers, sisters, anything.”

“Last known phone number and address are current as of September,” Sally said. “They kept it updated every year. The number listed is for June Littleton.”

“This time we do it the right way,” he said. “You contact her and we’ll bring her in to identify the body.”

“Thanks, boss. I find him and you make me do the dirty work.”

“You’re better at it than me. Remember what happened?”

“I’ll handle it.” She smiled.

His cell phone rang. “Jaxon.”

“Mr. Jennings?” A kid’s voice.

“This is Detective Jennings. Who is this?”

The kid paused for a second and Jaxon thought they hung up.

“You told us to call you if we had any more information on the pool kids.”

“Harrison?”

“Yes, sir. This is Luke Harrison. Ellie’s with me too. Can you come to Ellie’s house? Something bad has happened.”

“We’re very busy right now, Harrison. Can you just tell me what’s going on?”

“We found more decapitated animals.”

“You say animals? Plural?”

“Yeah. Five of ‘em. Three dogs and two cats. They were buried in Ellie’s yard.”

“Don’t touch anything else. I’ll send some people over there now.”

“You’re not coming?”

“I can’t at the moment. We have something very important to do.”

“What?”

“I can’t talk about that with you.”

“Did you find out who the other kid is? Because there’s something buried with the animals you need to see.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a picture. A school picture, but it’s old. I think it’s the kid from the pool. I’m not sure though. That picture you showed us a while back? The one you asked if we knew? Is that him?”

“Yes.”

“You need to come out here. There’s a name on the picture, but it’s all covered in-uh-dead gunk and guts. The one name I can read is Little.”

“Littleton?” Jaxon asked.

“That could be it, yes. How did you know?”

“We’ll be right there. Don’t touch a thing.”

Chapter 21

Jaxon stared into the hole and felt Sally move next to him. “The heads are all missing,” he said.

“I see that,” Sally said. “Three dogs and two cats?”

“I believe so. The little one looks like a dog. The fur is right. It’s hard to tell without the head. Maybe a Chihuahua?”

He held up the picture. It was in a Ziploc baggie and he was holding it with gloved hands. “Stewart Littleton,” she said. “Dogwood Elementary, 1984. Good likeness. I wonder why our guy decided to give us a little help?”

“Down deep, they all want to be caught. They can’t stop themselves unless they are locked up, so they unconsciously help the investigation. He just doesn’t realize it.”

“Is that what your FBI training taught you?”

“That and Michael.”

She nodded. Apparently, she didn’t want to go there, and that was fine with him. Michael’s murder was something he thought about every day, or maybe he should say, tried not to think about, and though the case had been solved, he lived with his own failure in everything he did. He couldn’t save him.

The Crime Scene team arrived and he let them move in. It was going to be messy and he was glad he wasn’t the one going through it. It had been tough enough pulling the picture out of all the rotting flesh.

He glanced over at the small crowd gathered in the backyard and saw Luke Harrison and Ellie Pemberton. Her mother was there too along with a boy he didn’t recognize. He had the features of the Pembertons and figured he must be related. They all looked anxious. He turned to Sally and said, “Let’s find out what they know.” She walked with him up to the group.

“Mrs. Pemberton, remember us? I’m Detective Jennings and this is Detective Winston.”

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