“It looks suspicious,” said Diane. “I wanted to ask you. I know the GBI has this case, but Lynn Webber did the second autopsies on the bodies of the Barres and Watsons. She made casts of the nicks the murder weapon made in the vertebrae of all the victims. I would like to suggest that you ask her to do these autopsies too-for a direct comparison.”
“We’ve been cooperating quite a bit lately,” he said.
“Isn’t that good?” said Diane.
“In theory, but. . you know how it is,” he said. “The bureau’s got its procedures.”
Diane didn’t say anything, merely waited.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
“There’s one other thing,” she said, and told him about the graffiti of
“You think it’s Sheriff Conrad?” he said.
“I don’t know how many L. Conrads have been in this cave,” said Diane. “If it was him, it shows he knew about this cave. What about Massey?”
Mathews shook his head. “We can track his whereabouts. You know where he was during the Barre murders. He could have done them, but at the time of the Watson murders he was in Atlanta staying in a cheap motel with Tammy. That’s when they decided to take their vacation from crime until things cooled down. We’ve verified that.”
“What’s the status now on Sheriff Conrad?” asked Diane.
“We’re getting a judge to remove him,” said Agent Mathews. “His behavior has gone far beyond his ability to talk himself out of punitive measures. This new information is even more disturbing. He’ll be off the streets by the end of the day-or tomorrow at most. Since this looks like it may connect to the Barres and the Watsons, I’ll be taking over those cases as well.”
Mathews looked like he was looking forward to slapping Conrad down hard.
Diane just remembered that she hadn’t told Liam about the lab results on the list he found at the campsite- how Korey had brought out the writing. She told Mathews about it first.
“So they were going to break into the Barres’ house,” he said. “Interesting. If they hadn’t been murdered first, they would go to number one on my suspect list.”
“I know,” said Diane. “You might get Liam Dugal to show you where their campsite was. From his description of it, I don’t think that’s the place they were killed, or he would have noticed blood-even after the rainstorm. But I’ll bet it’s near there.”
Diane realized that Frank was nowhere in sight and she hadn’t seen him since she came out of the cave. She was just about to ask Mathews, when Frank came out of the woods.
“I’ve found the kill site,” Frank said.
Chapter 48
“You found what?” said Agent Mathews. “Where have you been, anyway, Frank?”
“I thought I’d take a look around the area. I found a trail of damaged underbrush and followed it to a stream just a few yards down there.” Frank gestured to the north and turned to Diane and grinned at her. “Glad to see you aboveground.”
“We didn’t get to do much sightseeing,” she said, “but we found the bodies.”
“You need to bring your bag of magic tricks and follow me,” Frank said.
“This day is just going to go on forever,” said Mathews. “I’ve still got to take Massey over to his pasture to find the bodies he buried. Well, hell. . not that I don’t appreciate finding more evidence, but I really hate being out in the woods,” he said. “Let’s go look. Then I’ll leave you and Diane here to take care of this site and I’ll go on to Massey’s pasture.” He turned to Diane. “I think the Rosewood morgue will be quicker to get to and leave these bodies. I’ll send a couple of agents over with them. I’ll take your suggestion and damn the consequences. I’ll tell the bureaucrats they can get their butts out in this tick-infested jungle if they’re not happy with the way I handle it.” He swatted his arm.
Diane left the cave evidence with the GBI agents and called Neva over with the crime scene kit. Frank led them through the tangle of underbrush, showing them the damaged and flattened plants along the way. The rains had helped many of them stand back up, but Diane could still see a definite path.
“When I saw the damaged brush, I figured they might have dragged the bodies from the creek to the cave,” Frank said.
The trip through the woods reminded Diane of her earlier one that dark, rainy night when the brush and small trees whipped her legs and arms and stung her face. Only this time she had supportive company and it was light and she was dressed for the trip.
They arrived shortly at a creek filled with rounded rocks and bordered with ferns. As they began their examination of the area, Diane saw that Mike and Liam had tagged along. She caught a glimpse of them coming through the thick green brush. She also noted that they had lagged behind at a distance. Not an easy feat with Mathews going so slowly, but it was probably his string of nonstop complaints along the way that had drowned out the noise of their movement behind them through the underbrush.
“What are you two doing?” Diane asked.
“I want to follow this thing through,” said Liam.
“Speaking of your client. .” said Mathews, scratching his back and wiggling his shoulders.
“Was I?” said Liam.
“Why else would you want to follow it through?” said Mathews. “I think it’s time you told us who your client is.”
Liam sighed and nodded. “I know. His name is Wain-wright MacAlister,” he said.
“You mean the real estate mogul who’s thinking about running for Congress?” said Mathews.
“The one and only,” said Liam.
“You should have told me that sooner,” Mathews said.
“Would you have done things any differently?” asked Liam.
“Yes. I’d have brought more Tums,” he said.
“I’ve got plenty. I can share,” said Liam.
“You can stand over by that tree,” said Diane to Liam. “Don’t get in the crime scene.” She turned to Mike. “And what’s your excuse?”
“There’ve been so many strange things going on, I thought you could use someone to watch your backs,” said Mike.
“Fine. Watch our backs from a distance-over there with Liam,” she said. She hesitated a moment and turned to Liam. “What were their names?”
“Larken MacAlister and Bruce Gregory,” he said.
Diane turned back around and followed Frank to the edge of the creek. It wasn’t a large creek, perhaps five feet across at its widest point. It was very beautiful, almost the stereotypical mountain stream. Only the stain of blood on the rocks along the creek’s bank and covering one side of a small tree trunk marred its picturesque feel. Even with the rains, the blood was still there. It obviously had dried before the rains fell. Another clue.
She noticed a shiny metal dish the size of a large skillet wedged between rocks in the creek.
“Looks like they were panning for gold,” said Mike, pointing to the dish.
Diane looked over at him.
“That’s a pan for panning gold,” he said. “See, I’m helpful.”
She frowned at him.
“Perhaps they were panning at different creeks close to mines,” said Diane, “hoping the density of their finds would point them to the right mine.”
