“It hasn’t been mowed in a while,” Caleb said.
“I’m not sure it was ever really that well taken care of,” Ansel said. “If you look closely, no grass clippings are here at all. Everything’s gone to seed.”
“Another good point,” Caleb admitted. “So what we have is a dead body that may or may not be related to the people who were here. It’s been an empty house for a couple months, so it could have been anybody’s dumping site.”
“How did they know about that pantry though?” she asked.
“Unless they came in, took a look, and just wanted a room to lock up the body in,” he said, looking at her.
She nodded. “Still a little disturbing to think that somebody would carry around a dead body, dump them, and leave them.”
“They have to leave them somewhere, and if it’s an empty house …” Ansel said.
“But surely the body would be found faster than just taking them out and deep-sixing them,” she said.
“Maybe, but it’s also quite possible that somebody preferred the dumping to the digging.” Ansel shrugged.
“I’m thinking there might be more than one dead, and that’s a little disturbing,” she murmured.
“I didn’t mean that so much, but it’s another angle,” Ansel said. “I can tell you it looks like a shot to the back of the head.”
“Ah.” At that, Caleb nodded. “So execution.”
“It’s possible, particularly given how close to the border we are.”
“I don’t like the sound of that at all,” Laysha said.
Caleb reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging her a little closer. She went willingly enough.
“It was pretty unpleasant to look at,” Ansel said. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, “but it still sucks.”
“It does, indeed.”
They did a quick trip around the property and didn’t see anything obvious. As they stopped at the far corner and looked back at the house, she turned to Caleb. “Any idea on the dog?”
He shook his head. “I’ll come back in the morning,” he said, “and see if I can track it from the house.”
“I still don’t understand how you can do that,” she muttered.
Detective Lowery looked at him. “You got some experience tracking?”
“I do,” he said, “but a lot of weather has transpired since then,” he said. “So chances of finding anything are pretty close to nil.”
“Well, if you do find something, good luck. And, if you find anything pertinent to the case, let me know.”
“Will do.”
And, with that, the detective headed back to the main house.
She waited until Ansel was out of earshot. “So will you tell me what’s really going on?”
He looked at her in surprise.
She shook her head. “Oh no, you don’t,” she said. “I get it. I saw the change in your stance when you saw something. I just don’t know what it was that you saw.”
He smiled, looked at her, and said, “Are you sure I saw something?”
“I thought so, yes,” she said. “But you’re a tricky dude. So I might have misread the cues.”
“Nope, you didn’t,” he said. “I forgot how observant you were.”
“I wouldn’t have said I am at all,” she noted. “So what did you find?”
“I saw lots of hair as we moved about the property,” he said, “but I need to look closer to see exactly what’s happening here. Also a leash is hanging on the back veranda.”
“So, they had a dog. Doesn’t that make sense?”
“Yeah, except the leash was snapped,” he said, “and it’d take a mighty strong dog to do that.”
“I didn’t even notice the leash,” she said. “So much for being observant.”
He shook his head. “It’s what I do. Remember that.”
“Are you happy doing it?”
“Yes,” he said immediately. “It’s been a good job for me.”
“Good,” she said, “you always were the kind who wanted to help somebody.”
“Yep,” he said, “and that’s pretty well what I do.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Are you going back into the navy? Because it hasn’t escaped my notice that what you’re doing currently is hardly what you were doing.”
He sighed. “No, that’s quite true. And it wasn’t even that as much as,” he said, “up until the accident, I didn’t know what I wanted to do afterward. But I won’t go back. I don’t think I want to do the military thing.”
“Can you still do that job?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “It’s something I have to look into.”
“At one time,” she said, “you wanted to be a police officer.”
“Maybe,” he said, “and maybe that’s not a done deal either.”
“I guess it depends on your injuries.”
“I’m on my feet now,” he said, “so I’m better, but I can’t do a ton of physical work. And I probably wouldn’t pass the physical for a cop.”
“Maybe. That makes sense,” she said, “but it’s kind of sad.”
“It is, but, considering everybody else in my unit died,” he said, “I’ll take what I’ve got.”
“Oh my. I didn’t know. So sorry to hear that.”
Caleb shrugged.
But he also turned from her. Hiding his reaction, his emotions.
“It is what it is.”
Yeah. He was like that. She switched gears. “And that’s another thing about you,” she said with a bright smile. “You always had that positive attitude.”
“I did, but the divorce changed a lot of that for me. The two years of our marriage, all we did was fight. I’m struggling with the idea of even seeing her.”
“Is that because you still care?”
“No,” he said, “not in the way you think. Care in the sense that I want to rescue my brother from her clutches, yes. She cheated on me, then let me think it was my baby, and that’s hard to forgive.”
“Got it,” she said. “I just wondered if you … still loved her.”
“Hell no,” he said, “not in any way, shape, or form.”
Laysha smiled because such conviction was in his tone that she actually believed him. “Anybody else in your life?”
“No time, no interest,” he said. “I’ve only barely recovered from all the surgeries,” he said. “Maybe, at
