Buried

by Ellison Cooper

  “Her dad?”

  Max squinted. Uncomfortable. “I’ll admit, I was shocked, because I knew her dad. He always seemed totally nice. But I was no idiot kid. Even back then I knew how domestic abuse works.”

  “Abusers never do conveniently have fangs and horns,” Sayer agreed.

  “They’re usually really good at hiding what they do behind closed doors,” Max continued. “Hell, for my social studies class I’d even read a whole book I found in the library about domestic violence. It scared the crap out of me.”

  Sayer almost smiled at the image of an earnest eighteen-year-old Max hunched over a book about domestic violence.

  “So”—Max gestured awkwardly—“I’ve got this scared girl hiding in my room and had no idea what to do. Two small-town kids. I couldn’t send her home. My mom is great, but not at that kind of thing, you know? And after reading about how cops sometimes deal with domestic violence, I didn’t know if the police would even believe her. Some teenage girl’s word against her churchgoing dad’s word. So we came up with a plan.…”

  “Which was?”

  “Which was to help her run away. That night. She took a shower, cleaned herself up. I stole some of my mom’s clothes for her to wear and gave her four hundred bucks, which was all I had. I called a battered women’s shelter up in D.C. and arranged for her to stay there that night. Then I took her to the bus station just after dawn.”

  Max fell silent, hand resting on Kona’s back.

  “I sense there’s a ‘but’ to the story,” Sayer said.

  “But”—Max gave a rueful smile—“I have no idea what happened to her after I dropped her at the bus station. I called the shelter that evening to make sure she got there safely and they said she never showed. At the time I figured that she must have just wanted to put all of Rockfish Gap behind her, including me. And I thought that maybe the shelter was lying to me. For all they knew, I was the guy she was running from.”

  “So you don’t really know what happened to her?”

  “No clue. I never heard from her again, but Kyle must have known I was involved somehow, because he was convinced I did something to his sister.” Max stared out at the rain for a long moment. “Kyle and his dad came out the next day and asked me a bunch of questions about that night. If I’d seen Cricket at all. I told her dad that I hadn’t seen her. I mean, he had to know that she just ran away, considering he’s the one that hurt her in the first place. Far as I know, no one in Rockfish Gap has seen her since.…”

  “But Kyle obviously thinks something happened to her and that you had something to do with it. You let her family think she was dead?”

  Max nodded slowly. “I mean, I guess, as far as I know, she is dead. But it’s even worse than that. I left Rockfish the next day, but heard later that her mom had a stroke and died just after Cricket left. I still wonder, did Cricket’s dad hurt her mom, or did her mom die of grief not knowing what happened to her daughter? It felt right at the time. I mean, Cricket was so afraid. But looking back, maybe I royally screwed up. And now her brother is chief of police.…”

  Sayer stood silent for a long time, processing Max’s story. “Bottom line is that you don’t actually know what happened to her?”

  “Right.”

  “And the local chief of police is convinced that you had something to do with his sister’s disappearance.”

  “Also right.”

  “And he clearly suspects that she is dead. So much so, he was convinced that we’d just found his dead sister when he heard about these remains.” Sayer let that sink in. “Okay, Kyle will be here any minute.”

  “You think I should tell him what really happened?” Max did not look happy.

  “Unless you can think of a legitimate reason not to.”

  Max’s confidence wilted slightly. “Does not wanting to admit that I might have really fucked up count as a legitimate reason?”

  Sayer didn’t even dignify the comment with an answer as they watched Kyle park his police cruiser next to the ranger station.

  * * *

  The police chief hunched forward as he followed Sayer and Max into the main conference room.

  “Please sit, Chief Nelson.” She gestured to a chair and took a seat at the head of the table. Max sat next to her, Kona at his feet.

  Kyle’s eyes drifted over to Max.

  Max met his stare with a neutral expression.

  “Chief Nelson, as a fellow law enforcement officer, you understand that we are still in the preliminary stages of our investigation here, so I’m not even sure yet if your sister will be among the remains we’ve found.”

  He tore his eyes away from Max to look at Sayer. “Of course I understand. And please, call me Kyle.” He took a deep breath. “Could you let me know what you have so far? All I know is what Piper told me when she called to notify us of the presence of human remains.”

  Sayer slid a file folder across the table. “This is everything we have. This morning, Agent Cho fell into a sinkhole, where we found the remains of approximately six or seven skeletons that do not appear to be recently deposited.”

  “Any sense how old they are?” Kyle asked.

  “Not yet. But, in addition to the bones, we also found two recently deposited victims, and our forensic anthropologist has begun to autopsy the recent victims.”

  “How recent?”

  Sayer spread her hands. “Again, we don’t know yet.”

  “Any ID?” Kyle’s eyes momentarily drifted back to Max.

  “Not yet. We’ve sent blood samples to the three-hour DNA machines up at Quantico and should have the results by morning.”

  Kyle nodded, mouth in a white line. Every time his eyes drifted back to Max, his long face tensed.

  “We have a team documenting and removing the skeletal remains right now and will hopefully begin to process those tomorrow. As you can see, we’re still trying to understand what’s going on,” Sayer said.

  Kyle slowly leaned forward. “What’s going on is that Max Cho knows something about Cricket’s disappearance that he has been lying about for seventeen years.”

  “You’re right, Kyle,” Max said softly.

  Kyle blinked a few times with surprise but didn’t move. His balled fists pressed into the table in front of him.

  “Seventeen years ago your sister came to me and told me what your dad did to her,” Max said evenly. “She was beaten up, terrified. So I tried to help her escape. She was supposed to build a new life.…”

  Kyle’s blinking got more rapid, his breathing shallow. His knuckles whitened as he pressed harder and harder onto the conference table.

  Max rushed on. “But I genuinely don’t know what happened to her after I dropped her off at the bus station. I thought she just … put us all behind her. I thought I was helping her get away from your dad by lying—”

  Kyle lunged toward Max. He moved so quickly that Sayer barely had time to step between the two men.

  “Hey!” Sayer put a firm hand on Kyle’s chest, ready to react if he struck out at either her or Max.

  Kyle stopped his advance, but his body quivered, rage radiating off him like heat. She could hear Max’s shallow breath just behind her.

  Standing next to Max, Kona let out a rumbling growl.

  No one moved for a very long moment.

  Finally Kyle forced words out. “You have the nerve to admit what I’ve always known, that you had something to do with Cricket’s disappearance. Then you accuse my father of some kind of abuse?” Kyle’s voice rose to a shout so loud Sayer’s ears rang. “You spew disgusting lies about my dead father not even six months after he dies? How can anyone possibly believe a word you say, you lying bastard?”

  Shaking, he looked at Sayer. “You get him the hell out of my sight or I won’t be responsible for what I do next.”

  Sayer kept a light hand on Kyle’s chest but turned to Max and nodded. “Just go. I’ll finish up here.”

  “But—” Max began.

  “Go!”
Kyle’s voice thundered so loudly the walls vibrated.

  Max held up his hands and backed out of the room. Kona followed.

  Kyle remained frozen, towering over Sayer, panting with emotion as they listened to Max and Kona’s footsteps retreat down the hall.

  “Chief Nelson.” Sayer used his title, hoping to remind him that he wasn’t just an angry brother and son. It worked, and Kyle took a step back, shoulders falling slightly.

  “Agent Altair, that man is a snake and a liar,” he said as he moved to his chair and slowly lowered himself down. “I see he has you just as snowed as everyone else.”

  Kyle placed both hands flat on the table, trying to steady himself. “He pulls the same thing everywhere he goes. White-knight war hero with a heart of gold. And the ladies fall for it every time.”

  Sayer reined in her sharp response that she was no lady fawning over a white knight. “I just met Agent Cho this morning. Even though he works at the FBI, I promise you that I have no allegiance to anyone or anything other than the truth.”

  Kyle stared at Sayer, blue eyes stormy. “I apologize, but surely you’ll understand if I don’t take your word on that one. I’ve heard about your illustrious history working with killers. It’s enough for me to wonder about the FBI’s screening process.…”

  Sayer bit her tongue to prevent herself from reacting to his barb. She took a measured breath, trying to remind herself that this man had lost his entire family and that he had good enough instincts to know that Max was hiding something. No wonder he was suspicious of Max, and of the FBI by extension. And the current scandal and circus on Capitol Hill wasn’t helping matters. This was exactly what Assistant Director Holt was most worried about, local law enforcement no longer trusting the FBI.

  “Kyle”—she purposefully switched back to his first name—“I promise I’ll keep you up-to-date on things as they unfold, and I hope we can work together to figure out if your sister is involved here in any way. In that spirit, I’ll grant you full access to our files.” She stopped just short of inviting him to join her team. He was too emotionally involved to be of use.

  They stared at each other in a small standoff before Kyle seemed to release something. “Thank you. You know, my dad was a good man. He didn’t raise a hand to us. Ever. Which is why I don’t believe Max’s story for a second.”

  Sayer nodded slowly. “I would really appreciate it if you could talk me through what happened back then.”

  “Listen, I was fifteen when Cricket disappeared. She was eighteen and didn’t exactly hang out with her baby brother. She left and my mom died. It was … hard on me and my dad.”

  “Is there anything at all you can remember about her disappearance? Anything about that night?”

  Kyle closed his eyes as if pained by the thought. When he opened them, Sayer could see the boy who had lost his sister all those years ago.

  “All I know is that, on that night, I lost someone I dearly loved. And no matter what Maxwell Cho claims, I’m entirely sure that he had something more to do with it.”

  As he stalked from the room, Sayer wondered what exactly had happened to Cricket Nelson seventeen years ago.

  * * *

  Sayer went outside to watch Kyle drive off in his cruiser.

  Max and Kona emerged behind her as the police chief wound down the long road toward Skyline Drive.

  “That went well,” Sayer said. Her voice was slightly hoarse. From the fire? Or had she yelled during the confrontation between Max and Kyle? She couldn’t even remember for sure.

  “Yeah … guess I shouldn’t be the liaison with the locals.…” Max tried for lighthearted.

  “You think?” Sayer was in no mood for jokes. The adrenaline rush from Kyle’s aggression shouldn’t have shaken her so much. Agents went through highly stressful training to short-circuit the instinctual reaction to danger, sometimes called the goofy loop because people did and said nonsensical things. At the academy, she’d been famously calm no matter what they threw at her, but right now Sayer could feel her heart still thudding in her chest.

  She looked over at Max for a very long time. The man was a veteran, a respected FBI agent, and her gut said he was a genuinely good guy. She sure as hell hoped that her gut was right and that he hadn’t actually done something to Cricket Nelson. But for all she knew, he could be their killer. She hated that she even thought it, but she’d learned the hard way not to trust anyone, not even her coworkers at the FBI.

  Because Kyle Nelson was right, she had worked alongside a serial killer for years and she hadn’t known it. A truly skilled psychopath is virtually impossible to detect. What if Max was the same?

  Max kept his eyes on the rain, face drawn. “He’s not wrong, you know. I lied to him. I always assumed that she just … left this all behind.”

  “I know.” Sayer watched him closely but saw only remorse. Nothing to suggest that Kyle was right about Max, but she wasn’t taking anything for granted.

  “Now I can’t stop thinking, what if she’s one of the skeletons we just found and I left her there that morning to be murdered?”

  Sayer had no answer.

  Max closed his eyes, clearly about to say something. Eventually he opened them and seemed to shake off whatever he was thinking. Instead he changed the subject. “Hey, Dana said we’re going to stay nearby.”

  “Yeah, there’s a hotel down the hill. I have to head back up to Quantico tonight, but I’ll swing by on my way out of town and get you all set up to stay there.”

  “Piper said the ranger cabins are empty.” Max pointed down a muddy trail.

  Sayer could just make out a series of tin-roofed cabins along a small ravine.

  “The rangers assigned to the park all stay at the northern station. She said we’re welcome to stay in the cabins if we want.”

  “You think it’s safe here?”

  “I’ve checked the door locks and they meet my approval,” Max said. “I actually think we’ll be safer here than a hotel where we can’t control the environment. I was thinking of staying with my mom, but I’ll stay up here with you all.”

  Sayer side-eyed the cabins. Rustic was too kind a word for the moss-covered buildings.

  “They’re pretty utilitarian, but warm and dry,” Max added.

  “All right. That’s easier, at least.”

  Sayer could see that Max was still distracted. She decided to try and be supportive. “Hey. We’ll figure out what happened with Cricket Nelson. Let’s just focus on saving whoever wrote HELP US on our victim right now.”

  Max waited for her to say more.

  “That was it for my encouraging pep talk.”

  Max let out a joyless laugh. “So, the writing on our recent body suggests we’ve got more victims out there somewhere.” He pointed to the thick woods surrounding the ranger station.

  “I think it’s a good possibility. I called the search team at Quantico and they’re putting a helicopter up at first light to look for any heat signatures in the surrounding area, but this park is over three hundred square miles.” Sayer glanced down at Kona. “You think we should bring in a K9 team to search around the bone cave?”

  “Nah.” Max ruffled the dog’s fur. “Kona did a full sweep. The rain really messes with scent. If we had a concentrated area to search, it might work, but a random grid search won’t give us much in this weather.”

  “How does that even work? Doesn’t she need the scent of a specific person to follow?”

  “Not really. I mean, she can do that, but dogs who trail a specific person tend to be ground-scenters. They follow the scent along a specific path at the ground level. Kona’s an air-scenter, which means that she can follow any human or cadaver smell that she finds in the air.”

  “The smell is up in the air?” Sayer asked, genuinely curious. She’d seen tracking dogs in action but had no idea how it worked.

  “Yeah, you shed thousands of cells a second. Those particles linger in what I like to think of as currents, each one with a distinct
smell. There are thousands of these rivers of scent constantly flowing around everything.” Max waved his hand.

  “So Kona follows those currents.”

  “Exactly. If you were to walk down a path, you would leave a trail. As you move, it dissipates out into a cone shape behind you.”

  “And she finds those cones.”

  Max nodded. “And once she finds the scent cone, she does a zigzag pattern back and forth, finding the edges of the scent. Then she follows those edges as the cone narrows inward toward the person. Kona is one of the best air-scenters I’ve ever seen.” His eyes shone with pride. “But the rain pulls all that down to the ground, where it pools into little eddies, making it almost impossible for her to follow over any distance.”

  “All right, damn.” Sayer stared out at the rain. “Well, we’ll have DNA results by tomorrow. Dana and her team should be back soon with the X-rays.”

  Max absentmindedly petted Kona, who leaned against his leg. “So the writing said HELP US … plural.”

  “Yeah…” Sayer trailed off as she glanced at the time. She still had a few minutes before she needed to head up to meet with Holt. With a sigh, she slid down against the wall and sat on the cold concrete. Max joined her. Kona lay down across his feet, sitting at attention like a sphinx.

  “Does she ever relax?” Sayer asked, petting Kona’s damp fur. “My dog would already be sprawled out, trolling for belly rubs.”

  “Never. Kona’s always on duty.”

  Sayer looked over at Max. His eyes roved the edge of the woods, his shoulders tense, face tight with concentration. “Looks to me like Kona takes after her human.”

  Max let out a short laugh. “Yeah, I suppose that might be true.”

  “I know how that feels.” Sayer pictured her spartan apartment back in Alexandria. Since taking in Adi, Sayer had tried to spruce the place up, but it was still essentially bare.

  They watched the rain for a few more minutes before Sayer shifted back to the case. “What are the chances that a nonlocal knew about that cave? Especially considering how big this park is.”