Forgotten Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Skye was the first one to spot it, though, disguised as a tree stump. She almost tripped over the air vent sticking out of the ground. For the past fifteen feet or so, they’d been walking on top of a raised mound in the grass and hadn’t even recognized it for what it was.

  “Bunker or something else?” Josh wondered aloud.

  “Maybe a bit of both,” Skye reasoned as she took out a knife from her boot and began to pry open the vent pipe. “Emmadine, are you down there? Emmadine. Can you hear me?”

  When she got no answer, she pointed to the ground. “Look for an entrance.”

  “Yeah, well, watch where you step. Look out for tripwires or mines. They’d be located near the entrance as a deterrent. Anti-personnel mines are there to severely maim or kill.”

  They split up. Skye took one side of the field and Josh the other. Using great care with each step, they waded through the grassland, inch by inch.

  It wasn’t long before Kiya alerted Josh to a small infrared transmitter used to guard a natural chasm in the earth. The hidden entrance had been concealed by stacking branches and brush against the opening.

  “Found it,” Josh called out.

  The two studied the sensor and decided it was barely more useful than a simple motion-detector, no more helpful than a doorbell camera.

  “Nothing fancy,” Josh determined as he reached down to clip the wires with Skye’s knife, disarming the system.

  They started pulling off the tree limbs and tossing the brush into a nearby gully, clearing the way to the entrance.

  “You do realize this can’t possibly be where Roman is hiding, right?” Skye noted. “Those shoe prints in the dirt are days old.”

  “Sure. Nothing’s ever that easy. Besides, there’s no sign that anyone has been here that recently.”

  Once they’d cleared the opening, Skye poked her head into the interior. Part bunker and part cave, the heart of the inside was pitch black, so dark that she switched on her phone and used the light to step further into the blackness. “Emmadine, are you in here?”

  She thought she heard a groan. “Did you hear that? That’s real, right?”

  From inside its depths, the cave echoed out with Kiya’s howl beckoning Skye to hurry up.

  In the back of the cave was a small dome-like room where Skye heard water trickling over rocks. Emmadine was propped up against a large boulder, trembling. Her mouth and eyes covered with tape. Her wrists bound in front of her body with rope.

  Skye rushed over and took off her sweat top, using it to wrap around the terrified woman. “We’re here for you, Emmadine. Do you understand me? We’re here.”

  She ran her hand over Emmadine’s hair. Expecting the woman to recoil from the touch, she was surprised when Emmadine remained motionless. Without a response, she reached down to take Em’s pulse. “We’re here, Em. We’re gonna get you out of this place.”

  Emmadine let out a low moan.

  Skye squeezed her hand. “Good girl. Stay with us.”

  She turned to where Josh stood behind her. “She’s alive. Barely. Go. Get the paramedics here. She’s weak and severely dehydrated.”

  “I spotted a water bottle inside the opening. I’ll get it. I have to leave you two here anyway to get cell service. You gonna be okay?”

  “We’ll be fine,” Skye muttered softly, stroking Emmadine’s hair.

  While he retraced his steps toward the entrance, Skye continued to reassure Emmadine, trying to soothe her fears. Crouching down beside the woman, she whispered in her ear. “Do you hear me, Em? I’m sorry I got you into this. But you’re gonna be fine now. I promise. I figure now is as good a time as any. I need to remove the tape from your mouth so we can get some water in you. Okay? I’m not gonna lie, it’ll probably hurt some.”

  Shaking and cold, Emmadine barely moved her head.

  Skye began to peel back the sticky tape, first from her eyes. “See? It’s me. You know me. I got you into this mess.”

  The duct tape didn’t come off without a struggle. Skye tried to keep it light as she continued to remove chunks of the sticky stuff. “You might be missing some eyelashes after this. And some of your eyebrows, maybe even a few strands of hair.”

  She moved on to Em’s mouth. Peeling off one piece at a time instead of ripping it off all at once from Emmadine’s parched lips.

  Josh came back, handed off a reusable aluminum bottle. “EMTs are on their way.”

  Skye frowned. “This is what you found? How do we know it’s safe to drink? It could be laced with…anything.”

  “That’s all we’ve got. We didn’t come prepared for a hike. We thought she’d be found in the shed. Remember?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “Give it here.” He twisted off the cap and sniffed the contents. “Smells okay to me.” He sipped a taste. “It’s just water.”

  Skye lifted Em’s head and held the rim of the bottle to her mouth. “Drink. You’re gonna be fine now. We’ll get you out of this place and get you to a hospital. I’ll call Leo. He’ll be there waiting for you. Soon this will all seem like a very bad nightmare—what not to do on vacation in Idaho.”

  Twenty-Three

  It took an anxious forty minutes for the EMTs to get there and stabilize Emmadine. After taking blood pressure readings, they treated her head wound and started an IV drip. By the time she was loaded into the ambulance, she’d regained consciousness. More alert, Skye was relieved to see her give a thumbs-up sign before they closed the back doors.

  After the ambulance pulled away, Skye texted Leo to update him on an ETA to the nearest medical facility.

  Josh came up beside her. “Did the paramedics say anything about her condition?”

  “What you really want to know is, was she sexually assaulted? I heard Emmadine tell them that she wasn’t.”

  Josh huffed out a breath. “That’s something, I guess. I don’t think she’ll ever want to come back here again.”

  “Or be anywhere near us,” Skye added, leaning on him for support. “I’ve got to admit, the adrenaline’s wearing off. I’m exhausted.”

  “No sleep tends to do that. There’s something I need to show you. Back in the cave.”

  “Okay. Where’s Quade?’

  “Running after Roman, I expect.”

  “What is it? Back in the cave.”

  “A shrine. To the girls. Some we knew about. Others we didn’t.” Josh ducked into the cavern of the bunker and headed past the dome-like room where Emmadine had been kept into an offshoot from the main pathway.

  “While you were busy with Emmadine, Quade and I found this. You could call it a diary or journal of sorts, with pictures of the dead girls by each dot. Fifteen in all.”

  “Fifteen?” Skye stared in horror at a damp, wet wall where Gavin had hung a chart detailing his crimes by diagraming them out using dots for victims. Beside each dot was the picture of a girl taken at the time of her death and a lock of her hair. There was inexpensive jewelry, an earring, a necklace, a bracelet attached to the pushpin with a small string of twine. “I’ve known serials who kept trophies, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Quade saw this?”

  “Oh, yeah. He called in an FBI forensic team and had them commit to the cave. They should be here any minute. I’ve already taken pictures to document this for us, for future cases.” Josh tapped the chart where Sara Grayhawk’s picture had been tacked to the diagram near the beginning. “Seeing this sent Quade into a new level of anger. Right about now, I don’t think I’d want to be Roman Jaynes when Grayhawk gets to him.”

  “What do you make of this? Did Gavin act alone, or did his brother have a hand in it?”

  “You want my gut feeling? I think when Gavin got arrested, it scared the crap out of him. Everything that came out of his mouth afterward was an act. I’m still on the fence about what role Roman played in all this. The key will be getting him to talk. It’ll likely be total bullshit when he does but…there’s something else. The length of this bunker twists and
turns for at least thirty more feet underground to an opening in the back.”

  “So, there’s always been a back way out. That’s how Gavin and Roman have been coming and going. That’s why the front entrance looked unused.”

  “Yep. And there are recent boot prints all around that rear exit. Quade took the pictures himself, noting the difference in each brother’s shoe size. According to what the crime scene techs found in the master bedroom at the farmhouse, Gavin was a size eleven. Based on the shoe prints found near the woods, the man who shot Gavin is a ten and a half.”

  “Not a bad way to set the brothers apart.”

  Josh waited a beat before going on, “I think I know where Gavin, or Roman, whoever, buried the girls.”

  Skye cut her eyes to meet his. “And you’re just now getting to that part? How’d you figure that out?”

  “This.” Josh waved his hand over the shrine. “If you look closely, it’s a map. If you study the dots that represent each victim and see where it correlates to the surrounding area—an area where both brothers grew up and knew well—the burial site is back across the creek bed. Remember that first bunch of trees we came to?”

  “Yeah, the birch trees.”

  “That grove sits directly in the line of sight to the farmhouse, Gavin’s house.”

  “Another indicator that it was all on Gavin, right?”

  “Maybe. But I think Gavin needed to be able to look out his window and see they were there, see where he’d put the girls. Far enough where Susan wouldn’t suspect what he kept staring at, but close enough to enjoy the view and relive the moment.”

  “Does the line of sight also track back to Roman’s house?”

  “No idea. Something we’ll need to check out for ourselves, though. But while we waited for the paramedics to get here, Quade told me the SWAT team took Roman’s house apart. They didn’t find him obviously, but they also didn’t find anything that linked him to the girls.”

  “No, they wouldn’t. I think the Jaynes boys were smarter than all of us.” She rocked back on her heels. “If we know where the girls are buried, what are we standing around here for? Let’s go see if your genius pays off.”

  They trekked back through the creek bottoms, through the dry bed, back toward Gavin’s land, retracing their steps to the copse of birch trees.

  In a small, obscure clearing, Skye saw it. She tugged on Josh’s sleeve. “Look at all the mounds of dirt.”

  The mournful wail of the wolf echoed out into the valley as they counted the graves. Fifteen in all. “Such devastation. Such a loss. These girls will never have a future. Gavin robbed them of that.” Glancing around the meadow, she took note. “I don’t see Roman’s house from here.”

  “That’s because it’s located just over that rise and through those spruce trees. His house sits back from the road quite a way surrounded by those tall aspens you see in the distance. GPS is a wonderful thing.”

  “No line of sight, then,” Skye decided. “Unless he climbed a tree to keep tabs on Gavin.”

  “Doesn’t mean he couldn’t have crept through the woods whenever he felt like it.”

  “That’s true.” From where she stood, Skye could see the farmhouse straight across the field, the rows of potatoes in between. “You’re right. Gavin picked this exact spot so he could look out on his domain.”

  “Yeah. Seeing it for myself is more devastating and disgusting than I could imagine. And you and I have seen some pretty horrible stuff.”

  Skye looked over his shoulder to see a commotion at the farmhouse. “What’s happening over there?”

  “I don’t know. Wait. Is that Roman walking up the driveway with his hands in the air?”

  “Not anymore. He’s down on the ground, surrounded by a dozen deputies. Poor Quade. He wanted to be the one who did that.”

  “In case they’ve forgotten about him, I’ll text Quade and let him know what’s happening.”

  “I hope he appreciates your loyalty.”

  “He will when I ask to sit in on the interview.”

  Skye grinned. “You’re always thinking ahead, Ander. I like that about you. But right now, I’m more concerned about grabbing a shower and a change of clothes. I reek from that musty potato shed. The cave didn’t help. And I have Emmadine’s blood smeared on my top from where they bashed her head in.”

  “I get it. You want out of those clothes. Go. Take a nap.”

  Skye frowned. “You’re not coming back to the lodge with me?”

  “Not yet. I want to be there when Roman starts talking.”

  ****

  As tempting as it was to be there when Roman gave up details, Skye needed to hit the reset button. She wasn’t thinking straight.

  Maybe that’s why she was surprised to find Reggie in the bungalow’s main room, shoulders slouched over his laptop. “Have you been at that all night?”

  Reggie lifted his head when Skye entered the room. Bleary-eyed from no sleep, he scrubbed his hands down his face. “Long night. Even before you called. I took over for Leo when he left to head to the hospital to see Emmadine. Judy went with him for moral support. How is Emmadine? Will she be okay?”

  “Traumatized from getting kidnapped and then left for dead in a bunker-like cave, dehydrated from going without water, and scared half to death that any minute she might die. Other than that, the paramedics say she’ll recover. What about you? You look like crap.”

  “We all do. Even before we got your text with the news. Did you find the remains of all twelve girls?”

  “More like fifteen, and it’s a long story.”

  “No surprise there. We always believed there were more victims. Have they started digging yet?”

  “Not yet. They’re waiting to get the tents up and in place before going in. The media is swarming like flies about that place. The closest they can bring in their cameras, so far, is about fifteen-hundred feet down the road.”

  Reggie leaned back in his chair and stretched his back. “I’ve spent the past eight hours going over the work records for Gavin Jaynes. He’s definitely our guy. His time sheets are a treasure trove. They clearly prove that for half the dates when the disappearances occurred, he was on patrol in or around the Reservation. Plus, the day Gabby Knight disappeared from Sawtooth Lake, Gavin was down there with his wife and kids vacationing in a cabin his wife’s family owned. He took time off, verified by pay stubs and HR, to get away from the grind here. Probably told everyone that’s where he was headed, like a normal person. But at some point, that old urge rose up…”

  “No,” Skye said quietly. “Somehow he already knew the Knight family planned to go to Sawtooth Lake. Maybe Gabby mentioned it to him in passing. From there, he probably suggested that place to Susan simply to give him access. He’d likely already figured out he’d lurk around and wait for any opportunity that came up to snatch Gabby while she was on vacation. No one ever made the connection.”

  “That’s methodical planning on his part. As far as his days off, they match up with the other dates when girls went missing. With Gavin off duty, he was able to wander around on his own doing God knows what.”

  “He’s our dead guy now.”

  “With no clear-cut answers for anybody.”

  “You obviously haven’t been watching the news. Roman has decided to use plausible deniability. He denies killing the girls. But then he would, wouldn’t he? As the brother left standing. That’s why we need to check him out. Find me all you can about Roman. Josh stayed back with Quade to see what he could learn about the guy from his interviews, maybe build on the information, use it to get him to talk. Because there’s a high probability that the brothers could have worked as a team.”

  “Yeah, but Roman’s own detailing business makes it harder for me or anyone else to track down his whereabouts. Gavin’s is easier.”

  “We need to try.”

  “What else does he say…you know…about why he shot his brother? Is he talking about that?”

  “Josh says th
e man is chatty when it benefits Roman the most and makes himself look good. Yeah. He bills himself as the hero, taking out a serial killer. His mouth keeps moving. Right now, he’s blaming it all on Gavin. Quade got him to admit firing the shot that killed his brother. But that’s where his confession mostly ends. Denying all culpability for abducting and murdering the girls leaves him to answer for Gavin’s death but not the string of abductions and murders.”

  “Are you saying he knew about what Gavin was doing?”

  “That’s what he says, says he was scared to death of Gavin. He says that one day about five years back, he caught his brother in the act of burying Sonja Lake on his little strip of property. It pissed him off. According to Roman, he’s been gunning for his brother ever since. He claims Gavin was a bully of the worst kind for his entire life and kept threatening him with bodily harm if he told anyone about the girls.”

  “Aren’t all bullies the very worst kind?”

  Skye’s lips curved. She held up her phone, where text messages were still streaming in, updates from Josh at the police station. “Get this, Roman claims that from the day he caught his brother in the act, he’s been thinking about ways to kill him. Roman did seem angry that his own brother would have the audacity to use his land for that kind of thing. He claims that when he saw the SWAT team surrounding Gavin’s farm, he saw his opportunity to get back at Gavin for good. He grabbed his rifle with a scope, picked a spot in the woods, and waited for him to come out. When he did, he shot him in the head. That’s pretty much Roman’s story, and so far, he’s sticking to it. That’s why we need to figure out if he’s telling the truth or covering his ass. We didn’t come this far to get half the story.”

  “What does Emmadine say?”

  “When Leo showed her a photo of Gavin, Emmadine recognized him as the guy who pulled over her Uber, using his flashing lights. She also said Gavin was the one who shot the driver and left the car somewhere else before coming back for her. She says he wasn’t gone long, so the Uber car has to be in the general vicinity of the kidnapping. Here’s where her statement gets fuzzy, though. According to Emmadine, Jaynes tied her up and stuck her in the back of the patrol car and left her there.”