He straightened. "I've already called help in. A team is on the way."
"Of course you have." She laughed, even while shaking her head. Chad had always been extremely proactive. "Even without seeing the body."
"I didn't need to, as I did my research on you instead."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
"If you say there's a body here, then I'm sure there is." He straightened. "Now tell me it's Cia, and I'll do everything I can to find the bastard who did this and hang him from the nearest tree."
Except that he wouldn't. He wanted to. She wanted to. But they were both professionals, and, unfortunately, taking the law into their own hands couldn't happen.
"So tell me – is it her?" He stood and stared into her eyes, as if willing her to give him the answer he wanted to hear.
"Not so fast," she said in a gentle voice. "I can't identify her just like that." She shrugged. "I can tell you this female is Caucasian and is of the approximate age as Cia was when she vanished, but beyond that..."
"That's a good start. And it says that it could be Cia." He glanced down at the gleaming skull. "Are you sure there's nothing else you can tell me?"
"Well, there's the fact that this girl didn't die from a bullet to her forehead," Meg quipped, recognizing her need to ease a difficult situation with humor.
"There is that." He pinned her with a direct look. "Damn, Meg. After all these years, what's the chance?"
"My vote?" Meg thought about location, the length of time the skull had likely laid here, the thickness of the humus, and while she knew it was just guesswork at this point in time, there was an instinct, a gut feeling. Abruptly, she said, "I think it's her.
His breath whooshed out. In a low voice, he added, "So do I."
***
Chad watched Meg leave. He understood she was here with her family. And that felt wrong to him. The last time she'd been here, she'd been with him. But that wasn't the only thing different. Still tall and slim, there was now a calm maturity, a sense of having gone through hell and having come out stronger for it. He'd seen her name mentioned in several articles and always heard her spoken of with respect.
He was proud of her. She'd become a hell of a woman. Then he always knew she would turn out to be someone special. That she would mature into the promise he'd always seen in her. Cia's disappearance had been difficult but she'd gone on to do well, regardless.
His life meanwhile had been waiting for this moment. And everything else had been put on hold. He'd never married, never had a family. Hadn't done the travelling he'd wanted to or built that log house in the country he'd always planned to build. Everything had been consigned to the category called later.
A life interrupted. He sighed and ran a weary hand down his face. Maybe now he could pick up the threads and carry on.
Still staring in the direction into which Meg had disappeared, he wondered how she'd been able to pick up her life and carry on. Instead of it being something he should be happy about, it was making him edgy. As if she had no right. And that was just stupid.
Being female, she hadn't come under the same cloud of suspicion as he had. Although being 'the replacement girlfriend' as one cop had called her back then, she'd certainly been heavily questioned.
Their relationship hadn't survived Cia's disappearance. None of their relationships had. There'd been six guys and three girls in that original group. Three pairs and three spares and they'd all known each other. All had spent a lot of time together. He'd trusted them. Now he could barely remember the details of their lives.
It felt right having Meg here at this time. Her finding the body had to do with that whole-life-interrupted thing.
He heard the sound of a truck in the distance. Good. That should be his team. He wanted to get moving on this scene and find the answers and, once and for all, put Cia's case to rest. So he could finally get on with the rest of his life.
***
Meg hated to leave Chad and the site but she wanted to check up on Janelle. Make sure that Pete hadn't gone fishing and left her to wake up on own.
Besides she couldn't do more at the site now that the team had arrived. Chad had been fully engrossed with taking care of business. She'd wanted to be a part of that business, but hadn't been asked. Better she took care of things here first.
Her empty coffee cup still sat on the railing where she'd left it. Almost a message. As if it waited for her, just as Pete had done all those years.
Another heavy sigh slipped out. Seemed to be all she did these days. There was so much trauma and so many adjustments. But such was her life right now.
Pete had put up with a lot from her. She could only hope he'd put up with a little more.
She walked inside the cabin and thankfully found both Pete and Janelle sound asleep. She couldn't deny the sense of relief at not being questioned about being so long or about bringing her work once again into the home. And there was coffee. Feeling like she'd been given a reprieve, she filled her cup and snuck back outside to enjoy it.
Once settled on the verandah, Chad filled her mind. He looked the same. Older, more mature, harder even, as if he'd seen a lot more of the darker side of life than most people had. Then so had she. They were so much alike; even the paths they'd taken had been along the same lines. What they'd had back then had been so special, and so short lived, she felt like she'd been looking to repeat it ever since – but hadn't found a way of doing it.
She frowned and stared down at her swirling coffee. Life with Pete had been good. It was just different. It didn't matter if it hadn't been the same. Pete was here and now.
Chad and she had gone their own ways a long time ago. It was not like they had a relationship to go back to, not anymore.
Melancholic and borderline depressed, she couldn't fathom a way forward.
Then she heard the sound of more vehicles. She wondered which specialist they'd brought and realized yet another truth. She wanted, no needed, to be part of that team. She had to be involved; to know for sure that no mistakes were being made, and that no shortcut had been taken that would stop them from getting to the truth.
And yet she had no right to be involved. She shuddered.
Her cell phone rang. "Hello."
"Are you busy?" Chad's strong voice came through as loud and clear, as if he were standing beside her.
She almost looked to see if he was. "Not more than I was a few moments ago when I left you. Why?"
"I need an anthropologist. The team came without an archaeologist or an anthropologist. They've been trying to find one who is available but aren't having much luck."
"I want to," she answered slowly, knowing he needed a specialist to collect the remains and work on their identification. "But that might not be a good idea given our potential connection with the victim."
"But we don't know who the victim is at this point. There are many missing women cases. And your name on this list of consulting experts came up and you're here on the spot. And there is the weather factor. There's supposed to be a storm tonight. We have limited options. If you can give us a hand collecting the remains and the evidence, it would be a great time saver. The longer the remains stay here, the less chance we have of collecting all the evidence. And once the media find out, the more people there'll be out here digging around..." He left the rest hanging.
She understood. The media would latch onto the discovery within hours, if not sooner, and then there'd be the curiosity seekers. They had to have everything collected before then.
It's what she'd hoped for. The opportunity she hadn't expected to be offered.
"I'm on my way." She clicked her phone closed and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Janelle's soft voice crept through the screen door. Meg instinctively hunched her shoulders. With yet another sigh, she opened the door, placed her mug on the counter, then hugged her niece. "Some men need my help for a couple of hours. It's just down the road. I won't even need to take the truck."
She pe
ered into Janelle's eyes, hoping she understood and was okay with it. But a maturity well beyond her twelve years stared back at her. "You found a body down there, didn't you?"
Meg wanted to lie, wanted to keep death out of the cabin, only it had already crept in. She whispered ever so softly, "Yes. I did."
There was no change in Janelle's gaze but she hung on Meg's every word. "I will be back as soon as I can. I promise."
"Take me with you."
The plea was so soft and hesitant it almost broke Meg's heart. She gathered Janelle into her arms. "I can't, honey. That's no place for a child."
Or for a niece who had too much death in her life already.
Janelle pulled back, her body vibrating in outrage. "I'm not a child anymore, Auntie Meg."
"I know." And she had been through so much that she'd grown up more than most other kids her age. "But in the eyes of the law you are." She smiled down, reaching to tug a stray strand of hair back off Janelle's face. "I'll be as fast as I can."
Janelle's' eyes bored into Meg's as if by will alone she could force Meg to return faster. "Promise?"
With a lopsided smile, Meg promised.
"And if she isn't, we'll go down and drag her back up here." Pete's smooth voice spoke from the living room behind them. Still tucking his shirt into his jeans, he nodded at Meg, adding in a slightly colder voice, "So be quick or we'll be the first two of your curious public."
She winced. It was so not the role she wanted Janelle to be in. And she understood Pete's warning. Not liking it, but knowing it was the best she'd get under the circumstances, she dropped a kiss on Janelle's cheeks and headed for the door.
It was only as the screen slammed behind her that she realized she hadn't kissed Pete good-bye. Again.
Outside in the fresh air, racing down the path to the work she loved, she could leave behind the anger, the sense of oppression, the uncomfortable changes that life had forced upon her. She loved both Pete and Janelle more than life itself, but that life had become incredibly wearying lately.
She could only hope better times were coming.
And maybe this was just what she needed. Inside a building excitement took over. What if they'd finally found Cia? She could leave that part of her life behind.
And finally get on with her future.
CHAPTER 5
Chad and his team were waiting for her.
She nodded to the others, listened to his brief introductions then went to the truck. They'd brought suits and supplies. She geared up, grabbed her gloves, and several tools and moved carefully to the remains. On the way, she murmured to Chad in passing, "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Figured you would like to be in on this one," he said with a knowing look in his eyes.
She paused, gave him a quick glance. "In all ways," she said then bent down and got to work.
The work over the next few hours was painstaking. As she concentrated on the remains, Chad stayed close by, but out of her way and that of the rest of the team as they went about mapping the scene, photographing and marking finds. The bones were scattered and, once located, were marked. Trees had fallen over time in a criss-cross pattern, keeping the bones relatively contained.
Meg worked on the torso. Under and surrounding the rib cage, tiny rotten pieces of material poked through the surface debris. As Cia might have been only in a bathing suit at the time of her disappearance, that would also fit. Some materials had decomposed entirely, and others only partially. Some had never deteriorated. The lab would be able to determine more. The original color of the material was no longer identifiable, having been stained some kind of deep woodsy color.
All the moss that grew on and around the bones had to be collected and returned to the lab to make sure there wasn't evidence in the foliage. They'd had commercial lights set up to assist in the collection process. They gave a weird sci-fi glow to the area.
In spite of her best efforts to remain neutral, her heart was pounding as she lifted each piece of bone and examined it looking for answers. The bones had been cleaned by Mother Nature, giving further proof of the length of time the body had been exposed to the elements.
"The remains are scattered. We'll need to search for all the pieces." She glanced around looking for other markers. Considering the location and fallen trees, that made sense. There were signs of animal activity and that was to be expected too. "Both femurs are missing."
"We have a femur over here," one of the other techs called out from beside her. Straightening, Meg winced as she realized how long she'd been bent over in that position. She stretched slightly, gave a slight moan, and then stepped back to hand over the last of the bones she'd tagged to be moved to the truck. There was more to do, but the work was moving quickly. She glanced at her cell phone. Not bad timing; even Pete shouldn't be too upset at her for this.
She made her way over to where the femur lay. Picking it up carefully, she noted the head appeared to have fused. That placed the victim between the ages of 18 and 24. Cia had been 18 at the time of her disappearance. Given the length of time, which she could only estimate...
Chad held up a tape measure – their gazes meeting. He quickly measured the length while she did the mental calculations. "The victim was right around 5 feet tall."
A long, hard breath shuddered free from Chad. "And Cia was five feet tall, a hair over, as she liked to say."
Meg nodded. She closed her eyes. Then straightening her spine, she said, "Let's finish this."
The excavation was time consuming to do properly. With the animal activity there had been around the remains, she wanted to make sure she had every bone possible. Two more of the ribs lay at her feet off to the right, and a couple spine bones were on top of each other to the left.
The skull was next. She moved it onto a large sheet and examined it carefully. She kept her feet firmly in place to avoid shifting anything just in case she lost something important. There were no head wounds indicating a blow to the head having been the cause of her death. There were small animal marks but the top of the skull was amazingly undamaged. The lower jaw bone, in similar shape, was placed next to the skull. She was happy to see large healthy teeth and even happier to see the molars. Not only should they be able to pull DNA from them for identification, but they certainly put the age of the victim within the 17-22 range, which was another point in favor of these bones being Cia's remains.
As she scooped up the debris from around the head, a smaller, white bone caught her eye. She lifted it carefully and held it up, her professional eye immediately understanding that she was holding the hyoid bone.
The breath gushed out of her chest, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe. It was too early to make a formal cause of death and she, for all she wanted to be in on the examination of these remains, might not be the one to find the official cause of death. Yet this bone gave her a lead in that direction. It had been fractured.
And it answered one question – in her mind, at least.
Chad leaned closer. "What did you find?"
She looked over at him, her eyes wide, knowing the sheen of tears in them were unmistakable. An eerie silence filled the air. Several of the team walked closer, as if understanding something important was about to happen.
"This victim..." she swallowed back Cia's name, "was strangled." Then, she couldn't help herself from whispering, "Cia was murdered."
***
Chad stared at the small bone in Meg's hands. He swallowed hard. They'd known it. There'd really been no other answer.
But knowing it wasn't the same as proving it. And he knew it was too early for conclusive identification, but given everything they knew so far, he was sure they'd finally found Cia. And that made his spine freeze. At this moment in time, everything locked down as he realized what had happened here seventeen years ago.
His gaze fastened onto Meg's, knowing that she was thinking the same thing. The sadness in her eyes, the inside knowledge of what Cia had gone through – that same knowledge was strea
ming through his mind. Strangulation wasn't easy to do effectively. Cia, so tiny and petite, would have fought like a tiger, claws and teeth if she'd had to. But given her size, there wasn't much hope of her throwing off a good-sized male attacker.
He nodded, breaking the locked gazes. "Okay. Let's finish this. Let's take Cia home."
***
With Chad's words echoing in her mind, Meg returned to the job at hand, focused and determined to do her part in solving this mystery. Her heart hurt from Cia's pain and the sense of fear that she could swear still lingered over the area, so strong and thick it was as if she could reach out and touch it. Meg knew it was the memories, the inside knowledge that made this job so much more difficult for her.
But the same inside knowledge also made her the right person to be here – helping to take their friend back home.
The hours went by as Meg worked on with incredible thoroughness – to the point of overkill. But she refused to let up. She didn't dare miss anything.
As the last of the bones were collected and packed for transporting, she walked back to where she'd found the skull and bent down for one last look. Something glinting below the skeleton suddenly caught her eye.
She crouched lower and carefully scooped up the next layer including what had caught her eye. It was a necklace. Using her fingers, she gently tried to clean it, but it was as organic looking as the debris around it. It was a small, simple heart pendant. She remembered all the girls wearing them back then. Turning it over, she found something had been inscribed on the back of the heart.
"What did you find?" Chad dropped down beside her. His breath caught as he saw what she held in her hand. His voice hoarse, urgent, asked, "Can you read it?"
Using a flashlight, she tried to read the inscription. She could barely make out the words. Oh God. Her heart squeezed and her breath locked deep inside.
Wordlessly, she held it up into the light so he could read it for himself. He whispered reverently, "For Mags. Love you always."
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