"Let's go." Chad led the way up the new path that veered uphill to the right of where they were.
"This place is full of trails."
"I suppose that's no surprise given the years, the population and the summer influx of tourists."
"But this isn't the most hospitable location for hiking." She caught her breath as she crested the rise to stand beside him. "Or maybe it is. This is gorgeous."
The whole lake had opened up in front of them. Between the trees, the blue water twinkled and shone happily. They could see clear across it.
"Obviously, more than a few people know about this spot," Meg said.
He smiled at her grimly. "It's time to canvas the locals again."
"Go for it. I'm staying here for a bit," she retorted staring at the beautiful vista. With the sun barely reaching through the trees the air was heavily scented with pine. A gust of wind blew toward them, lifting the leaves and dropping even more.
"I'm not leaving you alone up here."
***
Meg turned to look at him in surprise. "Why?"
"For several reasons, but the one I'm going to go with is that there is still a murderer walking around free and who is probably aware of what we are doing here right now."
She wrinkled up her face. "Nice thought. Not."
He smiled. "Is there anything else you want to look at while we're up here?"
"Lots." And there was. "I think this whole place needs to be explored. There could be a dozen bodies here. How do we know Cia was the only victim?"
She turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. "Or had you already considered that?"
"Considered and dismissed." He shrugged. "At least until any evidence comes up that points us in that direction."
"Including Cia – until now." She studied his face. "They had some bad storms a while back, didn't they?"
He snorted. "Are you kidding? The weather patterns today versus the weather patterns of seventeen years ago? No comparison. I don't know if it's because of global warming or what, but this area has been hit with a lot of storms. Like you said, there were a few bad ones a couple of months ago."
Meg ignored him. Cia's remains had slid down somewhere from where they'd first climbed. That small ledge up ahead wasn't a large space but it was big enough. And that fallen tree could hide many things.
She pointed to the one area in question. "I want to go back over there."
He never questioned her reasoning, just headed back to where they had started. It was a rougher climb getting back up. For every step she took, she slid back as her feet tried to dig into the hillside to grab hold. The slippery leaves made her boots slide more than climb. Finally, they made it the top, and with chest heaving, Meg gasped for air. "That wasn't much fun."
"No. The ground is still wet from the rain."
She walked a few steps back from the edge, afraid it might all go. "It would take someone in good shape to climb up here."
"Maybe and maybe not." Chad pulled a folded map out of his pocket. He studied it for a moment then pointed to a spot. "Look. This road goes further up. It should pass somewhere here," he turned to look up the slope – then pointed, "Somewhere up there. And it's much easier to come down a slope like this than go up one."
Why hadn't she considered that? It was much easier to see their position on a map than from within the heavy tree growth. "So they could dump the body easily enough." She kicked the heavy leaves at her feet. "And in this ground, it would be easy to bury the body."
"If they cared to…"
"True enough." Some killers never buried their victims, preferring to either having nothing more to do with them once dumped or enjoying the sight of their handiwork again and again. Turning a professional eye on the scene, she studied the ledge and the hill above it. "You can see where some of the dirt and soil have eroded. That tree would have caused a mess of damage, too."
"This area was searched when we found the remains. No one found anything."
The ledge was close to fifteen feet across and almost completely buried under this massive tree that had to have come down in a storm. The tree had fallen with the trunk downhill and hanging off the ledge. Large roots had dug into the soft dirt, keeping the tree in a weird hanging balance. The heavy branches lay uphill and across this ridge, but in the process, they appeared to have knocked away a large portion of the original ledge. Hence, the slide that sent Cia's remains down the hill.
She looked at the tree, seeing more dirt and leaves already layered on top of it. "Look."
Meg pointed down to where one of Chad's team was standing at the site of the remains. The tech was planting a large pole in the ground to use for measuring distances. "After a couple of years in that lower position, this slide has become almost natural looking. It's completely covered in leaves and deadfall now. That tree didn't come down this year. It had to have been down for at least a year – if not two to three years ago. I'm sure an expert will be able to tell."
"And the locals might be able to add something."
She walked to the far side and looked over the edge.
Chad grabbed her arm. "Careful."
Standing beside her, he pointed to John, now walking around the campground, cell phone in his hand, talking into it. "The campsite is still easy to pinpoint."
Meg turned her back and tried to peer on the other side of the tree. It was huge. With a backward glance at Chad still facing the lake and talking to his team, she slowly climbed on top of the tree trunk. Once up, she balanced and walked several steps forward to where the braches were thickest at the top of the downed tree. She crouched down and peered between the bark and sticks criss-crossing everywhere. She couldn't tell for the darkness and dirt if there was anything valuable in there to find or not.
"See something?"
"Can't tell; it's hard to see," she called back.
"Here's a flashlight if that helps." He hopped up on to the log behind her.
And Meg felt it move." Shit."
"Whoa. I'm off." He jumped down. "Careful, that's not very stable." He moved around slightly to come up on the side. "See if you can reach?" he held out the flashlight for her. She shook her head. "Just toss it."
He gently lofted it into the air and she snatched it safely. "Got it."
"Good, take a quick look then get off quick. We don't want the whole thing going down."
She turned the flashlight on and faced it into the shadows. Had the techs searched this closely? There – more sticks, more leaves, more dirt. She cast the long halo of light over and around the space, trying to make sure she got a good look.
Then she stopped. Her heart raced. She could just make out something jammed under the branches. She caught her breath. There was something white. Something round. Something dead.
Shit.
Another skull.
CHAPTER 16
Meg listened to the discussion with half an ear. She knew what she'd found, she just couldn't reconcile it with being related to Cia's murder. Had she been killed by a stranger after all? And by a serial killer, no less? Had he been here dumping a previous victim, seen her on the beach and snatched her?
Her mind spun even as plans were being put into motion around her. It had been hours since they'd first discovered the second body. Hours of phone calls and plans being made, maps being pulled out and looked at and people talking. And yet more talking.
She knew the next steps were incredibly important. They needed to excavate that entire ledge down to where she'd found Cia's remains. There was no way to know what else might have gone down in the slide. She'd only seen the one skull up there, so there was no way to know exactly how many they would find. The ledge was big enough for dozens.
What she did know was that this was a whole different issue now. More than one set of remains changed the nature of the killer. And the profiles of the victims all came into question. And who'd had access to this location?
So often, bodies were dumped where no one ever found them. Henc
e, killers made deals with the police to give up their victims' locations.
She sighed heavily, hating the ache in her heart that seemed to permeate her whole body. She'd be sore tomorrow. And that sandwich she hadn't cared about eating on the drive in was long gone. She was going to need to find more food soon and some coffee too.
They were waiting for chainsaws and the men to operate them. The tree needed to be removed so as to not disturb the remains caught in its branches. It was big and old and would need to be taken out section by section.
A cup of hot liquid was shoved into her hands. She stared at it in surprise, then with dawning delight. Coffee! "Thank you," she murmured, blowing steam upward to bathe her tired eyes.
"Are you cold?" Chad asked sitting down at the picnic table beside her.
"No, I'm fine." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Just a little overwhelmed."
"With good reason."
"It changes everything and nothing. I can't help but wonder if that weekend created a serial killer out of one of our friends or if a serial killer found a conveniently close victim."
"Too early to tell; you'll make yourself crazy thinking about it right now." He took a sip from the hot cup in his hand. "I'm going to take the men up to the scene and have them start sectioning off the tree from the bottom."
"I'm coming." She stood up.
"Why not stay here and rest?"
She shook her head. "No, I need to be there. It's going to take hours, so let's get started." Determined to do her part, she walked into line behind the techs leading the men and the saws. There were three men with three saws. "Or maybe it won't take that long."
***
But it did.
Not only was there little room for anyone to stand, but no one could work at the area Meg had marked off to search for bone remnants and other evidence until the tree was dismantled and carried out of the way.
She and Chad stood at the second ledge and watched the work in progress. Chad had already photographed the area several times, and appeared to be intent on cataloguing every step of the process.
She couldn't blame him. These pictures would be valuable.
"Could this place be visible from the aerial photographs?"
"No, I've gone over the old aerial photographs many times. Once Google earth is updated, I will get the updates and compare them to the older versions. The tree growth is just too thick in here."
Some of the men had finished cutting the lower half of the tree into log slices and the other two men were cutting it into removable pieces, while another moved higher up and cut off another segment.
"Once he has that piece out of the way, we'd be better off starting to remove branches or parts of branches." She motioned to where the larger branches on the ledge dominated. "He's going to be an hour doing that, easily."
"I doubt it." Chad smiled. "Maybe twenty minutes, tops."
And Chad was right.
Impatiently, Meg waited until the last section had been cleared enough for her to stand in, then led the way back to the remains. She studied the branch pattern looking to open up the space while not disturbing anything below. The man operating the chain saw had the same idea. He started removing the branches on top first and with Chad's help, lifted them clear and laid them to one side.
They did that for the next four big branches, then he started separating branches from the trunk and chewing into the wood, until all that was left was the top ten to fifteen feet of the tree and the branches propping up the main trunk. Systematically, with both Meg and Chad helping, they removed the last of the branches from the ledge.
When the final smaller branches were removed, Meg pulled out her camera and took some pictures. There wasn't a lot to see at this point, just the leaves from the fallen tree and dirt the branches had snagged to pull down on top of them.
She stepped back and studied the area.
"Are you good to go?" Chad asked.
"I need my tools and gloves." And so much more, she thought, but didn't say it. He knew what she needed. They'd been here before. She turned to smile at him but he'd taken off down to the truck. She watched until he had made it to the truck and had grabbed her bag. He started back up. Hearing a sound, she turned around with a smile. Her gaze landed on the man who'd operated the chain saw. She nodded to him.
"Thanks for the help and for being so careful..."
He was wearing a hard hat and earmuffs with a full shield protecting his face. Even so, she recognized something about him.
He grimaced, pulled off his hard hat and nodded to her. "You're welcome, Meg."
She gasped in astonishment.
"Pete!"
***
Chad was almost to the path where he'd stood with Meg earlier when he heard her cry out. He searched the cliff edge in panic, but she was still standing where he'd left her. And she appeared fine – but maybe not so fine after all. She was stiff and although she was talking to the man in front of her, she wasn't smiling. He couldn't hear the conversation, but there was just something about her demeanour that worried him.
And had she said Pete? Was he her boyfriend? That wouldn't be good. But his appearance wasn't totally unexpected. Duh! He wished he'd been there to see Pete's reaction. And meet him. Who was this man who had held Meg's love for over a decade? It would be interesting to know him.
With his arms full, he hoofed his way back up the hill on the path. At the path junction, he scrambled up to the ledge and almost lost his load.
"Easy. Let me help." Meg reached out and half unloaded her gear. "I should have come and helped you."
"Not needed. I managed just fine. He straightened and caught his breath. Pete wasn't here. "Where did our chainsaw operator go?"
Meg winced. "Home – it was Pete. He got a call asking him to come and lend a hand here."
"Pete?" He studied her face. It was normal. Not stressed, upset or angry. "Are you two okay?"
She shrugged. "He didn't have much to say, just a hello."
"And that's it?" He didn't know what to say. "Isn't that a little odd, considering you've moved out?"
"Yeah, well, I told him I'd moved out for a few days to think too." She smiled grimly. "Maybe I should have said more, but it was really not the place."
"How did he respond?"
She smiled. "He nodded and said he understood. He also said he was sorry about the mess here and that it was a sad business."
"Yeah, isn't that the truth."
He watched as Meg turned her attention to the scene in front of them, effectively killing off the conversation.
***
Meg didn't want to discuss the totally awkward meeting with Pete. He looked good. Happy and at peace.
She couldn't ask for more. The one thing seeing him again had done for her was that it had helped her realize the truth – that it was over. She'd had a few pangs of sadness, a twinge of grief, regrets for what had been, but at the same time, there was no longer that pull. What they'd had, had died a slow death this last year and although they were both to blame, her maybe more than him, there was no sense of guilt.
An era had passed. And as for her, she was just grateful this meeting had been in private. He'd seemed to understand. He'd been friendly and she couldn't ask for more at this point.
Now she had something else to focus on and she could park Pete where he belonged – in her past. She walked carefully to the area which had been marked off. She stood and studied the ground, looking for a place to start. Then she got down to work, clearing the bits of branches away and searching for the layers underneath. There was the skull up on the left against the hillside and a femur tip sat on the right. It had yet to be determined if they were from the same body. She suspected that as she dug into this mess, there was likely to be more than one body here. A tap on her shoulder had her turning to face Chad.
"What?"
He pointed to the left, several feet in front of the skull. Covered by leaves and small sticks, easy to miss because of the full eye
sockets, was yet another skull.
Sadness crept through her tired frame. "Damn."
"It's what you expected though, isn't it?"
She nodded, her gaze moving slowly across the surface and back to the hillside. Her gaze zipped past and then back again. There was a jaw bone, still partially attached to another skull. "There's number three."
"I wonder how many we'll find before we're done."
"Too many. Let's get at it."
***
Stephanie smiled at the gruesome clown face in front of her. Weird… Then, a lot of things in her life were weird. Tonight was the most bizarre. One minute she'd been rushing into a coffee shop and the next thing her head hurt and she was here. In Clownsville…
She peered through the darkness, trying to sort out the strange images from the truth. If she hadn't known better, she might have thought she'd taken a bad acid trip. Unfortunately, she'd experienced more of those than she cared to remember. Was this was another one? It had to be, nothing else made sense.
Her head lolled to one side. She tried to straighten it. Only she hadn't enough strength to keep it up. Breathing was about all she could do. And sleep. She was good at that part.
And forgetting – she'd spent a lifetime trying to forget her life. For the most part, she'd done well… maybe too well.
Her eyes fell shut. She tried to open them again but couldn't.
Her stomach heaved and wild crazy colors zinged through her mind. The room spun and twisted. And as for her stomach...God, her stomach...
She curled into a tight ball and buried her face in her hands.
Please, let this be over, soon.
CHAPTER 17
Meg straightened slowly, almost crying out as the twinge in her back struck back. Damn, it had been a long night. And it was still ongoing. She stopped to look around. Eerie shadows from the big lights filled the small space as teams in white worked quietly away in the darkness.
It was a scene out of a horror movie or her life. How many times had she been in a similar scenario before? There'd been almost too many times to count them.
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