J. Margos - Shattered Image

When we arrived, I was relieved to see the State Crime Lab folks were already on the scene and had it under control. Drew had told the chief not to touch anything and to keep the scene guarded and secure until they could get there. He had dispatched the crime lab people immediately and they were hard at work.

We had parked the car at the end of a dirt road that led around the edge of the property and had walked the rest of the way into the woods to the spot. One of Chief Grant’s men had been waiting for us and led us in. As we walked up onto the site, I witnessed the same archaeological methods I had seen applied in Austin in the removal of these bones.

We greeted Chief Grant and he gave us the rundown.

“The two women came out to this place because they heard that we weren’t able to get a warrant. They were frustrated, so they took matters into their own hands. It didn’t quite turn out the way they expected, but all’s well, etcetera.”

“I hear the trespassing charges were dropped,” I said, smiling.

The chief rolled his eyes. “Crazy old guy was going to throw a monkey wrench into the whole works with all that nonsense. I made it clear to him that we were going to investigate this report with or without his permission. His wife is the one who talked sense to him.” The chief smiled. “She told him how the cow ate the cabbage, and that was it.”

“Good,” I said.

“The women tell me this was one of Brian’s alternate routes off of the property. He would occasionally come out this way after a bird-watching jaunt.”

“I’ll want to question those women, Chief,” Drew said.

“I know. I have them down at the station with one of my men. I’ve told them they’d have to wait for you before they could go home. I just didn’t want them out here watching all this, so I made them stay in town.”

“That’s fine. I’ll talk to them first and then I want to come back out here and talk to the owner of this place before I leave.”

“No problem,” Chief Grant said.

I moved closer to the site and looked at the grave that was being unearthed. It looked as though a larger area had been dug up and the soil replaced, but only this part was mounded up for the grave. I wondered if this was the site of the original burials. It would explain the larger area where the earth had obviously been disturbed.

“Chief, this larger area where the dirt has obviously been recently disturbed, has this been looked at? Is this something that Burkhardt did?”

“I asked him about that and he says he hasn’t even been to these woods in as long as seven or eight months. He rides out here occasionally, but he’s getting real old and doesn’t come out as often he used to.”

I looked back at the dig area. The bones had been dumped-jumbled just like the other two sites. Why would the bones have been removed and reburied like this?

“Drew, I want copies of the photos your lab folks have taken here.”

“No problem, but why do you want them?”

“I’m going to show them to Leo Driskill.”

“Sure. That’s fine. I’ll make sure you get a set.”

“Thanks.”

The scene enthralled me. I locked on to it visually, but really emotionally. I knew this had to be the original burial site. The murderer had buried his victims here and then come back to unearth them, moving at least two of them. He probably murdered them here as well.

“Drew, this is probably the site of the murders, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I do.”

Blood had been spilled here-the blood of three people. What kind of person could do that? How do you kill three people and then bury their bloody bodies in a mass grave like this? I stood and pondered it all for a while. I couldn’t imagine the killer’s rage in doing this, or the fear Addie must have felt to know that he was going to kill them. I thought of Brian probably struggling to get away before he was killed. That’s probably why he was shot so many times, and not shot in the head. I shuddered to think of all of it. The evil of that place hung like a death shroud there. Then I wondered if anyone would ever know the truth about Addie and Doug, and what had happened here, or if the mystery would be eternal.

“You need to get those soil samples to the same folks at A &M that Chris was working with.”

“I’m already on that, too, Toni.” He smiled.

I sighed. “Sorry. It’s just that I’ve been looking for some break in this case and I haven’t been able to come up with anything. Now, this looks like the original site…”

Drew patted me on the shoulder. “I know. Your problem is, you don’t know how to deal with a case that has you stumped.” He chuckled.

“Well, I get involved with people when I rebuild their faces.”

“I know.”

Mike and Tommy had arrived and were shown in. They looked over my way and nodded and then checked everything out for themselves. They spoke with a couple of the forensic techs and then came over to where Drew and I were standing.

“This is it, isn’t it, Toni?” Tommy asked.

“Yes.”

“You doing the reconstruct, Mom?”

“Yes. That’s why Drew brought me down here-well, it’s the main reason anyway.”

“We’re going to town in just a minute and question the two women who found the grave. I’m sure you two will want to go with us,” Drew said.

“Absolutely,” Tommy replied.

We talked amongst ourselves a few more minutes, then Drew gave final instructions to the lab people, and he, Mike, Tommy and I went back into town with Chief Grant.

The women had been held waiting a long time. They were tired, but worse yet, they were very emotionally shaken. The two were still recovering from the remains of their friend, Brian, being found. Even though it had been their conscious choice to go looking for “evidence” on the old Gunther farm, neither woman had expected to stumble over a skeleton. While viewing skeletal remains might be a common occurrence for me, it was definitely a pretty unsettling event for most people.

Drew was now working the case with Mike and Tommy, but he had asked them if they would let him lead the questioning of the women. When he was done with all his questions, they could add any that he hadn’t covered. He didn’t have to ask them if this was all right-Mike and Tommy had no jurisdiction in this part of the world, but Drew asked anyway. That was just Drew Smith’s way.

When we walked into the chief’s office, the two women were sitting with the patrolman on duty at the front desk. They had been provided with hot tea and they looked as though they were in need of that and some bourbon. We took both of them into the chief’s private office.

Drew began, “Ladies, first of all you both did us a favor by finding and reporting the skeleton on Mr. Burkhardt’s property, but you are very lucky that he did not shoot you, or file charges against you.”

The two women glanced at one another with concern.

“We know that, Lieutenant,” Julie said, “but we were not going to let that old man and his stubbornness stop the progress in finding Brian’s killer.”

“Right,” Frances chimed in. “So, does the skeleton we found have anything to do with it all?”

“We don’t know for sure yet,” Drew said, “but it probably does. Dr. Sullivan here will be able to help us with that. She’s going to give the deceased his or her face back. Then we can begin to answer some questions.”

“I guess the finding of this skeleton could just be some kind of weird coincidence, though, huh?” Julie asked.

“I suppose it could be, Miss Paine,” Drew responded, “but I personally don’t believe in weird coincidences-particularly when it involves old skeletons in parts of the world where a murdered man and woman are known to have been previously buried.”