Page 5

It was noon when they arrived at the dig site.

Michael parked his enormous land yacht of an SUV in a dirt lot a thousand feet from the crime scene.

The Delaware River flowed a hundred feet in front of the lot, and a few people fished from the bridge or watched the river flow gently southeast to its eventual end at Delaware Bay.

Faith frowned when she saw them. “Are we going to have a problem with looky-loos?”

Michael looked up at the crime scene on top of a shallow hill. “Doesn’t look like it. I don’t see anyone up there right now. If there were looky-loos, the cops must have cleared them out.”

The two agents got out of the car. Turk jumped out and barked exuberantly as he trotted to the river. Faith felt a pang as she called him back. He just wanted to play in the water. He couldn’t do that, though, because they had a job to do. See? He’d have fun if he was retired. He’d—

“Hey! One of the fishermen called. “You mind shutting your dog up? He’s scaring all the fish!”

Then again…

She lifted a hand in apology and waved Turk back to her. A female voice behind her said, “Jesus, why are there so many assholes in the world?”

Faith turned around to see a beautiful woman of around forty with auburn hair that had yet to reveal a trace of gray, hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and a slightly upturned nose that made her otherwise goddess-like face look flirty and playful.

It wasn’t hard to believe that the grad student who’d found the body had a thing for her.

The beauty smiled and offered a hand. “I’m Dr. Anna Winters. Thank you guys for coming on such short notice.”

“Not a problem,” Faith replied, taking her hand. “That’s what we do. Special Agent Faith Bold.”

Michael shook her hand next. “Michael Prince. And the big guy here is Turk.”

Turk barked formally, and the fisherman called back, “Hey! Seriously!”

One of the other fishermen retorted. “Shut the hell up, Jeremy. The fish aren’t biting ‘cause you smell like a damned dumpster.”

That earned a chortle from the rest of the group and a chuckle from Faith.

“Gotta love New York, right?” Anna said. Her smile faded, and she looked up the hill.

“Let’s head up to the scene,” Faith suggested. “On the way, why don’t you fill me in on what happened?”

Anna nodded. The group started up the unmarked dirt path to the site. “Well, I was taking a break when Brad told me that he’d found something I needed to see.”

“Brad is one of your graduate students?” Faith confirmed.

“Yes. Bradley Rossdale. He’s one of my best students. Works harder than almost anyone I’ve seen.”

I’ll bet he does. “So he tells you he found something, and you follow him to the crime scene.”

She nodded again. “Yes. We’re digging in sections.

One section at a time. At least, we’re trying to.

The grad students are competitive, and everyone wants to be the person to score the next ‘big find’ so sometimes people will sneak off to dig elsewhere.

As long as it’s not holding back work, I let them. We’ve found quite a bit that way.”

That gave Brad a somewhat less lustful reason for digging around. He might have just wanted to impress the teacher and not the beauty. Most likely, it was a combination of both.

“And where is Brad now?”

Anna frowned slightly. “He’s at home. I gave him the rest of the week off. He wasn’t really enthused about what happened. I don’t know if you know this or not, but he actually grabbed the dead man’s arm.”

“We read his statement,” Faith said.

“You don’t think he’s a suspect, do you?” Anna asked.

“No. From what I understand, Hancock PD verified his alibi.”

“Yeah, he and I were having drinks at a local bar. And the other grad students,” she added quickly. “Not too many drinks. Just a couple. I like when the research team really feels like family. People work better that way, and there’s less squabbling over whose name gets attached to what discovery.”

They arrived at the dig site, and Anna brightened visibly. “Well, here we are!” she said. “The site of the only confirmed battle between the Mohawk Nation and the Lenape in this area.”

“Were the two tribes supposed to be friends?” Faith asked.

"Off and on. Enemies off and on. Politics among Native Americans were similar to politics everywhere else in the world.

Sometimes they got along, sometimes they didn't. The Iroquois Confederacy bordered the Delaware Nation, so they clashed a lot.

Not often seriously, though. Aside from the Beaver Wars and the French and Indian War, they tended to stay out of each other's way as much as possible.

Which wasn't always possible since they were right next door to each other, but…

well, anyway, there hasn't been a record of anything more than a couple of squabbles between hunting parties this far east. I now have proof that there was a full-scale conflict between the two tribes.

And if the initial date estimates are correct, that fighting took place as early as the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries, completely predating European contact.

The implications of that could be enormous. "

Faith looked over the dig site. Teams of people worked in different excavations covering a ten-acre plateau on top of the hill. A few of the closer teams glanced at Anna and waved. Faith noted the casual attitude and frowned. “No one seems all that shaken up by the discovery of a body.”

“It could be that they’ve discovered hundreds of bodies,” Michael said.

Faith looked at him, and he pointed at a table sitting on a flat patch of ground in between several of the small digs. Her stomach turned when she realized that the brownish sticks piled on top of it weren’t sticks after all but human bones.

“You can blame me for their calmness,” Anna said in a tone that suggested she didn’t really feel bad about it. “I made it clear that the crime scene was off limits and that we would cooperate with law enforcement but otherwise, we were to focus on our job and let the police focus on theirs.”

“No one’s worried?” Faith asked. “Working here a few feet away from where someone was killed and buried?”

Anna shrugged. “We have a job to do even if we’re worried.”

Faith couldn’t argue with that. “So Brad showed you the body, and you called it in?”

“I told him to call it in,” Anna replied.

“Gotcha. And no one else saw the body before the police arrived?”

“No, I didn’t want a panic, and I didn’t want anyone else messing with the crime scene, so I told Brad to keep it to himself until the police arrived, at which point, I made a brief announcement to the team, the subject of which I’ve already told you.”

Faith nodded. “All right. Show us the scene, please.”

Anna led the three of them to a stand of short trees.

Or tall bushes. Faith wasn't really sure what the dividing line was.

On the other side of the stand was an opening that led to a small clearing.

The opening was blocked by yellow tape warning people to keep out, but since this was Faith's crime scene now, she sent Turk under the tape. "Go ahead, boy."

Turk obliged and trotted into the plat of freshly turned dirt, nose to the ground.

“As you can see,” Anna said, “the dirt was recently turned over.”

“And you’re sure Brad wasn’t the one who did it?”

“I’m sure. He was only out of my sight for fifteen minutes. That’s not enough time to have dug that grave, even though it was shallow.”

“I don’t know if I agree with that,” Faith said. “If it was shallow enough that the victim’s hand could have accidentally been grabbed by Brad, then it can’t have been more than a few inches deep.”

“It was two feet deep,” Anna corrected. “Brad believed—as did I—that the arrangement of the bushes here was artificial, indicating a shrine—possibly to a fallen leader—or a memorial to the battle. It was common for Natives in the area to erect memorials at the conclusion of a conflict to remind others that the fighting had concluded, and a resolution reached. Not that such tokens stopped them from fighting again.”

Faith didn’t want to be rude, but now wasn’t the time for a history lesson.. “I’ll want to talk to Brad anyway,” she said briskly. “Even if he’s not an accomplice, I want to get his impression of what he saw here.”

“You can talk to me now,” a voice called from behind them.

Faith turned around to see a young man who was just as much of a stunner as Anna was.

He was a good fifteen years younger than her, and his boyish face showed it, but his chiseled jaw, blue eyes, and sandy blonde hair would have made anyone attracted to men weak at the knees regardless of their age.

His build was athletic and unfairly symmetrical, and Faith wasn’t surprised at all to see Anna color.

It looked like the attraction between the two was mutual.

“What are you doing here?” Anna asked him. “I told you to go home.”

“I don’t want to go home,” Brad protested. “I want to work.”

“I appreciate that,” Anna replied, “but I need you at a hundred percent. I don’t think you can be at a hundred percent after witnessing something like that.”

Her tone was perfectly professional. Brad might be a hunk, but he was also her student. Faith respected that. Look, but don't touch.

Unfortunately, Brad had touched a dead person’s arm before he had the chance to look. “How long were you here digging before you discovered the body?” Faith asked him.

"Ten minutes," he said. "I already apologized to Dr. Winters. We weren't supposed to be digging here, but I thought if I could find something important here, it might look good on my CV."

“I understand that’s a fairly common occurrence,” Faith said. “How did you figure out that there was a dead man here?”

“I struck something with my shovel and thought it was a body. I mean a Native body. Like an old one.”

“But it was a new body,” Michael inferred.

Brad nodded. He swallowed, and Faith noticed a slight tremble in his knees.

Turk trotted to him and pressed his shoulder to the young man’s leg so Brad could stoop down and stroke his fur.

Faith wasn’t too suspicious of Brad to begin with, but seeing Turk’s behavior around him eased the slight concern she’d had.

“Yeah, I tossed the shovel and started digging with my trowel. That’s what we use so we don’t damage things. I mean, they still get damaged sometimes, but…” He took a deep breath and gave them a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I’m kind of all over the place right now.”

“That’s all right,” Faith said. “Take your time.”

Anna walked close and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Brad immediately calmed. Faith knew it contradicted her earlier opinion, but a part of her hoped the two of them would risk stepping outside of their professional boundaries a little.

Maybe she just missed David, but she didn’t think there was anything wrong with seeking a little human connection after a difficult event.

“So I dug until I saw something that looked like bone. I grabbed it and pulled it, and then I saw the hand and realized I was grabbing a fully fleshed arm. The soft stuff wasn't dirt, it was skin." He shivered. "I got Dr. Winters, and we called the cops."

“Did you recognize the person buried here?” Faith asked.

He shook his head. “No, I didn’t even know who he was until the police dug him up and got his wallet.”

"And at any time, did you hear or see anything or anyone suspicious?"

Another head shake. “The cops said he was probably killed overnight while we were home. He said that the river doesn’t close during the night, but the lot does, and people almost never come up here.”

“So the killer knew he’d have opportunity,” Faith said.

“He also had to know that we were digging here,” Anna added. “That’s what I don’t understand. It’s almost like he wanted someone to discover the body.”

“You’d be amazed how many killers want exactly that,” Michael said. “They hide their victims, but they do it in a way that makes it easy for people to find them.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Anna didn’t seem satisfied with that explanation. Faith wasn’t either. She wasn’t sure exactly what this killer’s intentions were, but something in the back of her mind told her that the killer wasn’t looking to show off.

She looked at Turk. “What do you think, boy? Got anything?”

Turk dipped his head and snorted. That was a no.

“That’s all right. We’ll get him sooner or later.

” She smiled at Brad and Anna. “Thank you two for your time. If you think of anything else, please let me know. Other than that, I suggest you make sure that everyone on your team arrives and leaves in groups, or at least in pairs. Killers often return to the scenes of their crimes. It’s rare in crowded spaces but not unheard of. ”

“Good idea,” Anna said. “We’ll do that.”

“You’ll find this guy, right?” Brad asked. “I mean… the cops said he had a wife, and he was a veteran and everything. It just kind of sucks that he survived war only to come home and get killed by some asshole when he was supposed to be safe.”

Faith knew all about being unsafe at home. “It does suck. And we will get this guy. Count on it.”

He gave her a dazzling smile, and heat climbed her cheeks. She wasn’t immune to his charms either, apparently.