“Wow. What do you make of that?” asked Neva, squatting to have a closer look at the wounds.
“Wow is right,” said Diane, crouching opposite her. “I didn’t expect this.”
The wounds in both victims were similar in length and depth and they looked exactly like the long, deep wounds to the Barres and Watsons.
Neva looked over at the handwriting on the wall. “He knew about this cave,” she said.
“He did, didn’t he? If it’s the same L. Conrad that we know,” she added.
“We could match the handwriting,” Neva said. “It would have changed over time, but we could find early samples, like in an old yearbook, maybe, or from some old legal documents from his early days as sheriff.”
Diane nodded as she studied the wounds. “We could,” said Diane.
She was looking at the neck wounds. Evidence of flies was still in the wounds. “These two were outside before they were put here,” said Diane. “David can tell us how long.”
Diane retrieved the body bags. She and Neva lifted the first body-the female-and put her in the black bag. It was then that Diane noticed the charm bracelet on the victim’s right wrist. Diane took the bracelet off the body and put it in a clear evidence bag. Neva zipped up the body bag.
The two of them did the same grim task for the other body, a male. They tied a rope harness on each bag for Mike to pull them up with the pulley system he had constructed while they were searching the cavern room.
They examined the cave floor under the bodies. Nothing.
“I was hoping for a note or a driver’s license,” said Neva.
“It was certainly very helpful when the remains we found in that cave a year ago had the diary with them,” agreed Diane.
The two of them collected their evidence bags-the contents of which they were sure would turn out to be years of trash from all the graffiti artists-and hoisted them up along with the crime scene kit. The last thing Diane did was to record the temperature of the cave. Hector and Scott’s work might very well help pinpoint a time of death in these bodies-possibly within a couple of days or even a few hours. Diane and Neva climbed up the rope to join Mike. He collected his bolts and pulleys and re-coiled the rope.
“The bodies have lost a lot of their weight,” said Neva. “Could we stack one on top of the other and save ourselves a trip? You and I can carry the bodies and Mike can carry the equipment.”
Mike nodded. “We can switch out if it turns out the bodies are too heavy,” he said.
Diane agreed and she and Neva stacked the bodies, tied a rope around them, and gave them a test lift.
“Not too bad,” said Neva. “We don’t have a long way to go. We can do it.”
They retraced their steps to the first chamber of the cave. Mike slithered out first, put down the gear, turned, and helped pull the bodies through. Diane came out after the bodies, followed by Neva.
The others who had been waiting outside the cave gathered around when they saw Mike and they stood in a huddle around the bodies.
“See, I told you the bodies was there,” said Slick, craning his neck to look at the body bags.
“You took a long time,” said Mathews. “I thought you said you would send Mike out if you were going to be long. I was starting to worry.”
“I’m sorry. I should have specified what I consider a long time,” said Diane. “We searched the cavern they were in, collected all potential evidence, and photographed the graffiti on the walls.”
“The graffiti? Why?” asked Mathews.
“To see who knew about the cave,” said Diane.
“They signed their names?” asked Mathews.
“That’s about all they wrote,” said Diane.
“Can you tell if they are my couple?” Liam asked.
“It’s a male and a female. The female has long honey blond hair; the male has shorter black hair. .” began Diane.
“Does that fit?” asked Mathews.
Liam nodded. “I’m afraid it does.”
He took two photographs from an envelope and showed them to Diane and Mathews. They showed a lovely elfish-looking girl with a sly smile and long honey blond hair and a boy with medium-length dark hair, a wide grin, and nice teeth.
Liam looked at Diane as if asking if these were the bodies. She shook her head.
“They have been dead for several weeks. I think my team will be able to pinpoint the time more accurately. And there is this,” she said, pulling out the evidence bag with the bracelet. “This was on the girl.”
Liam took the bag and looked at the bracelet. From the grim set of his mouth, Diane thought he recognized it. He nodded.
“It’s hers. Her sister gave it to her and she always wore it.”
“I’m sorry there isn’t better news for your client,” said Diane. “But we do need to do an autopsy before you tell him this is his daughter. We need a positive ID first.”
“Sure,” he said. “I’m not in a hurry to give him such devastating news.”
Diane turned to Mathews. “I’d like to speak with you,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows. “All right.”
“Is this something I need to know?” asked Liam.
“Eventually,” said Diane, “but not now.”
He hesitated a moment, as if he were going to press the issue, but backed off. Diane and Agent Mathews stepped away from everyone, almost into the bushes.
“What is it?” he asked. “You found something else?” Diane nodded. “Their throats were cut in a manner very similar-perhaps identical-to the Barres’ and the Watsons’.”
Mathews wrinkled up his face and looked toward the hole that was the cave entrance. “You think it was the same killer then?”
“It looks suspicious,” said Diane. “I wanted to ask you. I know the GBI has this case, but Lynn Webber did the second autopsies on the bodies of the Barres and Watsons. She made casts of the nicks the murder weapon made in the vertebrae of all the victims. I would like to suggest that you ask her to do these autopsies too-for a direct comparison.”
“We’ve been cooperating quite a bit lately,” he said.
“Isn’t that good?” said Diane.
“In theory, but. . you know how it is,” he said. “The bureau’s got its procedures.”
Diane didn’t say anything, merely waited.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
“There’s one other thing,” she said, and told him about the graffiti of L. Conrad, 1974.
“You think it’s Sheriff Conrad?” he said.
“I don’t know how many L. Conrads have been in this cave,” said Diane. “If it was him, it shows he knew about this cave. What about Massey?”
Mathews shook his head. “We can track his whereabouts. You know where he was during the Barre murders. He could have done them, but at the time of the Watson murders he was in Atlanta staying in a cheap motel with Tammy. That’s when they decided to take their vacation from crime until things cooled down. We’ve verified that.”
“What’s the status now on Sheriff Conrad?” asked Diane.
“We’re getting a judge to remove him,” said Agent Mathews. “His behavior has gone far beyond his ability to talk himself out of punitive measures. This new information is even more disturbing. He’ll be off the streets by the end of the day-or tomorrow at most. Since this looks like it may connect to the Barres and the Watsons, I’ll be taking over those cases as well.”
Mathews looked like he was looking forward to slapping Conrad down hard.
Diane just remembered that she hadn’t told Liam about the lab results on the list he found at the campsite-how Korey had brought out the writing. She told Mathews about it first.
“So they were going to break into the Barres’ house,” he said. “Interesting. If they hadn’t been murdered first, they would go to number one on my suspect list.”
“I know,” said Diane. “You might get Liam Dugal to show you where their campsite was. From his description of it, I don’t think that’s the place they were killed, or he would have noticed blood-even after the rainstorm. But I’ll bet it’s near there.”
Diane realized that Frank was nowhere in sight and she hadn’t seen him since she came out of the cave. She was just about to ask Mathews, when Frank came out of the woods.
“I’ve found the kill site,” Frank said.