“We know. Dead and buried. Like you said, ‘he’s no longer with us.’”
Rogers shakes his head. “Mr. Hansen left on a recent exchange. Two employees departed and two arrived.”
“We didn’t hear a plane.”
“Because you never do. Unlike you, we don’t fly in this far.”
“So Mr. Hansen is alive?”
“Presumably.”
“Huh. Well, then who’s the guy we dug up? The corpse in cold storage.”
Silence. It stretches far too long.
“You have Mr. Hansen’s body?”
“That’s what I said.”
I clear my throat. “One adult male with three tattoos under his hair, along with the chip. I can describe him and the tattoos.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Rogers says. “You say you found hisburiedbody?”
He’s not telling us we made a mistake. Not saying that if we found Hansen, it had nothing to do with him. Not bluffing or blustering in his usual condescending way. Nor does he seem shocked.
“Right around here, as a matter of fact,” Dalton says. “Where you seem to be just taking a late-day stroll.”
He turns around. “Show me the spot.”
“To prove it?” Dalton says. “If you want that, we’ve got his fuckingcorpse.”
“I would like to see where he was buried.”
We take him to the place and roll back the sod. He says nothing. Only examines it and then pokes around the clearing.
“Looking for more?” I ask.
The question seems to genuinely startle him. Then he finds his composure and decides not to answer.
“You didn’t see Hansen get on the plane, did you,” I say.
“Mr. Rutherford is in charge of employee exchange.”
“So he shows up, makes the exchange, and then leaves. Only this time, he didn’t leave.”
“He has been here for a few weeks. I was notified.” He looks at me. “Whatever happened to Mr. Hansen, it was, as they say, above my pay grade. I presumed everyone who leaves departs safely.”
“But you’re discouraged from witnessing their departure. And you’ve begun to find that suspicious. That’s why you were out here. You heard—or overheard—something.”
He doesn’t answer.
“Did Hansen cause trouble at camp?” I ask.
“No.”
“So the problem is that he raped and murdered a senator’s daughter,” I say.
Rogers looks up sharply.
