Page 21 of Bring Them Home

Trent nodded and got on the phone.

Isabelle straightened up after taking another close-up shot of the victim. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think there are any more bodies out here.” She pointed overhead at the birds.

Her implication was straightforward enough to understand. If there were more remains, there would be more vultures, and the ones overhead wouldn’t be circling, they’d be feeding. Again, Amanda’s stomach roiled. Just thinking about people being snacks for wildlife was enough to do the job.

“Well, don’t get me started on…” Emma pointed up at the circling vultures. “Just their hovering gives me the creeps. I feel like they’re eyeing me as their next meal.”

“Don’t be crazy, I’ve got more meat on my bones.” Isabelle laughed, but her amusement died when her colleague and Amanda didn’t share her sense of humor. Besides, the investigator only had an inch and twenty pounds on Emma.

“At least someone can ignore them.” Emma bent over next to a flattened stalk and placed a marker with 1 on it, took a picture, and picked something up with gloved hands. From where Amanda was standing, she couldn’t make out what it was, just that it was blue. “A piece of fabric.” Emma held it up for them to see before slipping it into an evidence bag. “Not from our vic since he isn’t wearing anything this color, but it could have been torn from our killer’s clothing.”

The killer could have snagged their clothing out here, though she didn’t see anything that could have done that. “Possibly from an altercation that took place here.”

“Not necessarily.” Trent put his phone away, having overheard her, to respond. “Paul could have ripped it from his assailant elsewhere, pocketed the fabric, only to have the birds pull it out.”

“And by some miracle, they didn’t make breakfast out of it.” Amanda looked around, taking a few deep breaths. “Let’s just hope something comes from it.” While it didn’t seem that significant a find on the surface, it was possible they’d run into a suspect with a torn piece of clothing. She turned to Trent. “K-9 on the way?”

“Yep.”

“Well, you might have to put a lot of faith in this small piece of cloth. We’re not finding much, are we, Isabelle?”

“No, we are not.”

The update wasn’t shocking. Evidence could have flown off. “I’m wondering if we should get our hands on the birds. They could have eaten something that could help the case.”

“I thought the same and made a call to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. They’ll be coming out,” Blair said, “but they won’t be touching the birds. They informed me that vultures are a protected species.”

“Okay,” Amanda said slowly. “What will they be doing then? Tracking them to their nests to see what they might have taken back?”

Blair shook her head. “Nothing like that. I guess vultures don’t take anything back to their nests, not even prey. They regurgitate food for their young during breeding season, which I’ve been advised is long over now. The babies hatch in April and leave the nest between May and June.”

“Someone is up on their vultures,” Trent teased.

Blair shot him a look. “I’m only telling you what I’ve learned today.”

“All right, then, what will they be doing?” Amanda was still unclear how their involvement would be helpful.

“Apparently, vultures scatter bones within a radius. The people from Wildlife Resources will be able to identify secondary scatter areas nearby, and based on this and the birds’ feeding habits, they’ll be able to suggest how long a body has been exposed.”

“Consider me schooled,” Amanda said.

“Hey, if you’re not learning something every day, you might as well be dead,” Isabelle put in.

Amanda could agree with that. She just wished the subject wasn’t based in the macabre.

“How long before someone from Wildlife Resources shows up?” Trent asked.

“I was told it should be within a few hours.” Blair glanced at Amanda.

“Not as bad as I thought.” Amanda had in mind it might be far longer than that. But at least they weren’t at a standstill waiting to hear from them. They already had a lead to follow. Phillip Daily. She’d call Malone to have him send out an officer to bring him in for questioning. But before they left Haymarket, she and Trent needed to speak with the owners of the farm. “All right, well, we’ll leave you to it.” She turned to leave, wishing it were just as easy to turn her back on all of this. But given what she’d just seen, she’d never forget, and she would use that as motivation to get justice for Paul Archer.

TWELVE

Amanda was almost to the road when she heard a vehicle’s wheels crunching on the gravel. She came out to see it was the medical examiner’s van. Hans Rideout was behind the wheel, and his assistant, Liam Baker, was in the front passenger seat.

She and Trent waited while they parked and got out.

“I see you two wasted no time getting here.” Rideout set down his medical case.