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“But you checked anyway?”
“That’s why you’re paying me the big consulting fee. I’m thorough.”
“I don’t know how thorough you are if you think the consulting fee is big,” Brantley said as he used the key to unlock the door.
They stepped inside. The interior wasn’t much better than the outside. It looked like it might have been a nice place twenty years ago, but nothing, including the big box television, had been updated in at least that long.
Brantley pointed at the bed, which was down to a box spring and a frame.
“It was a bloody mess. They took everything even though I think all they sent to the lab were cuttings from the sheets.”
“Any word back on the blood?”
“Yeah, O positive, so it could have been Stickley—or for that matter, Randy and his mom as well.”
Brantley pointed to a hole above the bed. “We dug a slug out of there. Nine-millimeter. The best guess is somebody shot somebody, and they fell on the bed and bled all over it. Whoever it was, they either used a revolver or they were thoughtful enough to pick up the casing. Until Stick was found dead, we figured it was him shooting Randy.”
“Why would Stick shoot Randy?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Did Stick carry a nine mil?”
“Yep, a Glock.” Brantley paused and patted the gun on his hip. “But that ain’t saying much. No shortage of those and the slug was pretty damaged. I asked Ames and he said Stickley’s gun still had a full magazine and he didn’t have any spent shells on him.”
Margot walked around the bed and poked her head into the bathroom. There really wasn’t much to see.
“Shall we do some geocaching?” Brantley asked.
Margot shrugged. “Why not? It's what I’m here for.”
Brantley pulled up the geo-tracking app on his phone and they headed deeper into the desert.
Brantley was right about Margot’s Prius not being the vehicle for the terrain. There were no roads leading to the coordinates Stick had left. Brantley found a dry wash that was reasonably flat and took it out. Margot noticed several tire tracks heading up the wash in the same direction.
Brantley anticipated her question.
“The tracks could be something, but lots of people use these washes as four-wheel drive trails. It does show someone’s been out here recently, but they could have nothing to do with any of this.”
It didn’t take long for Brantley to reach their destination. The tracker led them to a natural flat spot off the wash. Like the wash, it wasn’t a road, but it was easily passable. It didn’t go long before the ride started to get rough but about that time, they reached their destination.
“Convenient for it to end here where the road ends,” Margot said.
“I was thinking the same thing. Makes it seem less like a wild goose chase, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, but we haven’t found anything yet.”
They both got out and looked around. Other than some Ocotillo plants and a lot of sand, there wasn’t anything to see. Brantley went around the back and opened the trunk. He got out a shovel and joined Margot in front of his SUV.
“What’s that for?” Margot asked him.
“It seems like a good place to bury a body,” Brantley said. “Plenty remote but accessible by car. I figured I might as well be ready if we find something.”
“You’re just a regular boy scout, aren’t you?”
“Something like that.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing since we turned down the wash.”
