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“No surprises. The bodies were in various states of decay. ME calculated that one of the bodies had been dead about a year. The others between four and six months.”
“That means he killed six times in less than a year.”
“We’ve seen serial killers more active than that. Besides, burial messes up the time of death some. Could be longer or shorter than that. If the bodies had been left aboveground at least we’d have fly larvae evidence. That’s pretty accurate. But even in the ground there are some helpful things. Bugs in the dirt too, I mean.”
Michelle put down her tuna sandwich. “Nice meal conversation. Really sparks the old appetite.”
He slid the report back in his briefcase and looked around the small restaurant. In a low tone he said, “Your two o’clock, guy in the sweatshirt and jean jacket trying real hard to look like a student. He’s—”
“I know. I scoped him about ten minutes ago. He’s got a pistol bump under his jacket and a bud in his left ear.”
“FBI?”
“One of the alphabets, most likely. But what do we do about it?”
“Don’t let on that we suspect.”
Michelle picked up her sandwich again. “That just brought my appetite back.”
“Well, this might just take it away again.”
She stopped with the tuna special halfway to her mouth.
Sean said, “Spotted something in the ME report that puzzled me.”
“I can hardly stand the anticipation.”
“What kind of dirt was in the barn on Roy’s property?”
“This is Virginia. So red clay. Why?”
“The findings indicated that each of the bodies showed evidence of dirt present that was different from that found in the barn.”
Michelle put her sandwich down again. “But that would only be possible if—”
“Excuse me?”
They both looked up to see the man in the jean jacket standing next to their table.
“Yeah,” said Sean, who looked annoyed at having allowed the guy to come right up to the table without him noticing.
“I was wondering if you two could step outside with me?”
“And why would we want to do that?” asked Michelle, whose right hand had snaked toward her own weapon and her left hand had curled into a fist.
“Let’s do this the easy way.”
“Let’s not do this any way at all,” she shot back.
The man reached inside his jacket, which was his first mistake.
Michelle swiveled, and her left leg shot out and caught him right in the gut. He was propelled back and hit the table against the wall.
His second mistake was coming at her again.
Before he could strike, Michelle had tagged him on the chin with a powerful swing kick that lifted him off his feet and put him on his back, out cold on the worn, yellowed linoleum.
Sean stood, looking down in shock at the man.
