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“You have a positive ID?”
“Not yet, but we’re assuming it was Dayna Voyles, just as he promised. There wasn’t much left of her even before the explosion, but we recovered clothing fragments that match what she was wearing when she was abducted.”
Kendra turned away. Poor Dayna Voyles had become an afterthought in the wake of the horror that had been unleashed at her grave site. “Who was left to call it in?”
“Uniformed officers at the road. They were directing traffic around the cars parked up there. They came down here to help, but there wasn’t much they could do. I talked to one of them last night, and he was pretty shaken up.”
Kendra nodded. “I can imagine.”
An agent called out from the clump of trees behind them. “I got something here!”
Kendra and Cassalas joined the agent, whom she vaguely remembered from a previous case. She believed his name was Kollar. He was holding a long telescoping pole attached to a net, which he was using to try to snare something caught in the tree.
“What is it?” Cassalas asked.
“Not sure,” Kollar said, still trying to capture the object. “It looks like metal of some kind.” He tried to use the rim of the net to pull it free of the branches.
“Can you extend the net any further?” Cassalas asked.
“No dice. I’m already all the way out. Eighteen feet.” He concentrated on the object, then finally pulled the trigger on his pole. The net zipped closed. “Got it!”
He lowered the net and pushed the trigger to unzip the net’s rim. Cassalas, who had already slipped on a pair of plastic evidence gloves, reached in and pulled out the metallic object.
“What is it?” Kendra asked.
Cassalas showed her. “A video camera. More accurately,halfa video camera. We had a videographer and a still photographer here. Neither survived.” He turned the device over in his hands. “Fortunately, I think this is the half with the data card.” He pried open the cover to reveal the SD card.
He looked up at Kendra. “We have a tech van parked on the road. Wanna see a movie?”
Chapter
3
Less than ten minutes later, Kendra was crowded into the black-panel windowless FBI tech van that always reminded her of something a serial killer might drive. The inside, however, was filled with all manner of surveillance equipment and other gear. A twenty-five-inch video monitor was mounted on the left rear side, which now had everyone’s attention. Cassalas was there with her, along with Griffin and three other agents.
The tech supervisor slid the card into a countertop reader. “Everybody ready?”
“Roll it,” Griffin said.
The image flickered, and they immediately saw the procession of agents and cops walking from the cars down to the site she had just visited. Kendra’s breath left her as she saw Cynthia exchanging words with Barrett. The woman had no idea she was living the last minutes of her life.
The camera panned toward the overgrown pathway a few seconds before the group followed Barrett toward the burial site.
Kendra suddenly leaned closer toward the monitor. “Interesting,” she whispered.
“What?” Griffin asked.
“I’ll tell you later.”
It only took a minute or so for Barrett to point out the location of Dayna Voyles’ body, and the camera remained on as the officers erected the tarp and sifters at the site.
“The resolution is incredible,” Kendra murmured. “Is this 4K?”
“It’s 8K,” Griffin said.
The agents gathered closer to the site as the first shovel swung down.
Kendra studied their intent, eager faces. None of those poor people had any idea what was waiting for them in the next few seconds.
