AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Were you?” Michael asked.
“No,” Benitez said.
Oddly, he looked relieved. Faith knew why a second later.
“I can prove it,” he said. “I have the contracts. They’re not with me right now, but if you give me your emails, I’ll send them to you. You can call the management of the cemeteries and confirm the names. Of the graves, I mean.”
“They tell you the names of the deceased?” Michael asked.
“Not me, no, but they tell me the plot and row number. You can talk to management and they can tell you it wasn’t those murder victims.”
“How do you know you weren’t hired to dig their graves?” Faith asked.
“Well, if I was, you wouldn’t be asking me if I murdered them, would you?”
Faith wasn’t sure if that conclusion was as logical as it seemed to Benitez, but she allowed him to believe that for the moment. She gestured at the electric backhoe. “That thing’s pretty quiet, huh?”
He chuckled. “No, not really.”
“No?” Faith was genuinely stunned. “Quieter than a diesel engine, right?”
“I mean, when you’re driving, yeah,” he said, “but the digger’s loud as hell. That’s why I gotta wear those.” He gestured at the pair of headphones sitting on the driver’s seat.
Faith glanced at Michael. “How much noise are we talking about?” she asked.
“I’ll show you if you want,” he said.
Faith gestured for him to go ahead, then called Turk over.
Benitez climbed up into the cockpit and put his headset on. He gave the two agents a thumbs-up and started the machine.
The motors engaged with a soft whine, but it wasn’t the motors that threw a massive wrench into their working theory of the case. He positioned the shovel in front of the grave and as soon as the shovel began to move, a sharp, insistent buzzing whine started.
Faith and Michael watched numbly as the noise attracted glances from across the cemetery. The streetlight at the corner turned red and a driver glanced out the window toward the noise.
Benitez scooped a load of dirt and dropped it on top of the growing pile next to the grave. He shut the loader down and Faith realized glumly that her ears were ringing. There was no chance that someone could have dug that grave with a machine and not be heard, even at night.
He stepped down, once more grimacing as he favored his hurt back, and set his headphones on the driver’s seat again. “See?” he said. “Can’t hear shit over it.”
Either he knew he was off the hook as a suspect or he was just happy to gripe to someone about work, but his animosity was gone, and he wore a half-smile as he approached the two agents. “It’s no big deal to me,” he said, “I usually just listen to music while I work. I feel bad for everyone who has to hear it, though. I don’t get as much work as I used, to having to dig during the day, but I get enough to pay the bills, and since I’m not giving half of it to my boss anymore, it all works out.”
“Could someone dig a grave without this equipment?” Michael asked. “In one night, I mean.”
“Sure, they could,” Benitez said. “I used to do it. I mean, it was me and one other guy for liability reasons, but I could have done it myself when I was young and tough. You gotta be in real good shape, though, you know what I mean? You gotta lift, and you gotta run. You need a strong heart.”
“But it’s conceivable that someone could bury a body in one night by themselves,” Faith asked.
“Yeah, it’s possible. Between you and me, there are only a few guys who can do it, but it’s not unheard of.”
“You know anyone else who can?” Michael asked.
He shook his head. “I was the only one on my crew who could,” he said proudly, “but if I could do it, I’m sure someone else could. Not sure why you’d want to do it at a cemetery, though. If I were gonna kill someone, I wouldn’t bury them in a graveyard.” He cocked his head, considering. “I mean, I guess that’s not too crazy a plan if you don’t know that graveyards are usually secured, but still, I’d want to be as far from civilization as possible.” He blinked and suddenly remembered that he was talking to law enforcement. “Not that I’m planning to kill anyone. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t do it that way.”
Faith and Michael shared a glance, then Faith sighed. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Benitez.”
“So I’m free to go?” he asked.
“Yes,” Faith said. “You’re free to go.”
