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Clearly, others had the same idea.
Two CSIs were still photographing and combing the grounds. A young man in a bomb squad uniform was near the spot where the bones had been found. Next to him was one of Davy’s firemen.
Sanchez pointed to the spot where the CSIs were. “That’s the point of origin for the blast,” he explained. “As you can see, it’s a good ten yards from the grave you found.” He shifted, pointing toward a spot further up the private road from where they were all parked. “It looks as if whoever dumped the body and set the device came from that direction.”
“Are there footprints or tire tracks?” she immediately asked.
“Nothing identifiable,” Sanchez informed her. “Just some trampled down weeds. No drag marks, though, so it’s my conclusion that both the body and the device were carried to their respective sites.” He turned again and pointed to what was left of a stone cottage that had probably once been occupied by a groundskeeper. “The device to detonate the explosives was likely in there.”
“No footprints leading there either,” Davy was quick to add. “Just more trampled down weeds and broken twigs.”
“Nothing inside either,” Sanchez said, taking up the explanation, “but there’s a small cleared-out area in the dust and dirt that makes me believe something was there. It’s the right size to have been a detonator.”
That gave Bree a fresh punch of the bad images. Of being knocked off her feet. The pain. The fear. Yes, there’d been some of that once she’d realized what was happening.
“Perhaps there was a timer on the detonator,” Sanchez speculated. “If so, it could have been set when the body was dumped.” He made a sound of frustration. “But it’s equally possible someone had their hands on the detonator and didn’t need a timer. If so, the person had to be in the area, likely in that cottage.”
“Gavin was out of sight for a while,” Rafe reminded her. “When you got to the scene and asked who’d found the body, I looked for Gavin, but he wasn’t here.”
Yes, and that meant Gavin could have indeed been setting the timer and making sure he was just far enough out of range not to be killed. But that still didn’t answer why he’d done all of this.
Bree put that question on the back burner and glanced around at the spots Sanchez had pointed out. “How far was the explosive device from the woman’s body that was found?”
“About ten yards,” Sanchez quickly provided. “It’d been placed between the grave and her.”
“So, the explosion was maybe meant to destroy both the body and the bones,” Rafe muttered under his breath. “Along with anyone else close enough to it who was investigating the scene.”
That’s where Bree’s thoughts had gone as well. “But why would someone want to do that?” she asked more to herself than to anyone else. “Why not just move the bodies where there was a smaller chance of them being discovered in the first place?”
“I have no idea,” Sanchez said, and Davy echoed the same. It was Davy who continued.
“And I’m going to complicate things by relaying info I got from Gavin’s boss at the construction company. Gavin wasn’tsupposed to be digging in that spot. He was supposed to be in the east garden.” Davy pointed to an area just past some overgrown hedges. “He was supposed to be leveling that.”
Bree shook her head and tried to figure out what that meant. “So, did he know the body was there? Is that why he was digging?”
“It’s something you’ll want to ask him, that’s for sure,” Davy concluded.
“We can’t,” Rafe spoke up. “He’s dead.”
“Dead?” Sanchez and Davy repeated in unison.
Bree nodded. “Either someone killed him and set it up to try to make it look like a suicide, or else he died by his own hand. I’m going with option one on this.” Neither Sanchez nor Davy disagreed with her on that. “And I think whoever killed him did it because of this.” She pointed to the grave site and where the body had been found.
“You believe he murdered Tessa and the other woman?” Davy asked.
“If it is Tessa,” Bree said. “It’s possibly someone else, and that’s just the start of the questions I don’t have answers for.” She glanced around again. “The explosion feels like a way to destroy evidence and stall the investigation.”
All four of them stayed quiet for several moments. “If Gavin killed those two women, he could have destroyed the evidence before the construction started,” Rafe commented.
“He wouldn’t have dug where he did, either” Sanchez added. “So, who killed all three?”
Another question for which she didn’t have an answer. Yet. Bree took out her phone, pulled up Buckner’s photo and showed them.
“Have either of you seen this man?” she asked.
Both studied it and then shook their heads. “Who is he?” Sanchez wanted to know.
“A person of interest,” Bree provided. “I intend to find out if he has any explosive’s expertise.”
