“Go.” She laughed. “I’m in the middle of a book anyway. It’ll keep me company until you get back.”
“Okay good. I’ll call as soon as I know when that is.” He turned and went to his room where he changed quickly and grabbed his badge, wallet, and firearm. Near the front door, he called a final goodbye to Liza.
As he drove toward the crime scene, his stomach felt tight. What in the hell was this going to be? It felt like they had so many pieces, but they hadn’t put them together fast enough to stop this guy. His hands tightened on the steering wheel as a sense of futility gripped him. They needed more. Just a couple of threads and a picture would form. Reed could feel it. As awful as it was, maybe this new murder would bring them a few more clues as to what avenues to take to stop this madman.
Reed stopped at a red light, picking up his phone, as he considered what Liza had told him just fifteen minutes before. He let himself fully ponder it now. Yet another connection to Everett Draper, and no way was any of it a coincidence now. He glanced at the time on his clock, wondering what sorts of hours Camp Joy kept. He was still five minutes out from the cemetery, so he decided it was worth a try. He googled the camp and dialed the number and a moment later a man answered the phone. “Camp Joy, how can I help you?”
Reed identified himself and told the man he was looking into a crime and needed some information on some campers who had been there fifteen years prior.
“Uh, okay, wow. Um, I’m probably going to have to have our administrative director call you back. She’s not in yet, but she’ll be here soon. Can I take down some information so she can pull up the records before returning your call?”
“That’d be great. Like I said, it would have been fifteen years ago, and it was a group of kids there just for the weekend who had recently experienced trauma in their life. From what I understand, it most likely would have been arranged by a social worker.”
“Ah, yeah, I’m familiar with that program. The state doesn’t do that anymore. Budget cuts. Anyway, do you happen to know what month it was?”
“I don’t.” He needed to question Liza more in-depth about it, but he’d been surprised by the news, and they’d gotten interrupted . . .
“Okay, no problem. I’ll have Barbara pull that year. There probably weren’t more than twelve. We only have two cabins that are appropriate for larger groups of kids. The camp liked to keep them together, you know? So they would have been in either Buckeye or Sycamore.”
Reed’s pulse jumped. “Buckeye?”
The symbol.
The brand.
Holy shit.
“Yeah, I can’t say for sure, but most likely. I’ll have Barbara Guthier get back to you though.”
“Please,” he said. “As soon as possible would be great.” He gave the guy his number and then disconnected the call, turning into the cemetery entrance.
What the fuck did this mean? He wanted to sit and think about it all, consider how it involved Liza and why, but there was already a slew of city vehicles parked down a slope near a massive oak tree.
And someone else was dead.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The body was propped against a gravestone, partially slumped over so the face was not immediately visible. Reed greeted Ransom, who was climbing out of his car as well, and began walking toward the criminalist that had arrived before them.
“Any information yet?” Reed asked Ransom.
“None. Except that it’s odd, and that it’s an older white male.”
“Odd? In what way?”
“I don’t know. Guess we need to see it.”
Reed smelled the body before they were within a few feet of it. “Christ,” he said, wincing. “Well, that’s different. He let this one rot.”
“Goddamn, I hate that fucking smell,” Ransom said. “If I haven’t mentioned it before, make sure Cici cremates me. I’m not ever about smelling that way, even when I’m dead.”
“Noted.”
So, Reed thought, that’s what they’d meant by odd? Either the killer had let this one rot, or, because of the more isolated location, he’d been sitting there longer than the others before being discovered.
As they approached the corpse leaning against the gravestone and the smell of decayed flesh intensified, Reed turned around, facing the same direction as the body. Why was he placed here?
There was a manmade pond visible from that vantage point,