Agent Mathews stepped away from everyone, almost into the bushes.
“What is it?” he asked. “You found something else?” Diane nodded. “Their throats were cut in a manner very similar—perhaps identical—to the Barres’ and the Watsons’.”
Mathews wrinkled up his face and looked toward the hole that was the cave entrance. “You think it was the same killer then?”
“It looks suspicious,” said Diane. “I wanted to ask you. I know the GBI has this case, but Lynn Webber did the second autopsies on the bodies of the Barres and Watsons. She made casts of the nicks the murder weapon made in the vertebrae of all the victims. I would like to suggest that you ask her to do these autopsies too—for a direct comparison.”
“We’ve been cooperating quite a bit lately,” he said.
“Isn’t that good?” said Diane.
“In theory, but . . . you know how it is,” he said. “The bureau’s got its procedures.”
Diane didn’t say anything, merely waited.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
“There’s one other thing,” she said, and told him about the graffiti of L. Conrad, 1974.
“You think it’s Sheriff Conrad?” he said.
“I don’t know how many L. Conrads have been in this cave,” said Diane. “If it was him, it shows he knew about this cave. What about Massey?”
Mathews shook his head. “We can track his whereabouts. You know where he was during the Barre murders. He could have done them, but at the time of the Watson murders he was in Atlanta staying in a cheap motel with Tammy. That’s when they decided to take their vacation from crime until things cooled down. We’ve verified that.”
“What’s the status now on Sheriff Conrad?” asked Diane.
“We’re getting a judge to remove him,” said Agent Mathews. “His behavior has gone far beyond his ability to talk himself out of punitive measures. This new information is even more disturbing. He’ll be off the streets by the end of the day—or tomorrow at most. Since this looks like it may connect to the Barres and the Watsons, I’ll be taking over those cases as well.”
Mathews looked like he was looking forward to slapping Conrad down hard.
Diane just remembered that she hadn’t told Liam about the lab results on the list he found at the campsite—how Korey had brought out the writing. She told Mathews about it first.
“So they were going to break into the Barres’ house,” he said. “Interesting. If they hadn’t been murdered first, they would go to number one on my suspect list.”
“I know,” said Diane. “You might get Liam Dugal to show you where their campsite was. From his description of it, I don’t think that’s the place they were killed, or he would have noticed blood—even after the rainstorm. But I’ll bet it’s near there.”
Diane realized that Frank was nowhere in sight and she hadn’t seen him since she came out of the cave. She was just about to ask Mathews, when Frank came out of the woods.
“I’ve found the kill site,” Frank said.
Chapter 48
“You found what?” said Agent Mathews. “Where have you been, anyway, Frank?”
“I thought I’d take a look around the area. I found a trail of damaged underbrush and followed it to a stream just a few yards down there.” Frank gestured to the north and turned to Diane and grinned at her. “Glad to see you aboveground.”
“We didn’t get to do much sightseeing,” she said, “but we found the bodies.”
“You need to bring your bag of magic tricks and follow me,” Frank said.
“This day is just going to go on forever,” said Mathews. “I’ve still got to take Massey over to his pasture to find the bodies he buried. Well, hell . . . not that I don’t appreciate finding more evidence, but I really hate being out in the woods,” he said. “Let’s go look. Then I’ll leave you and Diane here to take care of this site and I’ll go on to Massey’s pasture.” He turned to Diane. “I think the Rosewood morgue will be quicker to get to and leave these bodies. I’ll send a couple of agents over with them. I’ll take your suggestion and damn the consequences. I’ll tell the bureaucrats they can get their butts out in this tick-infested jungle if they’re not happy with the way I handle it.” He swatted his arm.
Diane left the cave evidence with the GBI agents and called Neva over with the crime scene kit. Frank led them through the tangle of underbrush, showing them the damaged and flattened plants along the