wouldn’t have to be sifted, but the one dug with the backhoe had to be processed once they excavated the pit. She would be sifting it weeks from now.
“Whoever removed the skeleton didn’t have much time last night,” Sam said, uncapping a bottle of water before handing it to her. “He’s bound to have left something behind other than a small bone and a shoe print.”
She tilted the bottle up and took a welcomed sip. “Any news about the kind of shoe it was?”
“A Nike.”
That only eliminated about half the population of Adams County. “How long do you think the intruder was here?”
“Trey and Clayton were put out of commission sometime between ten and eleven,” he said. “I arrived a little after midnight and the intruder was gone, but I got the feeling he hadn’t been gone long.”
“That’s two hours at most.” Once again she looked at the fresh dirt piled beside the pit. “Of course, he wouldn’t have been trying to preserve the site, and he used the backhoe to dig down another foot.”
“He might have even scooped the remains up with the backhoe.”
Her fingers itched to get back to work, but first she checked her watch. Four o’clock. It would take two hours to drive to her mom’s, leaving an hour before she needed to change. Emma set the timer on her watch for sixty minutes and gingerly climbed down into the pit again. She didn’t understand why she hurt all over. It’d only been her hand that had been injured. Of course, she’d hit the bottom of the pit pretty hard, jarring her. Couldn’t let Sam know how badly her hand hurt. If he knew, he’d want her to stop, fearful that she would further injure her hand. But she couldn’t stop. Something drove her to discover who had been buried in the grave.
Sam jumped down into the pit with her. Time passed quickly as they scraped layer after layer away and dumped the dirt in buckets. A chill settled over the area as the sun hung low in the sky. She scraped over the ground again and met resistance. “I think I have something here.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. Something hard, though.” She looked around for a dental pick, but she must have taken it out of the pit. “Do you have a pick?”
“Hold on a sec.”
Once she had the tool, she used it to scrape at the object and caught her breath when a red stone appeared. “It looks like a ruby.” Excitement buzzed in her chest.
Sam leaned over her shoulder as she brushed away more dirt and then used the dental pick to remove dirt from around the object. It wasn’t long before a whole stone appeared, obviously the top of a ring. This time they both caught their breath as a university name came into view.
No.
Her hand shook. It wasn’t a ruby but a garnet with Mississippi State University engraved around it and the year 1878—the year the university was founded. The ring was identical to a smaller one in her jewelry box that she’d received in the spring of her junior year, just like Ryan had. He’d worn his ring the night of their birthday dinner. Her heart pounded in her chest. It couldn’t be his.
“Chris needs to photograph this,” Sam said.
She straightened and looked for the photographer. He was by the backhoe with Nate, who had returned. Sam yelled for him to come over.
“Can I help you get out?” Sam asked as the photographer ambled toward them.
Emma couldn’t move. The ring couldn’t be Ryan’s. She wouldn’t let it be.
Sam hopped out of the pit and knelt down to give her a hand up.
“Emma?”
She pulled her gaze away from the ring, looking up into his sad brown eyes. He thought it was her brother’s. Tears she refused to shed burned her eyelids. A heavy weight pressed on her chest.
“Take my hand,” he said softly.
Her mind numb, she let him help her out and waited for Chris to take his photographs. She was simply tired. That was the reason she couldn’t form a coherent thought. Emma hugged her arms to her waist, her mind totally blank. She should be preparing herself for the possibility that the ring belonged to her brother, but she couldn’t wrap her mind around the thought. Sam put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to his side.
“It’s not Ryan’s,” she said angrily.
He didn’t answer, just squeezed her shoulders. Which was an answer in itself. Once Chris had