Or it could be that he liked the attention he received last time and wanted to make it even easier for his victim to be found this time.
“They didn’t have any cell signal until they were back at their car.We’re still not sure why nine-one-one routed them to Danbury instead of us, but I guess it got handled either way.”
“Does the victim have a name?”Michael asked.
“Sure does,” Avery replied.“Staff Sergeant Kevin Barnes.”
Another servicemember.“Was he active duty?”Faith asked.
“No, but he had a veteran ID card with his last active rank.”
Another veteran.Also another male NCO.Their killer had a type, that’s for sure.
“So nothing’s missing,” Michael said.
“Nothing.The killer even left Barnes’s wallet behind.”
“That’s not really surprising,” Michael said.“Thieves don’t usually go through the trouble of burying their bodies in the woods.”
“Good point,” Avery replied.“Good thing this is an active archaeological dig.The grave was very shallow.Looks like he ran out of time to dig deeper.”
Faith frowned.“Speaking of that, where is the archaeological team?”
“They’re meeting with the administration at Yale to ask for a budget increase,” Avery replied.“According to Dr.Cuthbert.He asked if he should cut the meeting short and come here, but I verified his alibi and that of his dig team and told him I would let you two decide that.”
“You verified the alibis of the entire crew?”Faith asked.
“Yes.There’s only Dr.Cuthbert and six graduate students.”
That was much smaller than Dr.Winters’ team at the Hancock site.“I see,” Faith replied.“Well, call him back and tell him to get back here as soon as he can.We’ll explore other angles until he gets here.If you verified everyone’s alibis, then we don’t need the entire team just yet.The body’s still here, correct?”
“Unless your dog is bothering CSI for some other reason.”
Faith flashed a sharp look at Avery, but he didn’t seem upset at all.His face was as placid as ever.It occurred to her that a perpetually calm expression might actually be an asset in his line of work.If Faith were trying to hide wrongdoing, she would find it very difficult to remain level across from that emotionless gaze.
She stepped closer to the scene.One of the CSIs muttered, “Well, we were almost done anyway,” as the team cleared out.
Turk lifted his eyes to Faith, wearing a mournful expression.Faith reached down and scratched him under his chin, then straightened and regarded the body.
Kevin Barnes lay on his back with his legs straight and his arms crossed.His eyes were half-open, but one of the CSIs explained that when he trotted back and held two baggies with gold coins up to Faith."These were used to hold the eyes shut.They're American Eagle five-dollar coins.Mint proofs, but that doesn't make them especially valuable except for the fact that they're gold.The mint makes a bunch of these every year for collectors."
“They might still have value as evidence,” Faith said.
"Yeah, yeah, for sure.I just wanted you to know that the body was discovered with these holding the eyes shut.We'll get you a full report, but I know you FBI types like to see the full picture for yourselves."He hesitated for a second, then asked, "Do you want me to close the eyes again and put these back?"
Faith smiled slightly.“That’s all right, thank you.Just get that report to me as fast as possible.”
“I will.Your partner gave me a business card, so I’ll email the report to his address.”
The CSI left, and Faith tried to piece together events from the killer’s perspective.Assuming he had a truck or an SUV with at least some four-wheel drive capability, he could get to the top of the wider, flatter walking trail a mile below that Faith had identified as the nearest vehicle-accessible place.If he was in a normal car or a truck without four-wheel drive, then he would have to park an extra mile away at the public lot.
Then he would have all the way up here, passing several more secluded, easier-to-access places to hide the body.He chose to bury his victim in this archaeological dig and put only a token amount of dirt over him.Even if he'd been pressed for time, Faith couldn't believe that he'd been so pressed for time that he couldn't bury him two feet deep like he did Paul Martinez.
And this was a dig site.Where people were going to burrow far deeper than two feet into dirt specifically hunting for bodies.Not fresh bodies, obviously, but the point was that the killer chose to bury him somewhere he would be found quickly.
Leaving the wallet was a choice too.At first, Faith thought that the killer just didn’t care, but now she believed otherwise.He didn’t just want people to know where the body was.He wanted them to knowwhohe was.He wanted people to know that he had killed and buried Staff Sergeant Kevin Barnes.
Why?Why him, and why Paul Martinez?And why was Kevin different?Paul didn’t have his wallet, and no coins held his eyes shut.
