“Let’s head up to the scene,” Faith suggested.“On the way, why don’t you fill me in on what happened?”
Anna nodded.The group started up the unmarked dirt path to the site.“Well, I was taking a break when Brad told me that he’d found something I needed to see.”
“Brad is one of your graduate students?”Faith confirmed.
“Yes.Bradley Rossdale.He’s one of my best students.Works harder than almost anyone I’ve seen.”
I’ll bet he does.“So he tells you he found something, and you follow him to the crime scene.”
She nodded again.“Yes.We’re digging in sections.One section at a time.At least, we’re trying to.The grad students are competitive, and everyone wants to be the person to score the next ‘big find’ so sometimes people will sneak off to dig elsewhere.As long as it’s not holding back work, I let them.We’ve found quite a bit that way.”
That gave Brad a somewhat less lustful reason for digging around.He might have just wanted to impress the teacher and not the beauty.Most likely, it was a combination of both.
“And where is Brad now?”
Anna frowned slightly.“He’s at home.I gave him the rest of the week off.He wasn’t really enthused about what happened.I don’t know if you know this or not, but he actually grabbed the dead man’s arm.”
“We read his statement,” Faith said.
“You don’t think he’s a suspect, do you?”Anna asked.
“No.From what I understand, Hancock PD verified his alibi.”
“Yeah, he and I were having drinks at a local bar.And the other grad students,” she added quickly.“Not too many drinks.Just a couple.I like when the research team really feels like family.People work better that way, and there’s less squabbling over whose name gets attached to what discovery.”
They arrived at the dig site, and Anna brightened visibly.“Well, here we are!”she said.“The site of the only confirmed battle between the Mohawk Nation and the Lenape in this area.”
“Were the two tribes supposed to be friends?”Faith asked.
"Off and on.Enemies off and on.Politics among Native Americans were similar to politics everywhere else in the world.Sometimes they got along, sometimes they didn't.The Iroquois Confederacy bordered the Delaware Nation, so they clashed a lot.Not often seriously, though.Aside from the Beaver Wars and the French and Indian War, they tended to stay out of each other's way as much as possible.Which wasn't always possible since they were right next door to each other, but… well, anyway, there hasn't been a record of anything more than a couple of squabbles between hunting parties this far east.I now have proof that there was a full-scale conflict between the two tribes.And if the initial date estimates are correct, that fighting took place as early as the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries, completely predating European contact.The implications of that could be enormous."
Faith looked over the dig site.Teams of people worked in different excavations covering a ten-acre plateau on top of the hill.A few of the closer teams glanced at Anna and waved.Faith noted the casual attitude and frowned.“No one seems all that shaken up by the discovery of a body.”
“It could be that they’ve discovered hundreds of bodies,” Michael said.
Faith looked at him, and he pointed at a table sitting on a flat patch of ground in between several of the small digs.Her stomach turned when she realized that the brownish sticks piled on top of it weren’t sticks after all but human bones.
“You can blame me for their calmness,” Anna said in a tone that suggested she didn’t really feel bad about it.“I made it clear that the crime scene was off limits and that we would cooperate with law enforcement but otherwise, we were to focus on our job and let the police focus on theirs.”
“No one’s worried?”Faith asked.“Working here a few feet away from where someone was killed and buried?”
Anna shrugged.“We have a job to do even if we’re worried.”
Faith couldn’t argue with that.“So Brad showed you the body, and you called it in?”
“I told him to call it in,” Anna replied.
“Gotcha.And no one else saw the body before the police arrived?”
“No, I didn’t want a panic, and I didn’t want anyone else messing with the crime scene, so I told Brad to keep it to himself until the police arrived, at which point, I made a brief announcement to the team, the subject of which I’ve already told you.”
Faith nodded.“All right.Show us the scene, please.”
Anna led the three of them to a stand of short trees.Or tall bushes.Faith wasn't really sure what the dividing line was.On the other side of the stand was an opening that led to a small clearing.The opening was blocked by yellow tape warning people to keep out, but since this was Faith's crime scene now, she sent Turk under the tape."Go ahead, boy."
Turk obliged and trotted into the plat of freshly turned dirt, nose to the ground.
“As you can see,” Anna said, “the dirt was recently turned over.”
