I understood that. “And Briggs? He shot himself, too?”
Paxton frowned. “Yeah. Why are you so fixated on this?”
“All of these men were connected to the festival. They knew details that could stir trouble.”
Paxton shifted in his seat. “Everyone in this town had information on the festival.” As I readied to fire another question, he held up his hand. “Back to Tristan. If what you’re saying is true, we need to find her.”
“Yes, we do.”
“Do you think she knows where the bodies are?”
I reached for my phone and texted,I know where the bodies are buried.
Paxton peered over the edge of my phone. “That true?”
“Do you wear a bulletproof vest?”
“Sometimes.”
“Might want to strap one on today, pal.”
As I drove out of Dawson, the dream catcher dangled from the rearview mirror as I dialed Grant’s number. My call went to voicemail. I recapped my conversation with Paxton, the text I’d sent, and my final location.
I turned east on Tanner’s Run Road toward the rolling hills. In the distance, I saw the barn’s dried, sun-stripped boards.
My phone rang. “Grant.”
“Where are you?”
A beat of silence and then: “A mile from the barn on the old Foster family farm. I think that’s where the bodies are buried.”
“How did you come up with that?”
“The original Foster bought the land to mine gold. It went bust, so he turned to farming. There’s a mine shaft on the property. I think the barn is very near that shaft. Thirty-one years ago, someone could have parked a van inside the barn. This person could have gone undetected as they dumped the bodies in the shaft.”
“Who did it?”
“That’s what I’m about to find out.”
“I’m fifteen minutes from you. Can you wait?”
“No.” Cody rose on the passenger seat and stared out the windshield.
“Someone set fire to your house, Sloane. Someone wants to kill you.”
“Yeah. Not ideal.” I knew the road well enough to take a slight right a quarter of a mile before the barn. “I got my man Cody to help me.”
He swore. “Do not engage.”
I pulled off the road and parked. “I could say okay, but I would be lying.”
“Sloane. Just wait.”
“No can do.”
“Why are you pushing this?”
I hooked Cody’s leash on his collar, got out of the car, and helped him to the ground. “I’ve done this before.”
