[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Finally, the site processing team there had
not found a single similar little square under the
body. Naturally, they wouldn t have known they
should be looking for anything buried in the soil
below the body, but any sign of disturbance below
the body should have clued them in. She believed
this was particularly true for woodland soil,
unless of course the killer had been meticulous
about replacing the dirt, leaves, sticks and
whatever else was on the ground before he disturbed
the soil. Considering what she knew of him so
far, she guessed it was a reasonable possibility.
She would have to go to the site herself and check
the ground. The General also thought opening her
hand at that point to reveal what she already knew
by involving others would only open the door to
further Council hostility. At least, that was her
well thought out rationalization.
With nothing else to do in the Knoxville area
since she had gone there for only one purpose, she
got into her Jaagé and headed slowly for the
coordinates where she knew the body had been found.
The currently calculated delay of over thirty hours
since the locals initial site processing would
probably leave the scene empty and ready for her
own search. What she planned to do when she got to
the location would pretty much destroy the
integrity of the site, and would also generate
tremendous hostility from the local officials if
they returned and found her out there. She would
just have to take that chance.
During the drive, her mind drifted to the
Council s eventual lack of a sustained reaction to
the first murder. Amazingly, it was never
mentioned in any of the many discussions she had
with other Council representatives after the
emergency Council meeting. She still found it
surprising considering the reaction she got when
she first requested the meeting. Apparently,
Apache security breaches were far more unbearable
than scalpings and sacred ground violations. It
was an indication of their continued slide from
their heritage into the reality of modern times she
decided.
61
With her attention on the recent past, she
forgot to purchase digging tools, and reached the
dumpsite with little to work with. Of note, she
also lacked her characteristic gut reaction for
things she should, or in this case, shouldn t do.
She decided she would have to improvise on both of
them.
Rationally, the absence of her gut feeling was
in essence a sign in itself... Tools would
definitely be an easier thing to improvise.
A normal speed drive by followed by a creeping
return put her a little at ease regarding being out
there unannounced. It was too bad it wasn t also
insurance against anyone returning. But she had to
do this, she told herself over and over. She was
the only one who could if she wanted to keep the
buried squares under wraps.
Finally, armed with the only reasonable tool
she could find, the Jaagés jack handle, she
approached the site with continued caution.
Nothing had been left behind to indicate what had
happened there, not even crime scene tape. Her
worries about stirring up local law enforcement had
clearly been a waste. If not for the GPS in her
watch, she would have been digging for a couple of
years and probably then in the wrong spot.
Fortunately, she had input the coordinates into the
GPS memory when she requested the satellite video,
and now could pull it up and locate the exact spot
the body had been left.
After identifying the proper location, the
General meticulously cleared a six-foot square area
of all of its leaves and other forest debris with
the coordinates at the center. A lengthy
inspection revealed that nothing lay immediately
beneath the debris. It was lucky for her because
if it had, even the worst crime scene technician on
the planet would have already picked it up and
carted it off. Considering this, she quickly got
back to work. The ground was extremely soft and
easy to manipulate. It would take her little
effort to make it as far as a foot down if she
found it necessary. She didn t really expect to
have to dig that deep, but she would go down two or
three feet if she had to in her effort to find the
62
squares.
A little while later, she had gathered the
soft first half-inch layer into a small pile near
one of her cleared corners. She hadn t noticed
anything remarkable when she scraped up the soil,
but she hand sifted it into another pile several
times anyway just to be sure. It was too important
to her to be sloppy, but even then she still found
nothing. Careful but impatient and a little
disappointed, she moved on to the second layer. In
this layer, she picked up a few worms and small
stones very quickly, but careful sifting again
revealed nothing particularly interesting. More
frustrated now, she went back to her first layer of
soil and checked it one more time. She then
returned to the second layer s pile of dirt, but
after another slow round of sifting, she didn t
find anything in the second pile. Feeling more
disappointed but also reasonably sure of her
results, she decided to take a short break. Her
lower back was starting to ache and since she was
in this for the long haul, she also needed to
stretch her legs for a while.
Walking slowly back to the Jaagé as she
attempted to stretch the pain away, she tried to
recall exactly what Captain Atwell had told her
about his own excavation. She had no idea how deep
he had found the squares, but she could only
imagine that they had been extremely shallow,
considering the way the killer had quickly and
almost casually swept the sand. There was also a
major difference in soil types between the two
places obviously, and this could reasonably have
affected the way the killer would be able to leave
any buried objects. She just had to reign in her
impatience and keep working the site. But as much
as her back was aching, three feet down was
starting to seem pretty unreasonable for her, not
that she had ever seriously considered digging that
deep in the first place.
Shifting her attention from her back, she looked
around the general area and instantly lost hope
that the murder location would ever be found. The
area was so densely wooded that there appeared to
be no reasonable way to even begin a thorough and
63
productive search. This probably contributed to
the reason the whole crime scene area had already
been completely abandoned. In the absence of an
eyewitness or a miraculously lucky break, the local
authorities probably had about as much as they
would ever get on this killing. The idea was
somehow even more disheartening and quickly took
her back to where she had been digging.
With very little extra effort, she went down
an inch and a half on her next pass. Nothing
appeared any different than the first two layers
until she came nearer to the center of the dig. At
that point she felt the jack handle scrape over
what would most likely be another rock to add to
her growing pile of pebbles. Somewhat irritated by
the prospect of carefully sifting out even more
useless junk, she continued scraping towards the
center. Her first annoyance was rapidly followed
by several others, all of them giving off a similar
stone against metal clink. Approaching her limit
for tolerable irritation, she decided to stop and
sift for junk before she had even scraped half of
her area. When her quick, half-hearted sifting of
the partial layer yielded nothing, she decided to
look for rocks or other debris protruding from the
ground. The jack handle had clinked against
something. With the irritation progressing even
further towards frustration, she had an abrupt urge
to give up on her clearly useless effort. The
little squares under the sergeant s body had
probably been a fluke, she thought to herself.
They could have been there hundreds, even thousands
of years for all they knew, and they didn t even
know what the hell the squares were!
Angrily standing up without regard for her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
Finally, the site processing team there had
not found a single similar little square under the
body. Naturally, they wouldn t have known they
should be looking for anything buried in the soil
below the body, but any sign of disturbance below
the body should have clued them in. She believed
this was particularly true for woodland soil,
unless of course the killer had been meticulous
about replacing the dirt, leaves, sticks and
whatever else was on the ground before he disturbed
the soil. Considering what she knew of him so
far, she guessed it was a reasonable possibility.
She would have to go to the site herself and check
the ground. The General also thought opening her
hand at that point to reveal what she already knew
by involving others would only open the door to
further Council hostility. At least, that was her
well thought out rationalization.
With nothing else to do in the Knoxville area
since she had gone there for only one purpose, she
got into her Jaagé and headed slowly for the
coordinates where she knew the body had been found.
The currently calculated delay of over thirty hours
since the locals initial site processing would
probably leave the scene empty and ready for her
own search. What she planned to do when she got to
the location would pretty much destroy the
integrity of the site, and would also generate
tremendous hostility from the local officials if
they returned and found her out there. She would
just have to take that chance.
During the drive, her mind drifted to the
Council s eventual lack of a sustained reaction to
the first murder. Amazingly, it was never
mentioned in any of the many discussions she had
with other Council representatives after the
emergency Council meeting. She still found it
surprising considering the reaction she got when
she first requested the meeting. Apparently,
Apache security breaches were far more unbearable
than scalpings and sacred ground violations. It
was an indication of their continued slide from
their heritage into the reality of modern times she
decided.
61
With her attention on the recent past, she
forgot to purchase digging tools, and reached the
dumpsite with little to work with. Of note, she
also lacked her characteristic gut reaction for
things she should, or in this case, shouldn t do.
She decided she would have to improvise on both of
them.
Rationally, the absence of her gut feeling was
in essence a sign in itself... Tools would
definitely be an easier thing to improvise.
A normal speed drive by followed by a creeping
return put her a little at ease regarding being out
there unannounced. It was too bad it wasn t also
insurance against anyone returning. But she had to
do this, she told herself over and over. She was
the only one who could if she wanted to keep the
buried squares under wraps.
Finally, armed with the only reasonable tool
she could find, the Jaagés jack handle, she
approached the site with continued caution.
Nothing had been left behind to indicate what had
happened there, not even crime scene tape. Her
worries about stirring up local law enforcement had
clearly been a waste. If not for the GPS in her
watch, she would have been digging for a couple of
years and probably then in the wrong spot.
Fortunately, she had input the coordinates into the
GPS memory when she requested the satellite video,
and now could pull it up and locate the exact spot
the body had been left.
After identifying the proper location, the
General meticulously cleared a six-foot square area
of all of its leaves and other forest debris with
the coordinates at the center. A lengthy
inspection revealed that nothing lay immediately
beneath the debris. It was lucky for her because
if it had, even the worst crime scene technician on
the planet would have already picked it up and
carted it off. Considering this, she quickly got
back to work. The ground was extremely soft and
easy to manipulate. It would take her little
effort to make it as far as a foot down if she
found it necessary. She didn t really expect to
have to dig that deep, but she would go down two or
three feet if she had to in her effort to find the
62
squares.
A little while later, she had gathered the
soft first half-inch layer into a small pile near
one of her cleared corners. She hadn t noticed
anything remarkable when she scraped up the soil,
but she hand sifted it into another pile several
times anyway just to be sure. It was too important
to her to be sloppy, but even then she still found
nothing. Careful but impatient and a little
disappointed, she moved on to the second layer. In
this layer, she picked up a few worms and small
stones very quickly, but careful sifting again
revealed nothing particularly interesting. More
frustrated now, she went back to her first layer of
soil and checked it one more time. She then
returned to the second layer s pile of dirt, but
after another slow round of sifting, she didn t
find anything in the second pile. Feeling more
disappointed but also reasonably sure of her
results, she decided to take a short break. Her
lower back was starting to ache and since she was
in this for the long haul, she also needed to
stretch her legs for a while.
Walking slowly back to the Jaagé as she
attempted to stretch the pain away, she tried to
recall exactly what Captain Atwell had told her
about his own excavation. She had no idea how deep
he had found the squares, but she could only
imagine that they had been extremely shallow,
considering the way the killer had quickly and
almost casually swept the sand. There was also a
major difference in soil types between the two
places obviously, and this could reasonably have
affected the way the killer would be able to leave
any buried objects. She just had to reign in her
impatience and keep working the site. But as much
as her back was aching, three feet down was
starting to seem pretty unreasonable for her, not
that she had ever seriously considered digging that
deep in the first place.
Shifting her attention from her back, she looked
around the general area and instantly lost hope
that the murder location would ever be found. The
area was so densely wooded that there appeared to
be no reasonable way to even begin a thorough and
63
productive search. This probably contributed to
the reason the whole crime scene area had already
been completely abandoned. In the absence of an
eyewitness or a miraculously lucky break, the local
authorities probably had about as much as they
would ever get on this killing. The idea was
somehow even more disheartening and quickly took
her back to where she had been digging.
With very little extra effort, she went down
an inch and a half on her next pass. Nothing
appeared any different than the first two layers
until she came nearer to the center of the dig. At
that point she felt the jack handle scrape over
what would most likely be another rock to add to
her growing pile of pebbles. Somewhat irritated by
the prospect of carefully sifting out even more
useless junk, she continued scraping towards the
center. Her first annoyance was rapidly followed
by several others, all of them giving off a similar
stone against metal clink. Approaching her limit
for tolerable irritation, she decided to stop and
sift for junk before she had even scraped half of
her area. When her quick, half-hearted sifting of
the partial layer yielded nothing, she decided to
look for rocks or other debris protruding from the
ground. The jack handle had clinked against
something. With the irritation progressing even
further towards frustration, she had an abrupt urge
to give up on her clearly useless effort. The
little squares under the sergeant s body had
probably been a fluke, she thought to herself.
They could have been there hundreds, even thousands
of years for all they knew, and they didn t even
know what the hell the squares were!
Angrily standing up without regard for her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]