work at hand. It wasn’t long after they’d taken a break for lunch when Chief of Police Dillon Bowie arrived at the entrance of the tent.
Bowie was an attractive man, but he wore the burden of this crime scene in the weary lines of his face and the grim press of his lips.
He paused at the entrance, as if waiting for permission to enter. “You said you have some information for me?”
She motioned him into the tent and to the steel table where a complete human skeleton rested. “We assumed that the people in the pit were probably murder victims. This would have been the last victim of whatever happened here, as we’re working from the top of the pit down.”
Chief Bowie nodded and stared at the table. “So, what can you tell me about it?”
“Not it, him—the skeleton is that of a young male.”
“How young?”
“Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen or so. Thankfully, the teeth are intact in the skull, which helped me with the age issue. I took X-rays and dental impressions so that you could use them to check with dentists, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like he’d had any dental work done.”
Patience paused to take a breath and then picked up the skull, ignoring the faint distaste that crossed Bowie’s features. “This young man was definitely murdered.” She turned the skull over to display a long straight crack in the center. “I would guess either a very sharp axe or a meat cleaver, or something like that was used to kill him. I’m leaning toward the meat cleaver due to the narrowness of the injury. It was clean and deep and probably killed him instantly.”
She set the skull back on the table. She pointed to another steel table. “As you can see, we’re about halfway through putting together the bones to this victim...also male and with the same kind of wound to the back of the skull—and that’s all I can give you so far.”
Dillon gestured her outside of the hot tent. “Have you been able to discern how long the bones have been there?”
“As you know when we first arrived on scene, we analyzed soil samples and any insect life present, and of course, the condition of the bones, and my guess would be twelve to sixteen years,” she replied. “I’m sorry I can’t narrow the time line any better.”
His frown deepened. “That means everyone on this ranch and the neighboring ranches are potential suspects.”
“I thought you’d already reached that conclusion.”
He released a sigh. “I had, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“To make your job more complicated, I don’t think these people were all killed at the exact same time. The soil samples indicate the first body was buried twelve to fifteen years ago, but the way the bodies were stacked up, I would guess that they were probably killed over the course of a year or so. It wasn’t a mass killing that took place all at one time, but rather a serial kind of event. I’ll have better clarity about that when we finally get to the bottom of the stack of bones.”
He took off his hat and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. He swiped his forehead and then placed his hat back on his head and tucked the handkerchief away. “This is the first time you’ve spoken to me without yelling.”
A warmth of a blush swept over her cheeks. “My number-one priority is to keep the integrity of the crime scene. I allowed your photographer access to get what photos you needed for your case file, but I’m very proprietary about the scene, especially in the very beginning when something could happen to taint the scene.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” he replied dryly.
She couldn’t apologize for doing her job. “If you come back tomorrow, I’ll see to it that you have a full report along with the dental records. I’m also bagging any scraps of fabric or hair we find among the bones, although so far there isn’t much of either left, and I won’t be able to tell you what of those items went with what victim.”
“Hopefully, it won’t be long before you get to the other bodies?”
“It takes as long as it takes,” she replied. She knew he’d been frustrated by how long it had taken her to begin to move the bones from the pit, but there had been much preliminary work that had to be done before actually moving the bones.
There was no way she could pin down a specific time line for him now. She wasn’t in control, the bones were. “This is a process that can’t be rushed.”
He nodded. “Cassie mentioned to me that several times she’s invited you to the big house to eat dinner, but you’ve declined.”
“I have,” she agreed. “I’m here to work, and generally I don’t mix business with pleasure. I prefer to keep myself isolated from the locals. When I’m done with my work, I leave and never look back.”
“I just figured I’d mention that Cassie is a terrific woman, just in case you feel inclined to have some girl talk or whatever.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Patience replied, although she had no idea what “girl talk” involved and had no intention of indulging in it. She knew nothing about fashion or shoes or men...or any of the kinds of things she assumed “girl talk” would entail.
“I’ll be back sometime in the morning for your report?”
“That’s fine,” she replied. “I’ll make sure I have everything ready on victim one.”
She watched as the lawman walked back toward the house, and then her gaze automatically shot to the corral where the big black horse was alone in the enclosure.
She frowned irritably. She’d looked to see if she could catch sight of Forest. What was wrong with her? Why would she even want to look for him? He was just part of the scenery here, nothing more. She returned to the tent and got back to work.
For the next week she focused on the job she was here to do, but found herself at odd times of the day standing in the tent entrance and gazing toward the corral.
Sometimes the horse was there alone and other times Forest was in the corral with the horse. He often stood in one place for a long period of time and then would move, forcing the horse to back away to keep a healthy distance from the human intruder.
Forest appeared to be a patient man, a trait he and Patience shared in common. He didn’t attempt to force himself on the huge animal, but appeared to be waiting for the horse to come to him.
By Friday they had managed to piece together all of skeleton two, confirming that it was a young male with the same kind of wound to the back of his skull. She’d written her report, taken the necessary dental X-rays and once again had nothing concrete that would help Dillon Bowie make identification either of the victim or the person responsible for the deaths.
She assumed he was checking missing-persons reports from years ago, but at the time these young men had been murdered, instant technology hadn’t been available. He had a difficult task ahead of him, and it was possible the killer was long gone from the area. Of course it was also possible he could be working on this ranch. From what she’d heard, all of the twelve cowboys had been young ranch hands at the time the murders would have taken place.
It was after seven when she and
