No mistaking that look. He’d found something.
“Good boy,” Mattie praised him, thumping his side while she hugged him close to her leg. “What have you got?”
After she carefully removed the top layer of shale, something gold winked at her from between the remaining rocks. There it was. A brass casing from a spent bullet. Long enough to fit a hunting rifle.
This casing would most likely match the rifle that shot the ram. And there was a possibility, although remote, that it might be connected in some way to their human victim.
Mattie photographed the casing with her cell phone before taking an evidence bag from her utility belt. After turning the bag inside out, she scooped up the casing without touching it, enclosed it, and sealed it away. She could read .270 Winchester stamped on the end of the brass.
“Good job, Robo,” she said, stroking his head as he gazed up at her. Then she looked at Cole. “I have no idea if this casing is related to the death of our victim, but if it is, we’ve just found our first piece of evidence.”
TWELVE
It had proven impossible to find boot prints on the rocky ledge that angled down toward the ram carcass. Cole followed Mattie and the sure-footed Robo as they made for the sheep’s body, while Lovejoy waited for them up above. Even though this was his jurisdiction, the wildlife manager seemed willing to have them take over the investigation, and under the circumstances, it felt like the right thing to do. Mattie and Robo were more efficient and could photograph whatever was necessary without Ed having to risk his life.
Reaching the dead ram took only about five minutes. As they approached the carcass, the memory of the magnificent animal twisted Cole’s gut. Only yesterday, this ram had been on top of his world, in charge of his harem. The ewes were still hanging around farther down the ridge, and he was relieved that they hadn’t scattered to parts unknown when their leader was shot. Without wasting time, a younger male with a lesser horn curl appeared to have moved in on the old ram’s territory.
Before Robo could get too close to the ram’s body, Mattie called him and told him to wait. Decomposition was well underway, and the odor intensified as they drew near.
“Let’s get some pictures,” Mattie said.
While she photographed the site, Cole made his way toward the ram’s front end. “Something bothers me about you finding that casing, Mattie.”
“What’s that?”
“A real hunter always picks up his brass, doesn’t want to leave an environmental footprint.”
“This shell was down in some rocks. Maybe he looked for it but couldn’t find it.”
“That’s possible. But how hard is it to swipe away some shale?”
Mattie nodded, looking like she was taking that in and conceding the point as she squatted and snapped a few photos of the ledge and ridge above her.
Cole moved closer. “If you’re done with pictures of the ram, I’ll try to retrieve the slug.”
“Go ahead.”
Cole put on latex gloves and removed a bowie knife with a seven-inch blade from a sheath he wore on his belt.
“Do you think the shooter knew we were in the area?” Mattie asked.
“I think we could assume that. Why else would he disappear so quickly?”
Cole examined the entry wound on the ram’s side. “Looks like a heart shot, which tells me the guy knew what he was doing. Odd for a hunter who leaves his casings behind.”
Mattie shook her head, obviously pondering it.
Cole faced the job at hand. On normal terrain, he would use the animal’s stiffened legs to roll it so that he could search for an exit wound, but if he rolled this ram, he would send it tumbling downhill and possibly set off a rockslide in the process. He decided to go into the chest cavity and search for the slug through the place of entry, counting on it not being a through-and-through wound.
He sliced upward between the ribs, carved through the cartilage at the spine, and sliced back down. Once he cut the rib away from its support, he removed it and inserted his hand into the space it left behind, feeling for the bullet. Within minutes, he located the projectile, withdrew it from the ram’s chest, and delivered it into an evidence bag that Mattie held ready.
“Ballistics can tell if this slug and the brass that Robo found match.” She appeared to be thinking aloud. “This has to be someone who knew his way around and could navigate this terrain. Maybe a local?”
“Makes sense.” He stripped off his gloves, turned them inside out, and disposed of them in a ziplock bag that he would carry out.
Mattie turned upslope and scanned the area. She pointed to an outcropping about halfway up. “That looks like a place where someone could hide and not be seen from down below.”
Robo fell in beside Mattie as they climbed toward the top. At the backside of the outcropping, she stopped, squatted, and searched the ground. Smudged boot prints.
Realization sunk in, raising the hair at the back of Cole’s neck. He turned and searched the terrain below to confirm his suspicion. Yesterday, while he and Mattie climbed the hillside, someone had been perched up here hidden behind these boulders, armed with a hunting rifle, and quite likely watching them through the scope.
When they returned to the crime scene, a great transformation had taken place. Orange and blue domed tents had sprung up overnight, looking like huge colorful mushrooms sprouting among the evergreens. Several members of the sheriff’s posse were tending a campfire and cooking a meal for the workers.
After tying their horses beside the others, Ed Lovejoy went to help out at the campfire while Mattie and Cole made their way up the trail to the shallow grave. Exhumation of the gravesite was well under way. Mattie stopped at a distance where she could watch the forensic team do their work but still stay out of their way.
Wearing a soiled white coverall and latex gloves, one of the human recovery team members knelt beside the pit, digging carefully with a hand trowel while his teammates used framed screens to sift through the dirt. He’d already dug a trench about eighteen inches wide and twelve inches deep most of the way around the body. Rick Lawson, Stella, Brody, and Sheriff McCoy stood a few feet away, watching.
Brody came over. “That’s a forensic anthropologist heading up the recovery. From the size and shape of the corpse, he believes this victim is a man, although his features have been burned beyond recognition.”
The information confirmed her first impression. Mattie briefed Brody on what she’d found, as well as Cole’s belief that a true hunter wouldn’t leave behind his brass. “I wish we’d gone after him yesterday. Maybe we could have caught him.”
He appeared to mull over what he’d heard. “We were out of daylight and short staffed. Maybe the ram’s death has nothing to do with our victim here. We’ll have to see if we recover any lead during the autopsy.”
Mattie had already had the same thought. A bullet recovered from the body could be analyzed by ballistics to see if it matched the same type of casing that Robo found.
Brody moved closer to the gravesite, while Mattie remained standing beside Cole. The recovery team had begun to remove the soil on top of the body, painstakingly separating dirt from charred wood. When they uncovered the victim’s remaining foot, she could see that the charred boot matched the one that Bruno found.
Bit by bit, they uncovered the victim’s remains. As they worked their way downward, continuing to trench below the level of the victim’s back, Mattie moved forward to get a better view while Cole stayed where he was.