Mattie finished up with Robo. “Let’s do what we can to search along this streambed. We’ll go down one side and come back up on the other.”
After Mattie told Robo to seek, he put his nose to the ground and squeezed through a tangle of willows, heading downhill. The solid rock walls gave her the sensation of pressing in from both sides. She ignored it and fought through the foliage, staying as close to Robo as she could, parting branches and inching forward. The clutter of branches and boulders made for slow passage, and Robo soon ranged out in front, outdistancing her.
After about fifty yards of pushing through timber, her shirt drenched with sweat despite the crisp air, she lost all sight of her dog. When the ground evened out, she thought about calling him back, but then spotted him sitting at the base of a pile of deadfall on the stream’s bank where it looped out and slowed, creating a natural catchment.
He’d apparently been watching for her, and made eye contact as soon as she came into view. He’d dug a shallow pit in the mash of dead leaves, twigs, and branches that he now put his mouth into, touched something, and then looked back into her eyes. His signal for evidence detection.
“What did you find?”
She rushed to join him and knelt, hugging him close with one arm while she reached to probe near the hole that he’d made. Metal glinted through the dead leaves.
Brody came up behind her. “What’s he got?”
His presence reminded her of the sheriff’s instruction. “Sheriff McCoy told me that you need to recover any evidence that Robo finds up here.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Evidently McCoy had given Brody the same instructions. She pulled out her cell phone. “Let me take a photo.”
She snapped shots at different angles and then moved aside, pulling Robo along with her.
Brody squatted and began scooping aside the dried leafy deposit with one hand while Mattie videoed the process. It didn’t take long to uncover Robo’s find.
It was a handgun—a semi-automatic pistol. Black and caked with dirt, ugly and deadly-looking. Fingers trembling from a rush of adrenaline, Mattie snapped several photos of it in place.
“Looks like a .357 Magnum,” Brody said. “Desert Eagle from back in the early eighties.”
Brody knew his guns, and he was probably right about the age of this one. From its condition, she would guess it had lain here in the ravine for a long time. But why would it be here, only yards away from Willie’s gravesite? A coincidence? And who had disposed of it in the first place?
SEVENTEEN
The deadfall yielded a cache of debris that included plastic bags, food wrappers, Styrofoam cups, and the like. Mattie and Brody bagged it all and then searched a little farther down before heading back up on the other side of the stream. They found nothing more.
Sheriff McCoy and Rick Lawson were still at the gravesites in the meadow when Mattie and Brody returned, and the excavation team had made progress. Two more skeletons with clothing remnants had been unearthed, both adults, and both had been burned. Three body bags were laid out side-by-side, waiting for helicopter pickup.
Brody handed the paper bag containing the gun to the sheriff.
“What’s this?” McCoy said, looking into the bag.
“Desert Eagle, .357 Magnum,” Brody said. “Robo found it in the ravine at the upper gravesite.”
McCoy offered the bag to Lawson, who peered into it before focusing on Mattie. “This gun was manufactured back in the eighties. We can’t say exactly how long ago those bodies were buried, but it could have been around then. There are signs of projectile penetration on both adult skulls, and we’ve got lead inside one of them. We’ll have to see if that slug came from this handgun.”
Mattie glanced down at Robo, and he gazed back at her as if waiting for her to tell him what his next job would be. Her limbs were heavy from exhaustion, her clothing covered with sweat, dirt, and mud, but the pride she felt for her dog’s accomplishments made it all worth it.
“The team is going to stay here tonight and look for sign of more graves, but I’m heading back down to the sheriff’s station,” Lawson said. “I’ll clean this gun and see if I can get a serial number off it. Then I’ll put it through the ATF National Tracing Center. We can probably find out who purchased it originally and maybe trace it to its final owner.”
“How long will that take?” Mattie asked.
“I might get results within twenty-four hours.”
That came as a surprise. Having Lawson on their team had its benefits.
McCoy told Mattie that she should return to Timber Creek in the next party as well. She started back to where the horses were tied, and Brody came along with her. He looked as dirty and beat as she did. “Do you need a break to go back to town?” she asked him.
“Nah. We’ve got a shower rigged up with a solar heated bag of water, and the sheriff brought me up a clean set of clothes.”
“Is there anything you need me to do when I get to the station? Anyone you need me to call?”
“Nope. I’m good.” Brody gave her a look that told her she needed to back off. He wasn’t a touchy-feely sort of guy, and he usually kept his private business to himself.
Mattie remained silent for the rest of the way, saying goodbye when they reached the camp. She found Garrett saddling up Mountaineer at the rope picket line where they’d tied the horses. Grateful to be transported downhill on horseback instead of having to use her own two legs, she squatted beside Robo and hugged him close while she waited.
“Are you about ready to go?” Garrett asked.
“We are. The others will be here soon.”
The craggy planes of the rancher’s face were etched with concern. “You look beat. Wait here while I get the others rounded up.”
He returned shortly with a cup of coffee and then left again. His gesture touched her, and she fought back that hollow feeling inside as she thought of Willie, of her family. They hadn’t taken care of each other the way they should.
Garrett returned with the rest of the party. After mounting up, she looked down at Robo, wishing he could ride home, too, but he trotted alongside her as the horses moved out, perfectly happy with going on his own.
This time, Mattie relaxed completely in the saddle, bracing herself and leaning back automatically on the steeper grades and then swaying with Mountaineer’s steps on the flat. The sun set and the forest took on the muted light of dusk, making her sleepy. Robo seemed content with staying close. Her phone beeped with messages as they came back into range for cell phone service.
When they arrived at the parking lot, she thanked Garrett and loaded up Robo, giving him some water before climbing into the driver’s seat and checking her voicemail. The first message was from Mama T, and it soothed Mattie’s spirit just to hear her voice. “Don’t forget to come over this evening, mijita. Doreen is here and she’s anxious to meet you.”
She wondered if her foster mom called Doreen ‘my little daughter’ as well.
The second message was from Cole. “Hi, Mattie. We’re thinking of you today.” There was a long pause. “I know this has to be tough on you and … I hope we can at least talk tonight. Call me when you get a chance, okay? No matter how late. Well, bye.”
Sounded like it was tough on Cole, too. She would call him after she carried through with her commitment to Mama T. She sent him a message saying she would phone as soon as she was free.
There was also a text from Riley. “Hey Mattie. Dad says I can’t come to your house anymore. Sorry if I was a bother. I still want the job with the kids. When can I start?”