She fought the rising of her sorrow as she gathered her thoughts. “After Willie called me last October, I’ve been working with a counselor to deal with repressed memories from my childhood. Willie remembered more about what happened to me than I do.”
A shiver forced Mattie to stop and catch her breath before continuing. “Now he’s gone. I wasted all that time, and he’s gone.”
“Maybe you don’t have to remember everything. Maybe what’s important is the here and now.”
Mattie wasn’t sure he fully understood the complexity of the situation, but she appreciated his comment.
Cole continued to speak. “Your brother is gone, but you’re not alone, Mattie. Your foster mother, the people you work with, the kids and me, even Mrs. Gibbs—we all care about you. You’ve got us.”
She was nodding her agreement even as he finished talking. “I’ll remember that. Thanks for reminding me.”
Her cell phone signaled a text message coming in, and she moved away from him, straightening in her seat so that she could take her phone from her pocket to check it. “It’s from Riley. Her dad’s working at the bar tonight and she wants to come over.”
Cole held his watch up to the moonlight. “It’s after ten. Kind of late for that, isn’t it?”
“Probably, but I need to talk to her about a job helping Mama T.” She began to text a reply. “I’ll tell her to stay home, and that I’ll call her in about ten minutes.”
“She can start work at my place any day. How about tomorrow?”
“I’ll let her know. I really appreciate this, Cole.”
“We can use the help.”
“I supposed I’d better go home now,” Mattie said, although she wasn’t sure that she wanted to leave him for the silence of her house.
“All right.” He leaned forward to press a tender kiss on her lips that made her want to cry again. Then he gave her a keen look as he started the truck and shifted it into reverse. “Will you call me tomorrow?”
“Okay. After work.”
“I won’t let you forget.”
NINETEEN
Wednesday
Cole slept poorly and awoke before sunrise, haunted by images of William’s gravesite, something he would most likely never forget. Poor Mattie. Those images would be with her forever, too.
On Lookout Mountain last night, he’d recognized again that there were things that Mattie didn’t want to share with him. Which was okay—he didn’t need for her to, unless it was something she wanted. But now he worried that there were terrible things in her past, things so horrible that she’d repressed the memory of them, and that was a whole different ballgame. How could he help her heal from those past experiences and gain happiness in her present life?
Unable to fall back asleep, he decided to go to the clinic to check on his patients, two dogs that he’d spayed yesterday afternoon. He showered and dressed quickly and then jogged the short distance up the lane, unlocked the front door, and let himself in. Turning on lights as he made his way back to the kennel room, he was gratified to see that both dogs were awake from the anesthesia and resting in their cages. He splashed a small amount of water into their bowls, which were elevated on the cage doors so the dogs could reach the water but not harm themselves by falling in before fully conscious. Both roused themselves and were steady on their feet when they stood to lap the water. They would be ready to discharge to their homes this morning.
A bit later, the door opened, and his office assistant, Tess Murphy, sang out her usual melodic greeting. “Hi, hi.”
“In here,” he called to her.
Tess came through the lobby and joined him in the treatment room. Some might have thought her spiky red hair was still mussed from sleep, but that was just the way she wore it. “You’re here early,” she said.
“What time is it?” Cole glanced at the clock—shortly after seven. “Oh gosh, I lost track. I’d better run to the house to say goodbye to the kids before they leave for school. When’s our first client?”
Tess went back to the lobby to check the schedule. “Eight o’clock,” she called through the opening between the lobby and treatment room.
“Then I’d better hustle.”
As he sprinted toward home, he thought of Mattie. He’d hated leaving her alone last night. He decided to send her a text to tell her he was thinking about her. And he would make sure that he got to see her tonight, even if he had to show up again on her doorstep.
When Mattie received Cole’s text, she and Robo were already at the station. She’d helped Stella rearrange the furniture in the briefing room so they could set up the boards for their investigations. Now, instead of just one board for Willie’s case, they had added another board for the three skeletons that had been found.
Stella had enlarged a photo of Willie that she’d received from Tamara, and she’d taped it to the top of his board. He looked handsome and untroubled as he leaned over a car engine, his hands reaching for some part inside and a smile on his lips that touched off a twinkle in his dark eyes. He had a mop of brunette hair the same color as Mattie’s. Seeing the photo nearly broke her heart.
McCoy entered the room, followed by Agent Rick Lawson who held a sheaf of papers and a tablet in his hand. Brody was still at the gravesites on Redstone Ridge, and his absence felt strange.
They each took a seat. Robo had been watching Mattie work from a spot near the wall, but when she sat, he padded over, circled twice, and lay down beside her chair. He heaved a sigh of contentment, and she stroked his head. Not everyone was fortunate enough to have their best friend accompany them to work every day.
McCoy gave Stella a nod. “Go ahead and take the lead. The rest of us will jump in as we go.”
Stella had already recorded autopsy results on Willie’s board, and the others had discussed them the evening before. Much to Mattie’s relief, it wasn’t necessary to rehash those details. Instead, Stella opened with the current agenda. “Let’s discuss information from the three gravesites that were excavated yesterday.”
Lawson spread his papers in front of him. “From the degree of degradation of the skeletonized remains, these three appear to have been burned and buried at around the same time. We’re estimating between twenty to thirty years ago.
“The two adult skeletons are male, as is the skeleton of the child. Measurement of the child’s femur puts him in the six- to seven-year-old range. It’s harder to estimate the ages of the adults, but best guess is older than twenty-one and younger than forty.”
Stella pulled out salient bits of information and recorded them on the board as Lawson spoke. He paused to let her catch up, glancing down at his papers before resuming.
“There’s evidence of projectile penetration in both adult skulls. One skull has both entry and exit wounds while the other has only an entry wound. As you know, we found a slug inside this second skull, which we’ve sent to ballistics to compare to the Desert Eagle pistol. There was evidence of blunt force trauma at the back of the child’s skull, severe enough to be ruled cause of death.”
Mattie suppressed a shiver. Her muscles were tight enough to spring, and she exhaled slowly, trying to force herself to relax. Robo raised his head, and she put her hand on it to settle them both.
Lawson continued. “These three graves appear to have been used first as burning pits before the sites were covered with dirt, which is the same MO discovered at the William Cobb gravesite. Of course, we don’t know for sure, but the proximity of the location combined with the identical MO leads us to believe the two crime scenes are probably linked, despite the gap of years between them.”