“What?” Brad said.
Jeremy showed him. “At least I got through first,” he said.
Brad pulled out his phone, but it was showing the same message.
“What’ll we do while we wait?” he asked.
“Keep looking,” Jeremy said.
“For what?”
“I’m not even sure.”
“Well,” Brad pointed out, “we already know that Ginny was right. There were lights out here. Someone was dumping a body,” he added bitterly.
“Yeah, but there’s more,” Jeremy said.
“More what?”
“I don’t know, but it’s nagging at my mind, and we have to figure it out. Let’s keep searching.”
Brad nodded, his constant struggle evident in his face. He was trying to be strong, but it was impossible for him not to be afraid that they would find Mary’s body out there in the corn.
The sun was slipping farther down in the sky, the air shifting from warmth to the chill of late afternoon. Jeremy raised the collar of his jacket and, hands in his pockets, walked along the rows, his eyes searching the ground.
“Holy shit!” Brad called.
Jeremy swore and turned, then raced back toward Brad.
Brad had gone a fair distance from the first corpse. He had moved to an area that was bordered by a thicket of trees, an area where the neat rows were out of kilter. The corn there had grown from seeds that had fallen off the back of a seeder, and it was tangled in with brush and trees.
Brad was staring between two trees at a tall stake standing with a straw hat caught on it.
The body it had once held was so badly decomposed that it had fallen from the wood, the bleached bones lying below it on the earth.
This time Brad knew that the bones couldn’t be Mary’s without Jeremy telling him.
But there was horror in his eyes nonetheless.
“We’ve hit the jackpot,” he said bleakly. He was trembling.
Jeremy suspected Brad was as afraid as he was to keep searching. They had found two bodies now.
How the hell many more could there be?
Rowenna couldn’t reach Jeremy. He must be on the phone or out of range, she thought, because her call went straight to voice mail, which made her decision easy. She had to call Joe. But he didn’t answer his cell phone, and when she reached the station, she was told that he had gone out on an emergency call. She hesitated, but she didn’t know that Adam was a killer, so she could hardly say so in a message. She asked the officer to please let Joe know that she had called as soon as possible.
At a loss, she wandered around the corner, wondering how Eve and Adam would react if they caught her peeking through the door at them. She certainly didn’t want to make the situation any worse.
If Adam was a killer who had blackouts, should he be alone with his wife?
She walked to the shop, but the Closed sign was nowhere in evidence, so she took a deep breath, opened the door and walked in.
Eve was behind the counter, straightening out a jewelry display. She looked up when Rowenna came in. “Hey,” she said, then hesitated, studying Rowenna. “You look as if someone stole your Thanksgiving turkey.”
“Where’s Adam?” Rowenna asked.
“He ran out about fifteen minutes ago. Said he had an errand to run. He should be right back. Why?” Her tone rose at the end; Rowenna could tell that she was worried.
“Oh, I saw him, that’s all. I thought he’d be back here by now.”
“Rowenna, what’s going on?”
“He’s…he wanted to talk to you himself.”
Eve frowned, looking angry. “Wait a minute, there’s something going on and my husband told you first?”
“He’s afraid. And he loves you.”
“He’s afraid of what? And love is just a word,” Eve said, growing visibly tense. “Rowenna, what the hell is going on?”
Rowenna looked outside. There was still no sign of Adam. “He came and told me that he’s been having blackouts. He’s afraid there’s something seriously wrong with him, but he’s scared to go to a doctor and scared to tell you. He’s afraid he’ll lose you.”
“Blackouts?” Eve said, her tone skeptical. “He isn’t having a ‘blackout’ when he flirts,” she said, sounding hurt.
Rowenna felt uncomfortable. She wished she hadn’t come, hadn’t spoken.
She wished to hell that Adam had done what he’d said he would do and told Eve himself right away.
“I’m going to go look for him. And once I find him you two need to talk. Not argue—talk,” Rowenna said.
She hurried out before Eve could say anything else. Suppose Adam was having neural issues? The pressure of coming to her might have brought on…something. Or maybe he had chickened out and gone to get a drink to shore up his courage before talking to Eve.
She hesitated when she got to the cross street that led to the cemetery. She felt as if she was being drawn there, but she told herself that the feeling was absolutely ridiculous.