“Something like that. But just near the cave for now.”
“Have they gone down the steep slope off the trail at all?”
“No.” Mercy wondered if they would. It had sharp drops in several areas. A wrongly placed foot could send someone sliding through rocks and shrubs for a good fifty feet. “Why would you pick such a popular spot?” she hissed into the phone.
Oh my God.
“I panicked. I didn’t know where to go where no one would see me, and I knew I didn’t have time to dig a hole.” His words tumbled out of his mouth. “And only part of that trail was popular back then. No one goes down the slope; it’s too dangerous. People stay on the trails.”
“What if someone had been here that night? Levi, how were you going to explain a dead body?” Adrenaline pooled in her stomach. How had her brother managed to get a corpse up the hill? He’d been a big, strong twenty-year-old back then . . . but still.
“Nothing happened. It was a pain in the ass, but I got it done.”
“What if they find something now? I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know what happened?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit.” She wiped the sweat off her temples. The sun had long gone behind the ridge, and there was no reason for her to be sweating. She felt as if she had a huge sign on her back for every investigator to read: Murderer.
“Everything’s going to be fine. No one is going to think you have anything to do with an ancient murder victim.”
“Is it buried?”
“Sort of. The rain keeps washing the dirt away because it’s on a slope. The last time I was up there I managed to cover it with rocks pretty well. Someone would have to be paying very close attention to spot it.”
Or have a dog with them.
The sweat started again as she wondered if Jeff would request a dog to search the area.
“Look,” she said. “You don’t know anything about the cave being blasted somehow to make it deeper, right?”
“Right. I haven’t checked the cave since we were kids. I remember it as pretty shallow.”
“Do you remember hearing of anyone who’d been hurt by explosives? A prank gone awry? An idiot playing with fireworks and got hurt? Something like that?”
Levi was silent for a long moment. “No. I can’t remember anything like that.”
Mercy closed her eyes. Her world had tilted the slightest bit. As if it hadn’t been off kilter enough. He’s right. No one can connect a dead body up here with me. Or him.
Unless Levi accidentally left something behind.
“We don’t have any idea who he was, right?” she whispered.
“No. He didn’t have a wallet.” He paused. “I’ve paid attention over the years, and no missing person reports have sounded like him. He wasn’t from around here. Or else no one around here gave a rip about him.”
“I need to go,” she said softly. People were waiting. This wasn’t the phone call she’d expected to have.
“Be careful, Mercy.” Levi told her. “And call me . . . if . . . you know.”
If they find a body.
“I will.” She ended the call, composed her face, and walked back to the others. Truman was already there.
“Ina doesn’t remember hearing of someone hurt in some sort of explosion,” he said.
“Levi doesn’t either. And he remembers the cave being shallow the way I did. He said he hasn’t been back up here or at least checked out the cave since he was twenty.” Her voice sounded normal.
Jeff twisted his lips. “Hopefully we can find some evidence with all those weapons that’ll give us a direction to investigate.” He looked at the scenery around him. “I want to expand the search area. Not just outside the cave. Go at least twenty meters in each direction from the cave. And I want the parking area at the lake searched too.”
“What about the path?” Truman asked. “It’s at least a half mile from the parking area to up here.”
“Five feet off each side of the path.”
Mercy’s knees went fluid. Surely Levi had stashed the body a lot farther off the path than five feet. But someone could still stumble across something to make them look farther.
“You feeling okay, Mercy?” Jeff asked. “You look exhausted.”
“I missed lunch,” she said, wondering how pale she looked. “And I’ve been staying up later than I should.”
Jeff checked the time. “Go eat. This is going to take hours. I’ll keep Eddie here for a while longer. There’s no point in all of us standing around to watch.” He looked from Truman to Mercy. “What’s next on our agenda?”
Mercy tried to remember; her brain felt like mush. “It’s too early for lab results on Anders Beebe. I’d like to talk to the parents of Jennifer Sanders or Gwen Vargas.”
“I’m going to call Ben Cooley,” said Truman. “He was one of the investigators on the Jennifer Sanders case. He still works for me, but he’s out of town.”
“Cooley?” Mercy asked. The name rang a bell, and she searched for where she’d recently heard it.
Pearl. Pearl talked about Teresa Cooley having a problem with Jennifer.
“Does he have a daughter, Teresa?” she asked.