Stranded

Janet had handed it down to him, both as careful as though they were handling fine china.
    After helping to free the bag from the dirt, Maggie had lifted and felt the contents. She could tell it was double bagged. There was a large solid mass inside and she noted the squishy mess that had pooled at the bottom. She estimated its weight at about ten to eleven pounds, and she had a good idea what it was.
    With the bag free of the chunks of mud, it was easy to see the Walmart logo.
    “The contents of this one might not even be related to the bigger one.” It was Matt, the other tech, but even as he said it, he was spreading out and preparing a body bag, anticipating that it was human remains.
    Maggie glanced around at the men. Of course no one believed it held someone’s discarded impulse buy at the twenty-four-hourretail store. All of them were eager but there was a nervous quiet. The air had started to cool with dusk settling in around them. Maggie could feel their contradictory emotions—they wanted to see, but maybe they didn’t want to see.
    At first she had considered whether she and Tully should push back the men, not allow them access. In fact, she was surprised that Tully—who usually played by the rules—hadn’t suggested it. But they had all spent an afternoon digging in the mud, sharing the significance of what might be buried here and exposing themselves to the rancid smells. Maggie wasn’t going to be the one to tell these men thanks for all your help, but no, you don’t get to see what you worked so hard to uncover.
    In the middle of the black body bag the small white plastic one looked less sinister. Matt and Ryan waited for Janet. She kneeled down after putting on a fresh pair of purple latex gloves. The plastic bags’ handles had been tied in a loose knot. It would have been simple enough to untie it. Instead, Janet snipped off the knot entirely and placed it into an evidence bag that Matt held out for her.
    As soon as she cut it open, a much stronger odor emerged.
    Maggie stole a glimpse of the young deputy who had vomited earlier. What a difference an afternoon of smelling death made. He continued to watch without expression or a single gag.
    Janet spread the top opening just enough to be able to look inside. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t wince. The only look on the woman’s face appeared to be one of disappointment. She eased back into a squat and let her colleagues take a peek. Then she looked to Maggie and Tully.
    “I’m guessing it belongs to the victim inside the black garbage bag,” Maggie said without leaning in or coming any closer to see.
    She had already felt the heft of the item and had recognizedthe smell of decomposing human flesh. A month ago in the woods behind a rest area in Virginia she and Tully had found another of this killer’s victims. Not always, but often, a killer repeated certain things, developed a pattern. The body of Zach Lester had been lying at the base of a tree, the intestines strung up through the lower branches. He had been decapitated.
    She heard Tully release a sigh. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his jaw tighten. He didn’t, however, make a move forward either.
    Janet dipped her right hand into the bag and gently, slowly brought up … a piece of paper. Almost in unison, several of the men expelled the breaths they had been holding. Janet handed it off to Matt, who had another evidence bag ready, but before placing it inside he took a good look at it.
    He showed his colleague Ryan, and then his eyes found Maggie and Tully. “You two might want to take a look at this.”
    Rather than expose the paper any further, Matt slipped it into a clear plastic ziplock bag. He pulled a marker out of his jacket pocket and popped the cap off in his mouth so he didn’t need to use the hand still holding the bag. He scrawled a date and number on the side of the bag, recapped the marker, then held the bag up for Maggie and Tully.
    Maggie immediately understood why Matt didn’t want to tell them out loud what they had found. Despite not telling the construction crew and Sheriff Uniss’s men to back off or leave,
this
was information that would need to be kept quiet.
    Maggie took the plastic-encased paper while Tully pushed up his glasses. It was a sales receipt, in rather good condition despite a rust-colored stain at the corner. It had been carefully placed on top of the bag’s contents to be easily found. The retail store matched the logo on the