The Bodies Left Behind

too. Those boys wore gloves the whole time. Smarter’n our criminals round here.”
    “What about the spent brass and shells?”
    “Found a ton of it. Yours, theirs. Went over the whole place with a metal detector. Even fished some out of that creek beside the garage. But no prints on a single shell.”
    “None?” Brynn asked, dismayed. “They wore gloves loading their weapons?”
    “Looks like it.”
    Yep, smarter than our criminals . . .
    Then she jabbed a finger at one of the evidence bags. “Tom, this’s our chance. Maybe there’re no prints on the brass—Hart’d expect to leave that. But he’s taken his weapon apart to clean and load it. There’s a print on one of those clips, I guarantee it. And the map. And they were carting around Michelle’s purse. They must’ve opened it. I’m taking the evidence up there myself—to the lab in Gardener.”
    “You?” Dahl scoffed. “Don’t be nuts, Brynn. The state folk can handle that. Get some rest.”
    “I’ll get some sleep in the car on the way home. Grab a shower and head over there.”
    Dahl nodded at the troopers. “Half these boys’re stationed in Gardener. They’ll drop everything off at the lab.”
    She whispered, “And everything’ll sit gathering dust for two weeks. I want that guy.” A nod up the highway, where, peering over the ribbed pistol barrel, she’d last seen Hart in the ’jacked car speeding away. “I’m going to stand over the tech like a school teacher till I get some names from AIFIS. I want that man bad.”
    Dahl looked at her grim, determined expression. “All right.”
    Brynn locked the bags in the glove compartment of Graham’s truck, which he’d collected a quarter mile down the road. She noticed ripe green azaleas in the back bed. They were just starting to bud. Pink and white.
    She leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder again. “Oh, honey. What a night.” He looked up. “You came. You came to find me.”
    “I did, yes.” He gave her a distracted smile. He was clearly shaken—who wouldn’t be?—having seen and experienced what he had tonight.
    “Let’s get home. I called Anna but they’ll want to see you. Joey didn’t take this whole thing too well.” He was going to say something else, she sensed. But didn’t.
    Then another State Police car pulled up and a trooper and a short woman in a suit, Latina, climbed out. She was from Child Protective Services.
    Brynn joined them, introduced herself and explained what had happened. The trooper, who was solid, square-jawed and looked like an ex-soldier, registered some shock at the news. The social worker, her face calm and observant, apparently had heard it all before. She nodded matter-of-factly and jotted some notes. “My officehas lined up an emergency foster couple. They’re good people. I know them well. We’ll stop by the doctor, get her checked out and I’ll take her over there now.”
    Brynn whispered, “Can you imagine? Meth cookers for parents. And they had her helping them? And look at her neck.” She’d noticed sausage red marks from where her mother or Gandy—or maybe that disgusting Rudy—had grabbed Amy by her throat, a threat or punishment. They didn’t seem serious but Brynn still shivered with anger. And for a troubling moment felt a dark satisfaction that Hart had killed them.
    They joined Michelle, whose face was as pale as the cloudy dawn sky overhead. She was clutching Amy possessively. The girl was now awake.
    The social worker nodded at Michelle and then crouched down. “Hi, Amy. I’m Consuela. You can call me Connie, if you want.”
    The girl blinked.
    “We’re going to take you for a ride to see some nice people.”
    “Where’s Mommy?”
    “These are some very nice people. You’ll like them.”
    “I don’t like Mommy’s friends.”
    “No, they’re not friends of hers.”
    “Where’s Chester?”
    “We’ll get Chester for you,” Brynn said. “That’s a promise.”
    The social worker put her arm around Amy and helped her to her feet, then wrapped the blanket tighter around the girl. “Let’s go for a ride.”
    The girl gazed absently at Michelle and nodded.
    The young woman watched her go with such a look of affection that one might have thought she was the girl’s mother.
    There was silence for a moment.
    “I know all you’ve been through. But I have something else to ask.”
    Michelle glanced at her.
    “It’ll be a couple of hours before your brother gets here?”
    “I