If there was any forensic evidence left by the killer, it was likely gone or contaminated. But these people deserved better. He didn’t know who they were, saints or sinners, but no one deserved to be buried in a mass, unmarked grave. And even though he didn’t yet know how they died, it was clear someone had intentionally buried them here, in the middle of nowhere.

“Ash?” Mel asked quietly. “You okay?”

He nodded, though he wasn’t. “This is a crime scene—I don’t know if they were killed here or dumped here.”

“So we call the sheriff, right?”

They were just over the Kerr County border, which created multiple jurisdictions—where the first bones were found and where the bodies were buried. It was a Kerr County case, but because it was a small county of less than fifty thousand residents, they used the San Antonio crime lab as needed. Ash didn’t know most of the law enforcement officials here. He wanted to call in the big guns from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

He also wanted to call in the FBI. He might need their resources to identify these bodies. To give these people justice.

“This is our crime scene,” he said, his voice stronger than he felt. “Create a one-hundred-foot perimeter and no one comes in without my say-so.” Kerr County didn’t have a medical examiner, so that would give him better control of the forensics and investigation. “I’m calling the ME and asking him to send in Julie Peters to help extract the bones. And I’ll need your help with this.”

“With what?”

“You may not have your PhD yet, but you have more experience than anyone in my division in forensic anthropology. We need to preserve as much evidence as possible and put together each skeleton, catalog every bone and what is still missing. Maybe we’ll be lucky and find a cause of death.”

“Ash.”

He glanced at Mel, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking into the grave. He followed her gaze. She was staring at the skull closest to them. Visual inspection told him it was from a male.

It took him a second, then he saw what she saw. The distinctive hole in the back of the skull. He wouldn’t be able to confirm cause of death yet, not without an autopsy.

But he knew what happened to these people. They were executed.

Chapter One

MONDAY