“And what happens when he does have something to work with? I thought we agreed to control media access to this. Who was that cadaver dog woman? Why was she allowed to be interviewed? Her comments were irresponsible and inflammatory—the last thing we want to do is create a desire for more of this nonsense.”

“I agree. Do you want me to call Nathan Donovan?”

“Call Victoria,” the senator said. “Mr. Donovan was her idea—and I’m beginning to think she made a mistake.”

12

12

“Now this is more like it,” Kegan said, passing a bucket of dirt up to Nick.

Nick took the bucket and spread the soil evenly on a sifter, a rectangular wooden frame with a fine wire mesh stretched across its bottom. The frame hung down from four hinged arms, one attached at each corner, allowing the frame to swing back and forth like a porch glider and slowly sift the dirt through the mesh. Nick shook the soil through the screen, stopping from time to time to pluck out an almost invisible insect part with a pair of forceps and carefully deposit it into an evidence container.

“You’ve got to hand it to Marge and Bosco,” Kegan said.

Nick didn’t reply.

“They may start slow, but once they get going, they really pick up speed.”

“You’re particularly annoying today,” Nick said. “Did I do something to deserve this, or are you just being yourself ?”

“I just believe in giving credit where credit is due.”

“So do I.”

“Well, look around: Two days ago we were sitting on our thumbs staring at an empty field, and today the place looks like Flag Day at the UN. Twenty-nine graves in one night—that’s pretty impressive work. Hats off to Marge—I’d like to shake her hand.”

“I’d like to shake her too,” Nick mumbled.

Nick and Kegan had agreed on a procedure for excavating the remaining graves: They decided to excavate all of the graves halfway first in order to search for additional bodies, since that was the issue that concerned the FBI; after that they could take their time removing the coffins. The forensic technicians carefully removed the soil from each grave layer by layer, collecting and photographing any artifacts found at that site, while the soil itself was stored in plastic containers for later analysis.

So far ten of the graves had been partially excavated, revealing two important facts: None of them contained a second body, but each of them contained a casket. The witch and her three-legged cadaver dog were proving unerringly accurate; every flag she had placed marked the precise location of a grave. There were no “false positives,” as Marge had promised. Marge was wrong—Marge had been wrong about everything—but Nick was the only one who knew it, and it was driving him crazy.

“Admit it,” Kegan said. “You were wrong about Marge and Bosco.”

Nick said nothing.