He sat, blinking, while he ran the numbers through his head. “I’d have to do the math to give you any kind of accurate answer. In 1953, the guy would’ve used a bulldozer. If you’re telling me he backed the car in, then he must have dug the hole with a long sloping ramp on either end and scooped out dirt until the hole was deep enough at its deepest point to sink the car completely. I’d say two days, maybe a day and a half. It wouldn’t take long to fill it in again. Someone must have seen what he was up to, but he might have had a cover story.”

“The Fourth fell on a Saturday that year so most people were given Friday off, too. If the road crew was idle for the three-day weekend, then the excavation could have been done without anyone on hand.”

“I can see that,” he said. “With the road unfinished, there wouldn’t have been any traffic to speak of.”

“What about the excess dirt? Wouldn’t there have been quite a bit leftover when the hole was filled in?”

He fixed his green eyes on mine. “Oh, yes. The car would have displaced somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred cubic yards of dirt. Rough guess.”

“So what’d he do, haul it all away?”

“Not likely. The biggest dump truck in operation back then had a capacity of five cubic yards, so it would have taken way too long, especially if he ferried the load any appreciable distance. The easiest solution would have been to push it across the road and spread it out on that field.”

“But wouldn’t someone have noticed the sudden appearance of all the fresh dirt?”

“Not necessarily. If I remember correctly, the field you’re looking at belonged to a co-op at the time, and it was only being cultivated intermittently. With road construction under way, things were already torn up, so no one would have paid attention to a little more dirt.”

“We have to be talking about someone who’s worked in construction, don’t you think? The average joe doesn’t jump on a bulldozer and dig a hole that size. Seems like you’d have to know what you were doing.”

“True, but that’s not going to help you narrow the field. After World War Two a lot of guys around here worked construction, Foley being one. Building trade was booming, so it was that, farmwork, the oil fields, or the packing plant.”

“Well. I guess we don’t have to worry about it. I’m sure Detective Nichols will figure it out.”