Chapters (61)
- Cover
- Praise
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- From the Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
- Forty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Booklist
- Excerpt
Brian Hernandez showed up shortly after the ambulance left. He talked to the assistant sheriff, who was in charge of the situation, then walked over to where Regan was sitting in the front seat of one of the deputies trucks. Alone. She wasn’t good company right now, and she just wanted to know if there were bodies in the mine so she could go home.
Brian put his hand on the roof of the truck, standing by the open door. “It looks like a clean shoot.”
“It is.”
“The kid’s going to be okay.”
“He will be.”
“You okay?”
“Yep.”
“That cut over your eye is going to leave you with a nice shiner.”
She shrugged. “It’ll heal.” The paramedics had cleaned out the wound and bandaged it. Her shoulder hurt a lot more.
“The chief is going to want to talk to you. You’re a civilian now.”
“I know.”
“Well, I guess that’s it. You can go.”
“I’m waiting.”
“They said it could be a couple hours.”
“I have nowhere else to be.” She wanted to talk to her dad. Shower. Sleep. Visit Lucas, make sure he was going to be okay. Physically? Yes. But he went through a trauma and she wanted to be there for him when and if he wanted to talk.
Brian sensed she wasn’t in the mood to talk, but he stood with her silently, and she appreciated it.
The team emerged nearly an hour later and walked over to the assistant sheriff. Regan jumped out of the truck and strode over to them, Brian right behind her.
“We found two skeletons in a pit about sixty yards down one corridor. It’s going to take some work getting them out,” one of the men said. He glanced at Regan.
“Go ahead,” the assistant sheriff said. “She’s going to hear sooner or later. You found two skeletons?”
“Yes. Based on the pelvic bones, one male, one female. We’ll know more after the autopsy. We’ll have them out before dark. I called in another team to search deeper in the mine, but that won’t be today.”
“Adele Overton and Joseph Abernathy,” Regan said. “Those are the two victims. Of course, you’ll want to confirm. But I’m right.”
She turned to the sheriff. “I’m going to check on Lucas, see if I can take him back to Flagstaff. You have my contact information.”
“How’d you know there were two bodies?” Brian asked. “Why’d you think Abernathy was here?”
“Because she framed him for Candace’s murder. I just can’t figure out why she didn’t bring Candace’s body here as well. It worked for her before. We may never know.”
“It’s a good question,” Brian said. “I still have a lot of work to do on this case, maybe I’ll figure it out.”