Sound of Darkness

“You know, we haven’t—”

“Resources enough to pull a large number of officers? We’ll take care of that,” Mark assured him.

Lindberg smiled. “I understand. And we have no problem with feds here, I promise.”

“Thanks,” Mark said lightly.

“Yes, thank you,” Colleen added.

“Especially the furry kind!” he said, giving Red another pat on the head.

Red woofed his approval.

As they spoke, there was a knock at the door. Lindberg went to answer it.

Ragnar had arrived.

Mark quickly introduced him, and Ragnar also assured Lindberg they’d call on more people from their offices to cover the enormous amount of forest space that might be considered close to Front Royal.

Ragnar then looked at Mark.

“Angela is calling out more troops. I’ll get images of these maps and then I can start from the east and work toward the west. I figure we’ll start with the closest.”

“Good plan,” Mark said. “Want to take the old ‘Jones place’? Colleen and Red and I will start at the ruins where the students were working on the old graveyard and home sites.”

Ragnar nodded.

“Angela is pulling up cold cases she discovered that might have something to do with our case, and interviewing anyone she can related to those,” Ragnar said.

“And if there is anything, she’ll find it,” Mark said.

“I do have county and all my officers briefed,” Lindberg told them.

“Then we’ll get going,” Mark said. He thanked Lindberg again.

As they headed to their cars, Ragnar paused, shaking his head.

“You know, Carver might be laughing at us right now. Thinking he’s so clever we listened to him and went off on the entirely wrong track,” Ragnar said.

“I really don’t think so,” Colleen assured him.

“I don’t think the man thought he said anything that might be a clue to us,” Mark said. “I wouldn’t have gotten what he was saying. But in hindsight, after listening to Megan, I can’t help but think she’s right.”

“Yeah,” Ragnar said briefly.

“So, onward?” Colleen asked.

“Onward,” Ragnar agreed.

With a wave, he went to his own car.

Mark looked at Colleen. “Let’s do this.”

They got into Mark’s car and started out.

“You kind of know where you’re going?” she asked him.

“I’m a little familiar with the area. I’ve driven through it. But of course, I’ve never driven through it while searching for crumbling old homes through the trees.”

“Ah, but we have the maps!”

They had pictures on their phones of what the wall had displayed at the police cabin.

“Yeah, and I’m grateful too that we’re in an SUV with good shocks,” Mark said.

The roads were bad with tree roots growing across them.

But as he spoke, Colleen saw the remnants of structures through the trees.

“There!” she called.