As Doty started to drive, Riley asked the two cops to tell her and Jenn whatever they could about what had happened.
Doty said, The girls name was Katy Philbin, seventeen years old. A student at Wilson High. Her parents own the local pharmacy. Nice girl, everybody liked her. Old George Tully came across her body just this morning when he and his boys were getting ready to do the spring planting. Tullys got a farm just a short way out of Angier.
Jenn asked, Any idea how long shed been buried there?
Youll have to ask Chief Sinard about that. Or the medical examiner.
Riley thought back to what little Meredith had been able to tell them about the situation.
What about the other girl? she asked. The one who went missing earlier?
Holly Struthers is her name, Laird said. She was uh, I guess she is a student at our other high school, Lincoln. Shes been missing for about a week. The whole town had been hoping shed just turn up sooner or later. But now well, I guess weve got to keep on hoping.
And praying, Doty added.
Riley felt an odd chill when he said that. She couldnt begin to guess how often shed heard people say that they were praying that a missing person would turn up safe and sound. She never had the impression that prayer helped one way or the other.
Does it even make people feel better? she wondered.
She couldnt imagine why or how.
It was a bright, clear afternoon when the car left Des Moines and headed out onto a wide highway. Soon Doty exited onto a two-lane road that stretched over the slightly rolling countryside.
Riley felt a strange, gnawing feeling in her stomach. It took her a few moments to realize that her feeling had nothing to do with the case at least not directly.
She often felt this way whenever she had a job to do in the Midwest. She didnt normally suffer from a fear of open spaces agoraphobia, she thought it was called. But vast plains and prairies stirred up a unique kind of anxiety in her.
Riley didnt know which was worse the sheer flat plains shed seen in states like Nebraska, stretching out as far as the eye could see, or monotonous rolling prairie like this, the same farmhouses, towns, and fields seeming to appear over and over again. Either way, she found it unsettling, even a little nauseating.
Despite the Midwests reputation as a land of wholesome, all-American values, it somehow didnt surprise her that people committed murder here. As far as she was concerned, the countryside alone would be enough to drive a person crazy.
Partly to get her mind off the landscape, Riley took out her cell phone to text her whole family as a group April, Jilly, Liam, and Gabriela.
Got here safely.
She thought for a moment, then added
Miss you all already. But Ill probably be back before U know it.
*After about an hour on the two-lane highway, Doty turned the car off onto a gravel road.
As he kept on driving, he said, Were coming up on George Tullys land now.
Riley looked around. The landscape looked exactly the same huge stretches of unplanted fields interrupted by gullies, fences, and lines of trees. She did notice a single large house in the midst of it all, standing next to a ramshackle barn. She figured that must be where Tully lived with his family.
It was an odd-looking house that appeared to have been added onto and cobbled together over the years, probably for quite a few generations.
Soon a medical examiners vehicle came into sight, parked on the shoulder of the road. Several other cars were parked nearby. Doty parked right behind the examiners van, and Riley and Jenn followed him and his younger partner out onto a recently tilled field.
Riley saw three men standing over a dug up spot. She couldnt see what had been found there, but she did glimpse a bit of brightly colored clothing fluttering in the spring breeze.
Thats where she was buried, she realized.
And at that moment, Riley was hit by a strange gut feeling.
Gone was any sense that she and Jenn would have nothing to do here.
They had work to do a girl was dead and they wouldnt stop until the killer was found.
CHAPTER TEN
Two people were standing by the freshly revealed body. Riley headed straight toward one of them, a brawny man about her own age.
Chief Joseph Sinard, I assume, she said, offering her hand.
He nodded and shook her hand.
Folks around here just call me Joe,
Sinard indicated an obese, bored-looking man in his fifties who was standing beside him, This is Barry Teague, the county medical examiner. You two are the FBI folks weve been expecting, I guess.
Riley and Jenn produced their badges and introduced themselves.
Heres our victim, Sinard said.
He pointed down into the shallow hole, where a young woman lay carelessly splayed, wearing a bright orange sundress. The dress was hitched up over her thighs, and Riley could see that her underwear had been removed. She wasnt wearing any shoes. Her face was unnaturally pale, and her open mouth still had dirt in it. Her eyes were wide open. The soiled body was dull in color, no longer the shade of any living human being.
Riley shuddered a little. She seldom felt any emotion when seeing a dead body shed seen far too many of them over the years. But this girl reminded her too much of April.
Riley turned toward the medical examiner.
Have you come to any conclusions, Mr. Teague?
Barry Teague crouched down next to the hole, and Riley crouched next to him.
Its bad real bad, he said in a voice that expressed no emotion at all.
He pointed to the girls thighs.
See those bruises? he asked. Looks to me like she was raped.
Riley didnt say so, but she felt sure that he was correct. Judging from the smell, she also guessed that the girl had died the night before last, and that shed been buried here for most of that time.
She asked the ME, What do you think was the cause of death?
Teague let out an impatient-sounding growl.
Dont know, he said. Maybe if you federal folks let me haul the body out of here and do my job, I might be able to tell you.
Riley bristled inside. The mans resentment of the FBIs presence was palpable. Were she and Jenn Roston going to face a lot of local resistance?
She reminded herself that it had been Chief Sinard who called in the request. At least she could count on Sinards cooperation.
She told the ME, You can take her away now.
She got to her feet and looked around. She saw an elderly man some fifty feet away, leaning against a tractor and staring straight toward the body.
Whos that? she asked Chief Sinard.
George Tully, Sinard said.
Riley remembered that George Tully was the owner of this land.
She and Jenn walked over to him and introduced themselves. Tully seemed barely to notice their presence. He kept staring toward the body as Teagues team carefully got ready to move it.
Riley said to him, Mr. Tully, I understand that you found the girl.
He nodded dully, still not taking his eyes off the body.
Riley said, I know this is hard. But could you please tell me what happened?
Tully spoke in a vague, distant-sounding voice.
Not much to tell. Me and the boys came out this morning early for planting. I noticed something odd about the soil there. The look of it bothered me so I started to dig and then there she was.