All the Colors of the Dark — Chapter 158

158

The Quartz Mountain State Park.

Saint was met at the Cedar Creek Trail by a sheriff’s deputy who wore a wide-brimmed hat and led her in stone silence. The sun-baked scrubs of wild land by Black Jack Pass Trail trodden down.

In the distance the granite face of Baldy Point rose. Three hundred feet out. She had passed through Hobart and Lone Wolf, and in her stomach was low-level dread because the deputy was skilled and could make no determinations at all.

She saw a couple of climbers in the distance.

“It’ll be unbearable once the heat gets up,” the deputy said.

She could not read his age from his face, though guessed he was a veteran as he did not react when they reached the burial site.

They had guarded it as best they could.

Getting trucks in would not be possible.

Saint knelt in the dirt and fell into the shade of the deputy.

“A dog found her?” Saint said.

“Yes, ma’am. Wichita Mountain Climbers Coalition were setting new anchors. Figured they’d worked on clearing a new trail.”

Saint stared at the skeletal remains.

“Guess he couldn’t bury her deep enough. Lot of rock. Maybe hard ground when he did it.”

No clothes or bag. No litter. Just a single item remained intact alongside the bones.

She looked at the fine detail. The metal blues, the pardon crucifix. The beads larger at intervals.

“Same guy?” the deputy asked.

Saint nodded, calm, because she had felt it long before she knew for certain. “Same guy.”

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