Page 41 of Obsession

Nate was quiet for a minute. “You were evidently drugged and then knocked out. But how were you drugged?”

“I don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.” Trey rested his head in his hand. “Is Clayton okay?”

“Knocked out, like you,” the sheriff said.

“The coffee,” Sam said. “Did Clayton drink any of it?”

“We both did.”

“Was it possible someone tampered with it?”

Trey raised his head and winced. “I don’t see how.”

“Did you keep the thermos with you until you ate?”

Trey frowned. “No. I left it in the SUV with the burgers.”

“Did you lock your vehicle?”

The deputy studied on Sam’s question. “I almost always do, although I can’t swear I did tonight. But the Tahoe was always in my line of sight.”

Sam turned and looked toward the maintenance area. True,the vehicles were visible, but partly in the shadows. If Trey left the Tahoe unlocked, someone could have gotten in on the passenger side without being seen. The dome light wouldn’t have come on either since all police vehicles came from the factory with the light disabled. “How about at the nursing home? Did you leave your vehicle unlocked?”

“No ... Maybe ... I was just going to be there a minute.”

“Okay. That’s two opportunities for someone to slip drugs in your thermos.”

“But how would anyone have known I had coffee?”

“Could have seen you when you bought it,” Nate said. “But then again, it’s not exactly a secret that you drink a lot of coffee. Do you remember anything else?”

Before he could answer, a groan from Clayton drew Sam’s attention, and he hurried to where the ranger struggled to stand.

“What happened?” he mumbled.

“I don’t know. Just sit there until the ambulance arrives,” Sam said. “Do you remember if Trey’s coffee tasted funny?”

He scrubbed his face. “I don’t remember anything unusual. But drinking the coffee is the last thing I do remember.”

“Where’s the thermos?” Sam asked as Trey and the sheriff approached. A few miles out, the wail of sirens announced the arrival of the ambulances.

“It’s in my SUV,” Trey said. “At least that’s where I left it.”

They all turned as the ambulances turned off the Trace and drove to the maintenance area. “Let’s get you two checked out.” Sam helped Clayton while Nate assisted Trey.

While paramedics looked over the two men, Nate retrieved the thermos from Trey’s vehicle. “There’s about half a cup left in the bottom, and I’ll get it tested.”

Sam walked with him to the excavation site, where they were careful to not disturb anything. “What could be buried here that’s so important someone would knock out two officers to get? He took a big chance of getting caught.”

“Two things come to mind. Skeletal remains or some type of treasure, and I don’t think it’s treasure.” Nate opened an app on his phone. “This afternoon, I pulled all the missing persons reports for the past fifteen years. There’ve been twenty, but fifteen have follow-up reports that showed the person was found—most of them teens who returned home. Three were found dead of natural causes when they wandered away from their homes in the dead of winter, and two have no resolution. I figure we just haven’t found the bodies yet. Emma’s brother is one of the two.”

Emma was so certain Ryan was still alive. Sam wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t the first time he’d considered the possibility since the GPR machine had located the disturbed soil. Especially since the woman Ryan had been accused of killing was found not too far from Mount Locust. “Do we want to wait until morning to look for evidence?” Sam asked. “Or do you want to process the scene now?”

“Morning. Like last night, there’s too big a chance of destroying evidence. I’ll assign two deputies to guard the site and make sure they don’t drink any coffee that’s been out of their sight. And I’ll have another deputy make regular drive-bys,” Nate said, taking out his phone.

While Nate contacted his deputies, Sam edged closer to the pit and shined his light along the bottom.Wait. “Look at this,” he said to Nate.

The sheriff hooked his phone on his belt and peered into the hole. “Is that a shoe print?”

---