Page 61 of Long Gone

“It’s a theory. And it makes sense. Why remove him from here and kill him somewhere else? Why not hide his body on this vast piece of land?”

“And the car at the airport?”

“A decoy. A sleight of hand to make the authorities think he ran off. I mean, with his financial history, I could understand the supposition that he was a flight risk, but I’m struggling to believe he’d leave without his kids. Sure, the state was opening an investigation on him, but I doubt he knew that. They usually keep those things under wraps, not to mention, from what I can tell, he didn’t do anything illegal until he moved the money in his account to an offshore bank account. So it seems more likely he’d cut his losses, sell everything, and move on.”

“And his wife would have agreed to moving?”

“That would have been the sticky part of the plan,” I conceded. “But his kids meant everything to him. I think he’d divorce his wife and split custody before he’d completely abandon them.”

He didn’t respond.

“You don’t agree.”

“Seems to me you’re jumping to conclusions a little too early in your investigation.”

I turned to look at him. “You think he ran off.”

“I don’t know one way or the other,” he said with a shrug. “I’m waiting to see what we find.”

“I’m searching this land on the theory he was murdered. Which is probably one reason why the sheriff’s department didn’t search it thoroughly enough. They didn’t want to waste resources because they were convinced he ran.” I lifted my brow with a smug smirk. “If the killer is the one who created the decoy with his car, that’s why he or she did it. And looky there. It worked. They got away with murder.”

“So based on your theory that he was murdered here, where do you want to search? There’s no way we can cover five hundred acres in a day, not that all five hundred acres are even accessible.”

“Good point,” I said. “I’m guessing this was premeditated, or at least the possibility was on the investor’s mind. If you killed someone on a vast property like this, you’d have plenty of places to hide the body. Good places.” My mind raced over what Anton had told me about that day. “I keep thinking about the muddy tires on that vehicle. There had been rain the day before. The main road is on higher ground as well as this higher plateau. The water would run off, making the land dry out faster.”

“You think they disposed of the body on low land?”

“Maybe someplace that held water.”

“The marsh?” He shook his head. “It would be stupid to bury a body there. They would run the risk of the body resurfacing.”

“But it would be easy to dig down there.”

“I’m not so sure. It could have been a sloppy mess, but let’s go check it out.” He shifted the Jeep into first gear and started driving, picking up speed until he approached the dirt road that split off to the right.

“I take it this is the road to the marsh?” he shouted over the roar of the wind.

I frowned. “How did you know?—”

“I’m perfectly capable of reading maps and news reports,” he said in disgust. “And I’m pretty damn sure there would have been a road leading to it given all the studies and interest.” He turned onto the path.

I couldn’t really argue with that, but while I knew he was intuitive, I also wondered if he’d known about the road beforehand.

“Anton said there was a shed that they housed the utility vehicle in,” I said as we bounced over the uneven road. “It’s at the end of the road, but it stands to reason he’d start his tours off at the top of the hill. The view probably would have helped sell lots.”

The land in this area was covered in scrub brush with few trees on either side of the dirt road that I could now see had been covered in gravel. Closer to the bottom, a small grove of trees had grown to the right of the road. The road curved to the left and ended at a large flat area overlooking the river. The land didn’t look like a swamp with stagnant water, but I could see a few marsh plants growing to one side.

Malcolm came to a stop and then stood in the Jeep, overlooking the land.

I pulled out my map and studied it, trying to get my bearings. The dirt road wasn’t on the map, but from what I could tell, this section was pretty close to the location Anton had marked off for the clubhouse.

Malcolm glanced down. “That’s your working map?” Shaking his head, he reached inside his leather coat and pulled out a folded paper. “This will prove more useful.” He hopped out of the Jeep and headed to the hood. I followed.

He was already spreading out his map, and I had to admit I was impressed. This must have been the map Hugo had used to lure his investors. It showed the land with home lots and roads laid out, along with the clubhouse, pool, tennis courts, and walking trails. It not only showed the first proposed executive neighborhood, but also Phase Two with the lower-priced homes toward the south, with the entrance from the county road that Anton had told me about.

How had Malcolm gotten his hands on this?

He pointed to the clubhouse on the map. “This is where they expected to build the clubhouse. I’ve heard that Burton also planned to put in a golf course to the north of the river.” He tapped on the area on the map. “He just hadn’t bought the land yet. He figured that would bring in additional income.” He snorted. “Only he forgot to take into account the fact that golf is a dying sport.”

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