Page 66 of Every Deadly Suspicion

“We saw these guys struggling with it and came down to help.” Jared jerked his thumb toward the fishermen.

Hanna peered inside. A human skull was obvious, along with the bones of an arm as if it were flung over the head. From what Hanna could see, there was what looked like a bullet hole in the skull. At least that was her guess. All of it was not visible. The clothes were rotted, the flesh gone—this body had been in the barrel for years.

She straightened up and stepped back. The question was, how many years and who was it? She looked around at the waterline of the lake. This was certainly the lowest she had ever seen the water. These barrels would have been sunk at a time when the water was high, and this would have been roughly the middle of the lake. She immediately thought of Mandy’s parents.

Slowing down her thought process, she remembered that the lake had been dragged several times back then by federal authorities when they were looking for DEA Agent Gilly. They found nothing. Was it possible they missed these barrels, or were the barrels dumped later?

Folding her arms, Hanna frowned. It couldn’t be the Carsons, could it? To her knowledge, after Joe’s crimes and the formation of Dry Oaks PD, there had been only one homicide in the city limits. It was a domestic violence situation, and the body was recovered. The three bodies Nathan was dealing with had been dumped on county property.

Sure, Dry Oaks had a handful of missing person reports but no homicides. Of course, Tuolumne was a big county. Was some out-of-towner using their lake as a dumping ground? If so, there could be more.

Hanna pulled out her phone and called the dispatcher. “Charlie, can you call county search and rescue, see if they can send us some divers? We need to search the entire lake.”

“I’ve got to get back to work.” Jared walked up to Hanna after she ended her phone call with Charlie. “Before I leave, I wanted to ask you how it went with Joe. We watched Marcus’s podcast at the station. He included footage of Joe walking up to your front door. He looks old and sick. Did Mandy get a chance to talk to him?”

“He is old and sick. Mandy came by last night.” Hanna wished they were someplace where she could talk to Jared. He might be able to help her untangle her feelings about the old man. He was just a friend. Nathan getting touchy about it bugged her.

“He told her he didn’t know where her parents are. What an odd twist to get this call now.” Briefly she told him about Mandy’s visit.

He arched an eyebrow. “Really? I don’t have to guess where your mind’s going with the discovery of this body.”

“Hodges, we got a call.”

Jared leaned toward the pumper. “Sorry, got to go.” He sprinted off to the truck, which had already started rolling. “Call me if you want to talk.”

Hanna watched him go, dwelling on the mystery of the barrel. If it was the Carsons, what did that mean? How could Joe not know where he hid his victims?

By the time it was dark, county divers had recovered the second barrel. It, too, contained a body. They also found something else.They found a car. It was going to take specialized equipment to retrieve the vehicle from the muddy lake bottom. Calling out divers had ensured that what was happening at the lake could not be kept a secret. There was a circus-like atmosphere prevailing at the lake’s edge. Marcus was at the scene, as were other news outlets, as well as half the town.

“It must be the Carsons,” Marcus said.

Hanna heard him talking to one of the fishermen. Hal was a lifelong resident of Dry Oaks; he certainly remembered the murders. Yet, he wasn’t convinced. “Why do you say that?”

“Those barrels are at least thirty years old. Who else could it be?”

“What about the car?”

“I think the car is unrelated to anything else,” Marcus said. “Maybe a dumped stolen vehicle.”

Hanna considered what she’d heard. She hated to agree with Marcus about anything, but her mind had gone down the same track. While she tried to derail it, it kept on the same track. Especially since the second body had been uncovered. Asa was already checking outstanding missing person reports from all over the county, not just Dry Oaks.

Hanna kept circling around to the great possibility that these two corpses could be Mandy’s parents. It didn’t make any sense. Joe could have told them the bodies were in the lake, yet he said he didn’t know where they were. She hadn’t been home all day. Her hope was that she wouldn’t get home too late to talk to him.

The coroner had to make special arrangements to transport the drums back to the morgue. He didn’t want to remove the remains from the drums until he was there. It took all of Hanna’s personnel to secure the scene while the drums were transferred to the coroner’s van. Marcus was being ghoulish and trying to get images of the remains.

Hanna followed the van back to the morgue, planning to be there to watch their removal.

Hanna left the morgue knowing she’d have to wake Mandy and Betty up. The corpses were a male and a female. The man was tentatively identified as Blake Carson. He had a soggy wallet with ID in his pocket. They would still have to do a positive identification through DNA or dental records. They assumed the female was Sophia, but again, dental or DNA would need to confirm the identification. The car would be pulled up from the lake later in the day.

Still, for Hanna it was enough info to talk to Mandy about. She called and woke her friend up. When she stopped in front of their house, she saw the lights on. She was glad Betty was still recuperating, though Mandy said she’d be going home soon. Hanna preferred to tell them the news together. Hanna had them sit beside each other on the couch when she told them.

“I don’t know what to say.” Mandy reached over and grasped Betty’s hand.

“We’ll finally be able to lay them to rest.” Betty wasn’t upset; she was simply resigned.

“I’ve wanted to know for so long.” Mandy’s voice sounded far away. She gave a humorless chuckle and rubbed her forehead. “It’s ironic that just last night I was trying to get Joe to tell me. It’s like God decided to unearth my mom and dad because Joe wouldn’t.”

CHAPTER 36

---