Page 18 of Once Silenced

I’ve still got some game,she thought.

Riley took a deep breath, shaking off self-doubt.She forced herself to focus, to try again.Closing her eyes, she let her mind drift back to that day when this patch of ground had been violated by violence and death.She imagined the sounds—the rustling leaves, the crunch of footsteps—and allowed herself to be drawn into the scene.

And then...something clicked.

A flicker of insight sparked in her mind’s eye.Two figures emerged from the depths of her consciousness—two people carrying a body between them through the wilderness.It was a heavy burden shared, but not equally so.She could sense tension between them—an imbalance in their dynamic.One was dominant, controlling.Not necessarily physically stronger but mentally and emotionally overpowering the other.

The dominant figure was a paradox—a forceful personality with an odd undercurrent of indecisiveness and conflict.This person wanted control but also craved validation or perhaps absolution.They chose this remote location for its obscurity—to ensure that the body would remain hidden from prying eyes, indefinitely lost to time.

Yet there were those stones—carefully arranged in a rectangle around the burial site like breadcrumbs leading back to their secret sin.As if on some level they wanted—or needed—the body to be discovered eventually.

Riley opened her eyes slowly, feeling a rush of relief mixed with apprehension as she looked at the rectangle once more.Her gift hadn’t abandoned her—it had just taken time to awaken from its slumber.

She had tapped into something—a trickle rather than a flood—but it was enough for now.Enough to confirm that she still belonged here, in this field where intuition met investigation head-on; enough to keep pushing forward even amid doubts and unwelcoming glares.

She glanced at the two Park Rangers who had arrived and stood waiting with shovels at the ready.Then the arrival of a van and the crunch of approaching footsteps announced the arrival of the Venard County Coroner, who strode into the clearing.He was tall and wiry, with a mop of unruly peppered hair.

“What have we got here, Stewart?”the coroner asked the park superintendent.

“These are FBI Special Agents Paige and Putnam,” Stewart said.“They pinpointed something at this location.It’s possible that we’ve discovered a buried body.”

The coroner nodded curtly as Riley and Putnam displayed their badges.

“Good afternoon, Paige and Putnam,” he said without warmth.“I’m Fritz Jannings—Dr.Fritz Jannings.And I’m the guy who deals with dead people in this county.”

Then he frowned at the sight before him.“This had better be worth my time.Got a table full of innards back at the morgue.”He pulled on a pair of latex gloves with a snap, his mannerisms broadcasting his impatience to return to his interrupted work.

“See for yourself,” Putnam motioned toward the stone arrangement with a dismissive gesture.

Jannings’ eyes narrowed as he surveyed the crude grave outline.He knelt beside it, his movements precise as he traced the perimeter without touching anything.A long silence followed before he finally spoke.

“It might be a grave,” he conceded grudgingly.

“Likely it is,” Riley replied.

The coroner sighed, “Then let’s see what we’ve got here.”

Standing up, he signaled to his team to prepare for the excavation.

The little clearing was crowded now, so the two FBI agents and the park superintendent stepped back to give the newcomers room.A ranger, his face set in concentration beneath the brim of his hat, started shoveling dirt aside with methodical urgency.Next to him, a member of Jannings’s team, wearing latex gloves that seemed too delicate for such grim work, joined in the excavation.

The minutes dragged by slowly, then a ranger’s voice sliced through the stillness.

“Got something here!”

“Step back,” Jennings ordered, his voice laced with professional irritation rather than curiosity.

Riley leaned forward, her eyes fixed on the hollow as Jennings crouched down.

“Definitely a body,” Jannings grunted, confirming what they all suspected.“Clear the area,” he snapped.“Let my team do their job.”

As the rangers stepped back, Jannings’s team moved in with brushes and tools in hand, their movements precise and respectful.They worked to gently reveal the secrets the earth had guarded for so long.

Watching them work, Riley was torn between the presence of live, warm-blooded human beings and the cold void left by death.Each stroke of the brush, each sifted handful of soil, peeled back layers of time, uncovering truths that would soon bridge past and present.And though the diggers’ faces were marked by focus, not emotion, Riley knew each of them understood the gravity of their task.

This was more than a crime scene; it was a final resting place, a life stolen and a story waiting to be told.As the body emerged, frail and hidden within the earth, Riley knew her work here was far from done.

“Good work,” Jennings muttered to his team.He stood up, dusting off his hands as if to rid himself of the responsibility as quickly as he shed the dirt.

---