Page 5 of Olivia

The liquid didn’t smell like formaldehyde though. So why fill the drum with what looked like water?

A sickening thought came to him.

Had the person been wounded then drowned in the barrel?

He prayed not, but he wouldn’t know until forensics performed an autopsy.

Jackson put the lid back on the barrel—mainly to contain the smell so his colleagues didn’t lose their dinner.

He pulled out his phone and requested a forensics team on site.

Then he walked along the rows of barrels and tapped each one, listening for a hollow echo.

He was almost at the end of the second row when he found another barrel of note.

“I think we have another one,” Jackson said as he began unscrewing the bolt. As soon as he lifted the lid, he knew he was right. The smell hit his face like a blast of heat.

He took a step back. This body had been in the barrel longer and he fought to keep himself from emptying his stomach on his feet.

“And another,” Sam said, standing at the barrel beside him.

Jackson put the lid back on the barrel closest to him. “Let’s wait for forensics to arrive before we touch anything else. Leave that drum closed,” he said. “Tap all the other drums and mark any that are suspicious. The less we potentially contaminate, the better.”

Sam nodded and between them they worked through the rows of drums. When they were done, they marked the three drums they’d identified.

Someone’s loved one was stuffed in each drum, discarded like their life didn’t matter.

Jackson ground his teeth, more determined than ever to lock Diaz and as many of his men as possible in prison cells for the rest of their lives.

They’d just finished marking the barrels when men in white suits and boots entered.

“Jackson?” one asked.

“That’s me,” he said, stepping forward to shake his hand.

“There’s a body in each of these barrels,” he said, pointing. “We think there is also a body in the third, but we haven’t opened it yet. I was concerned with unnecessarily contaminating evidence,” he said, although he had to wonder how much evidence there would be, given the high level of decomposition.

“Good call. We’ll take over from here,” he said.

Jackson stepped back, looked at Sam, and dismissed him. “Go get some fresh air, then check in with Will and see what he needs help with.”

Sam didn’t need to be told twice. He walked from the room without hesitation.

Jackson watched the forensics team prepare body bags on the concrete floor, then move toward the barrels.

They worked swiftly and efficiently, their noses only slightly scrunching up as they lifted the lids off the barrels.

They performed various tests, then carefully, with an evident respect for the dead, removed a woman from the barrel and laid her on the sheeting. Jackson assumed the body was female by the length of the hair, but the body was too badly decomposed to determine that visually.

That body was still in one piece—unlike the next one.

Jackson’s eyes stayed on the forensics team as they moved to the second barrel. He expected them to follow the same process, but it quickly became clear that this was different.

Seven different pieces were removed from the barrel and Jackson cringed as he struggled to make out what each body part was.

He looked away as his stomach rolled. He left forensics to do their job and went in search of Sam.

“Did Sam pass this way?” he asked Will as he walked by him.

---