Page 14 of Unnatural Death

“If they weren’t using special heavy metal water filters? If they were eating fish from the lake and showering or washing dishes with water from it? That could have been very bad eventually,” I explain.

“They didn’t care.”

“About a lot of things, it seems,” I reply.

CHAPTER 6

THEY NEVER PLANNED ON being out there all that long and believed they were smarter than everyone else. Also, invincible,” Lucy says as we fly over the small city of Gainesville, known for its outlet malls. “The only thing they cared about was themselves.”

“They had to know what mining did to the environment back in a day when there were no regulations,” I reply. “Obviously they were aware that Buckingham Run is a protected wilderness and not a place recommended to the public.”

“They were anti-science and anti-fact if the message didn’t suit them,” Lucy says. “Whether you’re talking about elections, vaccines or what might be in the water they boiled at their campsite.”

Experienced campers, the Mansons knew how to handle themselves in harsh conditions, she goes on to explain. But they had big egos. They were cocky and didn’t thoroughly research everything that interested them. This had gotten worse over recent years as they accumulated more wealth, getting in deeper with their criminal handlers.

“Their choices and arrogance got them caught and are the reason they’re dead,” Lucy says as if there can be no question. “Did you ever interview them together or separately?”

“Not that they were aware of.”

“What about meeting them, being around them?”

“Put it this way,” Lucy says. “If they ran into me somewhere they were none the wiser.”

We’ve reached Lake Manassas, the smooth water mirroring the wooded shore. Nobody is around, no boating or swimming allowed. Fears of contamination and threats of terrorism have kept the huge reservoir closed to the public for decades. Hundreds of acres of prime waterfront land have remained undeveloped and desolate.

“I’m curious if anyone else might have visited the Mansons’ secret campsite, including their Russian connections. Who else knew about it?” I ask. “Who might have had an idea where to find them and would have a way of getting out there? Especially after dark?”

“We don’t know for sure who might have been aware, but no way what happened to them is random.” She flies over the reservoir’s massive stone dam. “As I’ve pointed out, you can’t see the footpath unless you know where to look. It wouldn’t be visible from a normal aircraft because the tree canopy is too dense.”

Over recent months Lucy has been spying as the Mansons hiked to and from their farmhouse. She says they’d run errands in their pickup truck, buying food and other supplies, making sure they were seen by the locals. The couple acted as if all was normal, claiming their Wild World retail business kept them busy, which is why nobody saw them often.

They described traveling regularly, taking clients to remote locations for hiking, camping and wildlife photography. When they weren’t doing that, they were home in front of their computers. They were visiting their store and fulfillment center, they explained to anyone who listened.

“All of it lies,” Lucy says, the sun bright on her scar again.

The slightest nick to her carotid is all it would have taken. I couldn’t have saved her, and I was right there when it happened.

“In truth, they hadn’t been doing trips like that for years,” she says. “The only people they were ferrying around were themselves until they began to isolate at the campsite a few months ago. Then they didn’t go anywhere except to run errands. Always paying in cash ever since they started holing up in the woods. They had a lot of money stashed at the campsite, much of it still there.”

When they were done with shopping, they’d move their purchases inside the farmhouse. They’d backpack what they could carry, including bottles of propane they refilled for their portable cooktop stove and hot water heater. They might do this several times a week depending on the need.

“Always returning to the campsite well before dark,” Lucy tells me.

To know this much detail, she was doing more than monitoring Huck and Brittany in cyberspace. She must have been showing up in person, tailing them and spying in other ways. It occurs to me that Lucy might have visited their campsite at some point when they weren’t there. I have no doubt she could get in and out undetected by trail cameras or anything else.

“They’d set timers inside the house to control the lighting,” she’s saying. “Their pickup truck was in the driveway, and to the average observer it looked like somebody was home. They knew to be careful about sending out electronic transmissions that could be intercepted. Obviously, any bad guy worth his salt knows that people like me use signal analysis to track what suspects are doing.”

“People like you?” I repeat. “Did the Mansons know who you are? Did they know your name?”

“I suppose it’s possible,” she replies, and I detect deception again. “But it’s hard to say what they might have been aware of. They didn’t email or text information that could be incriminating or give us info about much of anything.”

We fly over a winery that Benton and I have visited, the parking lot empty at this early hour. Ahead is the Prince William Golf Course where people are playing and riding in carts, enjoying the beautiful morning.

“It was difficult to know who the Mansons were hearing from or the nature of the information,” Lucy continues explaining. “As long as they didn’t answer, nothing was detected. They were probably sitting out there in the woods hour on end opening emails, text messages, accessing all sorts of files. It wasn’t possible to know what they were doing or with whom. Meanwhile, their software’s algorithms are running on proxy servers around the globe, hacking into companies, news services, government institutions.”

Lucy could see the couple on their surveillance cameras hiking with backpacks along the path, wearing guns and chatting as if everything was relaxed and routine. They would use the very hiking poles that now impale their bodies, she tells me.

“I could hear what they were saying, and it was obvious they suspected their cameras had been hacked,” she explains. “They would have been stupid not to wonder. If nothing else, it could have been their Russian friends spying on them. Or the Chinese for that matter. Huck and Brittany were careful. They knew it was a lot harder for them to be monitored out in the woods, which was the major reason for them being there.”

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