“What?” I asked.

“Nothing more than what I told you the other day,” Leo said. “Remember what I told you?”

“Yes,” I said. “But I was hoping you’d have more to add this time.”

“No more to add. It still feels the same, except for one thing.”

“So, elaborate.”

“I said before I thought the killer wanted to get rid of the victim without being responsible for getting rid of her. There’s something different here.”

“Why does someone do this?” Chris asked.

“You mean, the reburial action?” Leo asked.

“Exactly.”

Leo shook her head. “I don’t know for sure, but I feel a real purpose in this one. He wanted this one found. So, the burning question now is-why? Why did this one need to be found?”

“What makes you so sure this one was supposed to be found?” Tommy asked.

Leo turned and spread her hands out over the scene. “Look at it. The body is next to the running trail. It’s on high ground, there’s no coverage from brush or trees-there’s not a snowball’s chance in August this body was going to wash down into the creek or the river. People jog by here all the time-it was only a matter of time before the dirt shifted enough to reveal bone. The only thing more obvious would be leaving it on the trail, but then the coons or other animals might carry parts off.”

“Okay, okay,” Tommy said. “I see all that, but maybe he thought he buried the bones deep enough, or maybe he just wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“No,” Leo said. “Look at the scene, Tommy. This is out in the wide open, next to the trail, on this little ridge above the creek. There’s no way you hide a body here. The other one was buried on Red Bud Isle in a heavily wooded area, on the opposite side from where people crossing the bridge would see it, and in the path of the waters coming out of the floodgates. He was thinking-boy, was he thinking…but what, why? Why did he hide the first one and bury this one in plain sight?”

Leo and I were both hooked on this case. The finding of more bones that morning left us with more unanswered questions than before. After we left the scene at Waller Creek, Leo wanted to go to Red Bud Isle and actually walk the scene there. I agreed. She followed me in her Jeep and we parked in a small gravel-covered parking area just off the road. As we got out of our vehicles we heard a soft splashing sound. I looked, and rowing down-river on the other side of the isle was a canoeist with a long gray ponytail. Leo caught it, too. I shuddered and looked at her.

“Interesting.”

“Could he be visiting the burial site.”

“Could be, or he could just be rowing on the river like he said he does.”

“This is a ways upriver from the rental place.”

“True. But this is also where everybody else rows when they rent those canoes.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t say I did either, just saying it’s possible that it’s nothing.”

We walked through the thick foliage on the isle down to the edge that faced the Tom Miller Dam. There was another small islet off to the right, but straight in front of us was the silent wall of the dam. The day was overcast, but there was no rain, and it was cool and still. There were few birds out, and it seemed unusually quiet in that spot. The crime scene tape had been removed, but the area from which the bones had been recovered was barren-devoid of vegetation-the red-clay surface bearing the scars of Addie Waldrep’s second grave. A blue heron, startled by our arrival, departed from a log floating near the other small islet, and flew gracefully past the end of Red Bud Isle as he ascended along the face of the limestone cliffs.

Leo stopped near the water’s edge and looked down at the naked grave site. Then she looked up and around at that end of the isle. She turned and looked back in the direction from which we had come. She stood thinking for a moment and then turned and faced the mighty dam, and with her hands on her hips she stood like that for several minutes. I said nothing.

Finally she spoke. “This wasn’t the reason the killer went back.”

“What do you mean?”

“This victim-she wasn’t the reason he went back. He went back to where they were buried because of the one we found today. That was his purpose-whatever it was, that was his purpose.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because there was purpose in it. This one I think he took and reburied just because he was there. He went there for the victim we found this morning, but for some reason he just decided to take her, too, and be rid of her. He just couldn’t bring himself to dump her.”

“So, he buried her here and thought she’d wash away.”

Leo nodded. “Look at this place. The edge of it is soaked in water right now.”

Leo was wearing jeans and a lightweight sweatshirt, and sturdy hiking boots. The water lapped up against the edge of her right foot. The area where Addie had been buried was damp.

“The water has been up over this spot already,” Leo said. “They must have had more than one gate open last night.”

I nodded.

“How would the killer know to come exactly to this place?”

We both looked at each other. We stood in silence for a moment.

“So, what do you think the purpose was in exposing the victim we found this morning?”

“Don’t know, but it’s too obvious. That had to be his main purpose. When we find out who that victim is, we may be able to figure all this out. But this…I believe this was secondary.”

The water lapped up around Leo’s feet.

Leo broke the silence first. “So what’s up with your Vietnam case?”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

“Tommy told me you went to Hawaii to start the work on the restoration of the MIA.”

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m still pretty jet-lagged, too.”

“So, how did it all go?”

“It was difficult. I handled the skull of someone I might have known over thirty years ago. I’ve never done a reconstruct on someone I knew, and I wouldn’t do one under any other circumstance. I’ve thought a lot about Ted lately, his last days, and about Jack.”

“I know you miss Jack. He was a cool guy.”

“Yeah, he was. Sometimes it’s hard for me to even realize that he’s not here anymore. If I think about it too much-remember him too well-it overwhelms me.”

“I understand that totally. It isn’t romantic for me, like it is for you, but I feel that same kind of awful reality when I think too much about Bobby.”

It was the first time since Bobby Driskill’s death I had heard Leo mention her brother by his name.

“When Bobby was alive, everything was different. In a way it was easier for me because he took care of everything, and I could just be the little sister. Pete tries, but he’s so laid-back, so different from Bobby-and that’s not a bad thing. Pete has to be Pete. I love him just like he is. It’s just that I have to be a grown-up now.” She smiled. “Pete barely qualifies as one.”

“Tommy is strong, though.”

“Tommy and I are still trying to rebuild what we had, and then move on from there. Trying to repair ourselves-individually and together. He just blamed himself so much when Bobby got shot. He still struggles with it. I can tell him it’s okay-and it is, as far as I’m concerned-but I can’t really help him because I still have my own grief. I think he misunderstands that sometimes. It has nothing to do with him, but I think he feels like it does.”

I nodded. This is why she doesn’t sleep, I thought.

“How often do you talk openly with him about it?” I asked.

“I guess not very often. We both work a lot. Our cases take so much of our time and energy. When I work with him on a case-like the warehouse fire-it’s difficult to do my job the way I know I need to and tend to his needs at the same time.”

“All the more reason to set aside time to be up front with him, Leo.”

“I know, Toni, but it’s easier for you than it is for me. That kind of directness is just part of your nature. I have to really work at it.”