“So, it was guilt?”

“Yeah. That was all about giving Mrs. Ferguson the answer to her plea, and assuaging the killer’s guilt over killing Brian. Brian was a mistake that had to be corrected. The killer had probably buried them in the same place originally. So he digs up Brian to rebury him where he can be found-for Mrs. Ferguson-but he digs up Addie in the process and decides to get rid of her while he’s at it. It could have been Jimmy, or Lori, or Dody, or maybe even Doug himself.”

“Dody seemed to be so sure Addie and Doug were involved,” I said. “Maybe they were, maybe this Brian guy came along and messed things up and Doug is the killer.”

“We definitely need to find Doug Hughes.”

“Yes, and I need to find out more about Brian Ferguson. I need to try to find out how he’s connected to Addie and Doug.”

Brian’s funeral had been well attended by Mrs. Ferguson, her friends and all of the people in Hempstead who had known and worked with Brian. He had been a very popular guy. Ironically, the one enemy he had, had been no one he knew at all as far as any of us could tell. My only consolation in his sad death was in knowing that my work had answered the questions of a grief-stricken and dying mother.

I was back at work on the CILHI case again, trying to answer the questions of a grief-stricken widow-my friend Irini. The answer to this question might bring closure to her and her children. The clay was going on, but slowly. I was totally preoccupied with the other case-or maybe it just provided me with a convenient excuse to avoid the CILHI work.

I had been sure that the bones found at Waller Creek would be those of Doug Hughes. Doug was still missing, and now I was wondering what had happened to him.

I stopped my work on the CILHI bust and decided to make tea and think about what I wanted for lunch. About that time, the phone rang and it was Chris. She asked me to meet her and Leo for lunch. She had some news for us. I changed out of my old jeans and clay-stained work shirt and put on some nice black slacks, a plum-colored, short-sleeve knit top and some comfortable black sandals. It was an awesome day outside, so I rode with the windows down and the breeze in my hair.

I was to meet Chris and Leo at Gordon’s Lakeside out on Lake Travis, so I headed from my part of town in Hyde Park and took the winding Bull Creek Road out to the lake highway. I loved to drive the curves on Bull Creek in the Fastback. It gave me a chance to really go through the gears and feel the wheel. Once I went under the loop, I opened up that little Pony. On the segment of Bull Creek from the loop to the lake road there were few curves, but there was more opportunity to blow some soot out of the cylinders, as my dad liked to say. There was also one very large hill at one point, and if you got up a good head of steam, you could plow that hill from bottom to top in fourth gear, and that’s exactly what I did.

The wind was really blowing through the cockpit of my little land jet, and it felt good. I made a left turn onto the lake highway and headed toward Mansfield Dam, the big dam that created Lake Travis. I took the highway across the river, just below the dam, and once on the other side, I made a right turn down a narrow county road, then off the beaten path down a dirt road and into the parking lot of Gordon’s. The place was surrounded by trees and then it opened up onto the lakeshore.

Susan Gordon was an old friend of Leo’s and ran the place. At night, there was live music out on the deck with a breathtaking view of the water. The deck was almost at lake level, and you could come to Gordon’s by boat and dock at the far end. People packed Susan’s place for lunch, dinner and late-night snacks. It was a local favorite, and definitely one of my favorites because of the lake view.

We sat outdoors. The daytime chill was giving way to more moderate spring temperatures, and the Texas sun was unencumbered that day. We had all ordered our food and the iced tea had been delivered to the table, when Chris broke the news.

“I got the soil sample results back from A &M. They say that both sets of bones contain soil samples that are exact matches.”

“And the location?” I asked.

“One set of soil samples is from this area, and the other soil shows composition similar to soils that would be found in and around Hempstead.”

“Where Brian Ferguson was living at the time of his death,” I said.

“Exactly,” Chris responded.

“Then Addie Waldrep and Brian Ferguson were buried in that area, which means it’s probably where they were both killed,” Leo said.

“The burning question now is, what was Addie doing down near Hempstead with Brian Ferguson?” I asked.

“Yeah, and where is Doug Hughes?” Chris asked.

“Well, if he’s still alive, who knows where he is or how to find him, but…” Leo trailed off.

“If he’s dead, he’s probably buried in Hempstead?” Chris asked.

“Or, he could be reburied somewhere here,” I said.

“I’d say it’s fifty-fifty,” Leo agreed. “If the killer dug them all up trying to get to Brian, and then reburied Addie, he might have done the same with Doug, if Doug is dead.”

“But we haven’t found any more bones,” Chris said.

“Not yet,” I offered. “And if the killer intended them to wash away like Addie’s, then we may never find them.”

“He might have even reburied them on Red Bud and they already washed away,” Leo said.

Chris shook her head. “There was no evidence of that at that site, but he could have reburied them nearby.”

“If the chance is fifty-fifty, then I’d say our chances are better in Hempstead,” I said.

“How do you figure that?” Leo asked.

“No matter where any of them were reburied, there is an original burial site probably in Hempstead.”

“True,” Leo agreed.

“How accurate are the soil samples from A &M?” I asked.

“Accurate? Depends on what you mean by that. If you mean will they swear by their results, then they will,” Chris said.

“I guess what I really mean is how close can you narrow it down to the exact site.”

“You can’t do that, Toni,” Chris said. “They’re accurate as to the part of Texas, even to a reasonably small region, like the area around Hempstead, but that’s all.”

“Then we couldn’t possibly use the sample to narrow our search for the burial site.”

“No. You still have hundreds of acres or more to consider based on this soil sample, and that’s as ‘accurate’ as it will ever get. Well, unless we knew the site, and we could take a sample from it and do a comparison.”

“If we can find the site, we could probably literally dig up more evidence-more clues. Is that what you’re thinking?” Leo asked.

I nodded, sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. Then something occurred to me.

“Maybe we don’t need soil samples to narrow the search.”

“What do you mean?” Leo said expectantly.

“The site might be one where Brian liked to go. You know, a place he would take someone like Addie.”

“He lived there, Toni. His mother told Tommy and Mike he hiked all over that area bird-watching. It could be anywhere.”

“Not necessarily. Bird-watchers usually go to specific places looking for specific species. Besides, I remember Mike and Tommy telling me that Brian did his bird-watching with some of his local friends. If he had particular places he liked to go to see certain birds, they would know. His mother might even know, if we asked that question.”

“You’re going to go talk to his mother, aren’t you?” Leo asked.

“Well, I think I need to talk to Brian’s mother, and maybe even some of the good people of Hempstead. I think I can start with Mrs. Ferguson and find out what she knows, and if she can tell me who Brian’s good friends were. Then I can look them up and have a chat with them.”

“Mike and Tommy will love that,” Chris said, rolling her eyes.