Chapter 15 - Before the Earth Moves
Tuesday began with the noise of diesel engines outside the Graystone gate.
Elliot wanted to drive there. I told him we couldn't help by blocking a truck, but I agreed to go with him and park on the public shoulder beyond the construction entrance.
Three dump trucks waited in a line. A foreman stood beside a portable office, speaking into his phone.
There was no excavation underway.
At 8:12, two state vehicles arrived. Alvarez stepped out and approached the foreman with paperwork. From our distance I couldn't read it, but within minutes the machinery was shut off and the workers were directed away from the northern section.
Elliot gripped the steering wheel.
"Does that mean they know?"
"It means they're looking."
An investigator later explained that investigators had secured judicial authority to search specified parts of the quarry. The supporting materials included the canceled ambulance entry, the conflicting property records, witness statements, the truck timeline, and information about recent changes to the site.
Nobody had waved a badge and magically taken control of an entire county.
Somebody had assembled enough facts to persuade a judge.
Back in town, Rosa called me with a different kind of news. The licensed electrician had completed the repairs and the building inspector had approved the presses for use again.
For the first time in days I heard machinery running at Second Shift.
I should have gone back. Instead, I stayed in the passenger seat beside Elliot while we watched people in work boots measure the muddy ground behind the quarry's fence.
"Go open your shop," Elliot said.
"Rosa knows what she's doing."
"Your people need you too."
He was right. I hated how many good people had to make room for my own fear and anger.
Before leaving, I stepped out into the wind and called June.
"Tell Rosa I'm on the way."
"Good," she said. "There's someone here you should see."
It was Beth Garner. She'd brought her attorney and a new statement about the county vehicle movements. She had remembered preparing fuel reimbursements for two deputies on the night of Owen's disappearance, even though both had been scheduled off duty.
"I don't know what they were doing," she said. "I only know the mileage was approved by Harlan's office."
We forwarded the statement through the proper channels.
Then I set to work on a rack of ordinary winter coats.
At 5:40, June lowered the music and held out my ringing phone.
It was Alvarez.
"Mara," she said, "we've located an area of disturbed ground beneath the old drainage culvert. Our team is continuing the search."
May you like
She paused.
"You and Mr. Bell should prepare for the possibility that we find human remains."
