“Okay,” Carlson said.
“I’m going to have to try and get Caroline to talk and give me some names of people in her past that she may have upset or made angry.” Rand let out a deep sigh.
Chapter 16
Caroline went to the post office to drop some letters in the mail chute and turned around and bumped into Rand. She looked up at him and then attempted to walk past him, but he reached out and grabbed her arm. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
She stopped and crossed her arms in front of her as a defense against him. She felt a keen sense of his being that her body responded to. She felt her own body betraying her, she wanted him so badly.
“What?” she asked sadly.
“CSI got into the victim’s computer and was able to find a hidden file in the temporary files that computers have. There’s a recording of the argument that the neighbors heard of the threat that was made. I had my deputy take the recording over to the neighbor to see if the voice was consistent with what he heard, and he confirmed it was. The voice on the recording does not sound like you. Not even close. Furthermore, it was on a CD that is now missing,” Rand added, as he leaned against the wall facing Caroline.
“So, does that prove that I’m innocent?” Caroline asked pensively.
“Not quite, but it does create some questions that need to be answered. Caroline, can you think of anyone who would want to set you up or might have a grudge against you? An enemy of any kind?” Rand asked.
Caroline thought about it for a few minutes. With the exception of possibly her ex-husband and a student she denied into the program, she couldn’t think of anyone, and she wasn’t going to tell Rand about what she had found out. He didn’t believe her to begin with, so why would he believe her now? “No, I can’t think of anyone,” Caroline answered shortly. She refused to incriminate her students.
“Well, if you do think of someone or something, let me know.” Rand came closer to Caroline and stood right in front of her. She could almost feel the heat radiating from his body as she looked up at him with unshed tears. He slowly pulled her into an embrace and bent down to kiss her. His lips brushed against hers as he spoke. “Talk to me, Caroline.”
Flashes of his accusations came across her mind and she pulled away from him. She wrestled out of his arms and took off, almost running, from him. She didn’t slow down until she got near the motel.
Caroline felt confused by her feelings for Rand. She knew she loved him, she probably always had, even though she was still very angry with him. She was determined to get to the bottom of this, and then she would leave Jordan and never come back. She vowed that she was committed to her career, her life’s work, and did not have room for any kind of a serious relationship with anyone, especially Rand. She felt he was playing her and she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
She wavered in her memories of the time they’d spent together prior to her arrest. But all that had changed now. She didn’t know what more she could do to convince him that she was innocent.
She felt she could really use a friend right now, but didn’t know who she could reach out to. She thought about Penny. Maybe Penny would listen and believe her. She pulled out her cellphone and scanned through the calls she’d received until Penny’s name showed up on the screen. She selected send on her cellphone and she could hear the phone ring on the other side.
“Hello,” Penny answered her phone.
“Penny, this is Caroline.”
“Hi, Caroline. How are you?”
“Not too good,” Caroline said, a hitch in her voice.
* * * *
She sat in Penny’s kitchen and the tears started. Before she knew it, she was sobbing. Penny held her in her arms and rocked her while she cried.
“I’m sorry, Penny, I’m just so upset that I don’t know what to do or where to go. I have no one to talk to,” Caroline said between sobs.
“You came to the right place. Now tell me what happened.”
Caroline hiccupped. “Rand thinks I murdered that guy we found at my dig site last month. He has all this evidence against me, and he won’t believe me when I tell him that I didn’t commit the crime. I don’t know the dead man, and I don’t know who planted the evidence to implicate me, but I didn’t do it. Please, Penny, tell me you believe me.”
“Yes, I believe you, Caroline,” Penny reassured soothingly.
“What am I going to do?” Caroline sobbed on Penny’s shoulder. “You know what’s so sad about it all? I really love Rand. I’ve always loved him, even when we were teenagers. I love him and I’m very angry at him at the same time.”
“Have you told him that you love him?”
“No. I can’t now. If he doesn’t believe me about this crime, he won’t believe me about my feelings for him.”
Penny said, “Tell me what all Rand says he has as evidence against you.”
Caroline explained everything to her.
“You know, I always thought I would be a better sheriff than he is. Sometimes he’s just dense. He couldn’t see something even if a ton of bricks landed on his head,” Penny said.
This wisecrack helped Caroline smile through her tears. By the time Caroline got back to her motel room, she felt relieved that someone believed in her. She laid down on the bed and fell asleep from exhaustion, without even taking her clothes off.
* * * *
Carlson called and scheduled meetings with Caroline’s team. He had two members coming in the morning and the other three scheduled for the afternoon. Caroline wondered what the sheriff was up to when the team all reported to her they needed to take time out to go to the sheriff’s office for questioning.
While Caroline, Jody, John, and Eddie waited for Ryan and Cathy to return from the sheriff’s office, Caroline called her boss, Patty Durham.
“Hello, Caroline. What’s going on?” Patty asked.
“Hi, Patty. Well, it looks like someone is setting me up.” Caroline explained the evidence they had against her then asked Patty, “Remember when I interviewed students to work for me this summer at the dig site?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember a student named Cody Thompson? I interviewed him and didn’t choose him to join the group.”
“Yes, I remember. He became very angry about it and started making threats,” Patty recalled.
“Yes. Does he still come around and make threats?” Caroline asked.
“No, I haven’t seen or heard anything from him for several months now. Are you thinking he has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out. Can I get his address and phone number?”
“Sure, I’ll look it up and email it to you. I hope you can get to the bottom of this,” Patty said.
“I do too, Patty. I’m looking at life imprisonment for something I didn’t do.”
“You know, this Cody guy, maybe you should ask the sheriff to check him out. He could be dangerous.”
Rand had asked her if she had any enemies. She knew she should tell him about this and about what Eddie saw the day she got arrested, but she felt conflicted. Would he even believe her if she told him?
“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” Caroline replied.
As she hung up the phone she noticed Eddie standing around fidgeting nervously.
“Did you want something Eddie?” she asked.
“Um, yeah, Caroline, should I tell the sheriff what I told you about seeing that guy?”
“Yes, you tell the sheriff everything you told me.”
Eddie nodded his head and seemed to relax.
* * * *
He loved it. They had searched the SUV and found the cellphone. He had one more thing to do. He needed to plant some of the drugs at her dig site, then he could watch her get life imprisonment for messing up his life. He’d go out after she and the team had left for the day and he’d plant the evidence somewhere near the dig site. He hoped someone on her team would discover it.
Chapter 17
Rand and Carlson interviewed Ryan and Cathy, asking them a lot of questions about themselves, their team members, Caroline, and whether they had any personal grudges against her. Nothing materialized from those two interviews. They interviewed Jody and John that afternoon with the same results. However, when they interviewed Eddie, he told them about a silhouette he had seen the day they arrested Caroline, and he agreed to take them to the spot where he saw the man.
Caroline, Ryan, and Cathy were at the dig site when the sheriff’s cruiser pulled up with the remainder of the crew. Jody and John got back to their work while Eddie showed the sheriff where he was standing when he saw the man.
Rand told Eddie, “You stay put here for a few minutes, I’m going to talk to Caroline.”
Eddie nodded, and Rand walked over to Caroline.
“Caroline, Eddie stated that he told you about a man he saw standing far away the day I arrested you. He said you walked to the location.”
“Yes, I did.” Caroline folded her arms.
“Did you see anything?” Rand asked.
“Yes. I saw a couple of plastic coffee cups and footprints leading to some tire tracks.”
Rand looked at her grimly. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Would you have believed me?” she blurted out sarcastically.
“It would have been my responsibility to check it out,” Rand stated, tensed. “Can you take me to the location where you saw this?”
Caroline stood staring at Rand for a few minutes then finally agreed. “Yes, I’ll take you there.”
As Carlson, Rand, and Caroline drove over to the spot in the sheriff’s cruiser, Caroline remarked to Rand, “You asked me the other day if I had any enemies.”
“Yes.” Rand looked quickly at Caroline.
“Could you check out a guy named Cody Thompson? I have his address on my laptop back at my room.”
“Yes. What about him?” Rand asked.
“He was angry at me because I didn’t select him to be in the apprenticeship program. He called the museum and threatened me a few times.”
“All right. When you get back to your room, call me with his address.”
Rand took the cruiser as far as he could then they got out and walked the rest of the way to the spot where Caroline had found the evidence. “Did you touch any of this?” Rand asked as he stooped down and looked at the two cups and footprints.
“No, and I didn’t walk through the footprints either.” Caroline’s voice was still sharp.
“Carlson, get an impression of this footprint, and bring me a plastic bag.”
Carlson went back to the cruiser and returned with a plastic bag for Rand as well as the items he needed to make a plaster impression of the footprint. Rand used his ink pen to carefully lift the two cups and put them in the plastic bag.
Rand followed the footprints to where it looked like two vehicles had parked. Carlson followed behind him. “It looks like there were two different vehicles here,” Rand noted. “Go ahead and get an impression on all eight tire tracks.”
“Okay, boss,” Carlson said.
* * * *
Later that day, Rand stopped by the River Basin bar to have a drink and unwind after a long, hard day at work. His last few contacts with Caroline had been tense. He sat at the bar nursing his drink. There is nothing I would like more than to find out that Caroline didn’t commit the crime like she says, and that someone set her up. He was having his doubts now, but he needed more evidence to be able to get the charges dropped.
“A penny for your thoughts, Rand,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see Lavina Davis, the last person he wanted to talk to. She sat down next to him. “You look like you could use a friend.”
He raised an eyebrow and said tersely, “No, what I really want is peace and quiet.”
“This murder arrest got you antsy?” she asked.
Rand didn’t bother to answer.
She put her hand on his left leg. “How about we head to your place for a tangle in the sheets?”
“Are you serious?” Rand asked incredulously.
“Yeah. Why not? We’re still friends, aren’t we?” Lavina spoke seductively.
“No, we’re not. We’re history,” Rand added sarcastically.
“Oh, come on, Rand. Things weren’t that bad between us, and we’re still talking.”
Rand wasn’t budging. What is it about ex-wives and ex-husbands that don’t...let...go? Ex-husband... Wonder where he is right now.
“Come on, Rand, let’s get out of here,” Lavina said flirtatiously.
“No, I’m not interested, Lavina,”
Rand reflected quietly. The last time he came here and she showed up, so did Caroline and her team, and Caroline got jealous. It made him smile a little thinking she really did care about him. It also made him smile as he thought about the contents of the little box she’d kept all these years. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when he had realized he loved her, but he now knew that he needed to work twice as hard to get a killer to justice and get her murder charge dismissed. He didn’t know why or how, but his gut instincts told him that her ex-husband was somehow involved in this.
* * * *
Rand walked into the station the next morning and called out to Carlson. “Hey, Carlson, come in here a sec.”
“Okay, boss.” Carlson got up and followed Rand into his office. “What’s up?” Carlson asked as he sat down across from Rand.
“I need to find two people. Cody Thompson—here’s his address, find out where he’s at—and Dan Priest, Caroline’s ex-husband. I’d like you to run a search on him and find out where he is and what he’s doing. I’ve got a hunch about him.”
“Know anything about him that would help narrow the list down?”
“Hmm, no I don’t. But you could check the divorce records in New Mexico, around the New Mexico University area.”
Chapter 18
Caroline and the team continued their work at the dig site. Dig site one and dig site two had now been merged and the team was scattered along six points between the two sites. Caroline started to excavate a part of the hip area. While working, Caroline’s cellphone rang. The caller ID indicated that it was her boss. “Hi, Patty.”
“Hey, Caroline. I thought I’d call you and let you know that Cody Thompson is in South America on a dig site. He’s been there for a couple of months.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks, Patty. I guess we can rule him out.”
This left Caroline with only one other possible answer—her ex-husband.
* * * *
Carlson reported back to Rand, “I found Cody Thompson. He transferred to South America several months ago to do a dig.”
“Okay, we can mark him off the list, temporarily,” Rand said contemplatively.
“I ran Dan Priest’s name through the FBI database and came up with this man. Name is Daniel Priest, five foot seven, one hundred and fifty pounds. Says that he’s a hit man for the John Bosso crime family in Florida. He did two years in New Mexico state prison for spousal abuse, um, assault and battery. When he got out, he went back to Florida and got caught up in a sting operation when they got John Bosso and some of his members, but he managed to escape. His new address? Here in our very own back yard of Sand Springs.”
“You’re kidding,” Rand scoffed, not really surprised. “When did he roll into town?”
“Says here he signed a lease on an apartment for three months. He signed it on June ninth.”
“How convenient,” Rand said.
“It also says that he’s an avid member of the US Geological Society.”
“Well, he is a geologist, I guess.” Rand put his hand to his head with his elbow on the desk.
“You thinking this is the guy?”
“I’m leaning pretty heavy toward it, yeah. Problem is, we need evidence. Print out a picture of him. Let me run it by Caroline first to see if it’s the same guy, then we’ll see where it all leads. It’s rather convenient he’d s
how up all of a sudden, and that Priest and the victim both have ties to the Bosso family.”
“Okay, will do.” Carlson got up and went to his desk to print out the picture.
Chapter 19
In the early evening, Rand drove to the Jordan Motel and knocked on Caroline’s door. She opened the door and looked out. “Caroline, I’ve got something I’d like to show you to see if you recognize him.”
She opened the door wider to let him in. “What do you have?”
Rand pulled the paper out of a notebook and handed it to her. “Do you recognize this man?”
“Yes, he’s my ex-husband,” Caroline confirmed.
“What does he do for a living, or what did he do when you were married to him?” Rand asked.
“He’s a geologist and worked for the US Geological Society.”
“Do you know if he did anything besides geology?”
Caroline thought a few minutes. “No, but I know he always wanted to leave the US Geological Society and get into the National Geological Society but they would not let him.”
“Why is that?”
“There was something about his credentials that didn’t measure up. I think it was because he only had an associate’s degree and the members of the National Geological Society all had advanced degrees.”
“How did he get in with the US Geological Society if he only had an associate’s degree?” Rand asked.
“Entry level positions at the US Geological Society only require an associate’s degree,” Caroline answered. “But if you want to advance further in the organization, you have to get a higher education.”
“Is there a different between the US Geological Society and the National Geological Society?”
“Yes, the US in only for this country and the National is world–wide.”
“Was he also a student at the university when you met him and got married?”
“No. He was employed full time at the US Geological Society.”
The Last Dig Page 11
