Free Forgotten by Mariah Stewart Page A

to bring two bags.”
    “What?” Patton turned to the grave where the techs had stopped digging.
    “Two sets of remains, two bags.” Joanna stood and wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her right hand. She glanced from the ME to the police chief to Portia. “There’s a second body in here.”
    “Are you sure?” Portia leaned into the grave.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Joanna nodded certainly. “Unless the boy you’re looking for had two heads, there’re two people buried here.”

SEVEN
    “Y es, I’m serious. Two bodies.” Portia paced on the hillside, barely able to contain her anger and all but spitting her words into the phone. “He knew. That little fucking bastard knew there were two.”
    “Both children?” John asked.
    “Yes. The one on the bottom looks to be considerably smaller than the one on top—the one we think is the Williams boy because there’s what’s left of a leather belt with a large C on the buckle. Neither of the skulls appear to be completely fused, which you’d expect to see in young children, but the shape of both indicates male.”
    “Cause of death?”
    “Tough to tell. The one on the bottom hasn’t been examined because they’re still removing the top one. I can tell you that in the first one—the one I think might be Christopher—the hyoid bones are in three pieces, but the ME said he’d expect that if we’re looking at kids, that it starts out in pieces. The bones don’t fuse together into one until sometime later.”
    “Woods maintained that he’d strangled all his victims, and the ones we recovered—his ‘Baker’s Dozen’—had all been strangled. I wouldn’t expect to see any deviation.”
    “Yes, and these victims might have been as well. We just don’t know by looking at the hyoid, as you could with an adult.” Portia paused. “The reports I read in the file indicated that Woods had used different methods of strangulation for different victims.”
    “Make sure the ME knows to look for other signs. Fractured vertebrae, maybe.”
    “Will do.” Portia noticed a black van heading up the dirt road. “Looks like the ME’s people are here. They’re going to try to separate the remains. Could take a while, they’re so close in the grave.”
    “Are the remains intact?”
    “Mostly, but some of the smaller bones are commingled, and a few of them are missing. Probably small animals took off with them. The techs will continue to dig around after the bodies are removed, see if they can find the digits.” Portia set her bag down on the hood of her rental car and removed a bottle of water. She twisted off the cap, then took a quick drink. “We’re going to need Christopher’s dental records for a positive ID.”
    “I’ll call Lisa Williams immediately,” John said.
    “Let’s have them sent directly to Tom Patton, the ME. I realize that time is working against us here, so if this is Christopher, I know everyone wants to see him returned to his family as quickly as possible. I’ll let the ME know to expect them, then I’m out of here,” Portia said. “Sheldon Woods and I are going to have a little chat.”
             
    “N o.” Sheldon Woods sat back in his chair in the little interview room and stared blankly at Portia.
    “Don’t fuck with me, Woods, I am seriously not in the mood.”
    “Your moods are irrelevant, Agent Cahill. You wanted Christopher Williams, and I gave him to you. I’m not obligated to give you anything or anyone else.”
    “What will it take, Woods?” She sighed deeply. “What do you want this time?”
    “Nothing. I’m not giving you this one,” he snapped. “This one is mine.”
    “Odd choice of words, Woods.” Her eyebrows knit in thought. “Very odd.”
    “Do feel free to run it past your behavior people, your profiler, whatever you’re calling your mindbenders these days.” He waved a hand breezily. “It won’t be the first time the FBI has tried to analyze me.”
    “This boy’s family