Chapter 10 chapter Ten

A few minutes later, Pooler looked back at Samantha Cole, who was following behind through the thick undergrowth.He stopped and held up a hand.Cole stopped immediately.He searched the area ahead through night vision goggles.Rows of big trees, low shrubs, and fawning deer.It's not like there's anything that could hurt them. He remained where he was.He thought back to the scene in the forest that he saw momentarily from the window.is a figure.Not animals, but people.Not necessarily related to the case.But it could also be related. "Puller?" He didn't look back, but just raised his hand to signal Cole to come forward.A few seconds later she crouched next to Puller.

"You're wearing that fancy thing, what do you see?" "Just a deer and so many trees." "I didn't hear anything else." He looked up at the clear night sky. "When I first got here, there was a searchlight going around, on the east side, maybe two miles from here." "Probably from a mining site." "Why searchlights?" "Maybe a helicopter flew over to show it where to land." "What are the helicopters doing in the mine? It's so remote here." "That's not illegal. And it's not a mine. They're strip mining the hills. That means they don't dig tunnels in the mines, they just blast the hills."

Puller continued to look around. "Did you inform the military of Reynolds' death?" "Yes, he was wearing a military uniform. That was our first lead. And we searched his car, which had his ID." She paused and continued, "You must have entered the room, you can see that he There's not much left of his whole face." "Does he have a briefcase or laptop?" "It's both." "I need to see these things." "Ok." "There may be some secrets in it." "yes." "Are they kept in a safe place?"

"Take it back and put it in the evidence room of our police station." Pulley thought about it. "I want you to make sure no one has access to the exhibits. Reynolds is DIA. If someone does it, it could be a big mess. You don't want that." "I understand. I can arrange it." "Thanks. The papers say you took his fingerprints." "And faxed it to a number assigned by the Pentagon. They identified him." "How many technical investigators do you have under your command?" "Only one, but very capable." "What about the forensic doctor?"

"The state medical laboratory is in Charleston, and the forensics are mainly there." Puller continued to observe as he talked.Whoever was here just now is gone now. "Why are those bodies still in the room at this time?" "There are many reasons, but the main reason is that we didn't find a suitable place to put them." "What about the hospital?" "The nearest hospital is more than an hour's drive away." "Don't you have a forensic doctor in your local area?" "See what it says." "What's the meaning?"

"Meaning, we used to have one, but we moved away. And he's not a doctor, he's only qualified as an EMT. But it's ok under our state law." "Then who will do the autopsy on the victim?" "I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe get a local doctor, I know someone with a background in forensic science. How many site survey technicians did you bring?" "You were talking to him." "Investigator and technician at the same time? That's not unusual." "It's actually quite clever." "How do you say that?"

"That puts zero distance between me and the evidence," Puller said. "The Army Criminal Investigations Laboratory has my back. Let's go back to the house." After a while, they stood in front of four dead bodies.It was already light outside, but Cole still turned on the chandelier above his head. "The integrity of the crime scene is gone," Puller said. "The killers came back and they could have destroyed the evidence." "They could have sabotaged it in the first place, too," Kerr shot back. "Even if we catch the suspect, his lawyers can claim in court that all charges are invalid on this basis."

Cole said nothing.But Pooler could see from her sulky expression that she understood it. "So what are we going to do?" she asked finally. "There's nothing we can do now. Continue to investigate the scene." "Do you have to report this up?" Puller didn't answer, but looked around and said, "Reynolds' home is not in the area. What is the family doing here?" "This is the home of Richard and Minnie Halvorson, Mrs. Reynolds' parents. They've gone to a nursing home, oh, Mrs. Reynolds's father has gone, and her mother is still here. But her mother I recently suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in a specialized hospital near Pikeville. The hospital is not far from here in a straight line, but it takes an hour and a half to get there by walking our mountain road."

"I passed that place on the way here." "Mrs. Reynolds is obviously staying here temporarily to take care of things. Arranging for her father's care. Making preparations for the sale of the house. Since her mother can no longer live alone, she has to go through the formalities of transferring her to her father's nursing home. .It's summer, so the kids are coming with her. Mr. Reynolds is coming to stay with them for the weekend." "Where did you learn about this?" "It's all local. The nursing home and the hospital. We did some research in the neighborhood. We talked to some neighbors."

"Good job," Puller said. "I'm here to get the job done." "You see, I'm only here because the victim was in uniform. My boss says you have no objection to our cooperation." "That's my boss." "how about you?" "All I can say is: the jury is still out." "Fair." "So he's an intelligence officer from the Ministry of Defense?" "Didn't they tell you when you passed your fingerprints?" "No. They just confirmed to me that the fingerprints belonged to this man. Army intelligence? Was he a spy? Someone killed him?"

"Don't know. He's getting ready to retire. He's probably a guy who got the Oak Leaf for squatting in his office filing papers and then got interested in private-sector ATMs. The Pentagon is full of these guys." Puller decided not to tell her exactly what Reynolds was doing at DIA.She didn't know much about it, and he didn't want to be demoted for saying something he shouldn't have said. "So his profession doesn't help us much." Puller still has an honest side, after all. "Well, maybe he's not just a guy in the office fiddling with files." "But you just said—" "I mean it's possible, but I don't know yet. I've just received this case too, so I don't know much about it." "Ok." Puller approached the body. "Is that how you found them? Arranged in a row?" "yes." "The cause of death of the two adults is obvious. What about the children?" he asked, pointing to the dead. She said nothing, so Puller turned to look at her. She had drawn out the King Cobra revolver and aimed it at his head.