At First Light(Dr. Evan Wilding #1)(22)

He’d give Rhinehart a call while Addie was driving them back to Chicago. But first he would do a Google search to see if Rhinehart had, in fact, been involved in a scandal. He always had to think ahead to a trial and how an expert witness would appear to the jury.

Addie’s voice took him out of his reverie.

“Who found the body?” she asked the deputy.

Templeton pointed toward a distant farmhouse. “A teenager named Tommy Snow. He claims he was over here hunting for birds’ nests. Found the body and called the owner.”

“The owner, not the police?”

“That’s Tommy for you. Does things his own way. I don’t think he’s fond of law enforcement.”

“Any reason for that?”

“Nothing I ever heard.”

“You used the word claims. That Snow claims he was hunting birds’ nests. Is the kid a suspect?”

The deputy turned off the narrow track and plowed into tall grass. “We couldn’t find any connection between him and Desser. And no motive. He’s a strange kid, but he’s never had any real trouble with the law. Just a couple shoplifting charges, and those ended up getting dropped.”

“Who owns this land?”

“Developer by the name of Robert Wharton.”

“Is he a suspect?”

“Not unless it was some murder-for-hire thing, and there’s no evidence of that. Wharton lives in Connecticut. According to his real estate agent, he bought the land sight unseen six months before the murder and has never set foot in Illinois. And thanks be. We got no need for cidiots trying to put down roots here. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to build a Walmart.”

Cidiots. It took Evan just over a second to parse this into city and idiots.

He smiled. A word to add to his personal lexicon.

They approached the line of trees, and a flock of starlings flew complaining into the air, circling a few times before they settled into the trees farther along. Chin-high grasses—waist-high for Addie and the deputy—rose on either side of the trail, and Evan startled when he heard a rustling off to his right.

“Lots of pheasant around here,” Templeton said. “Maybe the killer was hunting and accidentally shot Desser. You’d be surprised how often it happens.”

“Perhaps not,” Evan muttered, feeling very much akin to the pheasant.

“Hunting with a .22?” Addie asked. “What would he have been stalking? Mice?”

“You’d be surprised,” the deputy said again. “Cidiots, like I said. ’Course a shooting accident wouldn’t explain the noose.”

“Or the slashed throat,” Evan murmured.

“What about stakes?” Addie asked. “Had the body been pinned to the ground in any way?”

“Not by the time we got to it.”

Templeton waved for Addie and Evan to follow as he took a narrow footpath into the grove of cottonwoods. A moment later, they stepped out of the woods and into a clearing. A smattering of rain pockmarked the muddy ground around them and splashed into the pond. Addie and Evan zipped their coats. Templeton looked smug in his fleece-lined hunting jacket. Only cidiots got cold out here.

“We’re a long way from the road,” Addie observed. “A long way to drag or carry a body, if that’s what happened.”

“Doubt it,” Templeton said. “We had a decent amount of rain last August, but anyone with a pickup and good tires could have driven right up.”

The pond lay gray and dull under the sullen sky. Cattails and reeds choked the low banks, and the remains of a wooden pier rotted in the water. When Desser was here, the place would have been quite different. Buggy, for one. But also verdantly green, the reeds filled with starlings and red-winged blackbirds, the blue sky echoing with their calls. There would have been ducks, probably. Newts. Voles and rabbits.

It would be a good place to bring Ginny to hunt.

“Body was right over there,” Templeton said, pointing. “Feet in the water, the rest of him in the reeds.”

Addie shot Evan a glance and arched a knowing brow. See? the look said. More alike than different.

He made the motion of firing a gun, and she scowled.

“You guys find any wooden slats around the body?” Addie pulled out her phone and showed a photo to Templeton. “Like this?”

“No, ma’am. But a lot of time went by between when he was shot and when Tommy found him. Anything could have happened.” He leaned forward, squinting at the screen. “That the vic from your case?”

As if regretting having shared so much, Addie snatched back the phone. “We need to look around.”

“Well, sure. Be my guest. Just watch out for copperheads and water moccasins. You run into their burrows, you’ll likely rile them up.” He looked at Evan. “And don’t fall in. We got alligator snapping turtles out here.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” Evan said.

“They’re endangered. I can’t shoot one. Not for any reason.”

“I believe dwarfs are also protected under the Endangered Species Act.”

Templeton grunted. “Uh-huh.”

Addie handed Evan a few small plastic flags on wires, paper bags, and a pair of latex gloves. She waved him westward. “I’ll go east. Take pictures before you touch anything and leave a marker if you find anything relevant. You know the drill. Meet you around on the far side of the pond. We turn up anything, we’ll stop and the sheriff’s department can reopen this area as a crime scene.” She glanced at the deputy. “That okay with you?”