The Bones She Buried: A completely gripping, heart-stopping crime thriller(85)

“Sutton’s gonna walk if we don’t get in there soon,” Chitwood told her as they gathered in the conference room.

“The DA’s office is working on charges right now based on what Ivan Ulrich told us,” Josie said. “This is the final piece. After I see what’s in this file, I’ll take a crack at Sutton. Even if his lawyer instructs him to say nothing, we can still place him under arrest.”

“Here we go,” Gretchen said as they all circled the table and she began to peel away the plastic layers with gloved fingers.

As she laid the pages of the document out on the table, they all leaned over and tried to read it. “This is an internal memo,” Josie said.

Chitwood said, “I didn’t bring my glasses. Who wrote it?”

Josie moved to the end of the table as Gretchen laid out the last typed page. “Sutton Stone Enterprises’ head of security in 1974. It’s addressed to Zachary Sutton, senior.” She returned to the first page which was marked CONFIDENTIAL in large, faded red letters. Scanning it, she read off the pertinent parts to the rest of the crew. “‘On May 14, 1974, an accident was reported at the employee encampment on the north side of the quarry…’ there are some coordinates here and a hand-drawn map. ‘I was asked by Mr. Sutton, Senior to inspect the encampment. One trailer had been completely crushed by a construction vehicle. Its occupants appeared to be deceased from injuries sustained when the crane struck the trailer. There were sixteen employees onsite. Three employees were inside the trailer which was struck…’” Her heart seized in her chest, and her voice faltered as she summarized the next part. “Eleven employees were found in the remaining trailers, each with gunshot wounds to the head, neck, face and back. One female was found approximately one mile from the encampment with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. One employee, Craig Bridges, was unharmed as he had gone for a brief walk outside the perimeter of the encampment. Upon his return, Bridges reported seeing Zachary Sutton, Jr. exit the driver seat of the crane and then walk from trailer to trailer carrying a rifle. Bridges also reported hearing shouts, screams and gunshots. He then observed Mr. Sutton walk into the woods where he heard a final gunshot. Of the fifteen deceased individuals listed in the appendix to this report, eleven were undocumented workers. This writer was instructed by Mr. Sutton, Jr. to assist him in using heavy equipment to dig a hole…” Josie pointed to the third page. “There are dimensions here and a map with coordinates. Then he says they ‘deposited’ the bodies of the eleven undocumented deceased into that hole and filled it up. The deaths of the female and the three documented workers in the encampment were publicly reported to have died in a crane accident. Their families were compensated as was Craig Bridges who signed a non-disclosure contract. Jesus.”

A heavy silence filled the room as each one of them took in this information. The deaths weren’t the result of some accident involving construction equipment. Zachary Sutton had purposefully and coldly murdered fifteen people and then made a calculated effort to cover it up.

“Why would this be documented?” Chitwood said out loud. “Was Sutton’s dad some kind of idiot?”

“I don’t know,” Josie said. “But at the end of the report there is a notation that the land where the grave is located should not be used or sold for development. They wanted to make sure it was never found.”





Fifty-Nine





They photographed the list of names of the murdered so the District Attorney could use them to charge Sutton for murder. Josie took the sheets into the interrogation room where Sutton and his attorney waited. Chitwood, Mettner and Gretchen stood behind her while she placed him under arrest for the murder of fifteen people in 1974 and conspiracy to commit murder and arson for the more recent crimes that Ivan had committed at his behest. With each charge she read off, Josie felt like a small weight lifted from her shoulders even as Sutton’s attorney became more and more enraged. But as he reviewed the Affidavits of Probable Cause accompanying the arrest charges, his face grew pale and pinched.

“I’ll need a few minutes alone with my client,” said the attorney.

Sutton raised a hand in the air, as if to silence the attorney. A strange little smile played on his lips. His eyes found Josie. “Clever girl,” he said. “Did you unearth all of this yourself?”

“No,” Josie said. “My team did. Also, I’m a grown woman and a detective, and you’ll address me as such.”

She expected pushback but Sutton merely nodded. His attorney said, “Mr. Sutton, I cannot recommend that you say another word in front of these officers.”

“Quiet now, please,” Sutton told his lawyer. He looked again at Josie, the smile still in place. “Detective, I knew a girl once. She looked a lot like you.” He used his thumb and index finger to lift one of the lapels of his suit jacket. “May I?” He mimed reaching inside the lapel.

Josie nodded.

He took out his wallet and riffled through it, finally peeling an old, square color photograph from the back of one of its compartments. He turned it so they could see the face of a young woman. She did bear a bit of a resemblance to Josie with her dark hair and pale skin, rosy lips and bright blue eyes. “No one would mistake you for sisters,” Sutton said, pulling the photo back and staring at it. “It was more of a quality she had that you have as well… a sort of indomitable spirit. I know that sounds corny. She was quick as a whip, too. So smart. So clever.”