Page 52 of Made of Steele
He moved faster now. His hands carefully sliding over the bricks until they’d revealed the entire area. He looked at Teagan. “Bricks form a circle. Or at least part of a circle.”
Four arcs of bricks were arranged in a circular shape, but space had been left between them. It was as if something belonged in the open spaces but wasn’t added or had gone missing.
He rubbed in the dirt near the middle of the circle. “What’s this?”
He brushed harder to reveal a two-inch-wide strip of black steel. He kept brushing dirt, tracking the steel to the inside edges of the circle.
“Not sure what this means.” He stood. “I can’t have any pictures on my phone. Can you snap a few pics to document this before we move on?”
She got out her phone, and he scooted out of the way. The sound on her phone was turned on, and her clicks with each picture fought with Ainslie’s to disturb the peace.
Teagan’s heart started beating harder, but she remained in place and continued shooting pictures until she’d covered the entire area. She lowered her phone. “Something obviously belongs where the spaces are. We should clear the area in every direction between the graves. Maybe we’ll see something that’s supposed to intersect with them.”
“Sounds good.”
“Just don’t disturb anything within my boundaries or on the tarps,” Kelsey warned without looking at them.
“We won’t,” Drew assured her.
“I’ll go this way, you go that way.” Teagan pointed in the two directions and started moving leaves horizontally from the circle opening. She brushed aside the leaves, pine needles and twigs, uncovering nothing but clay soil. She moved toward the horizontal grave ahead of her, scraping aside the tree litter and debris. She reached it without locating any leads. She scooted back to the center. “Anything?”
Drew shook his head. “Let’s try the vertical spaces.”
He started moving down the shape, and she headed upward. Two feet in, she discovered the metal piece in the circle continued. Her heart rate kicked into gear as she cleared it all the way to inside the circle. “I’ve got something here.”
“Me too. Metal plate continues outside the circle.”
She kept clearing until what looked like a large hilt to a sword became obvious. “What do you have?”
“Looks like a tip of a very rudimentary spear or sword.”
“It’s a sword.” She stood to study the area she’d revealed. “I have the hilt on the top.”
He joined her, staring at the ground. “So we have a circle with a sword going through it. Mean anything to you?”
Teagan tried to place it in context with their investigation but drew a blank. “Not at all.”
Drew turned to Kelsey. “Can you get that drone in the air again and get a video of the area we cleared? Even with the graves covered by the canopies, it should still give us a better view of what we’re looking at here.”
“Absolutely.” Clutching her back, Kelsey stood and picked her way carefully through the area to the storage box holding the drone.
“This could be it.” Teagan looked at Drew. “The lead we need to solve these murders.”
“Could be,” he said, his gaze shifting to Kelsey. “But what in the world does a sword in a circle have to do with Smiley or Rossi?”
“Let’s sit in my car,” Drew said, but didn’t wait for Teagan to agree before he started hoofing it across the property, his mind filled with their discovery. Kelsey had filmed the video of the sword and circle and forwarded it to Teagan’s phone. Then Kelsey shooed them out of her way, but urged them to stay close as she’d revealed more of the skull in grave number two before they’d interrupted her to shoot the video.
He climbed behind the wheel, and Teagan joined him inside.
He faced her. “You want some heat to chase out the damp chill?”
“I’m good, but feel free to turn it on if you want.”
He cranked the engine and pumped the heat. He wasn’t overly cold, but he figured she could be, and she didn’t want to be considered a prima donna. She would’ve learned early on in law enforcement that she had to go out of her way not to appear soft around her male co-workers. They needed to know that she had their backs, and she would’ve made sure not to even hint at needing special treatment because she was a woman.
He took off his cap to scratch his head. “The sword and circle could be a religious thing, I suppose. I know the Contis go to mass every week at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Portland. It was originally founded by Italians, so maybe their family has always attended there. Rossi could be a member too, for all I know.”
“I’ll ask Nick to look into it. I’ll send the pictures and video for him to investigate too.” She took out her phone.
