Author's Note: I'd like to thank Crazy Aunt Ella for her review. I figured it had to be a glitch that would be fixed. It seems to be working now. This chapter starts right where the last one left off. Enjoy!


Chapter 53

Russell turned off the monitor. "Eight victims we didn't know about. Fifteen in total. If Jesus hadn't made this video, we would have had no idea how big this was."

The room was somber as Sara sat down. "The coordinates are in the area north of I15. We have to go up there and find the bodies."

"Agreed. I'll let PD worry about finding and catching Eduardo Perez and Rafael Lopez. Let's go."

The area where the bodies had been dumped was as vast and empty as much of Nevada's desert. A satellite photo of the area had shown the dump site to be rocky, which would be hard for even her all terrain wheels to traverse, so Sara had stayed at the lab. Now the CSI's were scrambling across the rocky terrain to reach the coordinates Jesus had given them. It was hard to believe the killers had brought the bodies here.

Morgan was holding the GPS. "We're almost there."

Russell stopped and set down the shovels he was carrying. "I can see why they picked this spot to dump the bodies. We're a mile from the road and there's a cliff up ahead. They're probably buried at the base of the cliff."

Ibarra stopped at the top of the cliff. "It's not a high one. Eight feet at most. And there's a path over this way."

Morgan got to the top of the cliff and held the GPS out over the edge. "We're here. Let's get down there."

Greg led the way to the small, shaded area at the base of the cliff. The earth was soft here, either because it was in the shade for most of the day with eight foot high walls on three sides or because the dirt wasn't naturally occurring. It was the wrong texture for the Nevada desert. This had been brought here. He collected a sample and then, with Russell and Morgan's help, set up the popup tent he'd been carrying. Ibarra had been carrying the other and it was now also set up at the top of the cliff.

Greg headed back up the path. "Ibarra and I will grab the rest of the tools."

"Thanks, guys." Russell set his shovels against the wall. "Looks like they built a burial ground."

Morgan set up the table she'd had slung across her back. "Yeah. Greg already got a sample."

"Good." Russell's phone buzzed. "Okay, Doc just texted. He has a John Doe that matches Jesus' description of the first victim. We're looking for eleven bodies here. I hope that's all the bodies here."

"Yeah." She took several photos of the area and ground.

Greg got to the top of the cliff with a bucket of supplies and a rope. "I'm going to lower this down. Ibarra's got another bucket too."

"Go ahead, Greg." Russell went to the bottom of the cliff and grabbed the bucket Greg lowered. "Let me know when David gets here."

"Okay." Greg pulled the rope back up and Russell handed the bucket to Morgan. "Next one coming down."

"Got it." Russell untied the bucket. "You're clear." The rope went back up and Russell took the bucket to the table. "I wish the terrain would allow for us to bring out the ground penetrating radar."

Morgan was emptying her bucket onto the table. "How do we want to get started? Set up a grid and go from there?"

"Yeah, but let's wait until David gets here. I want him to take care of the bodies." Russell looked at their setup. "I want to get another table set up down here."

Morgan started unloading the second bucket. "I'll get the buckets Greg lowers."

Russell went up the path and headed for the cars. He grabbed a table from the backseat and a bucket of trowels. Greg was filling a tub with filters and Ibarra had a stack of buckets with marking flags in the top one. Ibarra headed back toward the cliff with Greg not far behind. Russell was about to head back as well when he noticed the line of dust coming toward them. A car was at the front of the dust cloud.

Russell took the table off his back and watched the approaching car. It was still too far away to make it out, but from the way it was coming right toward them suggested the driver knew where they were going. Russell found himself wishing he carried a gun in case this was the killers. The car slowed as it approached and Russell straightened up in relief. David was driving the Coroner's van and it looked like Doc Robbins was in the passenger seat.

Russell walked around the back of the SUV. "I didn't know you were coming, Doc."

"Me neither. I thought I'd find more of their victims in the Doe cooler. When I didn't, I joined David. By my count, you're going to find eleven bodies out here. You're going to need all the hands you can get."

"Well, we're just getting set up. The GPS puts the bodies at the base of the cliff just beyond that tent. There's a path you can climb down or you can stay up here."

Doc started forward. "I'll stay up top. Have you started digging yet?"

"Not yet. Hey, David."

David was carrying a box with trays in it. "Hey, Russell."

Russell grabbed the table and bucket of trowels. "Let's go."

Greg and Ibarra passed them and said hi on their way back to the SUV. Doc had the tent moved a little so he could sit on a rock in the shade. Russell followed David down the path, handing the bucket to Morgan and setting up the other table. A few minutes later, another tent had been set up and the buckets with sifters of increasingly finer grain in them were in two lines under it. David put the trays out on the tables and more buckets, these ones for evidence collection, were set out underneath.

Ibarra came down from the top of the cliff after helping Doc set up his station. "Is there anything else we need?"

Russell and Morgan were finishing up the grid. "No, I think we're set right now. Everyone pair up and work a square at a time. Don't block the camera recording your work on your square. I want to make sure we can't be accused of planting evidence."

Russell paired up with Greg and Ibarra paired with Morgan. One would dig and fill up a bucket of dirt; the other would sift and sort. Grid square by grid square, the dirt was dug up. Bodies, in pieces or whole, skeletal or decaying, slowly were dug up. David and Doc worked together to get the bones and decaying flesh properly packaged for transport back to the morgue. They would have to work with Henry to match the parts to the IDs Jesus Estobar had provided.

Hours passed. The heat of the day increased, but this spot managed to stay somewhat cool, at least by comparison. Each square of the grid was dug up, sifted, documented, and marked off. They stopped digging when they hit the rock under all the dirt. Russell switched from sifting the dirt to sealing up the evidence and transporting it to the cars. The work went quickly and they all were soon packing up their tools too.


Russell went down to the morgue when Doc called. "How's it going, Doc?"

"Slowly. Henry's running DNA samples as fast as he can. So far, I've partially reassembled six bodies and I know the bones on those tables belong to four more."

"We only have ten bodies?"

The computer beeped. "Henry's got some more results." Doc went over to the computer and opened the email, scanning down the list. "He found three bones from an eleventh body." He printed out the page of results and brought it over to the autopsy tables covered in assorted parts. "Let's see."

Russell looked at the portable tables that had been brought in. "Some are still John and Jane Doe."

"Yeah. Those would be the homeless or prostitutes."

"High risk victims. People no one will report missing." Russell looked at the bodies. The most recent victims were mostly whole. His eyes were drawn to the body of David Nguyen, specifically his fingertips. "He still has his fingerprints."

"Yeah, most with skin do." Doc held up a tagged, disarticulated hand. "Removing the fingerprints must have been because they didn't have time to scrub the scene."

"That's a good bet." Russell watched Doc sort the pieces according to Henry's results. This would take a lot of time, but there was a good start here. "Anything I should know about before I go back upstairs?"

"Not at the moment. C.O.D. for most of the bodies can be conclusively labeled as massive Blunt Force Trauma, judging by the bone fragments. I'm assuming it'll be the same for all of them." Doc headed back to the computer as it chimed again.

"Okay. Thanks, Doc."

"Sure."

Sara was waiting by the elevator when Russell came back up. "Did you guys find everyone?" She fell into step with him.

Russell headed for his office. "Yes, all eleven. Most of them were in pieces. Doc's calling Blunt Force Trauma as C.O.D."

"Can't really say we're surprised; that's what Jesus described." Sara parked in front of Russell's desk. "Hodges has been working the non-biologicals. I'm not sure what he has yet. Greg and Morgan have taken over the garage to sort everything. I was going to join them."

"I'll be there in a minute."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, no, I'm fine. Just tired is all."

Sara leaned back in her wheelchair. "You've been working hard ever since Finn was attacked. Have you had a day off since then?"

Russell thought about it. "Not really. Huh. Maybe I should do that." He laughed. "I should listen to you more often."

"Well, I do have experience in getting burned out. I'd hate to see you go down that road."

"Thank you. Let's wrap this one up first. Have you heard from Crawford?"

"Not yet." Sara backed up. "I'll see you in the garage."

"Yeah." Russell checked his email and was happy to see that Ecklie had gotten back to him regarding Finn's return. As he'd expected, she would need to pass a basic physical and a psych evaluation before she could come back. Russell printed out the email and put it in his briefcase to show Finn when he got home. He then left his office and headed for the garage, making detours to check on the progress Hodges and Henry had made on his way.

Hodges walked into his lab with a box of evidence bags. "Hey, boss. How long have you been there?"

"Just walked in. What do you have?"

"Not much. I'm running the dirt from the dump site." The printer whirred to life. "Ah, I think it's done."

Russell leaned against a counter. "Give it to me."

"Okay." Hodges cleared his throat and read off the chemical composition of the soil. "Basically it's soil used by landscapers. That might explain how some of the older bodies were already decomposed."

"The microorganisms in the soil broke down the bodies faster."

Hodges leaned against a table. "You know… maybe one of these guys' works in landscaping. That would explain how they had access to that much dirt."

"It's possible." Russell took the page from Hodges. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Russell checked in with Henry next. "How's it going in here?"

Henry stuck a tray in the RapidHIT machine. "One hundred DNA samples down, another thousand or so to go. I'll be doing this for the next couple weeks."

"Any results that are not a match to the victims?"

"Not yet. I'll keep my eyes open though."

Russell nodded. "Great, thanks."

"Mm-hm."

Russell headed into the garage to see the folding tables set up and covered in tarps with more tarps in a line on the floor for the sorting efforts. Sara was working at a lower table and everyone had a box they were going through. As he watched, Morgan held up a piece of evidence, looked at it closely, and then walked it over to a tarp labeled "clothing." There were a lot of pieces of cloth on that tarp.

Russell pulled on a pair of gloves. "Where do you want me to start?"


A/N: The next chapter will wrap up this case and then I will take a week off to proofread the next case one last time. Stay Tuned!