Читать книгу Silent Awakening - Elaine Barbieri - Страница 8

January

The stench of charred, human flesh had long since dissipated from the unidentifiable, skeletal remains lying partially concealed in a snowbank. Obvious to the heavily bundled, uniformed officers carefully searching the frozen undergrowth of the upstate New York Adirondack wilderness, however, was the bullet hole in the back of the weathered skull, indicating that the victim’s death was neither natural nor accidental.

The determined officers continued their investigation, snow crunching under their boots as certain truths became evident.

The first was that if not for the hunter who had stumbled on the scene, the remains might never have been found.

The second was that the crime scene had been so thoroughly compromised by weather, the passage of time and wild animals inhabiting the area that the search for clues was virtually pointless.

The third was that the story of the hunter’s grisly discovery would be news for a few days, but if the remains could not be identified and leads failed to develop, which appeared the most likely probability at that point, the public would lose interest in the stymied investigation.

Remaining was the most difficult truth of all—the fact that the unidentified victim would then become just another John Doe.