Excerpts from the Published Works of Marc Rainer

Capital Kill

 

     The unmistakable smell told him they were in the right place.

 

     Trask wiped his eyes dry and moved around behind the CSI techs to the other side of the pit, hoping to gain some small relief from the stench of decaying flesh. It wasn’t any better upwind of the dig, so he circled back, trying to get a better view.

 

     The crime scene specialists worked somberly, methodically, speaking only when necessary. Trask watched closely, grateful for their care and precision as they brushed away the clay and dirt from the two corpses. He knew that every speck of evidence had to be preserved, every clue maintained, all to confirm what they already knew.

 

     The bodies were visible now. The feet were tied together, the hands taped behind each back, with skeletal digits showing where the flesh had fallen away from the fingers. The dig team was working around the heads, buried at the deeper end of  the shallow trench.

 

     Trask saw one of the CSI’s take a brush and gently flick the dirt from one partially buried head - a head that had been wrapped from neck to crown in gray duct tape.