Here we are at the cemetery digging up the bodies of Joseph and Colleen Candish, the parents of Kathee. We had to work fast because I am sure that Carnival already knows what we are doing. I went over to look with Kathee. “Maybe I better look first,” said Carver. “Hmm, good idea,” I said, and I took Kathee further back. “Not good to look at,” he said, “burned bad.” “That is impossible!” exclaimed Kathee, “they were not burned at all!”

Carver frowned a bit, “someone did some work after the fact.” Just then an older man came over to us. “Sorry to butt in,” he said, “but if you are looking for the folks that was buried here, they are gone.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “Well, 2 days after they was buried, someone dug them up again,” he said, “then took them away and planted these folks in their place. I look after the cemetery here.

So I followed those people to a cemetery across the city, just thought it was kind of odd.” “Can you tell us where they are?” I asked. “I better go along and show you,” he said, “or you might have a hard time finding them in that cemetery, it is a lot bigger than this one.” “Good, we will do that,” I said, “Rock, go with Kathee, Saranna, Sky and Ashley and get a DNA check done, just to make sure.

The rest of us will go to that other cemetery, and hope we are not too late. We will need another exhumation order for those graves.” “I can get it quick once I know where,” said our lawyer. Off we went to this other cemetery, with our guide leading the way in his truck. He did not seem to realize there are speed limits around here and drove amazingly fast. Fortunately we did not meet any police along the way and we got to the cemetery just in time.

There was someone already digging in those 2 graves. I paid the older gentleman and told him he better leave, which he did quickly. John went over to the backhoe operator and told him to stop, but he did not listen, so John pulled him out of the cab and threw him onto the ground. There was a big truck there also, and two men with it. They came over to us and told us to leave, this was none of our business.

I was wearing leather gloves and just suddenly gave that guy a hard back handed slap. The other man was about to pull a gun but Carver had a knife at his throat too fast. He then took his gun and Ralph took the other mans gun as well. “Now I give you some advice,” I said to the two men, “you leave, because this is none of your business. And you can tell that to Alvares too.” The men looked surprised that I mentioned Alvares.

“Carnival does not like being pushed by anyone,” said the man I had slapped, “he will put you in a grave next.” That is when Ralph punched him in the stomach good and hard. The man bent over groaning. As he straightened up, I grabbed his throat. “You tell Alvares to stay out of my way,” I said, “I know these people were murdered. They were friends of mine. If Alvares did this, he will have me to deal with. You can tell him that too. Now you two get out of here before I decide to put you in those holes.”

They left in the truck. The backhoe operator wanted to leave with them, but I would not let him go, we wanted him to continue digging. He was not going to at first, but Carver had a talk with him, so he continued digging while our lawyer got the necessary paperwork. He did not watch what went on earlier with our conversations, just in case he saw something. These were the right bodies this time, so I called the police chief to let him know and he came down with some other officers.

I let our lawyer do the talking while we sat in the cars, just so we would not be seen as friends with the police. Carnival might have someone watching us. The backhoe operator was arrested for illegally digging earlier, and the older man from the other cemetery pointed him out as the man who dug up the bodies originally. That will put him in prison for a while and should make Carnival suitably angry.

Meanwhile, “That was Carver with them,” said the man, “and I recognized Ralph too.” “Why would Victor be interested in these two people?” asked Carnival. “That one guy said they were his friends,” said the second man, “and he was going to find out who murdered them. So he must work for Victor too and be high in the organization for Carver to be protecting him.” “Just what I needed,” said Carnival, “things were going good, now Victor has to get involved.”

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.