Cover Up

Chapter 16

"Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves." - Henry David Thoreau

*

"I got something." One officer yelled.

I leaned back against the tree and gripped onto my stomach.

"I'm gonna be sick." I tell Leo.

"No, no. You're fine, Jo." He said.

He yelled at the policemen to start moving the grass. You could clearly see a wooden door that lead underground.

"C'mon let's go." Leo grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the car. I looked over my shoulder. They opened the door, they all held their noses.

It must've smelt.

"They're not going to get hurt, right?" I asked as I closed the door behind me.

"No, they're fully loaded." He rubbed my back. I moved away from him.

"When can I leave?" I randomly brought up.

"Leave where?" He asked.

"Just leave. Move on with my life, get away from all this and these strangers." I said.

"I don't know Jo, hopefully soon." He said.

"Where would I go?" I asked.

"Well, both your parents are gone. We've been trying to get ahold of some of your family-".

"You have? Have you talked to anyone?" I interrupted him.

"We've gotten in touch with your Aunt Casey." He said.

"Aunt Casey? I don't have an au-" I immediately stopped talking when I saw some of the police men appeared from the ground. They ran over to our car.

Leo and I stepped out quickly.

"What happened?" Leo asked.

"We found a body."

I suddenly got the chills. I pulled my sleeves further down.

"A dead one?" Leo's facial expression had completely changed, he looked concerned.

"Yes, a dead one. We have to take a DNA test on it, to find out who it is." He said.

"Maybe I could help. I might know who it is." I said.

"I don't think you would be able to recognize the man. Somehow there must've been a fire down there, and he's burnt everywhere, including his face." He explained.

I nodded, understanding.

"How long do you think it's been down there?" Leo asked.

"It's hard to say, the fire happened recently. You can tell because the burns on his body are still fresh." He said.

"Wait, if there was a fire down there how could it have gotten out? Its underground, and the door is always closed I'm assuming." I said.

"That's exactly what we were thinking. We're thinking it was a murder. Whoever did this wanted him dead, but didn't want to show evidence of them." He said.

"They've must've known we were coming." I said.

"What do you mean?" Leo asked.

"Think about it, we came here to find things. Things that will help find out who did everything to me, who was sending the texts. That body that you found, I'll bet money that it's Ben. A obviously knew we were coming. And it couldn't trust Ben, so therefor it killed him. So in case we found him, there was no knowing any answers." I explained.