Page 261 of Rangers Last Promise

“You know that how?”

“Because I helped authorize the operation that searched Site Seventeen five years after Grant died.”

“You found the graves?”

“Yes.”

“And the field case?”

“No.”

“Then what evidence did the Colonel move?”

“The bodies.”

The station falls silent.

“All twenty-three?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Back to the United States.”

My stomach drops.

Sheriff Tate’s expression darkens.

“You had twenty-three bodies brought into this country?”

“Not me. The Colonel.”

“Where are they?”

Hampton looks toward the old county map spread across the table.

Toward McKinley pasture.

“No,” I whisper.

“The property belonged to Vance,” Hampton says. “He had access to equipment, privacy, and miles of unused land.”

Doc’s eyes move to Grant’s hand-drawn map.

The line from Mom’s house.

Across McKinley pasture.

Ending beneath the words Site Seventeen.

The map was never showing a route from Eagle River to Afghanistan.

Grant used the name again.

He knew the Colonel had chosen another burial site.

The black key doesn’t lead us back to the valley.