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bathroom. He would’ve expected to find some bodies back here, but Begay had already told him that they were all in the cave.
    Klein followed Palmer back to the two bedrooms. There was more blood back here, splashes of it in both rooms. Signs of struggle, signs of panic.
    “You getting any ideas about this?” Klein asked him.
    Palmer just nodded and snapped more photos with his phone, each one making that cute little click-click sound that he loved but couldn’t explain why.
    Klein huffed a little at his question being ignored, but Palmer walked away from him, walking back to the living room. Begay opened the door and stepped outside like he knew Palmer was done.
    It felt good to be back outside even though it was freezing. The inside of the trailer had been stuffy with the stifling heat of violence … a sensation he’d experienced many times before.
    Palmer looked over at the line of vehicles in the distance, over a hundred yards away. “Looks like one of those vehicles is missing. Like it sped out of here. Drove right up the embankment onto the dirt road.”
    Begay nodded like he’d already figured out those details for himself.
    “Might be our killer,” Klein said. “Either he took his own vehicle or stole someone else’s.”
    Begay didn’t say anything—Palmer thought the man seemed to be holding some clues of his own close to his chest.
    “You check out those other vehicles already?” Klein asked Begay. Klein’s voice seemed accusatory every time he spoke to the captain.
    “Yes. They’re all inoperable.”
    “Inoperable?” Klein asked.
    “That means they don’t work.”
    Palmer couldn’t help the bark of laughter that erupted from him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed.
    “Yeah, thanks,” Klein said, his voice seeping with venom. “I know what inoperable means.”
    “What exactly makes them inoperable?” Palmer asked as he stared at the two vehicles with their hoods up.
    “The batteries have been ripped out of two of them. The other two still have batteries, but they’re dead. The keys are in all of the vehicles. We tried them … they won’t start.”
    “You’re not supposed to be touching anything!” Klein yelled at Begay.
    Begay pulled out a pair of crumpled up latex gloves. “We know what we’re doing.”
    Palmer didn’t like the fact that the captain and his deputies’ hands had been all over the vehicles, but he didn’t say anything. He had the feeling that Begay knew something about all of this and he wanted to find out what that was. Yelling at him like Klein was doing wasn’t going to get them anywhere. He could sense the frustration these men had built up with each other over the years.
    “Was there any blood in the vehicles?” Palmer asked. “Any signs of struggle?”
    Begay shook his head. “No. Nothing we could see.”
    Klein just snorted out a sarcastic chuckle.
    Palmer kept looking at the line of vehicles in the distance. “Blood all over the place inside the trailer. But none in the vehicles. If they were being attacked, then why wouldn’t they have run for their vehicles?”
    “Because the batteries were dead?” Klein offered.
    “All of the batteries died at the same time?” Palmer asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.” He looked at Begay. “If these people were attacked or even killed in the trailer, but their bodies are in the cave, then why isn’t there blood all over the place out here? Drag marks in the dirt.”
    “There’s that one area of blood over near the second trailer I told you about,” Begay said, pointing at a spot a few yards away from the middle of the second trailer.
    The three of them walked over to the area. Palmer stared down at the large dark spot in the sand. “This is the only place you’ve found blood out here?”
    Begay nodded.
    “There should be more blood than this,” Palmer said and looked around like he might spot it.
    “Maybe the killers cleaned up the blood out here,” Klein said. He