A Deeper Grave

         Steve Cayhill sat in the interrogation room. His wife was reported missing, not seen for
three weeks. The police had only one lead. That Steve had a fight with her the day she called her sister to say she was leaving him. Detective Peter Daly and Officer Robert Stanley were questing him.

         “She must have just gone off somewhere.” Steve said “you know she said she was leaving me, well she left.”

         “But where is she?” Robert asked

         “Look like I told you, she’s done this before. She says she’s going to leave me disappears for a few days than comes back.” Steve said

         “Its been three weeks. Now lets go over this again where were you on Tuesday the tenth?” Peter asked.

         “I was at work, down at the lumber yard, all day.” Steve replayed.

         “And that’s the lumber yard on fifth street?” Robert asked him.

         “Yes, next to the cemetery,” Steve said while getting up from the chair. “ I don’t see how any of this will help find her.”

         Robert pushed him back in to the chair. “Sometimes it helps to go over a few things again to get the picture straight. What time did you leave work.”

         “I had to work late in my office, to get some paper work done.” Steve said “I guess it was about nine o’clock when I left my office.”

         “Can any one confirm that?” Peter asked.

         “No I was alone, But that doesn’t prove I killed her.” Steve said.

         “No one said she was killed, until now.” Robert said leaning over the table getting into Steve’s face. “ Where did you go after you left work?”

         “I went straight home.” Steve replied

         “It doesn’t help you to lie to us, Steve, we know you were not home till midnight.” Peter said

         “I went straight home” Steve insisted.

         “It doesn’t take three hours to drive from the lumber yard to your house.” Robert said still leaning over the table. Then shouted into Steve’s face “So where did you go!”

         Steve sat there silent. What could he say, he put himself in a corner. “I want a lawyer!”

         Peter picked up papers from the table and they left Steve alone in the room

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         “Danny, how are you and the kids?” Peter said as Detective Danny Lewis entered the office. Danny was Peter’s regular partner on the police force. He had taken a few weeks off after his wife died in a car accident. She was laid to rest on the morning of the eleventh.

         “Coping” Danny said.

         “If you need anything, just ask “ Peter said “ Frances meant it she is willing to help with your kids.”

         “Thanks, but we’re o-kay,” Danny said. “Are you working on the Cayhill murder?”

         “Yes, but she still isn’t officially dead till we find her body. Until then she is still just missing.”

         “I think he killed her, and hid the body.” Danny said “But where?”

         “That’s the million dollar question” Peter said. and sat back down behind his desk.

         Fixing himself a cup of coffee from the pot on the counter near the door. “Can I talk with him.” Danny asked

         “No. He layered up and isn’t talking” Peter said

         “When did she disappeared?”

         “On the Tenth. Cayhill claims he was working till nine o’clock but can’t verify where he was from then till midnight.”

         Danny took a sip from his cup “Did you find anything at his house?”

         “Nothing but a lot of muddy footprints in the garage.” Peter said

         “It was raining that night, on the Tenth.”

         “It’s been raining on and off for weeks.” Peter said “A few more days of this and I’m going to build an ark.”

         Danny walked around to his desk, and picked up his wife’s picture. he stood there quietly for a few minuets.

         “Maybe he dug a shallow grave somewhere.” Peter said “No because of all this rain I think if he dug a hole any were we would have seen some kind of sign of it”

         “So we know he couldn’t have dug a hole anywhere between his job and his house because we would have found it by now.” Danny said

         “Yes.”

         Danny was pacing around the office only stopping for a second at a time to sip his coffee. “But what if he dug it in the cemetery?”

         “We would have found it. The only grave dug over there was for your wife!” Peter said. “I’m sorry.”

         “Its OK, “ Danny was still walking around the office when he came to a sudden halt and dropped his coffee cup “When did they dig Martha’s grave?”

         “On the tenth, because of the weather and that it was a morning funeral, they dug it the day before, Why?

         “He must have buried her in my wife’s grave. After the workers left he went over to the cemetery and dug the grave deeper, and who would think to look. She wasn’t reported missing till the next day.”

         “We will have to exhume your wife’s body to check it out.” Peter said

         Danny looked over at the picture of his wife on his desk. He sadly shook his head in agreement. Pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away a tear.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


         That afternoon in the interrogation room Steve Cayhill and his lawyer sat as Danny explained how they found the body. “You would have gotten away with it if fate didn’t play a role. The grave you used was my wife’s”

         Steve Cayhill’s face went white.

         “You knew that most killers are caught because they bury their victims in shallow graves, so you decided to dig a deeper one, about eight feet deep.”