I called a patrolman to come stand by the car and watch Jose. He was, as far as I was concerned, still free to go. I just wanted someone there let to me know if he did. I did not want him to feel he was in custody yet, because he wasn't. That is important when getting a confession.

The Sgt. walked the maybe 50 yards or so with me to the embankment that Danny and the CSI guys were searching. It was thick with trees and dense brush. I saw small areas that were a bit worn from foot traffic, though it looked like no one had been there in a while. The embankment itself had grass 3 feet tall in some places and was at a steep 40 degree angle down to the water. It had stopped raining days ago but the grass was still very wet. It was about 20 feet down to the water which was moving fast today. Danny was about 50 feet north of where we entered. The Sgt. got another call and stayed where he was to answer it. I walked to Danny. His pants were soaking wet up to his knees. He seemed somber. Very tired.

"Tell me something."

"Look around."

"I'm running out of time Dan, what have you got?"

"Look up at the trees".

There was a thick line of trees along the top edge of the embankment just like the ones we had crossed through to get down the side of the canal. I looked at the line of trees and saw nothing. Danny then pointed out the tree directly west of us up the bank, exactly straight up from where were we standing. I saw it right away. On the trunk of the largest tree up there was a small cross. Someone had carved it on the side of the tree facing the canal.

"Did you check it out?"

"Yes, it's fresh. Very fresh."

"So is she up there?!"

"No."

"Then what the hell did you call me down here for?"

Danny looked me straight in the eye. His eyes watered just a bit.

I suddenly realized that the CSI team was gone.

"Where did CSI go?"

"They went to get their water gear."

I looked at the cross again and realized that it was not marking the spot where someone was buried. It was a spot that lined up with where someone was buried. A marker. A reference point.

I made a 180 degree turn and looked straight down at the water. At the edge of the water was a large pile of branches and other junk, half submerged in water.I looked at Danny. He pointed down at the pile and said,

"She's in there. Half in and half out the water right now. In her yellow bed sheet."

I suddenly felt so damn exhausted.

You did it. You actually did it. I wanted to be wrong you God damn stupid mother fucker! Dammit I wanted to be wrong. Stupid. Mother. Fucker!

I took a breath. I wanted to walk over there to her and see her, but my legs didn't move. I guess I was frozen for a minute or two but it seemed like so much longer. Then Danny's phone rang. It was the officer who I had told to stay by the car with Jose. Danny spoke to me,

"Hey man, you better get up there. The Lt. is here up there."

"So?"

"He's talking to Jose."

Dammit! Another damn stupid mother fucker! Dammit!

I looked at the pile of debris. I wanted to go over there and say something. Anything. I had no idea what. I didn't need to look for evidence. The CSI team would find everything there was to find. I just wanted to say "I found you." Or something. Just introduce myself. I didn't know. I had never had to look for a body before. They had always come to me. But I wasn't going to be able to do that. I felt so damn tired.

I started walking up the bank. I stopped where Danny was. I looked at him for a moment. I pulled my H&K .40 caliber pistol from my holster and gave it to him.

"Here, you better hold on to this."

"Yeah, good idea."

I walked up the bank and walked toward my car. The Lt. was there talking to Jose. The Sgt. was there too. The CSI team was on the way back to the canal and there were officers and firemen every where setting up a perimeter and ready to help. I saw a TV news van speeding along the other side of the canal bank looking for a way to get closer to where we were. The Sgt. walked up to me before I got to the Lt.

"Hey, I tried to stop him but he wanted to talk to him"

"Get him out of here."

"I'm trying."

"Not good enough. Get him out of here before he fucks up my case."

"Okay."

The Sgt. was actually an investigator so he knew how easily a case can go straight to hell if you do just one little thing wrong. I saw the Sgt. get on the phone and call the Chief. He then handed the phone to the Lt. so the Lt. could give him an update. Good idea. The Sgt. then put Jose back in my car and I took off. I drove past the news media as they found their way into the crime scene.

At the police department I got Jose into a room again, turned on the video cameras, and read him his rights one more time. I asked him if he still wanted to talk and he said yes. I told him he was still free to leave if he wanted to. He said, "Where would I go now?". He had a point.

I spoke to him for an hour and a half. During that time Jose told me the story of how he tried to rape, then killed, Jo Ana. He said that Jo Ana had been flirting with him for weeks. On that day when she got out of the shower he walked in on her in the bathroom. He tried to kiss her. She slapped him and threw him out of the bathroom and got dressed. When she came out she told him she was going to tell her sister what happened. He said he panicked and they started fighting. When she got the phone to call her parents he pushed her to the floor. During the fight he strangled her until she was unconscious. He said he knew there was no turning back at that point. He then took off all of her clothes and tried to have sex with her but couldn't. He then found a sock and shoved it down her throat and she started waking up again. He choked her again until she stopped. He went to her room and got her bed sheet and wrapped her up into a tight ball and put her in the back of his car. He then took her to the canal and covered her up with anything he could find. He admitted to carving the cross on the tree. He was emotionless during the whole interview.

As soon as I finished my interview with Jose I got a call that Jo Ana's parents were up front. I placed Jose under arrest for murder and had him transferred to booking. I went to my office and waited for someone to bring them in. I thought about it for a bit and then called one of our female investigators and told her I wanted her to bring them in. I filled her in on what was going on. I called Danny and he said that they took all the photographs they needed and recovered the body still wrapped in the sheet and tied together by all 4 corner. He said they unwrapped her and gathered all the evidence they could there. He said the body was on the way to the morgue pending the autopsy. He said that he had called the morgue and the examiner would be available for the autopsy tomorrow.

"Hey man, we were right."

"We?"

"Hey, I told you it was a homicide."

"Yeah, you did."

"But you know who was more right? The curandera. She said we would find her next to a body of water, wrapped up in a ball. Just like we found her. Now all we need is to find something down her throat."

"Yeah, he admitted to stuffing a sock down her throat to keep her quiet."

"Son of bitch! Damn, that is so crazy. And he passed the damn polygraph!"

"Yeah, it is. I'm gonna meet with the parents."

"Okay, hey, isn't the Chief or a Lt. the only ones who can make a death notice?"

"Yeah, but I am not making a death notice. I'm making an arrest notice. I am going to tell them I arrested Jose for murder. That I can do. They will infer the rest. We'll take it from there."

"Good point. You want me there? My Spanish is 100 times better than yours."

"Yeah, but I don't think it will matter after the first 30 seconds. I'll be fine."

The investigator brought them into my office and she stayed there with us. Jose's wife was with them. Before I could say anything Jose's wife asked me where Jose was. She said he had not come home since he had left to police department in the morning.

They all looked so beaten. Like little puppies cowering in a corner. There was no way to soften the blow. So without any fanfare or hesitation I told them that I had placed Jose under arrest for murder. Jo Ana's mother and sister broke down and started crying loudly. Her father just looked down at the floor, tears in his eyes. The other investigator comforted the women. Jo Ana's father looked at me with a question in his eyes. Before he could ask I told him we had his daughter. I told him he would need to call a funeral service so they could get the body from the morgue after the autopsy. They would know how to handle that. Without question he said, "Okay."

After a few more moments they all left my office. They were completely broken. I gave them no details of the murder and they did not ask for any. I've learned to recognize when details will help and when they will hurt. I didn't even tell them where we found the body. I don't know how much if it they had guessed themselves or how much they wanted to know. All I knew was that their entire world had now changed and it was going to get a lot worse before it would ever get better. Their daughter was dead. Their other daughter's husband killed her. It was a nightmare that would never leave them.

I sat in my office for awhile not knowing what to do next. I had reports to write but I was ready to get some rest. The body was found. An arrest was made. It was almost over.

It was close to 5 and the Sgt. walked in to my office.

"Good work on this."

"Yeah, thanks. And thanks for blocking that asshole for me."

"No problem. Get some rest. The follow up reports can wait. I'll have Danny do the booking report to get the guy to the county jail tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take off".

The Sgt. left my office. Danny walked in right after and handed me my gun. I sniffed the barrel before holstering.

"What the hell?"

"Just checking if it's been fired. I wouldn't put it past you to do some drive-by with my gun and then give it back to me."

"Yeah, thought about it, but then again you never clean that damn thing. It would probably back fire on me."

"Yeah, probably."

"You're gonna stay for the paperwork?"

"No, you go ahead. Do the warrant for the arraignment tomorrow."

"Awesome, I need the overtime."

I grabbed my stuff and left my office. Before leaving the building I went up to the front lobby to grab a free newspaper before I left. When I got to the lobby I saw a local reporter with a camera crew interviewing the Lt. I walked by just in time to hear him say,

"Yes, my team has made an arrest on the case of a young girl that was reported missing last week. After an intensive investigation..."

What an A-hole.

I walked back in the department without my newspaper and out the back of the building. I rushed out of parking lot and headed out. I headed home but I didn't feel right. I felt empty. Things weren't finished for me yet. I knew it was because I had not seen the body yet. I felt like the case was not over until I saw the body and I should have seen it back at the scene. I felt I wouldn't sleep if I didn't see it tonight.

As an investigator I have learned that the body of the victim has the most to tell you about what happened. But I also know the body can tell you the most at the crime scene. Where and how the suspect left the body tells you volumes. This was different though. The body was back at the morgue. What could I really learn that I didn't already know? I knew just about everything I needed to know about the body already.

My desire to see the body was something else and I could not put my finger on it. Why did I need to see it so bad? What did I feel I needed to learn from it? There was another lesson in it, I just couldn't see what it was. I felt I couldn't wait until tomorrow.

I pulled into my drive way. I thought I could get change my wet shoes and rush over to the morgue before they close the office. I got out of my car and walked to my front door. I heard a voice singing in the back yard. I walked along the side to peek through fence.

I could see my youngest daughter sitting at our picnic table in the back yard. She was sitting there singing along to some song on her Ipod. She sat there so innocently just singing. Not a care in the world. She was in blue jeans and her long blonde hair was pulled back in a pony tail. Her hazel eyes seemed so happy.

God she looked like such a big girl now. Where had the time gone?

Then I felt such a calm come over me. I realized what it was that I had yet to learn from the body. And I didn't have to go see her anymore. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made a call.

"Hey Dan."

"Yeah, what's up?'

"Cover for me tomorrow. Go to the autopsy. Handle the arraignment and take him to county jail. I'm taking the day off."

If he responded I don't know. I hung up. The next day my daughter stayed home from school. We had one of our best days ever.