After the meal, Amy, Kayliff and Ray tidied up together and then began the greater search for clues about what happened to Michael. Starting from where the tent he was in had been, they did a thorough search of the interior before using it themselves and had found no clue. A fairly straight line into the bushes behind the tent and they noticed the broken branches they had seen on their earlier search.
Amy wondered aloud, "To me, it looks like he was staggering, but he certainly hadn't been drinking."
Kayliff and Ray agreed with her. Kayliff said, "Why would he have gone into the bush? All the rest of you were asleep, he could have just stayed at the edge of the campsite for what he had to do."
"He staggered in a ways," Ray said as they continued examining. They were moving carefully and slowly, examining so meticulously, hoping that three sets of eyes would see everything.
Kayliff pointed to the ground around a fallen tree trunk. "Here he obviously fell," he said and spotting a small piece of fabric caught in the tree bark, he removed it and showed the others before putting it into his pocket.
"This is also where I found many bear tracks after that horrible night," Amy said, "The rain has washed most of them away. And at that time, it seemed to me that the bear had attacked him here and was dragging a man that was not fighting back."
At the base of a tree under the cover of thick leaves, Kayliff found a rock and picked it up in amazement. "Look here," he said to the others, "what do you make of this?" He turned the rock delicately in his hands and the others peered at it.
"Looks like a chunk of skin with some hair on it." Ray said.
"And blood," Amy said.
"I'm betting it's Michael's," Kayliff said, "And we are dealing with murder now."
Amy said, "The remains have been moved since I saw them before, taken further into the forest."
"Other scavengers may have been here as well as the bear," Kayliff said. Further on they were drawn by the angry calls of ravens quarrelling, sure enough over what was left of Michael. They shooed them off but the ravens remained very close by. Amy grabbed a large stick and forced them back more. As she did so, Ray saw a human skull crawling with ground bugs. Kayliff saw it too and picked it up, brushing off the insects. There was no meat left on it. Kayliff turned it over and they all gasped at the clear sight of the evidence. The back of the skull was smashed.
"No doubt left in my mind," Kayliff declared, "This can only be Michael's and together with that rock pretty much proves murder."
Amy said, "A bear would not have used a rock."
Ray said, "That's for sure."
The rest of the afternoon, they gathered together all they could find that remained of Michael. Ray had returned to the campsite and came back with a tent bag and they put all the bones into the bag and carried it back with them to the campsite.
Amy said, "In just the couple days, all the bones were picked clean by ants. Seems a miracle that you found the rock with that bit of blood, skin and hair on it."
"Like it was there on purpose to be found," Ray said, "But would this be considered proof in a court of law that Michael was murdered?"
"I would think so," Kayliff replied, "At least I would hope so. We have the skull and the rock used to hit him. We'll see. The lawyer would know."
On the way back to the campsite, they passed a spot where the rain had washed away some dirt. Toilet paper and soggy human poop lay uncovered. There was something else Kayliff took. It was an insulin pen.
