“What?” Veronika cried. She grabbed the boy’s arm as if to stop him from keeling over. “What happened? What did you see?”
“Maybe an animal,” Feder whispered.
Galyna tried to back away from Koval, but he held her tight as the other students, volunteers, and Dmytro now climbed out of the pit where they’d been digging and circled them.
“How did you find him?” Koval asked, his gaze occasionally jumping from Galyna to Feder.
“Uh…” Feder swallowed and looked at Galyna. “She had to take a … a bathroom break and didn’t want to go alone, so I went along to keep watch. I mean, to watch that she had privacy. But as we went back into the brush, we found him.”
A likely story, Koval thought, pulling Galyna closer. “Will you be able to show us?” He searched her eyes.
“Let her stay here with the oth
