To the Bone (David Wolf Book 7)

by Jeff Carson

  She held his grip a second too long and eyed him up and down.

  Wolf pulled his hand away and nodded with a smile.

  Next she walked to Jet and bent over with straight legs, displaying her firm back side. Gripping the dog’s face, she cooed while she scratched. “Look at you, you’re so cute.”

  Jet licked his lips and wagged his tail.

  Shumway’s eyes ping-ponged between her and Wolf.

  Wolf turned to Boydell. Boydell’s eyes were doing the same, but between Megan and Sheriff Shumway.

  “You’re going to escort us out to the dig site?” Wolf asked Boydell.

  “Yes, sir. Like I told the deputies last night, it’s best that I do. There’s some tricky parts.”

  Wolf twisted and took in the interior. There was a round reception desk and another man of college-age stood behind it watching them.

  “That’s Phil.” Boydell said. “He and Megan are both interns from the University of Utah.”

  Just like Megan, Phil looked no older than drinking age. He had a flop of brown hair that covered most of a forehead that was plastered in pimples. He smiled awkwardly and nodded.

  Wolf shook his hand.

  “You guys rent out the yurts to tourists?” Wolf asked nodding out the front window.

  Boydell chuckled. “No. That’s where we live. I’m in the far one year-round and Megan and Phil live in the other two for the summer.”

  “I see. And what’s that in the distance?”

  Wolf pointed at a line of blue and red dots tucked among the bushes and trees. They were at least a mile away and shimmering in the heat.

  “Good eyes,” Boydell said. “That’s Dig 1.”

  “That’s where Professor Green and his students are digging?” Wolf asked.

  “No. They’re further on, down the valley beyond that. We call Professor Green’s dig Dig 2. I know, we’re creative.”

  “How many digs are there?”

  “Two,” Boydell said.

  Wolf nodded, and then gestured out the rear windows toward a building made of steel that looked like an oversized shed. “What about that dig? I looked at your website last night. That’s where they’re digging the predator trap?”

  Shumway looked at his watch.

  Megan raised her eyebrows and gave him an impressed look.

  Boydell nodded. “We don’t have a name for that because it’s already been dug up as much as it’s going to. It’s more of a display. But you’re right, that’s the predator trap—a big bunch of disarticulated bones from a range of species from the Cretaceous period. Mostly predators. No one knows exactly why there’s such a collection of bones, and broken into so many pieces.” Boydell smiled sheepishly. “At least that’s what they tell me. I’m just a BLM employee, not a dino-expert like these two kids.”

  Wolf nodded at the big skeleton that loomed over them. “And where was this specimen found?”

  “That’s a replica of one found back in 1982, down in the same valley Dig 2’s at right now. But on the park side of the gulch.”

  “Park side of the gulch?” Wolf asked. “Rather than the private land side, you mean?”

  Megan and Shumway exchanged a glance, but Wolf failed to read anything into it.

  “I’m not comfortable with bringing you to the Dig 2 site,” Wolf said to Boydell.

  “Really?” Boydell looked concerned. “I escorted those deputies last night, now you two. What’s going on down there?”

  Megan nodded. “Yeah, are you going to tell us what’s going on or what?”

  Shumway shook his head. “No. We’re not. It’s official business and we need you two to stay up here. In fact, Bradley, if you can just give us directions, you don’t even need to come out with us.”

  Boydell looked skeptical. “I wouldn’t know where to begin giving you directions. There’s a maze of two-track roads out there, and you have to avoid some problem spots. I’ll get you to Dig 1 and then let you guys go on by yourself. It’s easy from there.”

  Shumway and Wolf exchanged glances and nodded.

  “All right. You’ll lead us. I’ll follow, and Detective Wolf can take the rear?”

  “Sounds good,” Boydell said.

  Wolf nodded.

  Shumway was out the door first.

  Boydell held the door open and waited for Wolf and Jet.

  “Bye.” Megan sang the word and looked at Wolf as she rubbed Jet and slapped him on the haunch.

  They were out the door into the blazing heat, and Boydell jogged up alongside them. “Try and keep close. It’ll make things easier on your vehicles.”

  Shumway gave a thumbs-up as he climbed in his truck. He put his seatbelt on and fired up the engine.

  Boydell jogged to his truck and climbed in, and started backing it out.

  Wolf opened his rear door and slapped his leg. “Let’s go Jet.”

  Jet paced back and forth, and had a look that Wolf had come to recognize as his bathroom face.

  “Not a good time. Come on.”

  Jet dropped his head and walked to him.

  That seemed to be the go-ahead for Boydell and Shumway, because they shot off in a cloud of dust around the corner.

  Jet whined and turned around, then made his way toward the junipers and crouched in a pooping position.

  Wolf leaned against his door and crossed his arms. “Make it quick.”

  “Uh-oh, they ditched you.” Megan was outside and flip-flopping her way to his SUV. “You’re going to need my help.”

  “No thanks. They’re right there.” Though the two vehicles were out of sight and around the bend, Wolf had heard the squeak of brakes and running engines. “Hear that? They’re waiting. Thanks, though.”

  She pretended like Wolf said nothing, or she pretended like she heard Wolf say “good idea,” and walked to the passenger side and got in and shut the door.

  Jet came over with a bounce in his step and Wolf let him in the back. Tail wagging, he stuck his head in front over Megan’s shoulder.

  “Sit down,” Wolf said, and Jet laid on the back seat.

  Wolf shut the door and got in front, and Megan had her butt in the air, bending over the seat to pet Jack.

  “Sit down,” he said again.

  Megan took her time, but eventually sat down and faced forward.

  “And now get out,” Wolf said as he fired up the engine.

  She frowned and looked at him. “That’s not very nice.”

  “Get out, please.”

  She shook her head. “You’re not going to be able to find the turn off.”

  “They’re right around the corner waiting for me.”

  “And if you lose them on the way there?”

  “I don’t think your father would appreciate it if I brought you in my car. This isn’t a joyride.”

  She turned to face Wolf. Her eyes were cold and her mouth downturned. “My father? He can suck eggs. I work here, he doesn’t.”

  Wolf leaned back in his seat. “So that is your father.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your father is the sheriff.”

  She looked at him then smiled. “Oh, you just figured that out? You didn’t know before?”

  Wolf nodded. “Yeah. Please. Hop out.”

  With lips parted, she looked him up and down again. “You’re a good cop. I can tell.”

  “Get out.” Wolf backed up and turned and then scraped to a stop. “Now.”

  “Nope.” She took a flip-flop off and put a foot out the window. Her toes bounced in front of the side view mirror. She leaned back and closed her eyes, like she was enjoying a nice country drive.

  Wolf took a deep, cleansing breath and pushed the accelerator.

  Chapter 15

  Patterson stood in the county building bathroom in front of the mirror. She was panting, her chest heaving up and down. Her fingers were cramped from pinching the freshly peed on device in her fingers.

  With a deep breath she steeled herself and looked at it.

  Nega
tive.

  What were the chances of a double-false-negative? Probably pretty small. And the chances of her birth control failing? Very slim according to the doctor who’d placed the device inside her.

  She stared at herself in the mirror. Her normally tanned face, usually looking vibrant (if she did say so herself) looked pale and sunken.

  Jesus, was it that big of a deal to be impregnated by the man she loved? And she did love Scott. She had already addressed that issue after she failed to answer Scott’s third proposal, which led to a fourth and final proposal, which she had said yes to.

  That was already borderline psycho that she had made Scott do all that just to win her hand. Okay, it was over the psycho line. And now? She was a fifth-degree black belt in Karate. The mental and physical fortitude to get to that level was beyond the capability of a normal person (if she did say so herself).

  So what was her problem?

  She had had bad shrimp and she was sick. That’s why she looked like this, and why she felt sick, and why her hand shook, and why she couldn’t keep away from the toilet.

  But … what was her problem?

  A vision of her pregnant fat ass waddling into the squad room flashed in her mind. Check that, it was her pregnant fat ass waddling out of the squad room. Out of the entire building. For good.

  “Hey, you all right?” Voice echoing through bathroom, Deputy Charlotte Munford walked in at full speed.

  Patterson slam dunked the box and pregnancy test into the trash hole in the counter and got busy washing her hands. “I just feel like crap after the food last night.”

  “Oh, yeah. The bridal shower. How was it? Get some good gifts?” Munford smiled with that perfect, lots-of-gum-like-a-young-Meg-Ryan smile of hers, her blue eyes alight with mischief, like they were girlfriends or something. “Those in-laws can be tough. My sister got married, and her husband’s mother was a nightmare.”

  Patterson nodded in response, and then dried her hands with a larger than needed wad of paper towels and threw them into the trash to bury the evidence.

  “Rachette and I are so excited to go to the wedding,” Munford said. “It’s going to be so beautiful. On the top of the mountain like that? Oh. My. God.”

  Patterson knew she looked disgusted by the conversation, because she was looking at herself in the mirror. A fake smile was all she could muster in response.

  Munford dug inside her bag and frowned. “Shit. You have any more of those?”

  Patterson froze. “What?”

  Munford pointed at the trash hole. “You have any more? Tampons?”

  “Oh. No. Sorry, last one.”

  “Damn. All right.” Munford looked at a loss for a second, then turned to leave. “See you.” Before she got to the door she stopped and turned around. “I hope we can be friends some day.” Then she left out the door.

  The words sailed through the flowery air of the bathroom and jabbed Patterson in the heart. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her mouth was wide open, her eyes staring in shock.

  With a deep inhale and exhale, she walked out into the squad room.

  A few seconds later she was back at her desk, staring at a fisheye view black and white video of the customer counter at the Brushing gas station from earlier that morning.

  Hand on her chin, she watched yet another patron, a man, walk into the convenience store. This man wore a wide-brimmed cowboy hat that hid his face. He wandered to the candy bar aisle, picked one, then grabbed a plastic gas can off the floor and went to the counter. Nothing too out of the ordinary, there had been other men that had had ball caps or other hats that obscured their faces, but the time stamp said 9:21 pm, which was right in the timeline that the perps could have been passing through the gas station after shooting Ryan Frost.

  Twisting to her laptop she had set up next to the desktop, she checked the exterior footage for the same time.

  Fast-forwarding and then letting the footage roll, she saw a Honda Civic parked in front of one of the gas terminals.

  No moving truck.

  She clicked the mouse and let the interior footage play again. The man paid with cash, grabbed something off of a counter display, and then walked out with gas can in hand.

  “Still nothing.” she said hitting the fast forward button again.

  “Just let me know about anything out of the ordinary,” Sergeant Barker said keeping his eyes on his own computer screen.

  She glared at Barker’s round, shaved, red head of hair. Let me know?

  Everything that came out of this guy’s mouth was a brand new WTF moment. Who did he think he was? Wolf? Even Wolf wouldn’t have said “me”. Because Wolf included his deputies, didn’t treat them like employees that fed his all-knowing mind, so that he, alone may work out the answer.

  “Let me know?” Rachette looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. He was standing with Hernandez at the printout map they’d pinned onto a roll stand corkboard.

  The map had a red radius circle drawn on it indicating how far the rental truck could have gone on its journey before fueling up. Rachette and Hernandez were marking off the gas stations with red push-pins indicating which footage had already been studied thoroughly.

  “Yeah. I’m the ranking deputy,” Barker said. “Let me know.”

  Rachette shook his head and pushed a pin into the map.

  “You got a problem with that?” Barker said leaning back in his chair. “When you do the time like I have, you can take a little more responsibility yourself.”

  Rachette ignored him and pushed in another pin, this time north of Cave Creek. “Patty, you done with that footage?”

  She looked down. “No.”

  He took out the pin. “Let me know when you’re done.”

  Barker stood up. “You making fun of me now, asshole?”

  Rachette turned and frowned. “You’re an idiot.”

  Barker stood up and walked to Rachette. Rachette exhaled and faced him.

  Patterson rolled her eyes and let the posturing play out. She’d seen it so much between these two it bored her at this point.

  “Hey, boys.”

  Patterson looked up at the sound of Deputy Charlotte Munford’s voice.

  “Greg, please calm down, okay?” Munford said in a soft tone.

  Barker puffed up even larger for a second. He stood at six foot one and towered over Rachette’s five foot seven frame, but Patterson had to hand it to him, Rachette never backed down an inch to this guy.

  “Hey,” Munford pulled Barker away gently by the arm and Barker backed up.

  It was clear as day why Barker hated Rachette so much. It was because Rachette had the woman of Barker’s dreams sleeping in his bed. The way Barker slobbered over Munford was so glaringly obvious it was comical.

  But men were stupid sometimes, and talking things out was out of the question no matter how obvious they were, so here Patterson and Hernandez were once again watching these two zip up their pants after their pissing contest.

  “What the hell’s going on?” MacLean’s voice echoed in the squad room.

  She sat up straight and turned around.

  MacLean stood with his hands on his hips. “Where’s the moving truck?”

  Nobody answered.

  “I asked a question!”

  “Sir, Patterson hasn’t found anything on the gas station videos yet,” Barker said.

  Patterson glanced at Barker.

  “And that’s all you got?” MacLean wore the same face that he had after smelling Jet’s gas. “Where’s the truck?”

  They stood in silence.

  “And what are you doing here?” MacLean pointed at Munford. “I want every deputy out on CP, except for these four, who are supposed to be finding a God damned moving truck.”

  Munford’s shoes squeaked out of the squad room.

  Patterson cleared her throat. “Sir, it’s true. We’ve scoured just about every bit of video and there’s no sign—”

  “Just about? It’s nearly ten and
you haven’t gotten through all the video?”

  She wondered why ten a.m. was the cut off between diligent and lazy work all of a sudden. “There was no sign of the truck at any of the gas stations, and now I’m looking at the stores’ interior footages.”

  “Interior footage? Why?” MacLean shook his head. “If it didn’t show up on the exterior footage, then it didn’t refuel. So what are you going to look for on interior footage?”

  Patterson said nothing.

  “Since it didn’t refuel,” MacLean said, “not in town, not anywhere within our agreed upon radius, then they must have ditched it somewhere. So I’ll tell you how to find this truck. Okay? Listen close. Ready?”

  They stood frozen.

  MacLean’s face turned red. “Get in your Goddamn cars and start driving!”

  Barker marched out of the room at full speed. “Hernandez, let’s do it.”

  Hernandez shuffled after him in silence.

  Patterson shut down her computer screen and looked at Rachette.

  Rachette pushed his pin into the map and went to his desk.

  “I’m not feeling impressed by your enthusiasm right now,” MacLean said.

  Patterson shut the laptop and shoved her chair in, banging it loudly into her desk. It was much, much more of a ruckus than she’d meant to cause, but something had snapped inside her.

  “You got a problem Deputy Patterson?” MacLean walked over.

  Patterson shook her head. “No.”

  “No. Tell me. What is it? You have a problem with following orders or something?”

  MacLean leaned in close. His breath reeked of coffee.

  “No, sir.”

  “Good. Now get your asses out there, and find me a UrMover truck. Preferably with a pile of bones inside.”

  Patterson followed Rachette out of the squad room.

  “And deputies?”

  They slowed and turned around. MacLean had a finger pointing at the ceiling. “Do not come back until you’ve found it.”

  The sheriff’s eyes meant every word.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Yes, sir.”