To the Bone (David Wolf Book 7)

by Jeff Carson

  The blood was draining from his face now, but he had to blink to remove the image of Megan’s naked body from his retinas. “Wait a minute. That said Saturday. How do I know it wasn’t some other Saturday?”

  She picked up the phone and tapped the screen. “Here, see? Saturday, August 11. 9:37 pm. Satisfied?”

  Wolf sat in silence for a beat. “You could doctor the time stamps.”

  She made a face and shook her head. “How the hell would I do that?”

  “You could have been anywhere. You could have just shown me proof that you were with Steven just after the murders.”

  Megan looked horrified. “No … we were just up the road, toward the quarry. You take a left on—”

  Wolf held up a hand. “I can check the location of your phone through the GPS in it.”

  She nodded. “Yes. Exactly. You’ll see that we were up the road.”

  Wolf looked at her. “Send me the file.”

  He gave her his cell phone number and she texted it to him.

  Wolf stared at the side of her face as they waited for the packet of information to make its roundabout way to Wolf’s phone.

  Counterintelligence training in the army had introduced Wolf to the subtleties of telling lies convincingly and how to spot liars, and over a decade and a half of experience as a cop he’d seen his fair share of lying people. Megan was not one of them. She was troubled, betrayed by a mother that had ditched her, betrayed by her father who’d made it all happen, and had a whole lot of associated problems going on there, but she was telling the truth.

  His phone beeped, and he took the file and sent it off to Patterson.

  “I just sent this to my deputy. So if there’s nothing more, I need to leave and call her as soon as possible to explain. I’m going to have her check the file to see if you’ve tampered with it in any way. I think they call that stuff meta-data or something. My deputy knows. And if you’ve messed with it, she’ll know.”

  “I didn’t mess with it,” she glared at him. “I’m not lying.”

  Wolf held out his hand. “And I’ll need to take your phone.”

  She handed it over.

  Wolf nodded and opened the door.

  “I think this is going to be it for me and him,” Megan said.

  “You and Steven?”

  “No.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Me and my dad. He’s already pretty much done with me. This video’s going to be the final straw.”

  Wolf watched her cry for a few seconds.

  His phone chimed and a message from Patterson read “?!”.

  Wolf typed in the message I’ll explain in one minute and pressed send, and then he pocketed the phone. “Your dad knows about your pregnancy with Steven and your procedure. Did you know that?”

  Megan looked down and a fresh tear slid down her face. “I figured. And what’s he going to think about me now? Jesus …”

  Wolf watched her sob. “It’s tough being a father, you know? You try your best for your family, and sometimes you’re misunderstood. Sometimes you’re blamed for things, for hurting your kids, but you’re just trying to help.”

  “I know. It’s tough being my father. I know that.” She shook her head and whispered with a thick throat. “I know.”

  Wolf slid off the seat and slid her phone in his pocket. Before he closed the door he ducked back inside. “Megan, when was your procedure in Grand Junction?”

  She wiped her eyes. “June third.”

  “June third?”

  “Yeah.”

  Wolf slid back up onto the seat. “Two months ago?”

  She nodded.

  “Is that why Steven sleeps up the wash from the rest of the dig members? Because his wife found out about this?”

  She nodded.

  “How did she find out?”

  “It was Levi.” Megan sniffed and shook her head. “Levi told Felicia. He brought me back to my quarters up at the visitor’s center and then drove off all fast. I guess he drove down to the Dig Two camp and jumped Steven. Picked up a shovel and started hitting him with it. I guess Mo and Professor Green had to wrestle him away.”

  “Steven told you about this?”

  “Yeah. He said Levi came in yelling and screaming about getting me pregnant and told everyone about taking me to Grand Junction and about the clinic. Levi kind of had a thing for me, and he was mad that Steven put me through all of that. But Levi got it wrong. I didn’t blame Steven for anything. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, because I never even told him. He didn’t even know about my pregnancy until Levi barged in and started hitting him with a shovel.” She shook her head. “I’m such an idiot. I’ve caused so much pain for these people. And Levi? Poor Levi …”

  Wolf stared at her intently. “So Levi went down to that camp on June 3rd? You’re sure?”

  She nodded and looked at him. “Yeah, after we got back from Grand Junction he drove off fast, like I said. And Steven told me later that week. It was the 3rd. And I saw Levi up at Mr. Boydell’s yurt that night of the third. I was resting in my camp chair outside and saw him walk up. I could tell he’d been crying and he looked messed up. I called out to him and he glared at me and wouldn’t talk. Just passed me by and then he went into Mr. Boydell’s.”

  Megan’s eyes glazed over.

  A text message chimed on Wolf’s phone, but he ignored it. “June 3rd. All this happened.”

  She frowned now and looked up at him. “Yes. Why are you asking?”

  “Does Bradley Boydell have a landline phone in his quarters?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Why?”

  “Thank you.” Wolf slid off the seat and onto the curb again.

  “Are you going to show that video to my dad?” Megan asked.

  Wolf pulled his lips into a hard line. “I don’t really have a choice here, Megan.”

  She looked away so fast she looked like she’d been slapped, and then with a face devoid of emotion she nodded and started the car.

  He shut the door and walked back to his SUV with his phone pressed to his ear.

  “Uhhhhh, hello?” Patterson said.

  “Hi.”

  “Interesting video.”

  “Yes. Sorry about that … are you at work yet?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t you just get my message? I just sent you the video footage from the gas station. It’s only a thirty second clip, but it shows all the footage we have of the guy.”

  “I need you to check the time stamp on that video I sent you and make sure it hasn’t been tampered with.”

  “If I can pull it away from Rachette, I’ll get right on it. Is that all?”

  Wolf climbed behind the wheel.

  “Actually no,” he said. “I’m just getting started with what I need from you.”

  “Okay.”

  “First of all, how do I check where a phone’s been in recent days, preferably at a specific time?”

  “It’s actually pretty simple. First of all, do you have access to the phone?”

  Wolf watched Megan pull away ahead of him. “Shit, just a second.”

  Pulling out her phone, he pushed the button and the screen lit up. She didn’t use the home screen access code feature, so he had immediate use of her phone.

  “Yeah,” he said with relief.

  “Good. And how about a computer? You in front of one?”

  Wolf said nothing.

  “Never mind. I am.”

  “That a girl. And I hope it’s warmed up, because we have a lot of work to do.”

  Chapter 34

  Two hours and ten minutes later Wolf drove into the Windfield County Sheriff’s Department parking lot.

  His tires squealed as he came to a stop and Jet bumped into the seat behind him.

  “Sorry, boy.”

  He let Jet out and marched to the front door.

  “Stay here,” Wolf said.

  Jet walked to the front of the building and lifted a leg.

  Shumway was standing inside talking with Deputy Etzel. “What are y
ou doing here? I thought you were going to Utah?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  Shumway waved a piece of paper in front of Wolf’s face. “Well, good, because I need to talk to you.”

  Wolf grabbed the piece of paper from his hands. The heading on it said Nordicran DNA Labs, Grand Junction, Colorado. Four horizontal graphs were printed on the page. The first two graph lines were identical, with the same peaks and valleys. The second two were not.

  “DNA inside the bloody glove matches our man Steven Kennedy.” Shumway flicked the page.

  Wolf frowned. “And the second two graphs?”

  “Not quite as reliable. They found two different profiles in the shoes—Steven and unknown.”

  Wolf nodded. “Of course they did.”

  “Of course they did?”

  Wolf pulled out his phone and showed Shumway and Etzel the video clip of the perp filling the gas can south of Brushing.

  When the video was over, Shumway and Etzel looked at one another.

  Wolf stared expectantly.

  Shumway blinked slowly. “All right. You have my attention. That wasn’t Steven in the video, it was someone wearing his shoes. That doesn’t change the fact that his DNA was in these gloves.”

  “Was there an anomaly with the gloves? Some sort of foreign substance they couldn’t account for?”

  Etzel and Shumway looked at one another.

  “What?”

  Shumway hitched up his belt. “The lab tech told us there were traces of,” he picked up another sheet of paper from Etzel’s desk and read it, “Na, Mg, K, Ca … hell, whatever these letters are. They said there were some traces of the powder from our crime scene techs’ latex gloves.”

  Deputy Etzel nodded.

  “Did you talk to your crime scene techs about this yet?” Wolf asked.

  “Well no. We just got this back a few minutes ago. Why?”

  Wolf nodded. “Because there are a lot of types of latex gloves. Our CSU in Rocky Points uses powder-free gloves. The lab could probably test conclusively if they were gloves worn by the crime scene techs or the assailant.”

  “The assailant?” Shumway asked.

  Wolf nodded. “That’s residue from the killer wearing latex gloves and the leather gloves over them.”

  “How are you so sure?”

  “I need to speak to Steven. Right now. And then I’ll let you know.”

  Shumway narrowed his eyes, looking unconvinced.

  “Sheriff. If I’m right, your daughter is up at that quarry right now with the killer. We need to move.”

  A minute later Wolf stood over Steven’s bed and slapped him on the leg.

  Steven snorted awake. He wiped drool from his lip and sat up straight, then saw the three men standing in front of him and pushed himself back on the bed.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Tell me about the day when Levi Joseph jumped you at the camp.”

  Steven smacked his lips and rubbed his forehead. “You know about that … why?”

  “Just answer.”

  “Um, okay. I was lying there, just doing some work, and he came up and attacked me. He hit me on the back with a shovel.”

  “Steven, we know about the two skeletons. We figured that out last night with Dr. Mathis’s help.”

  Steven closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk to you. I … know I’m just going to implicate myself. I’ve talked to my lawyer, and I’ve taken law classes, guys.”

  “Just listen.” Wolf squatted down and looked up at him. “I know the three of you are spooked about what you agreed to do with Professor Green. You found the extra skeleton and you guys were in the process of selling it when all this happened, and now you’re freaked. I get it. Because the bottom line is, we’ll easily prove that second skeleton came from that hole, and you will be in a heap of trouble. You didn’t report the skeleton to your University or the owner of the private land you were digging on. You four were engaging in criminal activity. You’re gonna have to face the music on that. But I know you’re not murderers.

  “Someone else is, though. Someone else who knew about this sale. Someone who went down to Rocky Points, killed the fossil dealer and Professor Green, killed Levi Joseph, and is now making it look like you did it.” Wolf pointed at him. “I need you to answer these questions, or else you are probably gonna get locked up without a key on this one.”

  Steven said nothing.

  “Why don’t you tell him about the shoes, the bag of money, the pistol, and the shovel we found last night, Wolf?” Shumway said.

  Steven looked between them and shook his head.

  “And the DNA we found matching him,” Shumway said.

  Wolf nodded. “We found your shoes, the same ones that left all sorts of prints at the scene of three murders. We found murder weapons. We found your DNA on the gloves used to kill. And we also found two-hundred thousand dollars. It’s not looking good for you.”

  Steven bit his lip and his knee bounced. “Whatever. What’re your questions?”

  “Did Levi see the second skeleton that day he attacked you?”

  Steven deliberated for a few seconds. “Probably not.”

  “Probably not?”

  “He jumped me in the pit. And there were two skulls in there at the time. Couldn’t have been more obvious. So, we suspected he did. But he never told anyone, so we decided that he probably didn’t notice.”

  Wolf nodded. “Dr. Talbot came and visited after that. When was that?”

  “I don’t know. Like a week later.”

  “Unannounced?” Wolf asked.

  “No. Green knew he was coming.”

  “And did he see the second skeleton?”

  “No. We learned our lesson from Levi. We kept it covered before, but we took further precautions for Dr. Talbot’s visit. Green rented a garage near a farmhouse and we started moving everything as fast as possible there. Then we started keeping everything covered even while we were working.”

  “And when Dr. Talbot came in to see your dig, you had everything out and moved?”

  “No. Not even close. Just … better covered. We even put some dirt over some bones.”

  “And how did that visit go down exactly? Was he fooled?”

  Steven shrugged. “Professor Green kind of worked his magic on the whole thing. Got him out of there without even looking.”

  Wolf stared at him for a few seconds. “Dr. Talbot didn’t even look at the bones?”

  Steven shrugged. “He did, but not under the tarps. Just kind of nodded at them and left.”

  Wolf looked at Shumway.

  Shumway held up his hands.

  “Thanks,” Wolf said, and he left the holding cell. When they got back into the hallway Wolf turned to Shumway. “Sheriff, you need to call your daughter and tell her to leave work right now.”

  Chapter 35

  Shumway snapped his ancient cell phone shut. “Damn it! No one’s answering yet. The visitor’s center doesn’t usually open for another ten minutes. I don’t picture any of those three getting to work early. It’s going to be impossible to warn her.”

  Wolf pushed the gas harder and the engine screamed underneath the hood.

  Shumway honked his nostrils into his handkerchief for the tenth time and shoved the thin fabric back into his breast pocket. “This dog is the deadliest combination of fur and gas I’ve ever encountered.”

  The sheriff was wiping his nose maroon with his knuckles, and Wolf decided it was mostly anxiety that was driving his twitchy movements and less his canine allergy.

  They were just outside of Windfield and climbing up the winding paved road toward the quarry. The speedometer quivered at eighty-five miles per hour and their seats vibrated as the engine roared, almost completely drowning out the siren on the roof.

  A line of flashing deputy trucks were twinkling dots in the rearview, falling further behind by the second.

  “At least tell me he’s an attack dog.”
<
br />   Wolf looked at Shumway. “I won’t be using Jet as an attack dog.”

  Shumway scoffed. “And why not?”

  “If Boydell has a gun and I tell you to attack, are you going to run at him and take a few bullets? I’m not going to use Jet as an expendable chess piece.”

  Shumway gave Wolf a sour look and then waved a hand. “Yeah. All right. Sorry.”

  Wolf turned and eyed Jet in the back seat. The dog was hunkered low on his stomach, all four legs splayed out for stability.

  “How long does it take to get there?” Wolf asked.

  “Going the speed limits? Thirty minutes.” Shumway grabbed the ceiling bar. “So probably fifteen minutes the way you’re going.”

  They sat in silence for a beat, and then Shumway blew his nose again.

  “Okay,” Shumway said. “Tell me what the hell you were doing this morning.”

  “Checking phone and financial records with my deputy, making some phone calls.”

  “And?”

  “And we figured out how Bradley Boydell is behind all of this.”

  “Bradley Boydell and who?”

  “Dr. Talbot.”

  Shumway made a sour face. “The head of paleontology up at U of U?”

  Wolf nodded.

  “The guy you still haven’t met?”

  “And I never will. He’s dead.”

  “What?”

  “Dr. Talbot’s wife filed a missing person’s report yesterday. The SLCPD found him this morning buried in his back yard garden.”

  Wolf turned a corner and passed by a vehicle like it was standing still.

  “You kiddin’ me?”

  Wolf shook his head.

  “Okay. My daughter’s in danger up there, so get talking.”

  “Those students and Professor Green found the two skeletons, and instead of reporting the second skeleton to the University, they decided they were going to sell the bones. So Green contacted Ryan Frost down in Rocky Points, and Frost found a buyer.”

  Shumway nodded. “I get that. But how does Boydell end up on a killing spree? How’s he even involved?”

  Wolf gripped the wheel and pumped the brakes as he came into a corner too fast. “It has to do with Megan and Steven. They were having an affair, and then Megan got pregnant. She got Levi’s help to have the abortion down in Grand Junction. Levi got angry about what Steven had done to Megan, so right after taking Megan to the procedure, Levi went down to the Dig Two camp and attacked Steven Kennedy. And in the process of rolling around in that hole with Steven, Levi saw the second skeleton.”