Bone Secrets 03 - Buried

evidence from the sheets and carpets went missing. Not just a little bit of evidence, a lot of it. All the important parts were completely gone.
    The prosecutor scared him. He’d been a sharp, intense, and intelligent man. Gerald had firmly believed he was going to prison for a very long time. Instead, he served a few months on a much lesser charge.
    He’d gotten away with accessory to murder.
    Lee ended up getting the murder rap. Which he’d deserved. He’d been the one who’d actually finished strangling Sandra, and he was stupid enough to admit it.
    For two years, Gerald had stressed, waiting to hear that the evidence had turned up in a dark corner of a storage room somewhere. Instead, when the phone call came, the message and the person who made the call were unexpected.
    Yes, the evidence was still in existence. No, it hadn’t been lost. Yes, the evidence would stay away from the courts if Gerald would do him a favor.
    “What kind of favor?” he’d asked.
    “I need a kid taken care of.”
    A kid?
    The former prosecutor had gone on to say he was fully aware of Gerald’s role in Sandra’s murder.
    “Why me?”
    “Because I know what you’re capable of. And if you don’t, you’ll be in prison for the rest of your life.”
    “And after I take care of this for you?”
    There’d been a long pause on the phone. “I might have a permanent job for you.”
    Gerald had been interested in the job. He’d done it well for over two decades now and wasn’t about to let his employer down again. He knew when he’d kept the boys that his employer wasn’t going to be happy, so he didn’t tell him. His boss had been royally pissed that so many children had been affected when only one needed attention.
    Gerald had shrugged. “I handled it the way I saw best. You needed fast action and you got it. No witnesses to anything. Plus, it confuses the motive. With so many kids gone, who was the primary target? Or was there a mass target? It’ll keep the police scratching their heads for years.”
    After that his boss had no complaints about his job. He’d been impressed for two years when no evidence of the missing children had been found. No sign of the bus or the driver anywhere. His boss had never asked for details about how he’d accomplished the feat.
    Then Chris Jacobs had walked out of the woods. Half dead, no memory, and miles from the underground bunker.
    His boss had nearly blown a gasket. But when he learned of the boy’s brain damage, he relaxed a bit. At that point, he grilled Gerald on the fates of the other children and then relaxed a bit more.
    Gerald had been crazy to hang on to the two boys for as long as he did, but they’d fueled his soul in a way that adults never did.
    Now Jamie Jacobs was proving to be a challenge.
    He watched the line of vehicles snaking through the drive-through, reliving the events of that morning. Jamie was the type of woman who made men turn around and watch as she walked by. He hadn’t been with a woman in over a month now, and he could still feel the silkiness of her skin from this morning. He shifted in his seat.
    He needed to get laid.
    He had a list of phone numbers of women who weren’t too expensive.
Damn it.
Every woman on that list belonged in Walmart, and he was craving Saks Fifth Avenue.
    Gerald’s phone vibrated in his car console. He popped it open and scowled at the screen.
Already? He’s asking for an update already? Shit.
He hit the green button.
    “Yeah.”
    “What the fuck happened this morning? What did you do? There are cops crawling all over the Jacobs house.”
    Gerald’s chest tightened.
An adult bully.
Gerald overlooked it because he knew it meant his boss was sweating a bit. And he liked the pleasure from putting his boss in that situation.
    He had control. Not his boss.
    “I was looking for a lead on her brother. You knew that. I didn’t expect her to come home so fast. She might have got a bit banged up on my way out.”
    He wasn’t about to mention that the woman had neatly handed his ass to him.
    “What’d you find?”
    “I’ve got a stack of paperwork and mail to look through. A couple of address books, too.” He lied.
    “I got something that’ll work a bit faster for you.”
    “Like what?”
    “Michael Brody, a reporter, is showing an unnatural interest in Jamie Jacobs.”
    “I figured he was watching the story pretty close because of his brother, but you mean a personal interest in the woman?” Gerald’s gut