Bone Secrets 03 - Buried

ordered cheese enchiladas and dug into the bowl of tortilla chips the waitress plopped down on the table. Michael took a bite and felt it melt in his mouth. Damn, they were good. Hot, fresh, crisp.
    “Watch the salsa,” warned the sheriff. “It’s got some kick.”
    Jamie dipped a tentative corner into the salsa, took a bite, and sighed in appreciation.
    They made polite small talk as Michael tried not to make a pig of himself with the chips. Their drive, the weather, the food. The salsa rocked. The sheriff was right; it had kick, but an awesome kick.
    The sheriff rubbed his hands together. “I know you’re not here for the food. Let’s talk about this guy you’re looking for. Chris Jacobs. Now, the reason I asked you to check in with me before heading out there wasn’t just for the directions. You’ll need to watch your odometer, keeping track of the tenths of miles to know where to turn; there’s no signage out that way. You could drive around for hours and not find it. What I really wanted to do was warn you to be careful. That boy’s a crack shot with a rifle, and the rifle usually greets any visitors before he does.”
    Michael noticed Jamie stop with a chip halfway to her mouth and slowly lay it back on her plate. “He shoots at people?” Her voice cracked.
    “No. I’d say he’s just well prepared. I haven’t been out there for a while, but around the time of Elena’s death, I made several trips. I always saw the rifle before I saw the owner. That’s okay. There’s a lotta people around here like that. You just need to make your presence known. He doesn’t have a landline. If he hasa cell phone, I don’t know what it is, and I doubt he gets much coverage if he does.”
    “Back to the rifle,” interjected Michael. “He hurt anybody?”
    “Nope.”
    “But you know he’s a crack shot?”
    “Yep, my deputies have watched him out at the firing range. Said they’ve never seen anything like his accuracy. Rifle and handgun. Seems to have quite the arsenal. They’ve seen him with half a dozen different weapons.”
    Michael glanced at Jamie. She shook her head. “That’s news to me. I didn’t know he could shoot.”
    Shrewd eyes studied Jamie. “How do you know him? He doesn’t speak to anyone except old Juan, his closest neighbor. Even he lives half a mile away. Jacobs has lived out there as long as I’ve been sheriff, and that’s been over ten years.”
    “He’s my brother,” Jamie said simply. “He moved out when he was eighteen.”
    The sheriff nodded slowly, his eyes sympathetic. “He keep in contact?”
    Jamie shook her head. “Not really.”
    Sheriff Spencer looked away for a few seconds, pressing his lips together as he thought. Michael watched the man wrestle with a decision. There was something he didn’t want to share, and it didn’t speak highly of Chris Jacobs.
    “Spill it,” Michael ordered. He took Jamie’s hand under the table and gently squeezed. Her hands were cold.
    “Well, I’m not one to gossip—”
    “Then don’t. If you don’t know it to be true, then I don’t want to hear about it,” stated Jamie. Her grip tightened on Michael’s hand.
    The sheriff rubbed a hand across his mouth. “The woman. Elena. They never married. That’s no big deal, and having a kid while not wed wasn’t a big deal to most around here. They looked happy whenever I saw them. Can’t say I’ve ever seen him smile since she died—”
    “What’s his name? The boy?” Jamie interrupted again.
    The sheriff’s eyes widened. “You don’t know his name? Jesus H. Christ. That’s a hell of a brother you’ve got there. The boy is Brian.”
    Michael watched Jamie’s lips move as she silently spoke the name. Her eyes grew wet.
    “I can’t believe he wouldn’t tell you,” Sheriff Spencer snorted. “Why in the world would he refuse to tell you Brian’s name?”
    “I didn’t know about him. Brian. I didn’t even know he existed.” Jamie’s voice drifted off.
    “That’s even worse.” The sheriff shook his head, wonder in his eyes.
    “What were you about to say about Jacobs?” Michael brought the sheriff’s focus back to the matter at hand.
    A blank look crossed his face for a split second. “Crap. Lost my train of thought. I was about to say people think Chris was in the car with Elena when it crashed. Maybe somehow caused the crash. He had a big bruise on his face that day, but claims he’d accidentally whacked himself with something…I don’t