Bone Secrets 03 - Buried

discussion and saw that Detective Callahan was calling. Her heart double thumped, and her fingers clenched at the phone.
    “Hello, Detective.”
    “Ms. Jacobs. Sorry to be bothering you. I wanted—”
    “Detective, has anyone called you about this morning? About the old man who was killed in Demming?”
    “What?”
    Jamie closed her eyes. “I didn’t think so. Michael just told the OSP officer that someone needed to contact you.”
    “What the hell happened?” He nearly roared in her ear.
    “I’ll let the police tell you everything, but the short version is we found Chris’s house and it’d been torn apart just like mine. Chris and his son were gone.” Her heart was threatening to pound its way out of her chest. “Then this morning the police discovered a friend of Chris’s in town had been murdered and t-t-tortured. It looks like Chris has been here. But I know he didn’t do it. I think the same man—”
    “Our tattooed man? You think he was there?”
    “Yes,” Jamie said, thankful Callahan could read her mind.
    “Crap. You think he followed you guys?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t tell anyone where we were going. Neither did Michael. I asked a neighbor to watch the cat but didn’t say anything. We were in such a big hurry.”
    Jamie could hear Callahan speaking to someone in the background. A second male voice rumbled in answer. He came back on the line. “Who’s there from OSP?”
    She glanced at the pale officer and checked his name tag. His name had completely escaped her brain. “Hove.”
    “Okay. I’ll get a hold of him. But hang on a minute. I was calling to ask you about the tattoo guy. Anything else that you remembered about him? Anything descriptive?”
    Jamie’s mind was spinning at insane speeds. “I don’t know. No, I can’t think of anything new.”
    Callahan paused. “I was looking back over the officer’s notes. The part about where you said you thought he dyed his hair and wore colored contacts?”
    “I still feel that way,” she started to say. “I don’t know how to explain—”
    “You felt his coloring was unnatural.”
    “Yes. Exactly.”
    “What about his skin color?”
    Jamie thought hard. “He was so covered up…”
    “But you saw his hands. His wrists where the tattoos were.”
    She could see the tattoos in her mind. She slid her view down to his fingers.
Pale. Pink fingertips. Very pale hands.
“Very light-skinned. Really white, I’d say.”
    “Would you say unnaturally pale?” Callahan prodded.
    She thought of the tattooed man’s face. “I don’t remember his face being so pale.”
    “Could you see his neck?”
    Jamie shuddered. An angry face was filling her vision. The hatred and the fury emanating from his eyes…
    “His neck was also white, very white I think. Paler than his face. But that’s normal for most people, I think,” she babbled.
    “Ms. Jacobs…would you say he was possibly albino? And was covering it up?”
    Her eyes flew open.
Albino?
Her brain skittered to a stop. “Yes, that makes perfect sense. The hair, the eyes, the long sleeves, and pants. I can see that now.”
    “I didn’t want to put the thought in your brain,” Callahan stated. “I wanted to see if you would come up with it on your own. It’s a theory we have, and I just wanted your input.”
    “What made you ask, Detective?”
Had someone else seen him?
    “The old Polaroids. We were so focused on the tats, we didn’t notice the condition of his skin. It’s freakishly white.”
    “Well, I’d say he’s learned to blend in pretty well,” Jamie answered. “Albinism didn’t cross my mind, but I knew something was off.”
    “I’ll touch base with Hove in a bit. There’s no sign of your brother?”
    “No. Not yet. If he doesn’t already know, someone needs to tell him about the tattooed guy.”
    “Ms. Jacobs, I suspect he already knows.”

    “Son of a bitch.” Mason shook his head. “I think our tattooed freak followed them to Eastern Oregon.”
    “Sounds that way,” answered Ray. “I don’t think anyone knew where they were going. Unless Brody told someone his plans.”
    “Brody doesn’t tell anyone crap.”
    “Agreed. What about Jamie? She tell anyone?”
    “She says she didn’t. She asked one neighbor to watch the cat but didn’t say where she was going.”
    “Either they were followed or he found Chris Jacobs on his own.”
    “On the same day?” Mason highly doubted that. “So far we can’t even find the guy to