Bone Secrets 03 - Buried

walked into the office.
    Mason stared at Ray’s cuffs and noted the tie askew. Ray was feeling the pressure, too. The man was usually the picture of beefy male elegance. Unlike Mason, who strove for matching socks inside his cowboy boots.
    “We’re close here. What’s bugging you? Spit it out.”
    “How can all this information be missing?” Ray asked. He looked over his computer monitor at Mason. “It’s just Hinkes’s info that I can’t find. There’s plenty on Fielding. I can tell you exactly what he’s been doing since his arrest, what he eats for dinner, and when he takes a shit, but everything on Hinkes is gone.”
    A small buzzing started at the base of Mason’s skull. “What are you saying?”
    “Someone made all this info go away. I can find a half dozen pictures of Fielding. Why can’t I find any of Hinkes?”
    “Did you check newspaper archives? Maybe his face ended up there.”
    Ray nodded. “Most papers have their archives accessible online. Nothing is coming up. Same with driver’s licenses. No photo available.”
    “That’s fucked up.” The buzzing was getting louder.
    “Agreed.”

Michael was pumped. He fought to hold in his excitement. Lusco and Callahan had figured out that Jamie’s attacker was albino. And that the kidnapped children were probably held by a person with the same coloring. How many albinos could be wandering around Oregon? Or with blood on their hands in Eastern Oregon? He was about to do a Google search to find albino numbers compared to the rest of the population. Either way, the window was narrowing on their suspect.
    He shared the info with Hove and Sheriff Spencer.
    “White skin? Don’t they have red eyes?” asked Spencer. His expression was perplexed.
    “Sounds like he wears contacts.” Michael bit his lip to keep from laughing. Spencer looked like he was thinking about a zombie wandering around his county.
    “The tattoos are probably the more noticeable flag,” said Hove. “He can cover up his hair and eye color, but he’s gonna be wearing long sleeves in this heat unless he wants everyone to perfectly remember the man with the colored arms.”
    “No luck on Chris’s truck?” Jamie spoke up. She’d been listening intently to the men speak, but Michael noticed her body language stiffen when Hove started talking about the tattoos. No doubt the images were still sharp in her mind.
    Spencer shook his head. “I put out a description and the license plate. Frankly, there just isn’t a lot of law enforcement patrolling the roads on this side of the state. But the traffic’s lighter too. We’ll find him.”
    Two of the state’s crime scene investigators continually passed the group, going back and forth between the bakery and their Suburban. Hove had called in the state’s team to take evidence at Spencer’s request. Spencer’s tiny evidence kit was in a fishing tackle box in his trunk, consisting of fingerprint powder, lift cards, evidence collection envelopes, a special light, and ancient gloves. For this murder and its connections to the large number of murders on the west side of the state, no one wanted to miss anything.
    “Chris’ll turn up,” Michael stated. He pulled Jamie against him and rubbed her back. He knew she was thinking of Brian, too. It wasn’t just about Chris. Jamie was passionate about protecting children and especially this nephew she’d never met. She knew the boy was out of her reach and incredibly close to danger.
    “Can we go back home now?” she asked into Michael’s chest. “They don’t need us here, do they? And Chris has clearly left. Maybe he’s going to Portland. I’m worried about him.”
    Michael looked to Spencer and Hove. The two cops exchanged a glance.
    “Yeah, I don’t see any need for you two to stick around,” answered Hove. “We’ll call if we have more questions.”
    Spencer’s cell phone buzzed, and he left the circle to answer.
    “What about the baker’s family?” asked Jamie, before she turned around and wiped at her eyes. Even in the supreme heat, the sudden absence of her head left a cold spot on Michael’s chest. He hadn’t seen tears, but her eyes were definitely red. “Has someone notified his relatives?”
    “We haven’t found any family yet,” Hove replied with a swipe at the sweat on his forehead. “Spencer has someone looking into it, but they’re coming up empty so far.”
    “Say what?” Spencer exclaimed into his cell, pulling the attention of the