“I’m a good boy,” Junior replied proudly.

“No one is saying you ain’t,” Dan argued. “Junior, can you stop rocking please? I need some information from you right now.”

Junior stopped rocking again and watched Dan as he unlocked and opened the cell door. Dan slowly walked in and stood over Junior for the longest time.

“I didn’t do bad things.”

“Did you work for the Senator two days ago?” Dan asked even though he knew already that he did. He wanted to build some trust with Junior.

Junior just stared ahead as Dan sat down on the other end of the bunk.

“I need to know, Junior,” Dan said, making sure he had Junior’s attention. “You want me to find the person responsible for what happened to Richie, don’t you?”

Dan slid closer to Junior and slowly put his hand on Junior’s knee.

Suddenly Junior attacked Dan. He punched Dan wildly while yelling and screaming. Junior jumped up off the bunk and ran out of the cell as Billy Bob and Mac came running into the cellblock.

Billy Bob tackled Junior before he could reach the door. Junior’s arms flapped wildly while Billy Bob struggled to restrain the boy.

Dan collected himself and wiped the blood off his cheek. Mac walked up to the cell door and glanced down at Dan.

“Looks like you been in a catfight,” Mac mocked with a twinkle in his eye. It surprised him that anyone could get the upper hand on Dan, let alone a simple-minded boy. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. One minute he was okay. I was asking him questions and then he went nuts on me.”

Billy Bob had Junior pinned behind his back and shoved him back into the cell.

“You ain’t going anyplace,” Billy Bob snapped as he turned and walked out of the cell.

Junior cowered when Dan got up. “You’re a bad person,” was all he mustered up to say.

Dan almost grabbed Junior by the arm, but then stopped. “What did I do to set you off?” Dan snapped and then turned and walked out of the cell.

Billy Bob and Mac looked at Dan a moment. The phone started ringing in the office. Mac turned and rushed to the door.

“Duty calls,” Mac said as he rushed out of the cellblock.

Billy Bob shut the cell door and locked it. Dan stood outside the cell, just staring at Junior.

“I wish I could plug into his brain.”

Mac ran back into the cellblock. He was out of breath. “Better get out to Murphy’s place. Says he found bones.”

Dan looked puzzled. “Why should I care about that?”

“Says they’re human,” Mac said, gasping for breath.

Dan did a double take. “It’s probably just a ploy.”

He frowned. This was the last thing he needed right now. Murphy playing games with him to get him out to his place to deal with those damn hogs.

“No. He sounded serious, and he was upset. I don’t think he’s lying.”

Dan motioned for Billy Bob to come along. The two rushed out of the cellblock together.

* * *

The two squad cars sped down city streets and headed out of town to the country. All the while he drove, Dan kept thinking about what he planned to do to Felix if this was only a ploy to get him out there to deal with his hog problem.

Dan pulled into Murphy’s driveway and quickly parked the squad while Billy Bob parked next to him. They got out of their squads. Murphy rushed out of the house. The old coon dog lay sleeping at the bottom of the porch steps and Dan wondered if the dog ever moved off his spot.

“Took you long enough,” Murphy snapped as he rushed over to the squad.

Dan glanced at his watch and then gave Murphy a warning glance. It had been ten minutes since receiving Murphy’s call. There was no reason for him to think that Dan’s response time was not adequate. Under different circumstances he would have called Murphy on it, but he was more concerned about why they were there.

“Mac said you found some bones,” Dan snapped.

“Yeah, while I was out doing your job.”

Dan raised his hands. “I won’t go into that. Just show me where you found those bones.”

Murphy’s hand shook as he pointed in the direction of the tall pines in the distance.

“I spotted them devils digging near a clearing. Suddenly one pulls out this leg bone from the mud and starts chewing.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I know animal bones, and that weren’t no animal bone, trust me.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Dan shook his head at Murphy.

Murphy took a red bandana out of his pocket and wiped his brow. “Nearly crapped in my pants when I saw that thing.”

“Then what?” Dan asked.

“I took aim and shot the son-of-a-bitch.”

“Did you kill it?”

Murphy glanced down. “Wounded him pretty bad.”

Dan turned and walked away, but then turned back to face Murphy. “That’s just great,” he snapped.

“Well what did you want me to do?”

“If you couldn’t take it down, you shouldn’t have taken the shot,” Dan added and then turned to Billy Bob. “Get the rifle out of the trunk. I’m not going anywhere near those woods without something that will take that bastard down in one shot.”

“If you’d been more helpful, none of this would have happened.”

Dan pointed a finger at Murphy. “Don’t turn this around on me. I told you to gather up some of your neighbors. But no! Would you listen?”

“Do you want me to show you the goddamn place or not?”

Dan looked angrily at Billy Bob, who just raised his hands. Billy Bob walked to the back of the squad car and opened up the trunk. He reached in for the rifle.

CHAPTER 10

Murphy led Dan and Billy Bob to the spot where the razorbacks were rutting. The ground was blood-splattered where the animal was hit.

“Hopefully he went someplace to die,” Dan said, looking the area over.

“I didn’t mean to make matters worse.”

The area was secluded. The tall reeds around most of the mud hole made it hard to get near, let alone see the bones up close. Murphy must have been at the rise in the distance where the only clear shot could have been made. Dan walked closer to the bones.

“You’re right about them being human,” Dan turned to Murphy. He glanced over at Billy Bob. “Go back to the squad and call the medical examiner. Tell her we have another body.”

“One week on the job and you give her two bodies. She isn’t going to like it,” Billy Bob mumbled under his breath while turning and walking away.

“It isn’t like I’m dropping them for her.”

Billy Bob left while Murphy and Dan walked around the area. Given the condition of the bones, Dan was not concerned with contaminating the site.

* * *

Nancy Davie poked around the mud with latex gloves on. She examined one of the bones and then looked over the area. Nancy stepped back and snapped a few pictures. She turned to Dan.

“This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Never said it was,” Dan replied.

Nancy glanced up and smiled at Dan. “You going around digging up old bones just to see me again?”

Dan was taken aback by the remark. “Murphy called me,” he said in his defense and then hesitated a moment. “And I didn’t do this on purpose.”

“Fooled me,” she said with a half-grin on her face.

“Besides, would you see me again if it wasn’t business?”

Nancy looked around for a while and then turned back to Dan and smiled.

“You won’t know until you ask, will you?”

Nancy walked over to the car, leaving Dan to think about what she had said. Billy Bob slowly walked up to Dan. He was curious and knew Mac would ask how things went between the two.

“What did she say?” Billy Bob asked.

Dan looked embarrassed. “About what?”

“The body?”

“Oh, she won’t know anything until she examines the bones in the lab. Hard to tell how old they are right now, I guess.”

Dan walked away from Billy Bob and followed Nancy to her car. She had her trunk open and pulled out some plastic bags.