Page 23 of Truth is the Ultimate Weapon

Coy looked to Rip, “We need to warn Glen before he goes to see Steele.”

“Warn my Uncle? Do you want to fill me in? What am I missing?”

“We might have just uncovered why you were attacked at the station,” Coy said.

“To get me out of the way. So, Glen would inherit my half of the ranch, and Steele could swoop in and set him up with a new will and benefactors.”

Coy nodded, “He may not even need to generate a new will. We need to know who established the trust and who benefits from both of you being out of the picture. He may already be the benefactor –– or some offshore conglomerate buried beneath layers of bullshit.”

“Glen has been away for weeks on that big fishing tour he was talking about last night. For all we know, he’s been a target all along and just wasn’t here to step in the crosshairs.” Rip suggested.

“Is that what this has been about?” Kenzie asked, “A land grab?”

“What does Steele need with all this land?” Nash questioned.

“No telling.” Coy admitted, “But I feel like we’re finally on the right track and getting somewhere.”

“Let’s hope Glen gets somewhere, too,” Kenzie added.

“There you are.” Devyn stood and walked over to Diesel, who emerged from the shadows with something in his mouth, “Did you go find a stick? You want to play?”

Devyn took the stick from the dog and prepared to toss it in a fun game of fetch, but upon closer inspection, she thought better of it. There was something unusual about what Diesel had brought to them. Something chilling and eerie –– so much so, she couldn’t bring herself to say what it was she was holding in her hand.

“Um, g-guys.” She stuttered and held up the Diesels find. “Is this…”

Rip quickly took to his feet and relieved Devyn of the item, recognizing immediately what it was.

“Where the hell did you find that, Diesel?” Coy inquired, his awareness of the alarming item evident in his tone. “Is it…”

“It’s a bone. Human.” Rip nodded knowingly, anticipating Coy's next words, “Get a shovel.”

10

“We have the preliminary report back on the remains Diesel so kindly found for us about fifty feet away from the original shallow grave, now known to be… Tommy’s final resting place until we dug him up.” Coy said, his words dripping in sarcasm, “My guess is, the barn was supposed to sit on top of this one too, but… failed to do the job.”

“That’s a pretty big miscalculation,” Nash added.

Rip delivered the report, “We know it was a female, young, maybe twenties or thirties. It appears that she’d had at least one child based on the posterior surface of the pubic bone, but we can’t be certain due to advanced decomposition –– similar to the first set of remains.”

“She… was a mother,” Devyn said. “Where is her child?”

“We don’t know. Just like last time, we’re working on getting an I.D. and similar composite to give us an idea of what she might have looked like.” Coy shared, “We expect it to go much faster this time, now that we have the capability –– thanks to Tommy –– and there’s still a chance dental records and other details could give us a hint or two.”

“Is she linked to Tommy?” Nash asked.

“Could be, that’s an angle we’re working. Given what we learned about Tommy, there’s bound to be an easier or more obvious clue this time.” Coy answered, “Since Glen didn’t mention a female, I’m going to guess he didn’t know anything about her.”

“So, what do we do now while we wait for pieces to fall into place and lead us to answers?” Kenzie asked, “What’s your plan? What else can we do?”

“Well, in the meantime, we track this one like we did the last.” Coy huffed, his frustration evident in the lingering tone of his words. “We go back through all those missing persons files. We might get luckier this time.”

“Though, we never did find a missing persons on Tommy, and we know why now. What if this is just more of the same?” Kenzie asked. “What if… this has something to do with Tommy?”

“You really think our parents are capable of double murder?” Nash asked. “I can barely wrap my mind around one murder. Two is a real hard sell, brother.”

“I don’t mean Mama and Pop –– I mean Tommy.” Coy went on, “He said Tommy was trouble. Pop was trying to save him from himself or somethin’ along those lines. What if that was what Pop was trying to protect him from.”

“You think our father, the most hard-working, honest man in all of Texas, would cover up a murder to save his delinquent brother?” Devyn asked, her voice tinged with suspicion as she eyed the situation warily, her instincts on high alert. “I may not have known our father as many years as all of you, but I knew him… well enough he’d never stand for somethin’ like that.”

---