“Sure. Jack was on the way out to with Blue to grab some lunch for everyone. They can meet you in the drive.”
“Thanks.”
Noelle bit into her bottom lip. “Sorry for causing you trouble.”
He shrugged and put the radio hand piece back into the holder. “No trouble. I can see how it might seem a little… worrisome.”
He turned and smiled at her.
And she found herself, a little stunned.
“You’re not making fun of me.”
He shook his head. “I think I like the word. If I start using it around my team, I think they’ll wonder if I got hit in the head.” His smile broadened. “Yeah, I really like that word.”
He picked his phone up off of the dash where he’d left it and keyed in the password.
She smiled slightly.
If she had a face as beautiful as he was, she’d use facial recognition to open her phone.
He opened up an app and turned the screen to her. “Here. I can show you what we’re looking at in the field.”
What we’re looking at… The words replayed in her head as she reached out for the phone.
Ranger McCrae put the phone in her hand and sat back in his seat.
It only took a heartbeat for her to see what he was talking about.
There was a skull.
And a skeleton attached to it.
Tangled up in dirt and roots.
It looked like the ground it had been buried in had split open.
No, not split open.
It looked like the ground had spilled it out like an overflow of water in a pitcher.
This wasn’t someone who had been laid to rest.
This was a person who had been hidden.
And the ground around the body had decided enough was enough.
“You found this on your property?”
He was quiet and she turned her head to look at him.
He was nodding.
“It became part of our ranch about forty years ago, before I was born.”
She gestured at the screen of the phone. “Can I… Can I touch the screen without messing it up?”
He gestured at the phone in her hands. “Feel free. This is just a photo I have of it. We’ve already had people out to the scene to document the original find. We have a team excavating the scene to collect evidence.”