He got to his feet again. The skeleton was pitiably small, about the size of the two boys who had discovered it. He didn’t know how long these bones had been here but it was a given that someone had missed the person it had been, and it would be his job to find that someone or their relatives. If this proved to be a child, he might be dealing with parents, and certainly siblings. There was nothing worse in law enforcement life.

“Here’s the bag, Sergeant.”

“Thanks, Chief.”

They watched in silence as he collected the bones and placed them in the bag and zipped it up. He cradled it in his arms and stood up. The bag weighed next to nothing. Chief Rafferty and her crew fell back as he stepped through the hole and formed a sort of guard of honor behind him as he toiled up the trail. At the top he laid the bag down gently in the backseat of one of their vehicles, and they drove in solemn procession back into town. Rafferty gave him a ride out to the airport to pick up his truck and he transferred the remains into the bed.

“Chief?”

“Sergeant?”

“Could you ask your people to keep this on the down low?”

She looked at him. “Those bones have been there a long time, Sergeant.”

“Still.”

She sighed and nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Thanks. By any chance, do you know where Erik Berglund lived?”

“Not a clue,” she said.

They exchanged somber nods and she left him standing there, staring at the bag. It looked almost empty.

His phone dinged.

Delivery complete. Departing in five.

He looked from the screen back to the body bag.

Can you do a quick turnaround?

A beat.

You have another body you need transporting?

Well, she’d always been pretty quick.

The rest of the skeleton. The local fire chief and her crew helped me get it out.

You’re sure it’s human then.

Unfortunately. I think it’s a kid.

Be there in an hour, home again before dinnertime.

This time he responded with a gif that had Jim Carrey as The Mask with his heart beating up out of his chest—he’d been saving it up—and she returned a winky face with a kiss.

He found a food cart out on the Spit with excellent fish tacos, although a handmade sign warned him they were closing as soon as they’d emptied out the freezer. “We don’t serve freezer-burnt fish,” the proprietor informed him, “so we don’t close until everything we bought this year is sold.”

In that case he went back for seconds. Satisfied in both body and spirit he pulled through the gate at the airport at the exact moment Wy landed. She taxied to the tie-down, killed the engine, and stepped down from the cabin and into his arms. She felt good there. She felt necessary.

“It’ll be okay, Liam,” she said, snuggling into his chest. “You’ll find out who they were and restore them to their family. There can’t be anything worse than losing a kid.” She went still. “I’m sorry, I—”