Boneyard Read Online Free PDF

back to the grind. Keep it.” He jiggled the change absentmindedly as he strode out into the blazing sun.
    Three
    “I don’t give a goddamn what you want, you’re not getting it!” Doyle fumed.
    Kelly leaned against the edge of the desk, regarding them silently. The three of them were crammed in a windowless conference room at the Berkshire State Police barracks in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A battered desk in the far corner held a lamp and a black phone on a ragged blotter. In the center of the room, the conference table had one noticeably shorter leg bolstered by a piece of shredded cardboard, with four rickety folding chairs holding court around it. Just inside the door a fake ficus plant was doing a poor job of hiding the large water stain on the grayish wall, while next to it a large piece of corkboard was mounted clumsily with thumbtacks. On top of it all, with no AC, the room was like an oven. All in all, this was easily one of the worst command centers she’d ever been stuck in.
    Lieutenants Doyle and Lauer glared at each other across the table. Their feuding had started at lunch with barbed comments about the relative incompetence of their respective departments, and had escalated to the point where Kelly recommended they pack up their sandwiches and head over to the office. It was either that or chance having everyone in the diner hear the full extent of the investigation. Not that there appeared to be much progress. Aside from the actual recovery of the remains, most of which had been located by the volunteer search and rescue team, remarkably little investigative work had been accomplished. Kelly generally resisted the prevailing Bureau belief that cops were bumbling hacks who’d rather shoot someone than use their brains. Over the years she’d met plenty of talented detectives in police departments across the country. But based on first impressions, these weren’t two of them. Kelly wondered how they’d managed to scramble so far up the career ladder.
    Every time they descended into another spat, Kelly gently coaxed them back to civility. She was already exhausted. Hard to believe these two had only been acquainted for a week, Kelly mused as she watched them peck away at each other. If she hadn’t known better, she would have taken them for a couple married twenty years too long.
    “Well, why don’t we just find out what the FBI has to say about it?” Monica snapped. They both turned toward her, faces expectant.
    Kelly smiled thinly. “Keep in mind that so far no federal statutes have been violated so, officially, I’m only here in an advisory capacity.”
    “So advise,” Doyle sneered.
    “I don’t think that tone is necessary, Lieutenant.” Kelly raised an eyebrow at him, and his eyes dropped. Silently he unwrapped another piece of gum and popped it in his mouth. Typical bully, she thought to herself—once confronted he backed right down. “Why don’t we start by reviewing what we know so far, then we can work on the jurisdictional issues.”
    Doyle grumbled something that she took for acquiescence; Monica just shrugged.
    “Great,” Kelly continued. “Let’s start with what the hiker found. First recovery was the forearm and part of a hand, just over the state line in Massach—”
    “We got the rest of that body in Vermont,” Monica interrupted, casting a scathing look across the table.
    Kelly peered at her notes, then glanced up at the corkboard where she had mounted photographs of the body parts lying in situ. “Right, I see that a partial skeleton was found a half mile away in the Green Mountain National Forest.”
    “Would have had all of him if it weren’t for that damn bear,” Monica finished.
    “Wouldn’t have found him without the bear,” Doyle retorted.
    “Much as I appreciate your level of enthusiasm for the case, could we keep this civil?” Kelly chided them again. “Time of death is still being determined, but based on the fact that we’re dealing with