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Angus stood against the fence, watching as a young man rolled the ground penetrating radar across the area of the yard they thought held the body. He'd seen this done before, but it still amazed him how far technology had come. While the radar couldn't give them an exact picture of what was in the ground, it would let them know something was there and it would make digging a hell of a lot easier.

Franks stood beside him, coffee in hand as he watched. Neither one of them doubted there was a body there. The question was, would there be enough left of the body to give them a reason to dig?

They'd already contacted the forensic unit from the college to say that there might be a dig. If they had a bigger budget, the Medical Examiner's Office would have their own team, but since there was no budget, and calls like these were rare, they left it to the college to handle old digs. In a big city like Houston, the Medical Examiner's Office had a huge workforce. Here in Fairway, they hadn't had the need for a large staff. That was quickly changing. As the city grew, so did the need to expand. The trouble was, the city wasn't willing to fork out the money needed to get everything a city their size needed.

"Detectives, I have a young man asking to speak to you." One of the officers helping to secure the area stuck his head in the back gate. "Says you met him yesterday. A Jared Winder."

"I'll go talk to him." Angus left Franks to watch over the crew and headed out the back gate. He saw Jared standing beside another officer, looking worried. He made his way to them and lifted the yellow tape. "Come on back, Jared." He looked at the other officers. "Guys, this is the new homeowner. As long as he doesn't get in the way, allow him to come back and observe from a distance."

"Thanks." Jared blew out a long breath. "I can't believe this happening. I was stunned when Mr. Thomas told me about Scott's letter. I don't know what to feel. I want to cry that he cared enough to leave me anything, but all his money and the house, it's too much."

"From what I've heard, you were the only one who visited with him and kept him company the last few years. He didn't have any family. It meant a lot to him that you'd help him in the yard and around the house when no one else would." Angus led him back to where Franks still stood.

"Hey, Jared. How you holding up?" Franks asked.

"I'm numb. I called in sick to work to meet with Mr. Thomas later today. He gave me a rundown on the phone last night, but I needed to meet in person to really believe everything he was saying. When I saw you guys pull up here this morning, I feared the part about a body in the yard was true." Jared stared at where the radar was being deployed.

"We have no reason to doubt what that letter said," Franks told Jared. "We'll know soon enough if there's something down there."

"And what does it mean for me if there is?" Jared asked. "Am I responsible for any of this?"

"No. It's going to mean you won't get access to the house right away, but you aren't going to pay for any of this or deal with figuring any of it out. You may have a bit of yardwork to do once we're done, but that would be the worst of it." Franks smiled. "You'll probably want to sell the house as soon as possible."

Jared shrugged. "I haven't even thought that far ahead. I still can't believe he left me the place, let alone money too. At first, I thought it would be great to just move into his house and stop paying rent on mine, but now, with a body in the yard…" He shivered. "It's kind of creepy."

Angus narrowed his eyes. "Did Mr. Thomas tell you how much money you were inheriting?"

"No, he said it was a large sum, but we didn't talk numbers over the phone. We were going to do that today." Jared looked confused. "Why? Do you know how much?"

"We know approximately how much, but we'll leave that to Mr. Thomas to tell you. All I can say is it's enough that you could sell this place and buy you and your brother something new in a much nicer neighborhood. You do know what Mr. Mayburn did for a living, right?"

"He worked at the Mayburn Hotel. I guess his family owned it or something. He didn't like talking about it much. He'd tell me about things he did there or odd things that happened, but never about why it had his name," Jared said. "He quit when it got too hard to work so much. Then I asked about it when I saw it had sold to someone new and he waved it off and said it wasn't his worry any longer."

Franks snorted.

"What?" Jared looked confused.

"Well, Mr. Scott Mayburn owned the Mayburn Hotel. It wasn't his family. From what we've been able to find out, he didn't speak much to his father once he moved out. Kind of understandable, knowing what we know now." Angus gestured to the yard. "But I don't think he spent much of the money he made off the sale of the hotel."

Jared just stared at him in shock.

"I'd say you are going to be living a whole different life once that money transfers to you." Franks smiled.

"The attorney said enough to pay for college, so I guessed a few thousand dollars." Jared frowned.

"Yeah, it's a bit more than that. You'll be able to pay off college for you and your brother, buy a new house, and a new car, and still have money remaining." Franks pat Jared on the shoulder. "Pays to be a good friend and neighbor. "

"No, he couldn't have left me that much. No way. I mean, if he had that kind of money, why did he stay here? He could have moved to a nicer area. A safer one." Jared swallowed hard, then looked back at the yard. "It was the body, wasn't it? His mother was here so when his dad died, he moved in to be with her." Jared leaned hard against the fence. "My God, why didn't he tell me?"

"He didn't tell anyone because he was scared that he'd be to blame since he hadn't told when it happened." Angus watched as the radar guy stopped and evaluated the monitor. "And I'm guessing, like many rich people who don't flaunt what they have, he had all he wanted here. He had a comfortable home to live in, a good friend in you. What more did he need?"

Jared looked ready to cry. "He always offered to help me with bills. Even offered to buy us groceries and stuff when things were tight, but I never let him. I liked his company. When Mom was alive, I knew I could come here to get away and hide. She'd think I was helping him in the yard or something, but the truth was, we were watching a football game or something on TV. He'd listen when I had problems in school or with my friends. He tried to help. Mom never understood, but Scott did." Tears finally fell and Jared swiped at them with the back of his hand. "When Mom died, Scott sent beautiful flowers for her funeral and then for the first few weeks while I tried to figure out what I was doing, I'd get groceries I didn't order delivered to the house. I knew it was Scott doing it and told him to stop, but he kept on doing it until I got a good job and could take care of it myself."

"He sounds like he was a very good friend and caring man." Franks smiled.

"He was. I hated how alone he was." Jared sighed.

"Only during the last years. Do yourself a favor and search his name online when you get time. He was very well-known in the area in his younger years, and he was honored many times for his work at the Mayburn. I imagine as you go through his things, you'll find a lot of information he never shared." Angus smiled. "He led a very full life for a time."

"We think we found something." The man with the radar turned toward them. "You want to come see?"

"Not that I'll know what I'm looking at," Franks mumbled. "I never understand these things. It's like trying to see a baby in those ultrasound photos women share. I never see anything."

"Can I see?" Jared asked.

"Sure, come on over with us." Angus headed that way. Once they all stood around the flat screen, they tried to see what they were looking at.

"See how the lines here don't follow the pattern? There is something in the ground about four feet down. It's not big. Maybe three or four feet long and a foot to two feet wide." The man pointed to areas on the screen, but like Franks, Angus had trouble understanding it all.

"So you can't tell if it's a body?" Jared asked.

"No, we can't confirm that, but I can tell you that it matches other readings we have gotten where there have been bodies found. We're marking the area off with flags now. Was there anywhere else in the yard you wanted us to look?" He set the screen down and looked around the yard.

"No, that's our only spot of interest. Thank you for coming out today." Angus glanced at Franks. "I'll make the call and get them out here to dig." He glanced at Jared. "If there is anything in the house you need, grab it now. I'm not sure how secure they'll want this, and you may not be able to get into the house again until they're done."

"I don't need anything. I was going to clean out the fridge so nothing rots, but that can wait. They won't be more than a few days, right?" Jared asked.

"I can't imagine it will take very long," Angus agreed.

"Then I'm going to go and get ready to go meet with Mr. Thomas. I'll drop by later today when I get back." Jared waved and left them.

Angus looked at Franks. "He has no idea how rich he's about to become."

"Should we have told him?" Franks asked.

"No, he's probably better in the attorney's office, sitting down when he hears. He may go into shock. I know I would." Angus laughed. "Some guys have all the luck, but I have to say, the kid deserves it. It's not often we see someone his age befriend someone older and help take care of them as they age. It sounds like they took care of each other. I'm glad Scott had him around after he sold the Mayburn."

"Makes me want to reconsider letting the boy in my neighborhood mow my lawn. He may be all I have left when I get old." Franks smiled.

"Nah, you'll have me and Lance. We aren't going anywhere," Angus teased.

"My luck, that will be in your ghost forms, haunting the hell out of me." Franks eyed him wearily.

"If I'm a ghost, I have much better things to do than sitting around your place. I'm off to Greece or some other country I'll never afford to see while alive." Angus pulled out his phone. "Time to make that call." He took a few steps away and sent Lance a text first, updating him on what was going on so he could tell Scott if he was still hanging around the morgue. Next, he called the Medical Examiner's front office.

"Fairway Medical Examiner's office." Gretta's voice sounded professional.

"Hey, Gretta, it's Angus. We need to have a possible dig for a body. Ground penetrating radar has confirmed the area, but we need whoever it is at the college to come in for the dig. I'm not sure who you'll need to call."

"No problem. Sam's right here and he'll know what we need to do. I'll need the location and any other information you have on the case." Gretta paused. "Sam said it can take a day or two sometimes for the team from the college to come out. It just depends on what they have going on currently. He said we'll call you once we talk to them and let you know an E.T.A."

"That's fine. We'll head back to the office for now and wait for your call." Angus gave her the information she would need to pass on to the forensics team .

"Thanks, and just so you know, the mortuary picked up Mr. Mayburn about a half hour ago. They'll make contact with whoever is handling things for the estate later today," Gretta told him.

"That's great. Thanks for the help and information. Call me if you need anything else." Angus ended the call.

"We out of here?" Franks asked.

"Yeah, we'll leave the tape up but let the officers go. I'm not really worried about the scene being contaminated until we get digging. Gretta said it could be a few hours or a few days. She'll call us. So, for now, let's grab some good coffee on the way back to the office and see what else we can do."

"One of us still needs to hit the archives." Franks sighed.

"I don't mind the dust. I'll do that while you write up a report on what we've done so far. I'll take looking through boxes of old files over writing a report any day." Angus made sure the area was safe and no one had left anything around that might get stolen. He then shut the gate and headed down the driveway to where two officers had been securing the area. "We're done for today. You guys can head out. We're waiting on a call from the forensics team to let us know when we'll start digging."

"Is this really a seventy-year-old cold case?" one officer asked.

"Looks like it, though it was reported as a missing person's case back then and never followed up on," Franks told them .

"Crazy." The officer gathered his coffee thermos and looked around the area. "Call if you need us back. This beats traffic stops any day of the week."

"I remember those days. Thanks for your help today. Hope the rest of the day is as peaceful." Angus headed to his car.

Franks climbed into the passenger side. "I almost wish I could be a fly on the wall when Mr. Thomas tells Jared how much money he's about to get."

"Me too. I almost feel like we should go check on him to see if he needs a ride home. If someone left me millions, I'd be too shaken up to drive." Angus gave the house a final glance and pulled onto the road. "

"We'll check in on him this afternoon. I'm glad he took the day off work. Any idea what he does?" Franks asked.

"Not a clue, but he can quit now if he wants to and go to school full time. I can't imagine how hard it is for him with his little brother in school and Jared working so late into the day. My hope is the money changes their lives, but not their attitude or morals. Too many times, money changes a person." Angus merged into traffic, debating on where to stop for coffee.

"I think Mr. Mayburn chose well. Jared seems to have a good head on his shoulders. With his mother dying and trying to get a handle on his own life, Jared still made time for the old man down the street. That says something about a person's character." Franks pointed. "How about there? We can grab some donuts too. I'm sure Amy will want something."

Angus quickly changed lanes and pulled into the parking lot. There was nothing a good cup of coffee and a chocolate donut couldn't cure. Once he had those, he'd be ready to hit the archives and dig up whatever he could find about Russell and Myrtle Mayburn. He feared it wouldn't be much.