Page 40 of Stolen Ones

‘Of course, you are, Keatings, but I was talking to our charge,’ she said, walking around the hole and looking in the bucket.

The wave of sadness that passed over her features confirmed what they already knew; that they were looking at the bones of a child.

Doctor A took out her phone. ‘Bryan, please remove these people.’

Bryant didn’t bother to correct her on his name. He’d already done it many times. It was never clear if her spoken mistakes were intentional, but she was forgiven anyway.

Bryant stepped over to the last remaining police officers and instructed them to leave, while Doctor A summoned her team.

‘Okay, I will collect the bones from the ground and then work from your place, Keatings.’

‘Lucky me,’ he said, out of the woman’s earshot. Even he wasn’t brave enough to incite the fiery lady.

‘Okay, shoot, shoot, all of you,’ she said, taking an elastic band from her pocket. In just a couple of swift movements, her long hair was tied up and out of her way.

‘Are we being dismissed?’ Keats asked, standing beside Kim.

‘Sounds that way.’

‘Please feeling free to stay and watch me watch the bones until my teams arrives; however, I would have thought you had all got more pressing tasks. I will take care of the little soul.’

Kim didn’t doubt it.

‘And the accuracy of that statement may not change,’ Keats said as they walked back towards the entrance.

‘I know,’ Kim answered. If they were looking at the bones of a child, they might never know if they had found a boy or a girl.

The walk to the gate was short, and privacy screens had already been erected.

Keats bid them farewell and headed to his van.

Another familiar face appeared before her.

‘Like to give a comment to the community via the local press?’ Frost asked.

‘Yeah, I’d like to share that you are one annoying b—’

‘Nothing right now, Frost,’ Bryant interjected.

‘Aw come on, Inspector, that’s no way to speak to someone who’s slept in your bed.’

‘Spare,’ Kim said to Bryant.

‘I can assure you, guv, that needed no clarification.’

She shot Frost a look before moving away.

‘You know, there’s a very good reason why I am rarely nice to anyone. It only comes back and bites me in the ass.’

‘Enough already about the night she stayed over,’ Bryant quipped as they headed towards the high-vis jackets.

Kim approached the guy who had been operating the machine. ‘You were on the digger?’

‘Excavator,’ he corrected with a chin-out attitude.

It was rather a grandiose name for a smaller-than-average piece of building machinery. Perhaps excavator was what the little machine aspired to be.

‘And what were you doing?’