Murder Bone by Bone by Lora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

and light over my shoulder. The rapid decline of the ozone layer, and the writer’s concern about it, began to blur in front of my eyes. I drifted off.
    I woke suddenly when a racket started outside. Disoriented, I sprang from the chair, dumping the Utne Reader on the floor. Barker, dozing at my feet, also jumped up and started to contribute to the noise before I could shush him.
    I peeped in the door to the boys’ room. Mick lay snuggled with his blanket. Corky, with Tintin in America open beside him, stirred in his sleep. Sam’s head was pillowed on another Tintin book. He snored a little.
    I closed the door to their room, and to Moira’s. Barker followed me, his fur raised, low growls occasionally escaping him. When I headed for the front door he pranced ahead, certain that he could take on the noisy creature and win.
    A Public Works truck, towing an equipment trailer, was pulled up at the curb in front of Bridget’s house. Being maneuvered off the trailer was a vehicle that looked like the offspring of a bulldozer and a bumper car, with a toothy scoop carried jauntily overhead. The driver guided it down from the trailer and over to Bridget’s driveway. He wore the orange vest and hard hat of the city worker.
    Corky appeared beside me, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He stared at the little bulldozer. “A Bobcat! Cool!”
    “Bobcat?” I bent close to make sure I’d heard correctly over the noise. Corky wasn’t waiting around to talk to me, though.
    “Sam!” He ran back to his room, oblivious to my hushing. “Sam! There’s a Bobcat in our driveway!”
    Sam bounded off his bunk bed and thudded out to the front door. Luckily he didn’t wake Mick, and I heard nothing from Moira. Crossing my fingers, I shut the boys’ door again and joined them on the front porch.
    The Public Works man got out of the Bobcat and climbed back into the truck that towed the trailer. He drove away.
    “Cool!” Corky cried. “He’s giving it to us!”
    He was crushed when the driver, after parking the truck farther up the street, came striding back.
    The boys poured down the front walk toward him.
    “Hey, mister! Is that your Bobcat?”
    “Can I drive?”
    Corky turned on Sam. “Don’t be stupid,” he said witheringly. “You don’t have a lionsense.” He turned back to the Public Works man. “Can I help you drive?”
    “Are you going to scoop up all the bones?”
    The man blinked at the onslaught. “Are you the ones that made all this trouble?”
    Corky and Sam stopped short, looking down at the ground. They didn’t reply.
    The man saw me standing on the porch and smiled. “Guess you’ve already given them hell over causing this mess.”
    “Not really.” I couldn’t help the frosty note in my voice. “After all, they did accomplish a public service.”
    “Ma’am?” The man stared at me. Corky and Sam, sensing that they weren’t going to be yelled at, moved closer to the alluring machinery. “Hold on, fellas. No unauthorized personnel allowed in the Bobcat.” He relented a little at their disappointed faces. “But I will let you sit in it before the dump truck comes and I have to get to work.”
    “A dump truck is coming to our house?” Sam’s eyes got even bigger.
    "That’s right.” He swung Sam into the driver’s seat of the Bobcat. I came down to stand beside the mound of dirt.
    “Are you going to dig up the bones?” I wondered if Drake knew about this.
    He shrugged, lifting Sam down and helping Corky to climb up. “I got orders to come out and pick up this debris, so that’s what I’m doing.” Corky’s delighted manipulation of the levers that bristled out of the control panel made him smile. "The youngsters sure get a bang out of trucks and such, don’t they, ma’am?”
    “It’s kind of you to let them experience it.” I glanced back over my shoulder, wondering if Moira was crying inside. “Did you know that a police investigation is going on here?”
    “Don’t know anything