Ultimate Cowboy (15 page)

“Stay out there, I’ll check it out,” Brody said.

Julie nodded, then shined the flashlight to make a path and checked behind the house for outbuildings. But the only one she found looked as if it had been burned down.

She hurried back to Brody and met him just as he was climbing from the window. He had a piece of clothing that was rotting and filthy
and was small enough to have been a child’s. “I found this.”

“I’ll take it back and have forensics analyze it,” Julie said. “If this man Moody is our guy, we might be able to match it to a victim.”

Brody’s phone buzzed, and he grabbed it from his belt then connected the call.

A second later, he gestured for her to get back in the car. “Okay, thanks, Miles. We’re on our way.”

“What?” Julie asked as she fastened her seat belt.

“They spotted a section of land that looked like it might be what we’re looking for. No sign of anyone there, but there’s a trailer and some outbuildings and barbed wire fencing surrounding it.”

Julie prayed it wasn’t a dead end as he sped away from the farmhouse.

* * *

P
ERSPIRATION
BEADED
B
RODY
’
S
neck as he raced toward the
address. He hoped to hell this was the place they were looking for.

He wanted to find the bastard who’d hurt Will and the other boys and tear him apart limb by limb.

Julie remained silent, her anxiety evident in the way she kept drumming her fingers up and down on the seat. The Jeep ate the miles, bouncing over ruts and ridges in the country roads. Storm clouds rolled in, threatening
snow, the trees shivering in the wind.

An hour later, he veered down another desolate road, his stomach churning as they neared the place.

His phone buzzed and he snatched it up. It was Miles.

“We’re going to land about a mile from the place just in case there’s someone on the property. We don’t want to alert them we’re coming.”

“Good idea,” Brody said. “We’re almost there.”

He hung up and filled Julie in. She checked her weapon, and Brody winced. He had a rifle in the back, but he’d never used it on anyone.

“Have you ever had to shoot anyone?” he asked.

Julie’s eyes darkened. “Once. A man charged me at an arrest.”

“What did he do?”

“He killed four college girls,” she said quietly.

Brody wanted to say more, but he spotted a locked gate
up ahead and gestured toward it. “There it is.”

Julie squeezed his arm. “Stay behind me, Brody.”

He threw the Jeep to the right and parked between a group of trees. “The hell I will,” he said as he reached over the back of his seat for his rifle.

“Brody,” Julie said, tugging at his sleeve.

His jaw snapped tight. “We’ll go in together,” he said. “This is my brother we’ve come
for. I’ll take the damn lead.”

Julie opened her mouth to argue, but he climbed from the vehicle, then retrieved bolt cutters from the back of his Jeep. Determined to protect Julie, he strode to the gate and cut the lock. He scanned the perimeter, noting a trailer in the distance along with two outbuildings.

Moving stealthily, he crept next to the trees, weaving between them as they approached.

“I don’t see any vehicles,” Julie said. “No black van.”

Disappointment surged through Brody, but still they had to check it out. They inched closer and closer until the mobile home was within arm’s reach.

“Look,” Julie said, pointing behind the trailer to boxes of quart jars, distilled water and coffee filters.

But Brody had already reached for the door to the mobile home. As
soon as he opened it, the pungent scent of ethyl ether assaulted him.

“It’s a homemade meth lab,” Julie said.

Then a strange sound filled the air, and Brody grabbed Julie’s hand. “Come on, it’s going to explode.”

They ran toward the woods, but the explosion rent the air, the force of it throwing them both to the ground a few feet away.

He tasted dirt, then he saw Julie lying
on the ground, facedown. Panic slammed into him at the sight of blood trickling from her forehead.

Chapter Fifteen

Brody crawled over to Julie and eased her over.

“Julie?” He gently brushed her cheek, then removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at the blood. Thankfully the cut was just a scratch.

Still, she could have been seriously injured.

“Julie, honey, are you okay?” Good God, he couldn’t lose her. Not now.

Not again.

She slowly opened
her eyes, confusion clouding them. “What happened?”

“The trailer blew.”

“Not uncommon for homemade labs,” Julie said, then pushed herself up to a sitting position.

Brody wanted to drag her back in his arms, hold her tight. Kiss her and tell her he would never let her go again.

But he didn’t have that right.

“Brody, man, are you two okay?” Johnny yelled.

Brody straightened
and stood as his friend approached. “Yeah, the damn trailer blew.”

“We heard it,” Miles said as he jogged toward them.

He helped Julie stand, and she brushed dirt and twigs off her slacks.

“Did you see anyone?” Johnny asked.

Brody shook his head no. “Did you?”

“No movement from the chopper, no sign of a car or van leaving, either. But we should search those outbuildings.”

Smoke swirled above the trailer, the sickening odor of the ether wafting through the air. Brody gestured toward the wooden structures. “You two take that building, and Julie and I’ll search the one to the left.”

Miles led Johnny toward the right, and he and Julie headed to the left. The building looked like a garage or storage container, except as he entered, he noticed stalls on both
sides.

“An old barn?” he said as he pulled open the wooden door.

Julie stepped inside, shining her flashlight across the space. “Perhaps the original owner put up the trailer as a temporary home until he could build a house.”

“Or he planned the meth lab and needed buildings to house his supplies and product until he could move it,” Brody suggested.

Inside the building was dark,
the floor made of dirt and straw. The stench of urine and sour sweat clogged the air, nearly making him gag.

“There’s no one here,” Brody said, disappointment mounting inside. Dammit, where was Will?

Julie walked to the first stall and shined the flashlight inside. “Oh, my God.”

“What is it?” Brody moved up behind her, his stomach pitching as he realized what had upset her. Leather
straps were attached to the posts of the stall, chains also wound around the posts.

Straps and chains that looked as if they had been used to tie an animal—or a child—inside the stall. They walked to each of the stalls and looked inside and found the same sick setup.

“I can’t believe this,” Julie said, her face paling in the dim light streaking through the barn. “He is a monster.”

Brody opened the stall door and walked inside, raking his foot through the straw. He didn’t know what he was looking for, maybe signs an animal had been kept there, not a person. He didn’t find anything in the first stall, and Julie was searching the second, so he moved onto the third. The stream of light from the outside reflected off the stall door, and he knelt to examine it. The wood had
splintered, with either a rock or fingernail marks embedded in the rotting frame as if someone had tried to claw their way out.

He examined the chains and leather strap marks next. His stomach revolted when he spotted bite marks in the leather.

“Someone was chained in here,” he said. “There are teeth marks on the straps.”

“Same in here,” Julie said. “I’m going to get a forensic
team out here. Our unsub may not be here now, but he was here. Maybe the lab can lift some prints we can use when we catch him.”

When they caught him?
Brody was beginning to wonder if they ever would.

Julie stepped outside the barn to make the call, and Brody followed, desperately needing some fresh air. Anything to erase the stench of what he’d just seen.

He spotted Miles and Johnny
exiting the other barn and strode toward them. Miles disappeared around the outside of the barn, but Johnny was leaning against the door, his head down. The roar of the trailer fire echoed in the air, although the flames were starting to die down.

“Anything in there?” Brody asked Johnny.

Johnny’s look of disgust mirrored his own feelings. “Straps and chains—”

“Same in there,” Brody
said, hitching his shoulder toward the other building.

“I can’t believe a human could do that to another one,” Johnny muttered.

Neither could Brody. Bile rose to his throat. But he had a bad feeling the monster who’d kidnapped Will had chained him up like an animal. “Julie is calling a forensic team to process the buildings.”

Miles suddenly appeared at the edge of the barn, his
expression set in stone.

“What is it?” Brody asked.

“Not good.”

Julie ended the call and joined them. “A forensics team is on the way.” Her eyes narrowed as she realized something was wrong. “Did you find something else?”

Miles gave a clipped nod. “Two graves.”

Brody staggered backward. Graves?

Dear God...had Moody killed Will when he’d returned and buried him out
here where he thought no one would find him?

* * *

J
ULIE
SHUDDERED
, then noticed Brody’s pallor turning gray and pulled herself together. Her phone buzzed, so she snapped it up.

“Mitland checked out,” Chief Hurt said. “He lives with his mother and she verified that he’s clean. Cord called and Fuller checked out, as well. He’s remarried and they have a baby.”

“Moody’s the guy,
Julie said. “We found a meth lab and the buildings where he kept the boys locked. There are also two graves.”

“Good God,” Chief Hurt said.

“I need a forensic team but let me check this out. I’ll call you later.”

Julie hung up, perspiration beading on her neck at the prospect of what they might find. Brody looked shaken as she gestured toward Miles. “Show me where they are.”

Miles jerked his head, indicating for her to follow, and Brody snapped out of his shock. The three of them trailed Miles as he led them around the barn to the edge of the woods backing up to the building. Julie spotted the mounds of dirt and pushed her hair behind her ear.

The February breeze picked up, swirling the chemical odor and smoke from the fire around her. Julie knelt to examine the
graves, looking for signs they were recent or any evidence the person who’d dug the graves had left behind. A loose button that had fallen off, a piece of fabric or human hair, anything that might help lead them to the unsub.

Brody suddenly disappeared, then returned a moment later carrying a shovel he must have found in one of the barns. “I have to see if Will is in there.”

He jammed
the edge of the shovel into the nearest grave, but Julie stood and grabbed the handle. “Stop it, Brody, you can’t disturb the graves.”

Brody wiped sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “I have to know,” he murmured. “Move out of the way, Julie.”

Julie’s gaze met his. The torment in his eyes nearly sent her to her knees. But she couldn’t allow him to destroy evidence. “I’m sorry, Brody,
but I can’t let you disturb the crime scene.”

“I don’t give a damn about your procedure,” Brody shouted. “My brother might be in there.”

Miles put his hand on the shovel. “She’s right, Brody.”

Brody glared at his friend. “But I have to know—”

“I understand you’re terrified Will is in there, and we will have the graves dug up,” Julie said softly. “But we have to wait on a team.”

Brody’s face twisted with emotions and Julie couldn’t resist. She pulled him into her arms. “Listen to me, Brody, it’s going to be all right.”

“Not if Will is dead,” Brody said in a raw whisper.

Miles took the shovel, and he knelt to examine the graves while Johnny walked around them.

“The grave looks as if it’s been there for a while,” Johnny said. “See how packed the dirt
is.”

Julie stroked Brody’s back, but his shoulders shook. “There was blood in one of the stalls,” he murmured.

Julie cupped his face between her hands and forced him to look at her. “We don’t know that it’s Will’s blood, Brody. Hang in there a little while longer.”

He nodded against her, his breathing shaky, and Julie led him away from the site. She didn’t stop until they’d reached
where they’d parked. Instead of getting inside though, she pulled him down to a log on the ground beneath a cluster of trees where it was cool and the barns weren’t visible.

She quickly phoned Chief Hurt and relayed the events, then asked him to send a coroner and ambulance so they could transport the bodies they were about to dig up. Brody remained silent, his body rigid with anxiety, his
breathing labored in the quiet.

Night had set in, the moon a crescent sliver that fought its way through the storm clouds. Julie pressed a hand to Brody’s back as he raised his knees, propped his elbows on them and rubbed his forehead. She hoped to hell the forensics team could finish before the snow came.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Brody said in a low voice.

“Don’t worry about
it,” Julie said. “Just try to hold on to hope, Brody. Like I told you before, Will survived seven years. Now he knows you’ve been looking for him, he won’t give up.”

“But he didn’t believe me,” Brody said.

Julie sighed, wiping at dirt on her forehead. “He may have said that, but on some subconscious level, the truth may have sunk in.”

She twined her fingers with his, and they sat
clinging to one another until the crime unit arrived.

Johnny and Miles met them at the CSU van, and Julie explained about the case and what they’d discovered. “Let’s start with the graves,” she said. “We need to identify them ASAP.”

The team introduced themselves as Todd Franks, Janice Crimson and Detective Lyle Burks. A fire crew arrived next to extinguish what was left of the burning
trailer and investigate the fire. Dr. Kurt Norman, the local coroner and medical examiner, drove up and Miles guided him to the scene.

Brody started to follow, but Julie shook her head. “Stay here, Brody. You don’t have to watch this.”

Brody gave her a sharp look. “I have to see for myself, Julie.”

Their gazes locked for a long heartbeat but he didn’t budge. Resigned, she nodded.
“Come on, we’ll watch together.”

Johnny stood in the background while Todd and Janice photographed the scene and collected soil samples from the grave. Then Detective Burks and Todd began to dig.

Miles led Janice to one of the barns, and they began the laborious processing of the scene.

The sound of the shovel hitting dirt and rocks sounded ominous in the quiet as the men worked.
The coroner stayed close, helping to rake away dirt when they reached the body.

Julie held one hand on Brody’s arm to keep him calm as they unveiled the two bodies. The sight of the bones made Julie sick because those bones were human, and judging from the size they belonged to an adolescent.

But the bones had been there too long to be Will.

Brody must have realized it at the same
time because his breath whooshed out. Then he turned and strode back toward the Jeep. She followed him and saw him leaning against the driver’s door, his face ashen, sweat trickling down his neck.

“It’s not Will,” Julie said as she laid a hand on his shoulder.

Brody gave a short nod. “Thank God.” Then he turned to her with a tortured look. “I’m so relieved. But I feel guilty for that.”

“I know,” Julie said. “Even if it’s not Will, there are two boys who shouldn’t have died.”

* * *

E
VEN
AS
B
RODY
admitted his guilt, relief swept through him. Sorrow for those kids in the grave and for their families overwhelmed him.

But Will might still be alive....

“I’m going to talk to the forensic team for a minute, then we’re going home.”

Brody didn’t argue. There
was nothing else they could do here. Hopefully the crime unit would find evidence to help track down this bastard.

But at least they had a name now. Barry Moody.

Although since the man had forced new names on his victims, he’d probably changed his own name, too.

Johnny walked over to him while Julie went to talk to the team. “We’re going back to the BBL now, but we’ll start looking
again tomorrow,” Johnny said. “As soon as it’s daylight.”

Brody shook his hand. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Johnny nodded and tilted his hat to one side. “We won’t stop until we find him, Brody.”

Brody gritted his teeth as Johnny went to join Miles, and they headed back to the chopper. Brody tried to pull himself together, but his emotions were still ping-ponging all over the place
as he and Julie drove back to the BBL.

As soon as they arrived and entered the house, he went straight to the bar in his office and poured himself a drink. Then he offered Julie one.

“I’m on duty,” she said, although exhaustion laced her voice.

“You deserve it after today.” Brody said.

Julie accepted the scotch and swirled it in her glass.

He sipped his drink. “Johnny
and Miles are going to start again early in the morning.”

“They’re good friends,” Julie said. “They care about you a lot, Brody.”

“They care about kids,” Brody said. “We...all have our stories.”

“Yes, we do,” Julie said softly, then she sipped her drink, a silent understanding passing between them.

Finally Brody knocked back his drink then set his glass on the table. “You were
amazing today, Julie.” He walked toward her, then brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek. “I...don’t know how I would have made it through that without you.”

Sadness glittered in Julie’s eyes, then a flicker of some other emotion Brody couldn’t define.

“You’re strong, Brody,” Julie said softly. “You always have been.”

“No,” he said, a knot in his belly. “I messed up years
ago when I blamed you. I...needed you then but I pushed you away.”

Julie lifted her hand and placed it over his. The touch sent a tingle of awareness and hunger through him. It had been a long damn time since he’d been with a woman.