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Just then, Jane’s fingers touched soled them deeper between the boards What she touched felt like ot it!"

"What is it?"

"I don’t know, but" She ht have been the un, sawed or cut off to create a cylinder Or perhaps it had been fashioned fro taken from a shipwreck

And inside, rolled up, was a piece of paper It was old, fragile, but thehad done its work

Jane looked at Kelsey and carefully unrolled it

The bones were in the mine wall

They’d been undetected for over a hundred and forty years because they’d been shored up against the stone of the mine ork was done to support the structure to protect the miners froan, "because one member of our crime-scene unit noted a little crevice in the rocks in the second set of openings If she hadn’t seen that crack and been deter infinitely sad about the bones in the wall They were attached to bits and pieces of fabric; time and heat had worn away the tissue and flesh, and they were heaped in a confusing pile It appeared that the stagecoach robbers had brought the out the support structure, covered them with dirt and rock, then built up new "support beams" and a neall around theht, becausethere at the time

In fact, miners had come to work for years Maybe, especially in the months afterward, they’d wondered at the smell

But maybe they’d been so conditioned to the stench of heat and one another that they’d never noticed, and maybe decay had happened fast

Three skulls lay in the pile of remains Feer see the newly dead could be It was still terribly sad

"I’ll see that they’re removed," Newsome told Sloan "I’ll take all the proper e for burial I just thought you should see this"

"Yeah, I’ed to solve the past, and what a kick in the ass to oral history and legend Brendan Fogerty wasn’t a good guy at all He was probably the s Just his bad luck McNulty up and died without letting his partner kno to find the gold" He looked at Newsoht? And what about the stagecoach?"

"The stagecoachover the years And bones of dead horses have been found in the desert throughout time," Newsome reminded him "Or they could’ve been rescued by ranchers or Apaches"

"Let’s hope so," Logan old is somewhere," he said "And I believe so here?" Logan asked Newsome

"Yes, but it’s not an easy task I don’t wanttheir lives in a possible cave-in"

"I know, and we don’t want to see anyone injured, either"

"You believe there are a nu to Sloan

"At least two There were two people in the Hough house," Sloan said "According to the son"

"Later today I’ll have DNA results back froht," Newsome said "Just remember, unless any of theainst I have the bottle you found in here, but that’s all I have"

"Appreciate it," Sloan told him

"It’s my job But you know your toay better than I do, Sloan"

"I thought I knew the town," Sloan said "Now--" He broke off and shrugged "We’ll find out what’s going on I was a lucky bastard in Texas I was never part of an unsolvedto be part of one here, either" As he spoke, his phone rang To his surprise, it was Jennie Layton

He stepped back "Jennie? You okay?"

"I’ and they say I can leave Maybe to things"

"You do?"

She lowered her voice "Sloan, can you coht now, Jennie," he proet a car, but I’ll be there as soon as I can"

"Thank you There’s just" Her voice fell to a whisper he could barelyon here, Sloan I can just feel it So bad"

14

Jane sat on the floor with Kelsey, carefully reading the note left behind by Trey Hardy