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I raised my hands. “Okay.”
“And for the record, I’m not fearless. I’m cautious. From what I know about you, you’ll understand.” She marched away, aiming for Captain Watts.
What does she know about me?
My police career had been altered to remove any record of my undercover operation, including the name I’d assumed and the pictures of what I’d looked like for those three years. Very few people would have access to the complete information.
Dread scurried up my spine.
Aria had connections in high places, but if she could access information that had been redacted from my file, then the woman who wanted me dead could, too.
At the end of my deep undercover operation, I’d been offered a choice of where I wanted to be stationed. Maybe twelve hundred miles away wasn’t enough. Or maybe I should have chosen another career, which had been highly recommended to me. But I’d wanted to keep my badge and my weapon so I could keep searching for Nikki Bolton and arrest her whenever she crawled out from the rock she was hiding under. Or put a bullet through her callous heart, which I should have done when I’d had the chance.
Clenching my jaw, I smacked that pointless bullshit from my mind and strode to the pit that was gradually growing bigger.
The coroner kneeled beside the hole.
“Hi, Whitney,” I said as I took a couple of photos of the pit.
He frowned at me, then recognition crossed his expression. “Hey, Tyler.”
“Have you reached the body yet?”
“Not yet. It’s about six feet down, so we’re nearly there.”
“Is it a child?”
“The imagery of the skeleton looks to be, yes. Stand back.” He indicated with his hand.
The arm of the digger reached out, and the attached bucket scraped another inch of dirt away. Whitney gave a nod, and another layer was removed.
“Stop!” Whitney yelled.
The bucket lifted out of the hole, and I lowered to my knees beside Whitney.
At the bottom of the pit was the unmistakable curve of a small skull. The poor child hadn’t even been wrapped in cloth or plastic before he’d been buried.
Whitney climbed into the hole, scraped away dirt with his gloved hand and a small brush, then carefully extracted the yellowing skull.
When he turned it over, the large chunk missing from the back of the cranium suggested a possible cause of death. The size of the hole was big enough to have been inflicted by a sledgehammer. I took more photos, zooming in on the skull.
I witnessed seven brutal murders while I was undercover for Operation Vivid. All but one of those murderers were either dead or serving life in jail for their crimes.
My blood boiled over what happened to this poor, innocent child.
He or she was probably killed decades ago, but their murderer could still be walking amongst us.
As well as the bastards who helped cover up this murder.
I had been ordered to lay low until the bitch who wanted to execute me was either captured or killed. But time was running out for this victim, and I had every intention of finding their killer.
Even if that meant stepping back into Nikki Bolton’s crosshairs.
CHAPTER 3
Indiana
Forcing myself not to panic, I watched the underneath of the boat carve through the water and stop right alongside Rhino.
