In Close (Bulletproof #3)(70)
Author: Brenda Novak

The keys on the side table drew his eye. They were right there, and his father was no longer in the way. All he had to do was scoop them up and go. And yet he couldn’t move. His legs felt like unbendable wooden stilts from which he might topple at any moment.

His father came around the corner, blinked the sweat from his eyes and took aim.

But he didn’t fire. Tears streaked down his face and his hands began to shake. Why? This was what he’d wanted for so long; he’d said as much.

“I’m sorry,” his father whispered. It was the first time Jeremy had ever heard him apologize. Or maybe it was the first time it had ever seemed real.

“I’m not a dog,” Jeremy responded, and put up his arms to protect his head, but that didn’t stop his father from pulling the trigger.

The blast drowned out all other sound.

Those first few minutes after Joe yanked her out of her car had been harrowing, especially when he hauled her into Peter’s house and Peter blocked the door so she couldn’t leave, but Claire was no longer frightened of the Kenyon brothers. They hadn’t tried to hurt her. They’d restrained her until they could get her to listen to what they had to say, and then they’d promised they could prove their words if she’d just give them the chance.

What they’d told her hadn’t been easy to hear. To avoid the way it made her feel, Claire told herself to withhold judgment until they found the metal box that was supposed to be buried here in the woods. But an emotional reckoning would, eventually, be inevitable. She already believed them, or she wouldn’t have spent the past several hours digging in the forest.

Gasping for breath, she leaned on her shovel. Her hole wasn’t nearly as big as Peter’s or Joe’s but it would soon be the size of a shallow grave. Where the hell was that damn metal box? If she didn’t find it quickly she wouldn’t be able to lift her arms anymore. She’d never done this much manual labor. “You sure this is the place?” She studied the trees towering around them as if they might offer her some sign.

Joe’s shovel continued to scrape against the soil. “How many times are you going to ask me that?”

“Sorry. But it’s been fifteen years. That’s a long time. And this deep in the forest, everything looks the same.”

“I know where I buried it,” he said. “Or about where I buried it.”

“It’ll be here,” Peter chimed in.

Claire was surprised Joe’s brother had deigned to speak to her. He still wasn’t happy that Joe had decided to take her into his confidence. He hadn’t complained about it since the initial confrontation ended; it was a moot point now. But he thought that what they’d divulged was too risky, and he had a point. That risk was the reason Joe had kept his silence for so long. He had a lot to lose if this came out, and it would come out if it had any bearing on her mother’s case.

Although Claire had been tempted to ask him about Leanne’s tape and what had happened when Alana showed up at his place the day she went missing, she hadn’t wanted to bring up that subject in front of Peter. She got the impression he didn’t know about it, was pretty sure Joe had kept it from everyone. She didn’t know if he’d handled it that way because Alana would’ve wanted him to or because Tug wouldn’t give him any more work if he told or because he was simply that nice.

After the past few hours, she was willing to believe he was that nice. He hadn’t had to come clean, even now, but he wasn’t willing to keep secrets if doing so put Claire in harm’s way. At least, that was what he said. After the incidents at her mother’s studio and then her house, he was convinced he had to speak up. Having her appear on his doorstep this morning, and feeling that Carly was once again running off at the mouth about a relationship between him and Alana—those things had been the final straw.

She was glad he’d broken his silence. But what he’d told her wouldn’t be worth much if they couldn’t find the metal box to back it up.

“One of us will find the damn thing eventually,” Joe added.

She just hoped the sun, and her strength, would hold out long enough. They were all damp with sweat, which meant they’d be cold once night came on. Pineview had beautiful summers with plenty of mild, warm days, but the air could get chilly as it grew late.

“What does the box look like again?” She was stalling, couldn’t convince her aching arms to lift another shovelful of dirt.

Scrape. Plop. Joe kept at it. “It’s a cash box.”

“Right.” Tilting her head back, she gazed up at the sky and cursed the growing darkness. She’d been away too long. Surely Isaac had returned from Myles’s office in Libby and was wondering where she’d gone. She wished she had some way to call him, to relieve the concern he had to be feeling, but she’d never dreamed retrieving this evidence would take so long. Joe had said he remembered where he’d buried it.

Peter paused to look over at her. “You want to give up for today? We could always come back tomorrow after work.”

He seemed to like that idea, and it was no wonder. He had nothing to gain by finding the box.

“We’re not quitting.” After all those hours of digging, they had to be close…?.

A frown creased his face. “We’ll have to quit soon. It’ll be too dark to continue.”

Joe wiped his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I can’t believe we haven’t found it yet. Maybe we’re wasting our time. Maybe some animal dragged it away.”

Claire bit her lip. No. That couldn’t have happened, not after all the years she’d waited for Joe to speak.

“You think it’s gone?” Peter asked.

“What would an animal want with—” she started, but Joe figured out where she was going with this and interrupted before she could finish.

“Depends on the animal. Maybe with erosion and whatnot it was uncovered. A bear could’ve come across it and tried to break it open. They’re always looking for food.”

“But it wouldn’t smell like food.” And she had to have some luck, didn’t she?

“I’m just saying…something must’ve happened to it, because it was here.”

“It’s still here,” she insisted. “Come on. Let’s give it another hour.” Summoning what remained of her energy, she positioned her shovel at the bottom of her hole and jumped on it so it would cut deeper into the soil.