Bone Deep by Debra Webb Page B

help.” Her voice sounded as hollow as she felt. There had to be something.
    He reached for the door. She didn’t miss the fine tremor in his hands. “The police will figure it out. They can’t be that blind.”
    Adrenaline fired through her. He had found something. Stay calm . “You’re probably right.” Don’t challenge him. Lead him . “They aren’t blind. I’m just not sure they’re going to look.”
    In a few days they would call off the primary phase of the search for Cody. It was the only logical thing to do. She knew the routine. A bigger story would come along and the press would lose interest, search volunteers would return to their lives and jobs. Then it would be over for Cody. But every fiber of her being cried out for them to continue. He was out there. She knew he was. And he was alive.
    “I can’t control what the local authorities do,” Phillips argued. “I can only tell you the three things I know.” The haunted look in his eyes—this man she had deep down hoped would be her miracle—spoke of uncertainty and fear. Emotions every bit as strong as her own.
    There was something. Jill’s heart rose in her throat. “Please, tell me.”
    “First,” he said tightly, “any fool can see the beating your sister suffered didn’t take place in her home. It happened somewhere else, at the hands of someone besides her husband. Whoever did this to her, she feared for her safety. Make them look harder.”
    “There is more to this.” It wasn’t a question, she’d known it all along. But to have it substantiated, even by someone she had every reason not to trust had victory soaring inside her. This was no love triangle. Her sister hadn’t been involved with another man.
    Phillips held up a hand for her to listen. “Second, your sister, in my estimation, most likely did kill her husband. I can’t give you motive for her actions or even for my conclusions,” he went on before she could interrupt, “it’s just something I know.”
    Jill’s hopes wilted. She still resisted accepting that her sister could do such a thing. How could he know with such certainty? He couldn’t. More of that frustration she’d been battling swooped in on her. How could he give her such hope only to knock her down again?
    She wanted to rail at him that he couldn’t be certain but one more look into those fierce, dark eyes and she had to admit that, somehow, he was. Defeat settled heavily onto her shoulders.
    “Third,” he continued, his voice low and tight, tension spiking. “The boy” he paused, looked away. “The boy’s alive... somewhere.”
    Jill’s heart leapt in her chest, her hands went to her mouth to hold back the sob that shook her. Thank God. Oh, thank God. She’d known Kate couldn’t hurt her son. She’d known it with all her heart.
    “We have to find him.” No matter what she thought she knew about this man, he believed her. She couldn’t let him go.
    “Don’t.” He held up his hands, his face grim. “This is all I can give you. Don’t ask me to stay.” He shook his head, the movement scarcely visible. “I can’t.”
    As frustrated and confused as she felt, she understood that whatever had happened to this man, the pain and fear he suffered was very real. He was rigid with the weight of it, distant, untouchable. The articles she’d read about him…the horrors he had investigated and evaluated…the breakdown…all of it zoomed into vivid focus like scenes from the latest bestseller by Stephen King.
    He’d said he didn’t do this anymore. Coming was a favor to Richard. In that moment Jill suddenly realized the heavy price it had cost Paul Phillips to come here.
    As much as she needed him, basic human compassion wouldn’t allow her to beg him to stay. This battle was going to consume her life, perhaps even tear it apart. How could she ask him, a man who had no personal ties to the crime or the people involved, to set himself on a course for self-destruction again? She