chapter six

word count: 433

"You mean the can is missing?" Bud Kramer's shrill scream echoed through the jail yard. "How could you lose an important piece of evidence? You want to tell me that?"

"Well, we took the body out and then called your office. We kinda forgot the canister, until now. Someone hauled them all away." Droplets of sweat dribbled down the super's brow.

"How am I supposed to figure out who handled that baby?" Bud Kramer stepped forward, pushing his face up close to the other man's. "What the hell do you expect me to do now? HUH?"

"I dunno, sir."

"You don't know. Get outta my face! Go on. GIT!" He watched the man scurry off. "Damned incompetence," Bud Kramer muttered. Now what to do. They had the corpse of an abandoned stillborn and very little else to go on. Who had mistreated that body?

Stan observed from a distance, crouched low around a corner, eyes wide. Maybe things would be all right. He watched as Bud Kramer kicked up dust angrily and stormed off. That was smart thinking of Vic to help get those canisters out of here in a hurry. He'd have to slip some extra smokes to that Raul guy, too. Maybe things are going our way, he thought.

Later, Jessica woke up to a pounding on the door. Her head hurt. And the residue of a bad dream lingered as she struggled to get across the room. She felt empty, a vast echoing cavern inside, like she'd lost something. What had she lost? Oh, that's right...her baby.

"What took you so long?" Stan stood in the doorway glaring at her.

"I was sleeping."

"Do you feel better? What did they say at the hospital?"

"I didn't go." She shot him a glance. "I feel okay."

"You're gonna feel better when I tell you what happened after you left." Stan helped himself to a beer out of the fridge and plopped down in the best easy chair. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table. Dirt from the yard still clung to the soles of his big black boots. "I was able to pull in a few favors and get someone to haul away the cans before the Medical Examiner could get to them. Something held him up in the office so there was time."

"They took the baby away?"

"Nah, they pulled the baby out before that. But everything else is gone, dumped over a hill or in the river or something probably." He leaned over and clutched her hands in his. "Babe, they've got no evidence against us."