Bones Omnibus Read Online Free

size now stood in the way.
    “What is that?” the agent asked.
    “A Yorkie,” Billy shot back, eyeing the terrified dog. “She’s been hurt.”
    It took a lot of coaxing to calm the Yorkie down. What finally did it was one of Bones’s carob treats. Billy placed it about a foot in front of the small animal, and her hunger overwhelmed her fear. Even as she accepted the snack, the little dog’s eyes never left Bones. When the shepherd finally padded over to the Yorkie, she looked like she might bolt away again. But as she was cornered, she finally allowed the bigger animal to give her shredded ear a quick lick. The terrier remained tense but didn’t swat the shepherd away when he continued to clean her wound.
    “Wait a sec,” said the station commander. “Is he licking up dog’s blood or people blood? Your canine could be destroying evidence.”
    “It’d be tainted anyway,” Billy guessed. “Better just to calm her down.”
    The dog handler heard the others in the room scoff. He didn’t expect them to understand what the little dog had gone through, much less care.
    Billy tried to locate a leash among Ferris’s things, but finally gave up and simply took the Yorkie outside on Bones’s lead. He figured the shepherd could be trusted not to run off and was proven right. Whether it was out of concern for the Yorkshire terrier or loyalty to his handler, Billy didn’t know. The sergeant had initially thought Bitch might be able to help with the blood trail, but after peeing against a tree, she promptly fell asleep at Billy’s feet.
    As the unlikely two-dog, one-handler trio sat on the porch, forensic techs came and went. Some were after fingerprints, others, DNA evidence. An entire squad of ballistics experts showed up, with property and evidence techs soon to follow. The last items to be tagged and hauled away were the two vehicles that had brought the doomed men to Ferris Aaron’s doorstep the night before. As the two tow trucks departed for the Pittsburgh impound, the ATF agent stepped out of the shack and eyed Sergeant Youman.
    “You’re still here?”
    “Figured we’d check for scents once the Yorkie woke up.”
    “Why? I think we’re good here.”
    “My report’s going to look pretty barren otherwise. Might as well pad it out to justify the trip up.”
    The agent chuckled and headed away. Billy looked down and saw that Bitch was awake.
    “Let’s take a walk. Don’t make me look like an asshole.”
    The group set out for the woods. Billy could tell right away that the Yorkie was in no shape to play police dog. So he took it easy. He relaxed the circuit he and Bones made around the shack, and more or less took the pair for a walk.
    “You get anything, I’m sure you’ll let me know,” Billy said quietly.
    As if on cue, the Yorkie tensed. Its nose dove to the ground. There was a familiar scent in the grass after all. Bones moved next to the smaller dog, sniffing around as well.
    “Don’t tell me she found something you didn’t,” Billy scoffed.
    But now the Yorkie was on the move. As she headed north toward the railroad tracks, her gait switched from a trot to a run. Though she was small, Billy still had a hard time keeping up once she was at a full gallop with legs extended. It was then that Billy heard the second electronic train horn of the day, this one coming from a train rolling westward toward Pittsburgh.
    “Shit!” he hissed, double-timing it as he cursed himself for letting the dogs off the leash.
    If he somehow lost an animal in his charge to an oncoming train, he prayed it was the Yorkie.
    The horn sounded again, the time closer and with what Billy imagined to be with greater urgency. Bones was still close at his side, but as the Yorkie rabbited ahead, Bones accelerated as well, following the unseen trail. When the train finally came into view, it was less than fifty yards away. The sergeant had never been great at math, but even he could tell that the Yorkie and the locomotive