Dead on the Fourth of July (David Dean Mysteries)

"Which you then stole."

"I heard you talking from the garden. But then you were so convinced the bones belonged to that man Josh that I decided to let matters play out."

"How did you locate the skeleton in the mine to be able to swap it? You said you were lost in 1941, after the killing. It's very confusing in here."

"Billy knew where he'd found the skeleton. He drew me a map."

"Why?"

"When the child he told about the bones didn't come forward and report what he saw, Billy still felt wrong about the skeleton remaining undiscovered. I told him I'd pretend I found the bones to let him off the hook. By that time, the mine was open anyway, so going in there wasn't breaking and entering. But then the little girl Martha came forward and changed everything before I had a chance."

"Weren't you afraid Billy would know what he saw wasn't the fake bones Fitzgerald brought out of the mine?" Dean asked.

"Billy admitted to being pretty drunk when he found them. Besides, there was a good chance Billy would never see what Fitzgerald retrieved. I took that chance."

"Why did you kill your uncle in the first place?" Cynthia asked.

"He. . .wasn't a nice man. Sometimes he tried to do. . . things."

"What about his wife?

"Aunt Helen? She left the day before, to visit her sister in Denver. He never tried anything when she was around. He told us there was gold in the mine. I believed him-I was only twelve and wanted to go with him. Ralph warned me, but when I insisted, he figured if we stuck together Blackie wouldn't get away with doing anything-wouldn't have a chance before we left the next day."

"But he did."

"We thought we were really clever. We marked the way out of the mine but then he showed us he'd picked up our markings. He had the only light. He split us up, in the dark, until we were so scared we'd do anything to get out of there. He told us we'd never get out if we didn't-do things. God, he was an evil man! He made me get undressed and that's when Ralph hit him. At first, we just ran. We were still lost. It seemed like hours before we found our way out."

"How did you know he was dead?" Dean asked.

"We knew."

"Why didn't you and your brother come forward after your uncle was killed?" Cynthia asked. "You were just children!"

"Nobody would believe a kid against the word of an adult. That's how kids think."

"What did you do?" Dean prompted.