Slow Burn

by Heather Graham

  He’d called her that afternoon—with the same observation that Audrey had made.

  She exhaled, leaning against the edge of the small family mausoleum that sheltered her from the view of anyone who might have been driving along the twisting roads that led through the cemetery. The stone felt very cold, and she felt like an absolute idiot for being here. It wasn’t as if she was carrying a gun—or as if she would know how to use one if she did. She had pepper spray in the car—Danny had always insisted she carry it, and he had shown her how to use it. But she hadn’t thought to bring it with her; she wasn’t planning on accosting anyone. She had just come to see what was going on, to make sure that if any grave robbers did come, they wouldn’t touch Danny’s grave or desecrate his tomb in any way.

  She started to shiver.

  This was nuts. What did she think she was going to do, if someone did show up? Was she going to yell at some ghoul in the middle of a dark cemetery and tell him to stop?

  Especially when he might be her husband’s murderer?

  It was an old cemetery, filled with trees and foliage. She tried to tell herself that her car was parked relatively close by at the doughnut shop just across Eighth Street, that even though it was very late, the main streets were teeming with people—even though the cemetery did seem unbelievably dark and still and silent, and far from civilization. In fact, there were probably a number of cops eating doughnuts right by her car. But then, that was at least half a mile away.

  An owl let out a hoot, and a nearby tree rustled, and she nearly jumped into the mausoleum. She forced herself to remain still and stare toward the tree. Images of Dracula came to her mind. Creatures breaking out of their tombs. Maybe the human monsters from Night of the Living Dead. Werewolves, mummies…

  But this wasn’t Egypt, and there was no full moon. In fact, with the clouds, there was barely a moon at all. She felt like an idiot. And she deserved to. She shouldn’t be here. A squirrel had rustled the tree—she could see it now, even in the shadows, leaping from the ground to a monument, and then to another tree. No creatures from beyond the grave were going to come after her. In fact, she’d gone through a period of mourning when she’d lain awake at night just praying that Danny could come back as a ghost, in voice, in spirit—in anything. But Danny hadn’t come back. It was just as her father had once told her, the dead were the least threatening people in the world.

  No, it wasn’t the dead she had to fear. It was the living.

  The cloud broke over the moon, and a silver light fell down on the cemetery. It was time to go home, she told herself. A very light fog was rising, and it was growing cool and damp and uncomfortable here. It was time to go crawling over the wall and go home. Nothing was going to happen. Unless she was arrested in her black jeans and black denim shirt and sneakers for breaking into the cemetery. No, the cops would never arrest her. They would just suggest to someone in her family that Danny’s death had been her undoing, and that it was sad, but she really ought to be put away somewhere—fast.

  She started to move, but then a chill swept over her again, and for some reason she couldn’t fathom, she stood dead still. She tried not to give way to flights of imagination, but the fog had added a strange feeling to the graveyard. It was a ground fog, deepening, swirling around marble images of Christ and praying angels. She heard a rustling sound again, and this was different. Something much larger than a squirrel was coming around one of the old oaks just down the trail past the vault she was leaning against.

  She breathed quickly, her heart hammering. She could hear footsteps; then a figure appeared. Then another figure, and another, all dressed in black. Carrying spades and picks. They emerged in silence from the fog, walking her way. Walking as if they were staring right at her.

  They couldn’t possibly see her; it was just coincidence that they were heading in her direction. Her fingers icy, her heart slamming so loudly that she was certain someone would hear it, she ducked very low against the mausoleum.

  “Where?” someone demanded in whisper.

  “There, in the center,” someone whispered back.

  Keeping low, Spencer swung around. She noticed what she hadn’t seen before in the darkness—a new grave, the earth just packed over it. This was crazy, she thought. They were living in the twentieth century, and people weren’t just dumped underground, they were well protected before being placed in their graves. But apparently these grave robbers knew what they were doing. They moved furtively and quickly, six of them, she counted, and every one of the six carrying a tool with which to dig—or to break open a coffin. She wasn’t even sure just what all the tools they carried were, exactly.

  She couldn’t tell one man from another—if they were all men. They were dressed much like she was, in black, but they wore black caps, as well, and ski masks. They looked like bank robbers, she thought, and realized that hysteria was bubbling up inside her. The way they were moving, she had to inch around the mausoleum to keep from being seen. When she had rounded a corner, she sat on the earth, her back flat against the stone, staring into the night. She couldn’t get up and run now; she would be seen. She could only sit where she was, barely daring to breathe, listening.

  She heard the sound of spades hitting the earth. Somehow, just the sound made her flinch. She twisted to peer around the corner of the small mausoleum. As she did, her sneakered foot scraped against a rock.

  It was a small noise. It shouldn’t have been heard, not against the determined shoves of the spades digging into the earth. But somehow…

  One of the diggers went very still, staring in her direction.

  “What is it?” a husky voice asked.

  “Don’t know…something,” was the muttered reply.

  She flattened herself against the stone, afraid to exhale her pent-up breath. She had to look. She peered around again. One digger had remained standing perfectly still, staring in her direction. It was dark, she was in shadows…and she’d been seen.

  She stared at the figure in black and felt the figure’s stare in return. Felt the eyes, felt the danger…

  She didn’t think—there was no time to think. She stood and ran, tearing down the central path, aware that her best bet would be to head for the main street. She was fast, she’d always been fast. And she knew the layout of the cemetery well enough.

  But figures were tearing after her at tremendous speed.

  She veered off the main path, around the huge, central mausoleum. She tore along a pathway to a gate but found it locked.

  She could hear footsteps coming closer. Furtive, but moving quickly, coming in her direction.

  She burst away from the mausoleum, ducking low to run behind angels and Madonnas that rose high against the shadows and the fog. She ducked behind one and listened. Running footsteps passed her by. She remained where she was, thinking herself an absolute idiot for the thousandth time. There was enough danger in Dade County. She hadn’t needed to go looking for it. And these people had come to rob a new grave for body parts. They seemed to like them fresh. The fresher the better.

  Hers would be very, very fresh….

  She leaped up, bordering on panic. She could see a figure farther along one of the trails. She turned to run the other way.

  Fingers suddenly curled around her ankle.

  A scream of sheer terror rose in her throat, but she never managed more than a strangled gasp. Even as she inhaled, she was falling to the earth, falling into a hole, into darkness, into what seemed like an incredible void.

  She landed against flesh. Terror wound more tightly within her, but she couldn’t catch her breath to scream. It was like a nightmare.

  A hand clamped tightly over her mouth, and horrible visions of the living dead raced into her panicked mind. The scent of the fresh damp earth filled her lungs, and it seemed as if it was the smell of death.

  She felt herself being lifted and righted. Then she heard a whisper, hushed, dictatorial. “Shush! Whatever the hell you do, don’t scream. It’s me
. David.”

  She was shaking. She’d probably never been more frightened in her life. She registered slowly that it was David—she really had run into David in a freshly dug hole in the middle of the cemetery in the middle of the night. It seemed impossible.

  “Get down!” he told her.

  Easy to do—her knees were buckling beneath her. She could scarcely breathe, and she was willing herself not to pass out.

  “What in God’s name are you doing here?” she demanded in a whisper. It felt as if the blood had drained from her body. Her hair had probably turned completely white.

  She clenched her fingers tightly. Wound them into white-knuckled fists.

  “Damn it, David.”

  “Shut up, Spencer!” he repeated in an emphatic whisper.

  She managed to make a few observations. Basic black was really in. David, too, was in black. Black jeans, black T-shirt, black cotton jacket. She had a feeling that he was wearing a shoulder holster beneath the jacket.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked again, barely mouthing the words. Despite the darkness, she was sure he heard her.

  “What are you doing here?” he demanded in return.

  “Watching for the grave robbers,” she admitted flatly.

  “Well, they’re watching for you now, Spencer, so please, can we talk later?”

  She gritted her teeth, and leaned back. She came against a wall of dirt. Very damp dirt. She looked up at the night sky and realized that she was six feet under. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling.

  It was very dark. She could barely see David, but she could sense his movements, at least. He’d reached into his jacket. For his gun, she was certain. But then she heard him talking. Softly, barely a whisper.

  Number sequences, the name of the cemetery, the address. “Southeast of the main mausoleum,” he said at last.

  He was on a very small cellular phone, she realized, and stared at him incredulously.

  “A phone, no gun?” she said softly.

  He replaced the phone and pulled his gun, arching a brow at her. “Six of them, one of me. I’m good, Spencer, but, hey, cut me a little slack here, huh?”

  She started to answer then went still again as they both heard trees rustling nearby and felt the tremor of the earth near them. Loose particles fell around them. Spencer felt the blood draining from her face.

  David motioned to her to get down. She shrank against the wall of the grave, hunching as low as she could. Someone came nearer and nearer, very near. So near that he was looking into the open grave…

  Suddenly David pressed away from the opposite wall, catching the man’s ankle as he had caught hers, causing him to plummet wildly into the grave. He landed with a hard whack, sending dirt flying into Spencer’s face. In the darkness she barely saw him raise his head. A moonbeam caught the light of his eyes against their frame of knit ski mask, making them glitter. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Spencer heard a click as David cocked his gun.

  “Rise slowly, quietly—and carefully,” David warned.

  The figure began to follow instructions. Even as he did, Spencer could hear the sound of sirens in the night. Closing in. But she was still standing in an open grave—empty other than the living, she prayed—with David and a grave robber. The space seemed to be way too small for the three of them.

  She became aware of shouting, the grave robbers calling out in anger, warning one another, some cries in English, some in Spanish. Lights were flaring, and there were other calls now. “Halt, police! Stop, or we’ll shoot!”

  The cemetery suddenly seemed ablaze as the beams of flashlights cut across it.

  “Can we get out of here?” Spencer asked David.

  David shrugging, keeping an eye on the robber who was sharing their hole in the earth. “Since the police have just warned everyone that they’ll shoot, we might be better off down here for a few minutes.” He grinned. “Then we can let our friend crawl up first.”

  Was it seconds, minutes or eons longer? Eventually someone called out, “Delgado, where are you?”

  “Here!” David cried.

  In a few moments a uniformed officer was staring down at the three of them, perplexed. Spencer realized that she knew him. She had danced with him one year at the policemen’s ball. His name was Tim Winfield. “Mrs. Huntington?” he inquired incredulously.

  “Give the lady a hand up, Officer Winfield,” David suggested.

  “Oh, yeah, of course.”

  Tim Winfield was young but strongly muscled. He clutched Spencer’s hands, lifting her easily out of the grave. He kept staring at her once she was standing by his side.

  “Now you,” David told his captive. He looked at the young cop. “Might want to give this fellow a hand, too, Winfield. But keep an eye on him while you do.”

  David hopped out of the grave even as Tim Winfield pulled the ski-masked culprit up to ground level. When they were all standing, a plainclothes man Spencer hadn’t met before came forward. She might not know him, but David did.

  “Lieutenant,” David acknowledged.

  “Mr. Delgado,” the cop said, offering him a handshake and staring at Spencer. “We’ve been after these guys for a long time. Thanks for the call.” He stared again at Spencer, taking in her black outfit, smiling.

  “A new investigator on the payroll, David?” the lieutenant inquired, amused as he assessed Spencer. He was tall and lean, with thinning brown hair, but he had a decent enough smile.

  Officer Winfield gasped, letting out a choking sound, then pretending to cough.

  “No, Lieutenant Anderson, this is Mrs. Huntington. Mrs. Daniel Huntington.”

  “Oh!” the lieutenant said, looking at Spencer in a new light. He was, she knew, wondering what the hell she was doing dressed up like one of the grave robbers.

  “Spencer likes to walk at night. In strange places,” David offered.

  “Dangerous places,” Anderson said, looking Spencer over very seriously once again. “How did you know that something was going to go down here tonight?” he asked David suddenly.

  “I didn’t,” David answered flatly, holstering his gun as a uniformed cop came to take the grave robber away. The cop instantly began to read the man his rights.

  “Then—”

  “It was Spencer,” David said politely. “You see, I followed her here,” he told Anderson, watching Spencer from the corner of his eye. “It seems that Mrs. Huntington doesn’t believe that either I or Miami’s finest are really doing our jobs to the best of our abilities.”

  “Mrs. Huntington,” Anderson said, and now he sounded worried, “you can’t take these things into your own hands, you know.”

  “I don’t actually want them in my own hands—” she began, but Anderson interrupted.

  “What were you doing here, then? Who tipped you off? What is going on?”

  “I came here because…” She paused. She was never going to tell them about Willie. Never. And it didn’t matter. Audrey had drawn the same conclusion. Anyone could have. “I came because I thought the grave diggers might show up here. I didn’t want them digging Danny up.”

  “And how did you intend to stop them, Mrs. Huntington?”

  Spencer opened her mouth, then shut it. They were both staring at her. David was delighted to see Anderson harassing her—he wouldn’t have to do it himself.

  “Yes, Spencer, just what was your intent?” David asked, his tone irritatingly polite.

  She stared at Anderson. “I—”

  “Withholding information from the police is against the law, Mrs. Huntington. You must know that.”

  “Withholding information?”

  “Where did you get your tip?” Anderson asked impatiently.

  Spencer inhaled deeply. “No tip-off, Lieutenant. My secretary happened to notice the way the last wave of grave robbings made a circle around the city. All she did was read the newspaper. Maybe the police should try taking that direction on occasion!”

  “Mrs. Huntin
gton, I’m afraid that we’ll have to ask you to come down to the—”

  “Anderson,” David interrupted, “I really don’t think that will be necessary. There’s nothing more Spencer can tell you, and you’ve got at least one of these ghouls to grill. Maybe your men have come up with a few more. I’ll take Mrs. Huntington home.”

  “You two know each other, huh?” Anderson said.

  “Not that well—” Spencer began.

  “For ages,” David interrupted.

  Anderson grinned. “Well, you sure do dress alike. I guess I don’t need anything more for tonight. I know where to reach you, Delgado. And Mrs. Huntington—”

  “I haven’t moved, Lieutenant. I’m still at Danny’s address, and you can reach me at the same number. And I’ve been down to the station plenty of times, so I’ll know where to go if you decide you do want something from me.”

  “We just want you to let us do our jobs, Mrs. Huntington,” he said, taking her hand. She thought for a moment that he was going to kiss it. She almost wrenched it away.

  “Come on, Spencer, let’s go home,” David suggested.

  They started walking. She resented his hand at the small of her back, but she resented Lieutenant Anderson more. Even as they started walking away, he called her back.

  “Mrs. Huntington, it is illegal to trespass in graveyards at night, you know. Don’t make a habit of it.”

  She swung around. “Ah, but I did catch a few crooks for you before they could chop up any more bodies, didn’t I?” she inquired sweetly.