by Terry Odell
“There are always possibilities. But that’s your job.”
“See how fast you can do yours, so I can start doing more with mine,” Gordon said.
Asel walked around the van and hoisted himself inside. Gordon watched him drive away. Chills rippled down his spine as he thought about someone burying body parts all over the Kretzers’ woods—or all over Mapleton.
As Gordon pondered the repercussions of doing a full-blown search for buried bones, he noticed two figures walking toward the house. Hand in hand. They’d look at each other, laugh, then look away. Then look again, laugh again. Soon, they were close enough to recognize. Megan and Justin. Rose had them pegged.
He went inside to wait, even though they certainly didn’t seem concerned about anyone noticing their obvious affection. Maybe he was the one who’d rather not deal with it. Could he see himself walking down a public street holding hands with Angie? When he couldn’t, he tried to decide if it was because he had this image of himself as Chief of Police, an official who had to remain above human emotions? Or was it because he’d never been comfortable showing any affection in public, long before he’d become a cop? His parents certainly hadn’t. Or was it because he wasn’t sure if he felt that deeply about Angie?
He shoved all those questions aside. Right now, he had more important ones to deal with.
Rose had cleared Asel’s dishes, but left the food on the coffee table. Gordon eyed a plate of cookies, but his appetite had disappeared, due only in part to Rose’s insistence that he ess, ess. He did, however, accept a refill on his coffee. Mit Schlag. When the garage door ground open, Rose jumped up and scurried toward the kitchen. “That will be Sam. He has to hear about these bones. I still cannot believe it. Bones, buried in the woods. And a coroner, sitting in my living room.”
Not a typical Sunday for Rose, Gordon thought. He vowed to clear this up as quickly as possible. No reason to bring the shadows of crime into their sunny household.
Sam entered the room, Rose at his heels. Sam settled onto the couch and accepted a cup of coffee. “Rose tells me you found human remains. But you don’t know whose they might be.”
Gordon nodded. “Do either of you remember any stories, rumors, anything about someone gone missing years ago?”
Rose and Sam exchanged a look. Sam shook his head. “You mean under unusual circumstances? People leave town all the time. Or they die. Perfectly normal.”
“Ach, but we wouldn’t know if someone said they were leaving and then they were gone—if they ever got to where they were going,” Rose said. “Like Benny and Zannah. They were going to retire to Miami Beach. They go, but poof! Not a phone call, not a post card. Like they dropped off the face of the earth.”
Sam snorted. “You never said two words to either of them while they lived here. Why would they start communicating with you after they left?”
Gordon pulled out his notebook. “Give me their names, I’ll look into it.”
Rose’s eyes widened. “You’re serious? You think someone killed Benny and Zannah?”
Gordon stifled a laugh. “I doubt it. Right now, I’m in the information-collecting phase of the investigation. Even the most far-fetched ideas have to be checked out.”
“If you find them, tell them hello,” Rose said.
“Rose,” Sam said.
“What?” Rose huffed. “Because they leave and never say a word, I can’t be the bigger person?”
The front door opened, and Megan and Justin walked in. Not holding hands, Gordon noted. Megan’s hair was damp, and Justin’s shirt had triangles of wetness at the neck and armpits, which fit with Rose’s claim they’d gone for a run. As they passed, Gordon noticed twigs and leaves clinging to the back of Justin’s shirt, and Megan’s curls sported a few more. Maybe they’d been getting their exercise in another manner. He forced back the grin threatening to erupt.
None of your business.
“Have a nice run?” Sam asked.
Did Gordon detect a hint of a flush on Megan’s cheeks? Not unexpected after a run around the lake, but—.
“Justin took it easy on me,” Megan’s eyes met Gordon’s. “Hi, Gordon. What brings you over here on a Sunday?”
He heard the unspoken question. Why aren’t you with Angie? She’s off after the breakfast rush on Sundays.
He would be. Later. She’d said she’d wait. But he didn’t need to share that with Megan.
“Gordon wants to talk to you both,” Rose said. “Come down after you clean up.”
While Megan and Justin went upstairs, Gordon continued his questions. Rose was more than willing to talk, giving him name after name of people she’d known who were no longer living in Mapleton. Or whose children—or grandchildren, nephews or nieces—were no longer living in Mapleton. Dutifully, he wrote them in his notebook.
Megan trotted downstairs and joined them, snagging a cookie before lowering herself to the floor. Sitting cross-legged, she tilted her head at Gordon. “So, what’s up?”
“There are bones in the woods,” Rose said before Gordon could speak. “From a human being.”
Megan stopped, cookie halfway to her mouth. “What?” She looked at Gordon, as if to say tell me Rose is kidding.
“It’s true,” Gordon said. “Only a few bones, and all we know is that they’re human.”
“You have no idea whose they are?” Megan looked at Rose and Sam. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We only found out this minute,” Sam said. “Gordon is hoping you might know something.”
“About buried bones?” She shook her head, sending her curls bouncing. “No way.”
“Rose said you used to play pirates out there,” Gordon said. “Searching for buried treasure.”
“Sure, but I never saw any bones.” She gave a quiet laugh. “Best we ever found were old bottles. And they weren’t buried, really. Just covered with leaves and stuff. We pretended they were bottles of rum, like in the song.” Her smile widened. “But we never found the treasure chest that was supposed to go with them.”
“What about the ghost?” Justin’s voice preceded him down the staircase.
Gordon almost choked on his coffee. “Ghost?”
Justin strode into the room and sat in the vacant easy chair. “Sure. When we were kids, everyone said the woods were haunted.”
“Everyone, as in who?” Gordon asked. “Other kids, or someone else?” To his knowledge, the only person who believed in ghosts was Betty Bedford, but she was dead. Murdered, in fact, but not by a ghost.
“Good grief, Justin,” Megan said. “You didn’t really believe all that nonsense, did you? That was us kids trying to scare you.” An apologetic expression, aimed at Justin, flashed across her face. She turned to Gordon. “We gave Justin a hard time. He was the outsider, visiting during vacations. Kids can be cruel.”
“Like the time you dragged me up to what’s-his-name’s place? Crazy Frank?”
“Freddy?” Gordon asked. “Fred Easterbrook?”
“Yeah, that was it.” Justin said, with a pointed glance at Megan. “As I recall, I wasn’t the only one scared spitless that night. The full moon, all the shadows. And that howling.”
“What is all this?” Rose said. “You were out at night? Alone? When? How old were you?”
Both Justin and Megan blushed. “Busted,” Megan whispered.
“Twelve, I think,” Justin said. Another pointed glance at Megan. “Someone convinced me that my existence in Mapleton depended on proving I wasn’t a coward. And I also recall that I wasn’t the only one to high-tail it out of there. Or even the first to run.”
“I said I was sorry.” Megan lifted her hands.
Rose glared at Megan and Justin, as if she was going to punish the two of them now for a transgression carried out years before. Sam put his hand on her arm and shook his head. She rolled her eyes, sighed, and leaned back on the sofa, arms folded across her chest.
“All the kids did it,” Megan said. “It was a rite of passage. Sneaking ou
t to Crazy Freddy’s place and carving your initials into an old oak tree.”
Rose interrupted. “Megan. Such talk. Calling poor Mr. Easterbrook crazy. In this house, we show respect for others. And we don’t go traipsing onto other people’s property.”
Megan blushed beet red. Gordon busied himself stirring more whipped cream into his coffee. Should anyone look, his initials would be on that oak tree, too.
The tree in question was close enough to the house to make it scary, far enough away so you wouldn’t likely be caught. But knowing Fred had a Mossberg 500 added to the fright factor. Rumor had it Crazy Freddy shot a kid’s hat off, but the kid had never been able to show the hat to prove it. Not to mention a shotgun blast that did any damage to someone’s hat would have done considerable damage to said person’s head at the same time.
“So, did you do it?” Sam asked.
Rose slapped Sam’s arm. “You are condoning this behavior?”
Sam smiled. “Fred was aware of the rite. I think he enjoyed knowing he had such a reputation. He may have tried to frighten them a little, perhaps by making strange sounds, maybe sneaking up to where they would know he was nearby, or having his dogs bark. But he would have never hurt these children.”
Rose tsked. “Fifty-three years I’ve lived here and I’ve never known this.”
Neither had Gordon. Kind of took some of the fun out of the accomplishment.
“Getting back to haunted woods,” Gordon said. “Was it just Fred’s place, or were there other rumors?”
Justin shrugged. “I think it was the woods in general. Made everything scarier, since you couldn’t avoid one specific spot. Not that I was prone to wandering the woods at night. I’d proven myself and that was plenty.”
“Any details about the hauntings?” Gordon asked. “You know, whose ghosts, what they were doing, why they were there?”
“Like were there ghosts killing people and burying them?” Megan said.
It sounded stupid put like that, but any straw was worth clutching at right now. “Or anything else? Rumors and stories are often based on fact.”
Justin and Megan exchanged a quick glance, more affectionate than questioning. Not all that different from the ones between Rose and Sam. Gordon wondered if people got the same message when he and Angie looked at each other.
“Nah,” Justin said. “Just generic ghosts. You know, the if you go into the woods at night, the ghosts will get you stuff.”
“Megan?” Gordon asked. After all, she’d grown up here, unlike Justin who merely visited. Maybe she’d heard more, although he doubted it, since he’d never heard anything about ghosts, and he’d grown up here, too. However, he was a couple of years older, and they’d run in different circles.
She shook her head. “Nope. Other than some kids thinking the noises at Crazy Freddy’s—Mr. Easterbrook’s—were ghosts. Most of us thought it was him coming after us.”
“Ghosts. Sneaking around. Buried bones. What will come next?” Rose said.
Sam patted her arm again. “Nothing, I’m sure. Gordon is a good man. He’ll straighten things out.”
Gordon hoped Sam was right. He put away his notebook. “Thanks for your time. I’m going to call in a search dog to go through the woods. I doubt I can get anyone to show up before tomorrow, but I’ll let you know when to expect it.”
“I thought Mapleton had a police dog,” Megan said.
“Buster’s not a—he’s not trained for that,” Gordon said. Mapleton’s K-9 unit was Solomon’s German shepherd, and he was a tracking dog, not a cadaver dog. Somehow, using the term “cadaver” felt out of place in Rose’s pristine home.
“The sooner the better,” Rose said. “I don’t like the idea of bones in the yard.”
“You want us to search?” Megan asked. Her eyes glistened a little too much. Like it was a game.
“No, I’d rather nobody go out there. And if you do notice anyone on your property, call me right away. Don’t confront them.”
“Are you saying someone might be skulking around out there? That we’re in danger?” Rose asked.
“No, I’m not,” Gordon said. “That’s part of the reason we’re trying to keep this quiet. My assumption is that whoever buried the bones is long gone. But if it turns out to be someone local, I’d rather he go on thinking nobody’s discovered his secret.” He explained the story he and Jake Shore had worked out. Rose and Sam laughed at the idea of a time capsule, but agreed to play along should they hear any gossip.
After saying his good-byes, and armed with yet another plate of treats, Gordon stopped at the station.
Dropping the plate off in the break room, he took in the quiet pervading the station. Quiet was good. He popped in to Dispatch, requesting an increase in patrol frequency in the Kretzers’ neighborhood. Tessa looked up from the paperback she was reading.
“Everything okay with your mom?” Gordon asked.
“Broken wrist, but she’s home now, thanks.”
“Good to hear. Treats in the break room,” he added as he left.
In his office, he was pleased to see his inbox was still empty. Laurie, his admin, would fill it with the weekend reports on Monday, but for now, he felt like a free man. He called in the request for a cadaver dog, explained it wasn’t high priority, and left his number with the search coordinator.
Two-fifteen. Ahead of schedule. Time to enjoy what was left of his weekend. He called Angie to let her know he was finished early. Her answering machine picked up, so he tried her cell. Puzzled when his call went straight to voicemail, he left a message saying he was on his way.
Gordon found a slot on the street not far from Daily Bread. Nothing unusual about stopping in for coffee or a late lunch. After all, nobody would know he’d eaten his fill at Rose and Sam’s.
Before getting out of his car, he tried Angie’s land line and cell again, with the same results as before. Maybe things had gotten busy, or they were short-staffed and Angie had to work after all. Her phone might be off, or maybe she’d forgotten to charge it. They’d both been… distracted… last night. If she was waiting tables, he knew she wouldn’t have her phone.
Go inside, idiot. Speculating about bones is one thing. No need to play detective with Angie.
With Angie, what you saw was what you got. And he was looking forward to a little more seeing and getting today.
He strolled down the sidewalk toward the diner’s entrance. Pausing briefly to get his damn grin under control, he pushed the door open and gazed around the room.
Donna, one of the wait staff, smiled and walked toward him. “Hey, Chief. If you’re looking for Angie, she’s not here.”
Chapter 8
Reluctantly, Megan trailed behind Angie as the two of them wandered through the woods. Angie halted in a small clearing. With her eyes closed, she raised her arms to shoulder height and turned slowly, first in one direction than the other.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Megan said. But at least it kept her mind off her own problems.
“Unless you’d rather tell me what’s bothering you.” Angie stopped mid-turn and narrowed her eyes at Megan. “Is it Justin?”
Megan couldn’t deal with that now. Yes, she and Justin were good together. But would they be good together if he knew what she was doing? She fisted her hands at her sides. “I told you, nothing’s bothering me.”
“If you say so.” Angie resumed her rotations. “I want to see if I can pick up any sensations.”
“Since when do you see into the past?” Megan asked. “I thought you got premonitions, not… postmonitions.” Not that Megan believed Angie’s self-proclaimed powers actually existed. But it was easier to go along with her request than to argue. So here they were, walking back and forth, round and round, stopping from time to time so Angie could absorb the vibrations.
“I’m testing my senses,” Angie said. “Who knows what powers I might have?”
“Does Gordon know you’re doing this?” Megan asked. “He told us we sho
uldn’t poke around out here.”
“I’m not poking,” Angie said. She flapped her hands. “See, not touching.” She moved deeper into the woods.
Megan sighed and followed. Rose had gone upstairs for a well-deserved nap. Sam was probably asleep as well, although he’d be in front of the television set. She sensed that Gordon’s earlier visit had stressed both of them, and they’d earned the down time, especially after the excitement of Rose’s surprise party. For the first time in as long as Megan could remember, Rose hadn’t been up at dawn fixing breakfast.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Megan said. “Does Gordon know you’re here?”
Angie reddened. “No. I figured I’d be done here before he finished whatever he was doing. I’d rather beg forgiveness than ask for permission. Especially when I know he’d never give permission.”
Megan bit back her immediate response. That was between Gordon and Angie. She had half a mind to leave Angie on her own. But her conscience wouldn’t allow her to. She might not be able to convince Angie that she shouldn’t be out here, but at least she could make sure her friend didn’t do anything stupid.
Oh, admit it. You’re curious, too. And maybe trying to solve the mystery of the bones would fill the void until she figured out what to do next. After all, she and Justin had done a respectable job helping Gordon solve a murder on her last visit to Mapleton.
“So, where were these bones?” Angie said. “No, wait. Don’t tell me. Let me see if I can sense their presence.”
“Their absence, you mean. Someone from the Coroner’s Office took them to be tested. Besides, I don’t know where they were, so I couldn’t tell you if you were right.”
“Then I’ll go with my gut.” She pointed. “I’m getting some kind of vibes from over that way.”
“More like the vibrations of a woodpecker pounding on a nearby tree,” Megan muttered.
“You know, you don’t have to tag along.” Angie smirked. “Isn’t Justin in the house?”
“He’s working,” Megan said. “He’s got a grant proposal due for his job, and he doesn’t need any distractions.”
