Skeleton's Key (Delta Crossroads Trilogy, Book 2)

by Stacy Green

  “The windows were jammed shut,” Dani said. “He didn’t come through them. There is another way. I just have to find it.”

  “You’ve done all you can for now,” Gina said. “All the rooms are opened. You know what kind of shape things are in. You’ve checked the locks. I really think it’s best if you step aside unless we call you back to search again.”

  Dani pushed a lock of damp hair off her face. “He’s right. I’m missing something.”

  “Let us look,” Gina said. “You go back to Magnolia House. Get a shower, something to eat. Then go to the historical foundation and research that letter. I trusted you, and now it’s your turn to do the same for me.”

  The young crime scene technician came into the room carrying something in his gloved hand. “Found something.”

  “Where?” Gina said.

  “Renters’ bedroom. In the far corner of the closet, as though it had been kicked aside.” He opened his fist to reveal a pocket watch. “It’s old, right?” His question was directed at Dani.

  She got to her feet for a better view. “Given the marred and yellowed state of the glass and the gold, it looks like it. But there’s no way to tell without checking the serial number. Is there an engraving?”

  “Nothing,” the tech said. “You think the watch could have been a Laurent family heirloom the historical society missed?”

  “Doubtful, especially if you found it in the renters’ bedroom,” Gina said. “Who knows how many people came and went from there? I’d say it’s more likely the owner accidentally dropped it.”

  “I’m not sure it’s quite that old, either,” Dani said. “I’m not an expert on watches, but this looks more like something from the 1940s. The Laurent men were dead by then.”

  “Tag it and bag it,” Gina said. “Run it for prints. Maybe we’ll get something.”

  “I’ve got a colleague in Indianapolis who specializes in historic jewelry. If I could send her a picture–”

  “It’s evidence,” Landers said. “We’ve got our own expert contacts. We’ll handle it.”

  Dani raised her hands in defeat. “I’ll head out, then.”

  Gina promised to call her with any news. Landers walked her to the entrance, hands stuffed into his pockets.

  “Saw your shoes by the door,” he said.

  Dani paused to look at her bare feet. The soles were dirty. She’d forgotten.

  “I got stuck in the mud this morning.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me.” He looked surprisingly sympathetic.

  She waited for him to make a disparaging Yankee remark, but he simply held open the front door for her. The rain had finally ceased and air stickier than cotton candy had replaced it.

  Dani sucked in a hard breath and reached for her shoes. She wasn’t even going to bother putting them on.

  “Driveway is still mucky,” Landers said. “Don’t go too slow otherwise you’ll be stuck good.”

  “I won’t.”

  “And stay off the dirt roads if you’ve a mind to go exploring. You’ll get stuck for sure.”

  “Why are you being nice to me?”

  “Well, you spent all morning sweating it out, crawling around this dirty old house on your hands and knees, looking for a needle in a haystack. Didn’t complain, didn’t argue with Gina’s orders. I figure that deserves some respect.”

  “Thank you.” Frustrated tears stung her eyes. “But I missed something. There has to be another way in.”

  “Take Gina’s advice. Get cleaned up, go look after that letter. Then maybe you can take another stab at it.” He turned, heading back to the house. “I’m serious about the roads. You don’t want to get stuck out there, Miss Dani.”

  It wasn’t until Dani was halfway to the car, feeling the wet grass beneath her feet and breathing in the sweet scent of jasmine that she caught Landers’s term of endearment.

  Guess she wasn’t a damned Yankee anymore.

  * * *

  Cage greedily gulped the glass of lemonade Jaymee offered, sinking into the recliner in the living room. He should have been sleeping since he had a shift tonight, but he was too wired from the information he’d come to share.

  “Nick said you called him about Ben Moore.” She crossed one long leg over the other and waited, her features set in disapproval.

  “Just trying to see what I can find out.”

  “And that’s not driven by a grudge at all, is it?” She asked sarcastically.

  “Nope.”

  Her mouth lifted in a knowing smirk. “Not by jealousy, either.”

  “No idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Right.” Jaymee settled into the plush couch. “I like her. She’d be good for you.”

  He snorted.

  “You need someone to challenge your cantankerous ass,” Jaymee continued. “Someone who will keep you up on your toes instead of inside your head, brooding.”

  “Maybe.” He played with a hangnail on his index finger. “But it’s unexpected.”

  “Such is life. You need to stop taking it so seriously and live it.”

  “I’m trying.” He never was one for change, and the past few years consisted of too many upheavals. His fractured mind still wrestled with the idea that just maybe, he’d stopped loving Jaymee a long time ago and clung to the notion for some sense of comfort.

  The front door opened, and Dani’s voice echoed through the foyer. “Jaymee? You home?”

  “In here.”

  Dani rounded the corner, shoulders slumped and dragging her feet. She was red-faced, and dirt smeared her pastel tank top. Another smudge decorated her right knee. Barefoot, she carried her shoes, one of them caked with dried mud.

  She skidded to a stop when her eyes met his, and her neck reddened. “Hi. I’m a mess.”

  “What happened?” The idea of her stuck on the road in the rain with a murderer possibly lurking around made Cage’s stomach turn. “You get stuck? Why didn’t you call?”

  “I didn’t get stuck exactly. My foot did. In Ironwood’s drive.”

  Cage bit his lip, and Jaymee coughed back a laugh. “I forgot it was dirt. I should have warned you. Drop the shoes in the front hall, and I’ll get you something to drink.”

  “Thank you,” Dani said. “Let me just attempt to get decent.”

  After she got rid of the dirty shoes and changed her clothes, Dani came back into the living room and took the opposite end of the couch. She pulled her hair out of the band letting it fall to her shoulders. Elbows on her knees, she pushed the loose hair off her face with a shaky sigh.

  They sat in awkward silence, listening to Jaymee bang around the kitchen. Dani spoke first. “You might be right.”

  “About what?”

  “The authority figure thing.” She looked down at her toes, painted with soft pink.

  Cage thought the color suited her.

  “I was pretty harsh last night,” he said. “I had no right.”

  “No, you did. You’d warned me, and I treated you like a simpleton.” Worry lines creased her forehead as she leaned toward him, her hand inching toward his on the cushion. “I’m sorry.”

  The tension gripping his shoulders melted away. “No problem. Me, too.”

  She smiled, and he found himself admiring the way her nose wrinkled with the movement. Fidgeting under his scrutiny, she clasped her hands in her lap and looked down.

  He cleared his throat. “What else happened today?”

  Jaymee returned and handed Dani a glass of lemonade. Dani took the glass but didn’t drink. She stared ahead, eyes narrowed and shifting, as though she were reading an invisible cue card.

  “Dani, what is it?” Jaymee asked.

  “Someone was camping out,” Dani said. “In the master bedroom. The one that was probably John James’s. And the room has been cleaned and recently restored, but the hallway was so dirty Gina and I left tracks as we walked. There were none leading to the room. There has to be another way in. I just couldn’t find it.”


  Jaymee took the glass from Dani. “Forget plain lemonade. I’ll add some vodka.”

  “You…that’s impossible.” Cage tried to form a coherent thought. “I would have known if someone had recently been in the house.”

  “Not if they snuck in when you were working and used a secret passage,” Dani said. “That’s the only explanation.”

  Sipping the cocktail, Dani told Cage and Jaymee everything that had happened at Ironwood that morning.

  “What do you think?” Jaymee asked Cage.

  He drummed his fingers against his forehead. None of this made any sense. Could he really have been that blind? How could someone have restored the floor in a bedroom without Cage having a clue? Why hadn’t he smelled the chemicals?

  “How long ago do you think the room was restored?”

  Dani shrugged. “Hard to say. Could be two years, could be a month.”

  “So it could have happened before I started taking care of the place?”

  “Sure. But that room hadn’t been abandoned very long. Meaning someone was hanging out upstairs while you were on the job.”

  He dropped back against the chair. “How did I not know?”

  “You work a lot of night shifts,” Jaymee said. “You worked inside Ironwood during the day. Small town. Easy to find out. Whoever it is was probably creeping around when you were on shift.”

  “Maybe.” Didn’t change the fact that whatever had happened had probably gone down on Cage’s watch.

  Jaymee kicked his foot. “You said you found something out today. Care to share?”

  Cage eyed the vodka bottle and wished he could have a drink. “I talked to Billy at the coroner’s office.” He quickly ran through the information from the intern, saving the best for last. “Pretty sure Dani’s right about what the victims were doing at Ironwood.”

  “Why?” Dani drained the last of her drink.

  “Because one of them had a cameo brooch in his pocket.”

  Dani surged forward. “Was it old? Or a cheap replica?”

  “A jeweler in Jackson specializing in antique jewelry said that judging from the shell and inlay, it dates back to the 1890s, possibly the turn of the century. More importantly, it’s one-of-a-kind.”

  “How could they tell that?” Dani asked. “There are all different kinds of cameos, and a lot of them were mass produced by that time.”

  “Because the picture isn’t of a woman or anything else you’ve seen on a brooch. It’s of the front steps of Ironwood.”

  Dani stared, mouth open slightly, hands tight against her knees.

  “You’re sure?” Jaymee asked.

  “Jeweler says the design on the brooch matches the front facade of Ironwood. Gina sent her pictures.”

  “And Gina shared that with you?” Jaymee’s expression had reverted back to disapproving sourpuss.

  “Of course not. Billy’s in the loop.”

  “Nice, Cage. You’ll probably end up costing the kid his job.”

  “Oh bull,” Cage said. “Everyone else in this town talks, and he’s got his own mind. He didn’t have to–”

  “Who cares?” Dani jumped to her feet. The shock had evaporated, leaving her with a slightly crazed look. “I need my computer.” She hurried into the hall and quickly returned with her laptop. Fingers tapping even more rapidly than she could speak, she punched something into the computer. “Come on, load. Your Internet is slow down here.” She waved her hand. “Sorry, sorry.”

  She turned the laptop around to face Cage and Jaymee. “This is a picture of CaryAnne Laurent. It’s in the family files at the historical foundation and is dated around 1894.”

  CaryAnne Laurent stared back at Cage for the first time. Her eyes were light, her skin nearly as fair as Dani’s and looked porcelain smooth. Her hair could have been dark blond or brown, pulled back into an ornate twists with the sides pinned in soft waves. Delicate features, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth–CaryAnne had been beautiful. In the middle of her high-collared dress was the cameo brooch.

  “So the victims were going through the house.” Jaymee looked to Cage for confirmation.

  “I don’t think they were just going through the house.” Dani paced, apparently a habit when she was excited. “This is something that would have been kept in a very special place, for sentimental if not monetary value.”

  Now Jaymee was on her feet, the two women facing each other, both with wide eyes and scheming expressions that spelled trouble. Jaymee clapped her hands together while Dani did a funny dance on her tiptoes. “The cache.”

  Dani nodded. “It’s real.”

  “You think they found Ironwood’s hiding spot and were killed over it?” Cage didn’t like where the conversation was headed.

  “What else is there?” Dani said. “Especially with what we’ve got to go on. A secret passage, an old pocket watch, a possible skeleton key, and a one-of-a-kind brooch.”

  “Ironwood wasn’t randomly chosen as a dumping ground for these men,” Cage said. “Either our killer and the victims were working together, found the cache, and the killer got greedy, or he was ahead of them all along, and they infringed on his find.”

  “What do you mean?” Jaymee asked.

  “I hate to say it, but who else has access to the keys and unlimited time at the house? Besides me?”

  “You’re talking about Lee.” Dani shook her head.

  “The bottom line is that someone who knew that house better than anyone else killed those men. And going by what you found today, it sounds like someone who lived and breathed the place. Someone who would do anything to protect her. Or protect the fortune he’d spent years looking for.” Even as he said it, Cage couldn’t picture Lee Walker killing anyone. A heady sense of déjà vu struck him. He’d thought the same thing about another man two months ago when Jaymee had disappeared.

  “You need to find out everything you can about Ironwood as it was when John James lived there.” Jaymee was talking almost as fast as Dani. “See if you can find the passage used to get into his bedroom. But for all we know, CaryAnne could have modernized and had the passage covered up.”

  “The blueprints I have are reproductions,” Dani said. “The originals must be at the historical foundation. Maybe I can find something on them. I’m heading there first thing in the morning. And I’m meeting Ben at Oak Lynn for dinner tomorrow, so maybe I can find out some more information from Grace.” Her last words came out in a rush.

  Cage’s stomach sank with the weight of a bucket of Mississippi river rock. “You realize you can’t tell Ben about anything you saw today, right? You shouldn’t have told us.”

  “I trust you. And yes, I realize.”

  “You need to remember something, Dani.” Cage insisted to himself he wasn’t speaking out of jealousy. She needed to know. “Money makes the world go ’round. Or the desperate spin in circles.”

  “What?”

  “So?” Jaymee said.

  “You know Ironwood is the last unrestored antebellum left in Adams County, right?” Caged glanced between the two women, suddenly wondering when they’d gotten to be so close. Back on the couch, they sat knee to knee, both looking equally interested and irritated with him.

  “So, it’s also got a prime location, close to a crossroads between Natchez and Roselea. You’ve only got three acres with the house. Know who owns the rest of the old cotton fields? The ones you can’t see beyond the thicket of woods that runs behind Ironwood and Oak Lynn?”

  “Gina told me about Norton Investments and Ben Moore helping them buy the Semple Farm. And about the rumor they wanted to buy Ironwood too.” Dani rubbed her temples. “So I’m the house’s savior. But you still haven’t said what financial motive someone would have—”

  “Ben Moore was brokering the deal between Norton Investments and Adams County Baptist.” Cage wanted to yank her off the couch and give her a shake. “He sent a lackey down here for meetings–didn’t want anyone to see him around. He was furious when the thing fell
through. Guess he stood to make a mint. Norton Investments wants to put up a hotel, make Ben a partner. His mother would have been furious, but money’s always been his true love.”

  “How did you find all this out?” Dani asked. “Lee hasn’t told me any of this. Why did he tell you first?”

  Cage looked down at his feet. “Didn’t hear it from Lee.”

  “Nick.” Jaymee said.

  “Who’s Nick?”

  “My boyfriend,” Jaymee said. “He’s an investigative reporter in Jackson. Can pretty much find any kind of dirt on anyone. That’s what this morning’s call was about?”

  “Didn’t take him long, either,” Cage said. “And speaking of Lee, I’d like to know why the hell Lee Walker didn’t share any of this with me yesterday.”

  “Because he knew you’d have a fit,” Jaymee said. “And he probably thought it didn’t matter. He likely had no idea Ben was back in town.”

  “Fine,” Dani said. “So Ben doesn’t care about the historic relevance of Ironwood or Roselea for that matter. How is that motive for murder? And if he did kill those men, why bury them in a place he knew would no longer be abandoned?”

  Cage scowled, and she held her hands up. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you, or that you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m saying I’m not connecting all the dots.”

  “I don’t have all the answers yet,” Cage said. “And maybe he’s not the killer. But between his arrival, the letter, and now his wanting to help you search–he’s got to be considered a viable suspect. Think about it, please. He lost out on millions, Dani.” Cage let the words sink in. “But if Ironwood were to be up for sale again, say thanks to a new owner who discovered the unthinkable and just can’t handle the place, Ben’s in the perfect position to convince you to sell to Norton Investments. Pads his pockets. And if he’s the killer, he’s got an inside ticket to the investigation.”

  Dani lowered her head. Her hands lay limp in her lap. She took a long breath and then exhaled. “All right then. So Ben’s officially an ass and maybe a killer. And I’m exhausted.” She stood up, directing her next words at Jaymee. “I’m going to crash. If I don’t talk to you before you leave in the morning, I’ll let you know what I find out at the foundation.”