Blood and Bone

by Dawn Brown

  Dedication

  For Max. Special thanks to Katherine, Teresa and Bella for all your support and friendship.

  Chapter One

  Familicide: A multivictim murder resulting in the deaths of the killer’s spouse and one or more children.

  “Are you married?” The man sitting across the booth fixed his silvery eyes on Shayne’s bare ring finger.

  “No.” She followed his gaze. Even after a year, she could still see a faint imprint in her flesh. Or maybe she simply imagined she could. After all, how many times had her thumb reached to fiddle with the smooth band only to find skin instead? “Not anymore.”

  “Divorced?” He grabbed his beer off the table and tilted the bottle to his lips.

  Careful. Don’t let him draw you in. You know better. “Mr. Anderson, we’re not talking about me.”

  He chuckled low in his throat. “No, I guess we’re not.”

  Shayne forced a smile and met the man’s gaze. Even after twenty-five years, Robert Anderson looked remarkably similar to the pictures from his police file. He’d been thirty-two when he’d gone to prison, making him nearly sixty now. His black, springy hair showed a considerable amount of gray, and deep lines grooved his face around the eyes and mouth. His shoulders remained broad and what she could see of his build was trim. Dressed in a faded pair of jeans and olive-green shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, he looked like any other man.

  Nothing about him gave away he’d once served time for murdering his wife and ten-year-old stepson.

  “I must admit,” Shayne said, struggling to keep her voice light, “I was surprised when you asked to meet.” Especially, after his last voice mail, telling her rather forcefully he had no intention of participating in her book and not to call him again. “Thank you for agreeing to speak with me.”

  A smirk twisted his mouth, lifting one corner. “Don’t thank me yet.”

  The knots in her belly tightened. Shayne glanced around the dimly lit bar. A pub at dinner hour had seemed an ideal place to meet. Unfortunately, the crowd she’d envisioned at the Salty Dog actually consisted of three half-conscious barflies, a bartender who had yet to break eye contact with the television set, and a middle-aged waitress yakking on a pay phone near the door.

  She shouldn’t have let a two-time murderer choose the locale for their interview, but desperate times…

  “Can I ask you something?” Anderson’s unnerving stare locked on her face.

  Shayne fought the urge to shift back and put more space between them. “Of course.”

  “Why now?” He leaned forward. “Why write this story now?”

  “I may not.” No reason for him to know how important his story was to her book. “I’m considering at this stage.”

  Anderson rolled his eyes. “What made you consider this story now?”

  Let’s see, after the money I’ve spent on lawyers’ fees fighting my self-centered prick of an ex for my half of the life we built—not that there’s much left after the infertility treatments—I find myself low on funds. And because you’ve already been tried and convicted, I can write this book in about half the time it would normally take me.

  “Your recent release from prison caught my interest,” she replied instead.

  “You and everybody else,” he muttered, before taking a deep swig from his beer.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Who do you plan on talking to?”

  “I’ve spoken to the investigating officers, your lawyer, the prosecutor. Now I’m arranging interviews with friends and family. Do you mind if I record our conversation?” She pulled her notepad and audio recorder from her purse.

  Anderson shrugged, his expression inscrutable.

  “Thank you.” She set the recorder on the table between them, flipped to a blank page in her notebook and waited for Anderson to speak. When he didn’t, she asked, “What happened the night of May 10, 1984?”

  “You have a copy of my confession, right? Use it.”

  “I’d like to hear the story in your words.”

  He sighed. “Gwen was unhappy with me and wanted to leave. I came home from work early and found her in the process of doing just that. We fought. I shot her.” His voice was bland, flat, as if he recited from a script.

  “Why did you shoot your stepson, Christian?”

  Anderson shifted in his seat and glanced toward the bar. “He got in the way.”

  “Your stepdaughter was found at the side of the road, carrying your son and running away from the house. Had you planned to kill Julia and Desmond too?”

  He flinched. “No.”

  God, how terrifying that night must have been for two small children. What kind of person could kill a child? Kill his own child? Shayne looked at Anderson seated opposite her—so ordinary, even attractive. She tried to envision him hunting down his children in the woods and couldn’t quite manage it. “Did you go after Julia? Try to stop her?”

  “No.”

  He was lying. She’d read his confession. “How did Christian get in the way? According to the crime scene, you shot your wife at the front door. Your stepson was shot in the chest at the opposite end of the hallway. The story you’re telling now is quite different from what you claimed in your confession.”

  Anderson snorted. “It’s been a long time. I don’t remember exactly what I said.”

  Anger sparked inside her, a flickering flame. Christian’s image from the crime-scene photographs popped into her head. His lifeless form crumpled on the floor, a dark hole the size of her fist in his chest. “I’m not interested in what you said. I want to know what you remember.”

  He glared at her for a long moment. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  A chill blew through her, snuffing out the anger. Still, she ignored her pounding heart, kept her back straight and her voice strong. “I beg your pardon?”

  “You’ve opened one hell of a can of worms, prying into things that are none of your business.”

  She’d made a mistake. The man clearly had no intention of answering her questions. Maybe he’d planned to intimidate her into giving up the book. Good luck. She’d dealt with far more menacing men than Robert Anderson. Granted, most of them were safely locked behind bars.

  “Obviously, Mr. Anderson, you are not interested in participating in this book.”

  She dropped her notepad into her purse and stood. As she reached for the tape recorder, Anderson’s arm snaked out. His fingers closed around her wrist. “You can’t leave yet. Not until I give you what you came for.”

  “Let go of me.” Blood pounded in Shayne’s ears in time with her thundering heart. She tried to yank free, but Anderson’s grip tightened just shy of painful.

  “Relax,” he said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Let. Go.” She hauled back her free arm, ready to blacken his eye.

  The bartender glanced away from the television and the barfly nearest them roused long enough to frown in their direction, but neither of them made a move to help her.

  “Fine.” He released her arm and she stumbled back a step. Her heart thudded against her ribs and the muscles in her legs turned soft. Without looking away from him, she rubbed the tender flesh on her wrist.

  “Sit down,” he told her. “I’m about to give you exactly what you want.”

  She remained standing. “Oh yeah, what’s that?”

  “An exclusive.” From the bench beside him, he lifted a legal-sized envelope, the brown paper badly creased from extensive use, the material inside at least three inches thick. He dropped the package on the table between them with a thump.

  “What’s in the envelope?” she asked.

  “Proof I didn’t kill Gwen or Chris.”

  Shayne slowly lowered hersel
f onto the seat and struggled not to roll her eyes. An innocent man wrongfully accused? The prisons were full of them. “You should be showing it to your lawyer or the police. I’m a writer, not an investigator.”

  “Read it. When you’re done, you can decide if you believe me or not.”

  She itched to tug the envelope closer and have a peek at what was inside. Get ahold of yourself. This guy’s clearly working an angle.

  She laced her fingers together and met his silver eyes. “Let me get this straight. You’re innocent. You have proof you’re innocent. Yet you’ve just finished serving twenty-five years in prison?”

  He stared, but didn’t say anything. Her fingers tightened. “Why did you confess? Even without your big envelope of proof, the evidence against you was circumstantial at best. The only two people to witness the crime were your eight-year-old stepdaughter and your two-year-old son. Julia was too traumatized by the experience to identify you, Desmond too young. You stood a very good chance of an acquittal.”

  “You know how to reach me.” He pushed the envelope toward her and slid from the booth.

  He was leaving? He dragged her all the way out here and he was leaving without answering her questions? Oh no, he wasn’t. Envelope or not, she wasn’t done.

  Shayne scrambled after him. “Wait.”

  To her surprise, he did. He faced her, folding his arms over his chest.

  “If you didn’t kill them, who did?”

  He held her gaze for a long moment, then, without another word, started for the door.

  She moved to follow, but her purse strap caught on the corner of the table, jerking her back. Cursing under her breath, Shayne unhooked the strap. As she turned to go after him, the waitress from the pay phone blocked her path.

  “Eight seventy-five,” she said, her mouth a bare slit between round cheeks.

  “What?”

  “For the beer,” the woman snapped.

  The jerk stuck her with his tab? “Nine bucks for a beer?”

  “It’s an import.”

  A taste he’d developed serving time in prison, no doubt. Shayne reached into her purse, dug out nine dollars and slapped the money down on the table.

  “No tip?” the waitress complained.

  Yeah, right. She’d been on the phone the entire time Shayne had been in the bar. “Don’t worry, I think there’s enough left for another call.”

  Shayne burst out of the bar and squinted against the brilliance of the late-afternoon sun. Where did he go? She glanced up and down the busy sidewalk, searching the faces for Anderson’s, but he was gone. Absorbed into the steady stream of people.

  She blew out a long sigh. “Shit.”

  Now what? She glanced at her watch. Nearly five. Great, after a waste-of-time interview, she had a long drive in rush hour traffic to look forward to.

  She started for her car parked at the curb. The sun’s rays beat down on her bare shoulders. Sweat beaded beneath her light blouse. The thick, stifling air stank of exhaust from the cars creeping past in an endless parade.

  Damn it. Nothing with this book was going her way. Anderson was the first break she’d had in weeks. With Gwendolyn’s mother and youngest son threatening legal action if she tried contacting them again, and the daughter dropping off the face of the planet entirely, Shayne needed that interview.

  Maybe she should give the book up, start something new. No, she was too far in. Her legal bills had eaten through her advance, and her deadline loomed.

  Once she reached her car, she slid into the driver’s seat. The late-August heat had converted the car’s interior into a small sauna. She dropped her bag onto the passenger’s seat and turned the envelope over in her hands.

  Innocent man, huh? Sure he was. Still, she was curious. What was in here that Robert Anderson believed would clear his name?

  Wide packing tape held the flap closed. She picked at the edge with her fingernail, peeled back the strip and tipped the envelope until the pages inside slid into her palm.

  Frowning, she thumbed through the stack of photocopied articles. Each item appeared to be about men who’d murdered their wives and children. Some were articles detailing the events, others psychological studies listing common traits in the perpetrators.

  What was all this? Did Anderson not trust her to do her own research? Maybe he’d hoped to intrigue her with another case so she’d drop his.

  “Proof my ass,” she muttered. While the articles made for interesting reading, there was nothing within the pages to exonerate him as far as she could tell. What exactly was he trying to tell her?

  At the top of the first page, Anderson had written his phone number, and under that, Call me when you’re ready to talk. R. Shayne gritted her teeth. The man had to be lying. Why would he confess to a crime he hadn’t committed? But she’d call him. If for no other reason than to get a better handle on the angle he was trying to work.

  The electronic pulse of her cell phone cut through the quiet. She tossed Anderson’s package onto the passenger’s seat and she reached for her bag. The hot, leather seat burned her bare shoulder. She jerked away with a curse, then dug through the mess of ATM statements and receipts for her phone. As her grasping fingers found the cell wrapped in the tattered remnants of an old tissue, the ringing stopped. She pulled the Kleenex away and a message symbol flashed on the screen. After flicking off an ancient cherry Life Savers stuck to the back, she listened to the message.

  “Ms. Reynolds, this is Carla from the Pinecone Lodge calling. I’m afraid I have some bad news. It seems the clerk who made your reservation overbooked. We don’t have a room available for you. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

  “Apologize for the inconvenience?” Shayne muttered. She was supposed to arrive in Dark Water tomorrow. God help her if she had to spend one more day living in her parents’ basement, she’d be the one behind bars for murder.

  She scrolled through the Missed Calls log until she came to Carla’s number and hit Talk. A busy signal hummed in her ear.

  She grabbed her battered planner from the glove compartment and rifled through the loose scraps of paper stuffed into the book. On her third time through, she found a yellow Post-it with a phone number scribbled across it. She hadn’t included anything besides the number, but the area code looked right. She dialed and hoped for the best.

  “The Pinecone Lodge.” Shayne recognized Carla’s nasal voice.

  “This is Shayne Reynolds. I received a call that my reservation has been canceled.”

  “That’s correct, Ms. Reynolds. I’m sorry for any trouble this has caused.”

  “Do you have anything available?” Even a broom closet would work.

  “I’m sorry, no. We’re booked solid for the festival.”

  Fabulous. “Could you give me the number for another hotel?”

  “We’re the only hotel in Dark Water.”

  Of course you are. “Is there anything available in town for a short-term rental?”

  “I wouldn’t know.” Carla’s voice turned huffy. “You would need to contact the realty office.”

  “Do you have the number?”

  The clerk sighed. “Just a moment.”

  After a few seconds, she read off a phone number .

  “Thank you for your—” a click then a dial tone hummed in her ear, “—help.”

  So much for small-town warmth.

  Shaking her head, she dialed the number Carla had given her. A perky receptionist answered. “Grey Family Realty, how can I help you?”

  Grey family? Any connection to Gwendolyn Grey? Had to be a coincidence. She wasn’t that lucky. “Yes, I’m looking for a place to rent or lease for a short-term period.”

  “One moment while I transfer you.”

  A strangely disturbing Muzak version of “Yellow Submarine” filled her ear then cut off abruptly.

  “Yeah.” The impatient male voice caught her off guard.

  “Um, hello, I’m looking for a rental property. Something short-term. I w
as hoping you could help me.”

  “Can you hold on a sec?” he asked, sounding distracted.

  “Sure.” She rolled her eyes.

  The receiver clunked as he set it down. Instead of more “Yellow Submarine”, the faint sounds of his cursing followed by loud, hollow banging drifted from the phone.

  “Hi,” he said, “sorry about that. You’re looking for a rental? Anything specific?”

  “Cheap,” Shayne told him, her dwindling bank account a constant presence in her mind. “And furnished. And available tomorrow.”

  “Huh. How long were you looking to stay?”

  “Two weeks.” It shouldn’t take her longer than that to get what she needed for her book. And by then, she should have the money from the condo and could pay off her legal bills and look at starting over. “A month,” she amended, buying herself more time.

  He grunted and she heard the rhythmless clacks of typing.

  “Maybe two.” That way she could write the book there—no distractions, no “I told you so’s” from her father and no pitying stares from her mother. And when she was done, she could find a place to live.

  “As long as you’re sure.”

  “Sorry.” She rubbed her forehead. “I hadn’t considered this. I was supposed to be staying at the Pinecone, but they overbooked.”

  “Overbooked?” A combination of disbelief and amusement filled his voice.

  “Because of the festival.”

  “If you say so. I have something for you. It’s a little rustic, but I think it might work.”

  “As long as there’s running water and electricity, I think I’ll be okay.”

  He chuckled softly. “Great. You’re arriving tomorrow? What time?”

  “Early, between eight and nine.”

  “God, it’s Saturday,” he groaned, like a kid who’d been told to do his homework. “Fine, I’ll meet you at the office, nine o’clock. Do you know where it is?”

  He gave some quick directions that she scratched out on one of the scraps of paper in her Day-Timer.

  “What’s your name?” she asked, realizing she wouldn’t know who to ask for when she got there.

  “Des Anderson.”

  Des? As in Desmond? Maybe she was that lucky, after all.