“I know she’s scary, but—”
“Rattlesnakes are scary. Great white sharks are scary. Ebola’s scary. That”—Leander pointed to where Aurelia had been a moment ago—“is an apocalypse waiting to happen.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch.” It was a poor attempt to defend Aurelia.
“If so, not much of one.” Lifting the dog out of the single porch chair, Leander practically fell into the chair, the dog plopped on his lap. “And they say you’re the sane necromancer.” Leander blew out a disbelieving breath. “I’m beginnin’ to have my doubts on that one.”
Running my fingers through my hair, I nodded. “You’re not the only one.” Sanity was in the eye of the beholder, and right now mine was on a winding road with red, flashing warning signs around every bend. The problem was, there was no turning back. No side trail where the road smoothed and the sun shone brightly. I was stuck on this pockmarked road, and all I could do was hold on to the wheel with both hands and pray to Gaia the road eventually led to greener pastures.
Chapter
Two
Franklin
“Not sure you’re gonna get much on this one,” Officer Johns said as I walked closer to the remains. “I’m no ME, but I think whatever happened to this victim, we missed it by a few months, if not years.”
“Not much left?” I asked as I continued forward. The underbrush was mostly last year’s faded growth. Weeds and grass were tenacious though, and there was a green underbelly to all the brown that would soon take over. It was easy to see where the officers on the scene had already stepped, as well as the person who’d found the body—or rather, her dog.
“Not that I can see. Obviously, I haven’t gone digging around but everything I can see appears to be skeletal. Dr. Stowe might be able to find some fleshy bits when she does the autopsy.” Johns didn’t sound too chuffed over the statement. We’d worked too many homicide cases together. In a lot of ways, skeletal remains made the job emotionally easier. The lack of odiferous decomp also helped.
Pulling the pen from my suit jacket, I crouched next to where the majority of the body lay. At least that’s what we thought. We wouldn’t know for certain until the remains were removedfrom the shallow grave they’d been buried in. Lifting up a piece of fabric, I found myself staring at what I thought was a femur. From what I could see, the rest of the leg was missing, and the ground around this area was the most disturbed.
“I think the dog got the lower part,” Johns said. I could hear the wince in his voice. “That’s how our witness found the body.”
Elbows on my thighs, I gazed over the remainder of the ground. When you looked carefully enough, the depression in the disturbed soil was evident. A bark drew my attention to the right and toward our two witnesses.
“The woman’s name is Lily Bates. The excited labrador is Barkley.” Johns chuckled. “Barkley seems pretty damn proud of himself. He was still trotting around with the lower leg in his mouth when I arrived on scene.”
My eyebrows flew heavenward as I stood. Pushing my jacket back, my hands settled on my waist, exposing my firearm. “Christ, that had to be upsetting to the owner.”
Johns shrugged. “You’d think so, and most likely it was. But I’ll tell you what, Lily Bates is one tough old bird. So far, she’s taking the whole thing in stride. I’ll bet you she’s the kind of person you want in your corner during a crisis. My momma would call her unflappable. Officer Lacey took her statement already, but I asked Ms. Bates to hang around until you got here. I figured you’d have your own questions.”
“Thanks, Johns.” I clapped the younger man on the shoulder and made my way over to an awaiting Lily Bates. While I wasn’t certain of her age, Lily Bates was definitely on the other side of sixty-five. Already petite, the woman appeared even smaller compared to the one-hundred-plus-pound labrador sitting at her feet, tongue lolling to the side and panting heavily. While I found the weather pleasantly warm, Barkley evidently didn’t agree. Then again, I hadn’t been out walking alongside a country road for the past thirty minutes or so.
“Ms. Bates,” I said by way of greeting. “I’m Detective Franklin O’Hare. I’d like to ask you a few questions about what happened earlier.”
Lily Bates didn’t hold out her hand to shake. Instead, she used both of them to grip Barkley’s flex leash tightly. Her dark brown skin blanched slightly along her knuckles, indicating the force with which she held on to the leash.
Lips pinched and eyes narrowed, Ms. Bates stared up at my towering figure. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“No ma’am. I’m originally from the Chicago area.”
Ms. Bates snorted. “I thought you sounded northern.”
“Are you going to hold that against me?”
My question earned me a critical once-over. “I don’t suppose so. Looks like God gave you the good sense to move south, so that must mean you’ve got some brains.”
I couldn’t have stopped my grin if I’d tried. My nana would love this woman. “I can’t say that I miss the Chicago winters. The summer heat gets under my skin a bit, but I’ll take the trade-off.”
Ms. Bates nodded. “Like I said, looks like God gave you some common sense. Now, what do you want to know?”
Lily Bates and I spoke for a good ten minutes. Most likely I asked the same questions Officer Lacey had asked, but sometimes when you gave someone time to consider a question, their answer changed. Most witnesses weren’t intentionally untruthful; they simply forgot things or didn’t consider something important enough to mention.
Ms. Bates’s story was consistent. She’d been out walking Barkley. The flex leash he was on allowed him greater area to roam. Nose to the ground, he’d taken off, pulling Ms. Bates behind him. She hadn’t thought much about it and hadn’t even been concerned when Barkley began pawing, then digging at the ground. Alarm bells finally sounded when he’d pulled out a long bone, a shoe attached to one end. That’s when Lily Bates haddialed 911. There really wasn’t anything more to the story than that.
After thanking and releasing Ms. Bates, I headed back to the body. Our ME, Dr. Evelyn Stowe was on scene now, crouched over the remains while her assistant snapped photos.
