The skull had a full head of thick, black hair. The arms hung down, the skinless hands exposed below sleeves that were tattered. The shirt still had an onyx cuff link. The shredded trousers showed one bony knee, then led down to leather shoes that were still tied.
Kate was the first to speak. “Maybe he was hiding and no one found him.”
“And didn’t miss him?” Sara asked. “But maybe they thought he’d left so they didn’t look for him.”
“Yes!” Kate agreed. “This room was kept locked. Rachel used to open it for me.”
“She would.” Randal sounded sarcastic. He looked at Jack. “I believe that’s a wallet by his shoe.”
Jack went to the toolbox, picked up an old-fashioned folding rule, and opened it to full extension. He flipped the wallet without touching the skeleton, then picked it up and looked at the ID. He turned to Randal and said, “Derek Oliver.”
Sara glared at her brother. “Oliver!” She knew her brother had once worked for a Mrs. Oliver—and things had gone missing. “So he was there at your party?”
Randal gave a brief nod.
“I should have known this was aboutyou,” Sara said. “It’s all about those blasted jewels you stole, isn’t it?”
Randal was unperturbed by his sister’s anger. He’d had many years of dealing with it. “As I’ve told you, I didn’t steal any jewels. I gave what I did find, which was a pittance of what I’d seen, to the others. The only piece I had, I gave to my daughter.”
Sara didn’t give up. “If there are jewels involved, it has to do with you.”
“I didn’t do this!” Randal was getting louder. “I was too busy taking care of the women to deal with what Derek said he was going to do to me.”
Sara gasped. “He wasthreateningyou?”
“He did make a few rather colorful suggestions as to what he’d do to me if I didn’t give him what had been stolen from his stepmother. He said—”
Jack cut him off. “No one noticed that this man disappeared during the house party?”
“It was over twenty years ago,” Randal said. “I don’t remember where Derek Oliver was every minute of every day.” As always, he hadn’t quite answered the question.
Kate said, “Lea told me he went home. She was so happy! She and I blew up balloons together.”
They turned to look at her.
“The word of a four-year-old is more reliable than yours,” Sara said to her brother.
Randal smiled at his daughter. “Everything is better with Kate.”
“I hate to interrupt this little family lovefest,” Jack said, “but we need to tell someone about this.”
At that, their faces fell. The Broward County sheriff’s office already called their little town Murder City—and any other names they could come up with. What excuse would the Medlar-Wyatt gang give this time? That they were trying to release a toy dog and a skeleton appeared?
They were standing in silence, dreading what was coming, when they heard a creaking sound. They turned toward the skeleton. In extreme slow motion, the bony creature began to fall forward, pulling against the rotting suspenders.
The four of them held their breaths.
The old suspenders didn’t snap, just gave way, and the skeleton slowly fell out of the closet. It hit the floor in an explosion of shattering clothes, with bones grotesquely scattering.
The pile of human remains on the floor was such a macabre sight that they didn’t move. Kate and Sara stood close together.
Then, to their shock, with a clunking sound, the skull came off and rolled across the wooden floor. They watched it in fascinated horror. When it came to a toy box decorated with clown pictures, it stopped.
Sara started to take a step forward, but then halted. The show wasn’t over yet.
The skull teetered to the side, and the hair, a toupee, came off and fell into a ratty pile. With the weight of the hair gone, the skull tipped backward. Then, like a broken glass ball, the barren bones fell into two pieces. The jaw didn’t move, but the top, above the eye sockets, fell back. The skull opened like it was hinged, exposing rough saw marks all around. As the skull fell back, out spilled sparkling jewels. A couple of bracelets, a few earrings, and one ring with a very large green stone tumbled out.
Hypnotized, no one moved, just stared.
