“Is everything all right?” Kate asked.
“Don’t move!”
Jack had picked up Kate’s other sandal. At Sara’s tone he pivoted on his crutches to look at her, then stared, wide-eyed, his face drained of color. “Stand very still,” he said softly. There was a tone of reassurance in his voice, one that said, “Trust me.”
Kate obeyed both of them. She froze where she was. Rigid.
She watched as Jack moved to the edge of the pit and seemed about to climb inside it.
“You can’t—” the women said in unison.
Jack didn’t take his eyes off Kate and plastered on a smile of reassurance. “You’re too small to go.” His words were directed at Sara. “The mud would swallow you whole, so I’m going.”
Kate didn’t move as Jack made his way toward her. He stopped inches in front of her, put his muddy crutches under his arms and reached out to her hair.
He said, “I’m going to untangle you,” as calmly as though whatever was holding her was an autumn leaf.
Sara had her phone out and placed a call. “Daryl, you need to come here now.” She gave the address. “Yes,now!” She listened. “I don’t give a damn where you’re going tonight or how many medals they pin on you.Now!Got it?”
Kate was looking at Jack, his face inches from hers. He had a hand on each side of her head, his fingers getting her hair away from whatever was holding it. “You forgot to shave this morning.”
“It’s not Sunday. I bet Stewart shaves every day.”
“Of course.” She was trying to keep her voice from shaking.Whatwas in her hair? A snake? Some giant Florida bug? Every Indiana Jones movie ran through her mind. It couldn’t be an alligator, could it?
“There,” Jack said. “All done.”
“Did you kill it?”
“That was done by someone other than me.”
“What does that mean?”
He turned on his crutches, expecting her to follow, but Kate looked back at the tree roots and gasped. Where her hair had just been tangled was a human skull and near it was another one. There were other bones protruding from the dirt. Two entire skeletons were exposed. The big tree had wrapped roots around the bones like loving fingers holding them to her.
“Jack,” Sara said.
He looked back at Kate, took a step toward her. He handed her a crutch, then put his arm around her shoulders. “Would you mind helping me out of here?”
She knew he didn’t need help but her heart was pounding so hard she was glad for his steadying arm.
With Jack’s crutches, his unbending leg and Kate’s bare feet, it made slow going in the mud. When they got out of the hole, Kate sat down and cleaned her hands on the grass. Jack sat beside her.
They were both staring at the skulls and bones embedded in the tree roots. It was an eerie sight. The tree seemed to own the bones, to hug them, caress them...protect them. If someone tried to remove them, the tree looked as though it would swallow them whole.
Sara came to stand behind them, her camera constantly clicking. She paused only to change batteries. “Daryl is on his way.” In the next second they heard a siren in the distance. “Damn him! He’ll have the whole town coming to see what’s going on.”
“Who were they?” Kate whispered, her eyes on the bones.
“No idea,” Jack said. “It looks like the tree was planted on top of—of them.”
Sara sat down beside Kate and held out her camera. “Look at this.” She had enlarged the playback on the screen to show the skull that had been tangled in Kate’s hair. “Is that what I think it is?”
Jack took the camera and he and Kate put their heads together to look at it. “There’s a hole,” Kate said.
“In the side of the skull. Looks like it was hit with something,” Jack said.
“Could have been the tree,” Kate said.
