A Sticky Situation (3 page)

“I figured if I called the police in they'd make me stop working on this job. You'd be aggravated at me for the delay. I wanted you to be the one to make the call so you and your grandfather couldn't blame me for whatever happened here.” Russ sounded quarrelsome and like he had an attitude but if I looked at myself clearly I could see his point.

I might not have come right out and accused him of finding a way to get out of the work but I am certain I would have thought it. After all, that was the reputation the guy had and it was deserved. Still, it rankled to think I had a reputation of my own and it was one of being judgmental and unfair.

“You're probably right but we had best call the police now. This looks too real to ignore.” I walked carefully back out of the cellar and up to the ground floor of the building. Most of the town offices in Sugar Grove are conveniently housed in the same place. If you want to speak to the tax collector, town clerk, or any selectperson happening to keep office hours you just need to hang around the town hall for a bit. They'll be around eventually.

Unfortunately, the police department is housed in a building of its own. Fortunately, it is just up the street. Within five minutes of my call Lowell and my ex-boyfriend Mitch were squatting over the partially unearthed skull, snapping pictures and speculating.

“It's pretty strange that you ended up striking this with so little work done, isn't it?” Mitch sounded like he was on a tear, already looking for someone to blame for what had happened. I didn't like Russ but there was no reason to think he had anything to do with the body other than being the poor guy who came upon it. I mean, who'd want to find a buried body anyway but certainly no one would if they were alone in a gloomy basement and the body in question was reduced to skeletal remains.

“I hardly think he would have called you if he was up to no good, Mitch. He was digging it up, not burying it.”

“And what are you doing here, Dani? I can't seem to think you're much good with the heavy lifting.” Which was unfair. I may weigh 103 pounds soaking wet but I
can certainly hold my own when it comes to physical labor. What I lack in strength I make up for in willingness to just keep at it until the job is complete. Which is mostly why I don't respect Russ.

“I called her so she wouldn't complain I'd cut out of work early. You know how she is.” Russ gave Mitch one of those man-to-man looks that mean women are a pain in the butt. Mitch nodded in agreement. That sort of thing was just one of many reasons we weren't still dating.

“Sounds reasonable.” Mitch just had to contribute his two cents. Lowell stood up and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Thanks for calling us in. I think it's safe to say there is no more work for you to do here today, Russ. Why don't you head on out. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention this to anyone just yet.”

“I won't.” Russ tugged at his ball cap and shuffled out.

“Dani, I think you'd best tell Emerald the work on the opera house is at a standstill for the time being. You can tell him why but ask the family to be discreet, please.”

“Grampa isn't going to be pleased to hear this. You know how he is when he gets all worked up about a project.”

“I think he'll understand. We're going to work this as a crime scene until we discover for some reason it isn't, so even if he doesn't, he'll have to live with it.” Lowell was a lifelong family friend. Telling my grandfather to like it or lump it was not going to be easy for
him. Especially since Grampa was the closest thing Lowell had to a father since his own parents had died in a house fire when he was a young man.

“I'll tell him. Maybe he'll be so pleased not to have to pay Russ to excavate the coal room that he'll forget all about the schedule.” A girl can hope, can't she?

I was wiped out. Not only was there too much on my plate, there was no food in my stomach. A lot of people might have been put off from eating by the sight of a skeleton in a basement but I figured the poor guy didn't care. Just because he was long past his last meal didn't mean I should be, too. I left the car where it was and crossed the street for the Stack Shack. Besides, I figured the Stack was probably where Graham and Hazel would be having lunch. Leaving him to fend for himself with her was not the best way to keep him around.

Coffee and bacon and cinnamon roll smells filled the air but there was no sign of Graham or Hazel. The only person in the place besides Russ and Tansey was Piper. Even the cook seemed to have taken a break. Russ perched on a stool next to Tansey, gesturing more
animatedly than I had ever seen. His back was to me and he didn't notice my arrival.

Usually, anyone in the Stack swivels in their seat to get a look at new arrivals and to say hello if they're a mind to but not this time. Both Tansey and Piper were straining toward Russ. He had their full attention like nothing I'd ever seen. They looked like kids round a campfire listening to a ghost story. Tansey especially had her ears a-flapping. Both her hands wrapped round her coffee cup and she was holding the thing halfway to her mouth but had forgotten to take it to her lips.

“So I scraped away a bit more and there was a long whitish thing kinda bright against all the dirt and the coal dust. I bent over and scratched at it with my work glove.”

“What was it, Russ?” Piper asked. “What did you see?”

“It was a bone. A human leg bone.” Piper gasped and then pulled back as if she'd been hit with a live electrical wire.

“What made you sure it was a human bone? Couldn't it have been a dog bone or a cow bone or something like that? Couldn't it have been left from some pastureland before the town hall was built?” Tansey crossed her arms across her chest and looked smug.

“Well, I thought the same thing at first. I didn't want to get all lathered up over nothing so I thought I'd check a bit more before calling the Greenes. You know what a tartar that Dani can be.” I was relieved not to see Piper's head nod in agreement. “So I poked around a
bit more and eventually found another bit that confirmed my worst fears.”

“Which was?” Tansey asked.

“A human skull. About the right size for a grown man, I'd say. Explain that, why don't you?” Russ looked at Tansey.

“Did you find anything else? Anything to suggest the identity of the body or how long it's been there?” Piper asked. Piper may look like a rebellious teenager with her purple hair and her multitude of tattoos but she is really one of the most practical people I know. Leave it to her to ask the pertinent questions.

“The leg bone and the skull were all I needed to see to know I wasn't the right guy for that job.” Not that Russ seemed to be the right guy for any job other than potato chip taster but that was just one woman's opinion. “Now you mention it, there was one other thing I found just before I unearthed the leg bone.” Russ reached into his pocket and pulled something out which he slapped on the counter with a clank. I stepped forward for a look. Everyone else leaned in, too, and then Tansey gave a little squeak, slid off her stool, and fainted dead away on the floor.

*   *   *

It took all of two minutes for the ambulance to arrive and whisk Tansey away. I was glad I wasn't going to be involved in explaining to her that the ambulance had been called. Tansey prided herself on her health and the thought of a public collapse was bound to wound her pride. Not to
mention what the cost of an ambulance ride would do to her wallet. Not that Tansey's financials were any of my business but I knew she didn't have much to spare.

Russ had cleared out as soon as Tansey hit the floor. I wasn't sure if it was because he thought he would be blamed for upsetting her or if he thought he'd be asked to help with the stretcher. In his haste he had left his findings on the counter. Piper had sensibly not pointed this out to him as he exited. Everyone else had been so focused on Tansey that she was able to stick the items under the counter until we could speak privately.

Within minutes of Tansey being hauled away the fervor had died down and Piper retrieved Russ's objects, placing them on the counter atop a paper napkin. After all, a health inspector could drop by at any minute.

“Spoons?” I asked, scratching at the coal dust and dirt encrusting one of them.

“Looks like it. Why on earth would Tansey get so worked up about spoons?” Piper wondered.

“They don't look particularly valuable. Not silver or anything. They just look like ordinary spoons to me.”

“Me, too. They don't look new but they aren't antiques I shouldn't think. I'd call them vintage.” And Piper should know. She was a collector of all things vintage. Whenever she got a spare moment from the Stack, which wasn't often, she loved nothing more than a ramble through a local flea market or garage sale looking for more vintage kitsch to decorate either the Stack Shack or her RV. Piper loved vintage with a passion that outshone all her other loves. She wore vintage waitress
uniforms and wore her purple hair in complicated styles of years gone by.

The walls of the Stack were covered in old board games, posters from classic movies, and framed baby clothes from long ago. The dishware at the Stack was vintage, too. From the juice glasses to the water tumblers, she had gathered up enough odds and ends to make the place feel like it was the resting grounds of a thousand grandmothers' kitchens. It was utterly charming.

“So what are vintage spoons doing in the town hall basement and why would they upset Tansey so much?”

“Why are there two of them? Why would they be with a body? Were they really with the body or was it a coincidence?” Piper looked over at the door as a new flood of customers flowed in. “I've got to get back to work. If I hear anything about the mystery spoons I'll let you know.” Piper wrapped them in the napkin and handed them to me. “I wouldn't want these to get mixed up with mine.”

“I think I'd better get these right over to Lowell. He ought to include them in whatever it is he is doing for an investigation.” Piper nodded. I headed back out the door without a single morsel having passed my lips but I had a mission and didn't want to be delayed. I ignored the rumbles from my stomach as they shook my entire frame and walked the block and a half to the police station.

*   *   *

Housed in a small building near the center of town, the police station is one of the prettiest buildings in Sugar Grove. In the summer the window boxes spill heaps of flowers
on either side of the main entrance and the butterflies and hummingbirds seem drawn to the place. When we were dating, Mitch had grumbled a bit about the station looking more like a quilt shop than a place to investigate crime. He had a point but since crime never worked up the energy to be a wave around here it hardly mattered.

Myra Phelps, the police dispatcher and all-around bearer of gossip, manned the front desk. As usual, she got right down to business.

“Tansey collapsing, what a to-do. I always said that woman's diet of fried eggs and bacon grease was going to catch up with her one day. But to do it just as the sugaring season starts, well, I can't imagine her bad luck. Poor thing. And a body in the basement of the town hall. What a morning we've been having.” Myra leaned toward me, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. Did I have anything to add to her knowledge bank? Anything worth getting on the horn to her cousin in the next town about? No, I did not. There was no way I was going to link the spoons with Tansey's collapse if Myra hadn't heard about it. And I certainly wasn't going to let her know about the spoons being near the body before Lowell got the chance to hear about them. Even telling Mitch first would be preferable.

“I'm sure she'll be right as rain in no time. Tansey has a lot of bounce. Maybe she just stood up too quickly. People at the Stack were saying the body is probably left from a burial ground the town fathers didn't know about when they built the town hall, nothing more sinister than that.” Myra sank back in her chair, all anticipation wiped from her face.

“Well, what can I help you with this morning?”

“Lowell isn't back from the town hall yet, is he?” I tightened my hand on the strap of my purse, feeling like Myra could guess there was something interesting in there.

“Nope. He's still over there as far as I know. Maybe if you just tell my why you're here I can give him a message.”

“I'll check back later.” I waved at Myra and made my escape. I walked slowly past the town hall and I thought about going back in, I really did. But when I caught sight of Mitch stringing yellow crime scene tape across the front door of the building I convinced myself to wait until later to tell Lowell about the spoons. He had to be busy and I just wasn't up for a confrontation with Mitch. Besides, I told myself, Grampa needed to hear about what had happened. As the chair of the restoration committee he needed to know that the project was going to be on hold for a bit and if I didn't get on home to tell him, someone else in town surely would.