Gone and Done It (6 page)

“Don’t hold out on me. What’s her deal?”

I was afraid of this. Charlotte wouldn’t let the matter drop. If I didn’t give her something, she’d drive me crazy with questions. “The deal is she’s new here, and people shouldn’t prejudge her.”

She rose and stretched, dazzling me with her rippling polka-dotted top. “Dang. I hate it when you take the high road. I’d much rather gossip about the fascinating people you get to meet.”

“You’ve met more people as a reporter than I ever will as a pet and plants gal.”

“Yeah, but you’re meeting the new people. Do you know how many stories I’ve written about the giant vegetables from Mc-Murphy’s farm? Way too many. Besides, I figure it’s best to get a heads-up on the competition for your friendship.”

I quit flipping through the book on Georgia’s early settlers. “You’ll always be my friend. Carolina Byrd sees me as the help. We’re business associates, not friends.”

She turned away, but not before I saw moisture brimming in her eyes. I wanted to give her a reassuring hug, but this was Charlotte we were talking about. She didn’t like anyone to touch her, not even her best friend.

“Sounds like new money to me.” My friend opened up a map tube from the upper shelf, her needy moment apparently forgotten. Not wanting to make her uncomfortable, I peered with interest at
The Land Survey of 1855.
Unfortunately, there were no owners’ names on the plats of land. “It would help to narrow down the time frame. Didn’t you learn anything concrete when you touched the skull?”

“Sure. I got a little bit before Virg hit me with the Taser.” I glanced up and caught her intent expression. Something inside me tightened. My friend was on an emotional roller coaster these days, and I doubted her judgment when it came to out-scooping the competition. I would never sell her out, and I hated being concerned about her intentions. I’d never been a poker player before, but I was learning to keep my cards close to my chest. If Charlotte succumbed to editorial pressure, she might leak information.

To put it bluntly, saving her job could cost me mine.

My fingers sought the green pendant at my neck. “I sensed three people buried there and that they had been there a long time. Then Virg shot me, and I blacked out.”

Char took my explanation in stride. “Could you go to the morgue and try the mind-meld thing with the skull again? If you had more time, you might be able to see more.”

“If you only knew what it took to touch that skull the first time.” Chills fluttered down my spine. I covered the tremors by rolling my neck and stretching my arms. “Plus I’d have an audience for sure. If I showed any outward indication that I was in trouble, Wayne wouldn’t allow me to consult for him. No telling what Dr. Sugar would do to me while I was out of it. I’d be too vulnerable.”

Charlotte made an icky face. “I see your point.”

My stomach rumbled again, reminding me of our lack of dinner. Inspiration struck. “We don’t have to finish this today. Besides, I’ve got to start on dinner. We’re having canned soup and tuna sandwiches. Wanna stay?”

“Thanks anyway.” She glanced at her frog watch and gathered her stuff. “I’m heading back to town. Let me know what you find out, okay?”

Larissa clung to me as I tucked her in that evening. Stud Muffin, the little Shih-poo we were pet-sitting for a friend of a friend, nestled into her other side. “Be careful, Mom. I know we need money and all that, but you’re the only mom I’ve got.”

I patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. Virg won’t shoot me again.” Larissa’s expression clouded. I had to do better. I sat beside her on the bed. “I’m sorry if today’s events frightened you. Do you want to talk about it?”

Her lower lip trembled. “I was scared. I was helping the new kid in math class, and your situation hijacked my thoughts, like a switch went off in my head.”

Her fear grabbed me like a crab pincher. The scene she suggested played out in my head. My heart hurt at her visible distress. Like me, she had no one to confide in. No one but me. I stroked her hand. “How so?”

“You know how you’re in a room of people and someone leaves. You don’t see them slip out, but the room feels emptier? That’s what happened. I couldn’t sense you. The place where you normally are in my head was vacant.”

Air whistled through my teeth. I’d never thought of it like that, but I understood what she was saying. If anything bad happened to her, I’d know immediately. “I’m sorry. I was frightened, too. So much of this is new to me. I really need to spend some time with my father.”

“Pap will help you. He helps everyone.”

“I never meant for any of this to affect you. I’d hoped that you’d grow up without having the problems I had fitting in.”

Larissa nodded solemnly. “I don’t worry about that. I am who I am.”

“You sure sound grown-up for ten.”

Larissa grinned. “Mama Lacey says I have an old soul.” Her expression sobered. “Are you going to take over Pap’s dream-walking job?”

My back teeth clamped tight. I didn’t want to, but my options stank. “I don’t know.”

“Because you’d be good at it.”

And if I did it, Larissa wouldn’t have to. That thought weighed heavily on my mind. “This isn’t a simple yes-or-no question. There are a lot of considerations. Our lives would become more complicated and unpredictable.”

Larissa snuggled deeper in the sheets. “I can do complicated and unpredictable.”

She probably could, but it wasn’t what I’d wanted for her, or for myself. With a last kiss goodnight, I puttered around the house, loading the dishwasher, flipping the laundry into the dryer, watering my houseplants, and gearing down for the night.

I curled up in bed with the early settlers’ book again. For some reason, my eyes kept going back to a certain name. Robert Munro, age thirty-two, seemed about the right age, as did his wife, Selena, and toddler son, Hugh. They’d arrived in coastal Georgia between seventeen thirty-six and seventeen forty-one. They easily could’ve had another baby after they got here. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was where they settled in the region. For that I’d need to visit the library.

The phone shrilled, jarring the silence of the house. A sense of doom flitted through me. Late-night calls never brought good news. Air whistled in through my teeth as I braced myself for bad tidings.

Pure venom blasted in my ear.

“Who the hell do you think you are, Baxley Powell?” A sense of foreboding flickered through me as Carolina Byrd breathed dragon fire into my ear. “I gave you strict instructions to keep Mallow low profile, and you go and call the cops on me?”

Her anger revved my heartbeat. Blood and adrenaline careened through my bloodstream. My mental barriers thinned to a worrisome level. I shored up my barricades, but I got the sense that it was too late. I was too late.

“Take it easy.” I’d overheard my client light into one of her corporate employees on the phone when she was out at Mallow, but she’d never directed the full force of her wrath at me. Until now. I didn’t much like being in her crosshairs.

The urge to crawl under my four-poster bed and hide tempted me. My fingers sought the green stone. Thank goodness I’d had another chain to replace the broken one. Relief swept through me as I held the stone in my hand.

If only I could send that semblance of calm through the phone line to my upset client.

“How can I take it easy when the cops are calling me because there’s a problem on my property?” Carolina’s commanding voice rose an octave. “I demand a full explanation.”

Calm. I could do calm. But only if she quit shouting at me. “I was planting your weeping cherry where you want it, and I uncovered a human skull.”

“A body? You found a body out at Mallow? I’ve already dealt with a manufacturing problem on the assembly line today and defused a potential labor strike. I don’t need this. Make it go away.”

I would if I had a magic wand. Or a time machine. “I’d love to make this whole day vanish. I can update you on the progress of the investigation. The coroner is examining the bones. The bodies were down pretty deep and under thick roots. They aren’t recent, if that’s any consolation.”

“Bodies?” she screeched. “I thought you found one skull.”

My gut tightened as if she’d punched me. So much for Carolina being my ideal of a businesswoman. The demands of her career were tearing her apart. “I did, but there may be three people in the immediate vicinity.”

“What is going on down there in Sinclair County? I buy a perfectly good piece of waterfront property in the county with the lowest crime rate in the state, spend a fortune to build a decent-sized house, and now I’ve got bodies? This can’t be happening.”

I closed my eyes for a moment. Even though I worked for this woman, her self-centeredness was a bitter pill to swallow. “I’m sorry you’ve been inconvenienced. It was a pretty bad day for me, too. I’ve never seen a skull before.” I’d never touched one either, or gotten tased.

“Yeah, yeah. We all got problems. What will this do to our timeline?”

Not a drop of sympathy in that woman. Her coldness sharpened my voice. “I can’t finish the installation until they clear the restricted area. The sheriff and his deputies are very territorial about protecting the scene.”

“The
scene
? Is this a criminal investigation?”

I hugged the covers closer, centered myself in the warm glow of the lamp to help ward off her chilling words. “I don’t think so. Like I said, the coroner is examining the bones. I’ll relay his findings once they are available.”

“What does that man know about bones?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. The situation is out of my hands.”

“I won’t allow some country bumpkin to tell me what I can or cannot do on my property. The state archaeologist is one of my sorority sisters. I’m calling Gail in to expedite matters.”

A train wreck was in the making. Locals hated for the state people to start telling them what to do. Should I tell her she was making a mistake? Or should I keep my mouth shut?

I wanted to help her, I did, but it cost me time and money every time I did. Until her weeping cherry was installed, she wouldn’t pay me the last thousand she owed me. I didn’t have the luxury of stating anything contrary to her wishes. “If you think that’s necessary.”

“Of course it’s necessary. Gail Bergeron is exactly the person for this situation. She’ll cut right to the chase and expedite an immediate solution.”

Silence snaked through the line, coiling tightly around my pride and self-respect. Larissa. I had to think of her. Of the braces she needed.

“I expect you to maintain those beds around the house until this is wrapped up,” Carolina continued. “I can’t move down there in the midst of turmoil. The house has to be a serene environment for my son. I expect the landscaping to be picture perfect. Until I pay you the final installment, those plants are still your responsibility. Do I make myself clear?”

The force of her stern command resonated in my ear. It was all I could do not to snap to attention and holler, “Sir, yes, sir,” like a trained soldier. Instead, I summoned a crisp professional voice and assured her of my competency.

She ended the call. With relief, I closed my phone. My hands were trembling. Who was this woman that she could order state officials around? And why couldn’t she move into the house on her precious timeline? The crime scene tape around the entryway bed would hardly block the driveway; plus, it should be gone in a day or two.

Once this case was closed, I’d plant the cherry tree and get paid. Carolina Byrd would no longer be my problem. The tightness in my gut eased, but it didn’t go away.

My emergency chocolate bar came to mind. Comfort food. Absolutely a good idea. I needed a treat after all I’d been through today.

But eating rich food this late at night might prompt a nightmare. I’d be better off taking my last sleeping pill. The prospect of indulgence beckoned as seductively as the glitz of Las Vegas and then receded under the harsh glare of reality.

If I took the sleeping pill, I would not be coherent enough to answer the phone.

Better not take the pill. But chocolate had caffeine in it. That would keep me awake. What to do?

I padded over to the dresser, snatched the candy bar from its hiding place inside my wool socks, and tore into it. I meant to savor each bite, but it was gone before I knew it. I enjoyed the rich chocolate taste in my mouth, wishing I had an endless supply.

It wasn’t fair that chocolate came with calories.

That night I dreamt of a lonely woman sitting amidst rumpled bedding. In the faint starlight, she wept, tears streaking her angular cheeks. A cloud of dark hair cascaded over creamy shoulders, spilling down across her rounded breasts.

Her despair trickled through the misty veil separating us, a mournful pathos that pierced my soul. Whatever had happened, this woman had suffered a heart-wrenching loss.

Who was she?

Not anyone I knew.

What did this dreamwalk mean?

I tried speaking with her. “Miss? Is there anything I can do?” She didn’t appear to hear me. I spoke louder. I shouted. In mid-sob she stiffened as if she’d been mortally wounded. She turned in my direction, and I was struck by her ghostly violet-hued eyes.

I didn’t know when or where this was happening, but I felt an intangible connection with this woman. With the thread of connection came clearer sensing.

Sheets rustled as if they were on my bed.

The musk of passion filled my lungs.

She spoke, “Help me.”

After putting Larissa on the school bus, I drove to the Rankin place to care for their Irish wolfhound. Though Hobo’s owners were officially retired, Charles, a former federal agent, still guest lectured about terrorism threats. He and his wife were on a multi-city tour right now.

Hobo liked to lope along, and I needed to run away from my thoughts, so we were good companions on this blustery morning. Swags of Spanish moss swayed in the oak canopy throughout Deerplace, a new development on the outskirts of Marion. My sneaker-clad feet pounded the pavement, my arms swung rhythmically at my sides. Hobo’s tongue lolled as he smiled his way down the road.