Skeleton's Key (Delta Crossroads Trilogy, Book 2) (7 page)

Moonlight guided his way to the carriage house. He needed to get his thoughts straight. One minute he felt ready to argue with Dani until he turned purple, and the next he was happy to be with her and unwilling to leave her side.

He thought back to her compliment in the parlor. Her usually frenetic tone had softened into a rich, sweet sound. A sound that made his adrenaline kick on and his mind race. He realized, for a moment, he was seeing the real Dani–the relaxed woman who wasn’t hell-bent on saving old houses and nosing into history. Just a pretty girl who wasn’t sure where she belonged anymore.

He thought he might like to spend some more time with that woman.

So why had he bolted?

*     *     *

Dani knew Cage
thought she was crazy spending the night in Ironwood, but the idea of leaving the house was foreign to her. The moment she’d crossed the threshold, she was home.

So here she was, camped out in a centuries-old parlor on someone else’s couch. A warm, woodsy scent clung to the cushions. Cage, of course.

Her relationship history was pretty average. Smart girl in school, friends with everyone, had a few dates. A couple of serious relationships in college. And then she started taking care of her mother and found herself too busy with work to really commit. Living at home with a disabled mother seemed to be a black mark for some guys, and that was fine with Dani. They certainly weren’t the type to waste time on. But Cage seemed different.

She kicked him out of her thoughts and focused on the room.

Aside from the wallpaper, it was in relatively good condition. Ornamental wall lamps, spaced out along both walls, bathed the room in weak light. The rest of the house was dark, locked up. But an old building is never quiet. The wood settles, the radiators–although turned off–gave the occasional ping. Every so often, a pipe near the kitchen rattled and sang.

Her mother would have loved it. She pressed her hand against her chest as pain tore through her. Even after so many months, the hollow ache of loss stole her breath. Her mother was the only person who’d always been there–her best friend–the person she spoke to every day, usually more than once. Although her mother had quit smoking twenty years ago, her voice still held the trademark huskiness of a smoker. But her tone was always soft, always happy when she heard from Dani. She’d been so grateful when Dani moved in four years ago when the diabetes and obesity began to control her life, and Dani had enjoyed taking care of her. It was the least she could do after all the years of support.

Her mother’s family had abandoned them years ago after a sour argument over inheritance money from Dani’s maternal grandmother. The rest of the family got the money, and Dani and her mother kept their dignity. It had been just the two of them for so long that Dani didn’t remember what it was like to have big family gatherings. She’d been content with a few good friends and her mother.

And then her mother was gone, and Dani couldn’t stand to stay in Indianapolis–in that house. Everything reminded her of loss and heartache, and she just wanted to forget.

Most of the time, she did a pretty good job. But right now, blanketed by the house’s emptiness, her thoughts caught up with her.

Desperate for a distraction, she called her former colleague and friend, Melinda Whitaker. She never failed to lighten Dani’s mood. After the mandatory pleasantries, Dani filled Melinda in on the bones in the basement and the alleged secret room in Ironwood.

“If that room exists, I’ll find it,” Dani said. “Think what could be in there. And I don’t care what the monetary value is. I just want to restore the house.”

And Cage had better not think she’d forgotten about his promise of more stories about John James. Dani was going to find out everything she could about this old place. She’d worry about sorting fact from fiction later.

“Yeah, yeah,” Melinda said. “So this Cage Foster. What’s he look like?”

“What does that matter?”

“I need a visual reference, Dani. Makes it easier to follow the conversation.”

Dani obliged, describing Cage with as many steamy adjectives as she could think of. Melinda ate it up, demanding more details until Dani spent more time yawning than talking. She promised Melinda she’d call as soon as she knew anything more about the bones or the secret room.

Relaxed from the conversation and sound of a familiar voice, Dani fluffed her pillow and settled down onto the lumpy coach. The humming air conditioner and buzzing fan created a pleasant, whirring melody. With the room still bathed in soft lights, Dani’s eyes drifted shut.

Somewhere on the edge of deep sleep, a spatter of noise pulled Dani back to consciousness. She groaned and closed her eyes again. Likely the house settling.

She rolled over and started to drift off again when the noise came again, louder. She sat up and looked around, listening.

The house is locked. You have lights on.

You’re a woman staying alone in a house with no landline. Someone could be creeping.

You have your cell phone. Cage is two hundred feet away.

A hollow thumping drifted from somewhere near the kitchen. Gooseflesh erupted over Dani’s arms, and then she laughed. She’d encountered her fair share of squatting animals in her career, including a particularly vicious raccoon that had left her with a scar and a rabies scare.

“Critters hanging out in the basement of an old house,” she spoke into the quiet. “Biggest cause of haunted houses.”

As if in answer, a low grumbling filled her ears. Then, a sharp hiss and what sounded like an angry growl.

Damn. Whatever was living in the basement made a lot of noise when it scavenged for food.

“The bones.” Her bare feet smacked the wood floor as she jumped up. She slipped into her sandals and then rummaged through the black bag containing her work essentials. Naturally, her big flashlight was on the bottom.

The light cast a bright glow through the parlor just as another angry yowl came from the basement. Fear nipped at Dani. What would she have to fight off down there?

She glanced out the window, half-hoping to see the lights in the carriage house still on, but it was dark. She hated to wake Cage. And she didn’t want him thinking she was just another spoiled city woman who couldn’t handle a simple animal issue.

That settled it.

She padded into the kitchen, flicking on lights as she went. Cage kept cleaning supplies in the bare nook where a table should be, and Dani grabbed the dusty broom. A little heavy and harder to manage with the light, but she’d figure it out.

She tucked the flashlight under her left arm and then reached for the door, the shop broom gripped tightly in her right hand. Sweat beaded across her scalp making it itch. Another menacing growl from the basement, long and drawn out as though the animal knew she was ready to attack. Ignoring the urge to drop everything and run for Cage, she listened hard.

It sounded like the creature was probably along the side of the basement, deeper below the house, and not on the steps waiting to ambush.

Good.

Deep breath, broom ready, bladder weak, she yanked open the door.

“Ugh.” The rotten odor from this afternoon had strengthened. Her eyes watered. “What did you dig up?”

A snarl answered her.

Wishing she’d put on her tennis shoes instead of sandals that left her tender toes exposed, Dani began descending the stairs. They trembled with every step, and she hoped to God they didn’t give out and leave her injured with the stink and the snarler.

“I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to leave.” She pulled the flashlight out from under her arm and shined the beam into the black abyss.

And was it ever dark. The basement’s air seemed to have its own energy, bulbous and heavy, waiting for Dani to make her move.

Or perhaps that was just the set of glowing, yellow eyes that glared at her from the winter kitchen. Somersaults rolled in her stomach as she wiggled the light so her eyes would adjust.

“Please don’t be a raccoon. Anything but one of those mean bastards.”

An angry hiss replied. Sure enough, a large raccoon was balanced on what was left of the winter kitchen’s brick oven, gnawing on a piece of bone.

“Bad boy.” Her voice came out like an angry chicken squawk. “You drop it.”

The animal bared its teeth.

Gagging against the smell, Dani teetered on the bottom step and raised her broom. The raccoon flinched but held its ground. Getting rid of it meant getting closer, and she wasn’t going to do that without a real weapon.

But she couldn’t leave it there to ravage whatever was left of the bones. Which meant she was going to have to wake up Cage. “Bad boy!” She shouted again at the raccoon. “Thanks for making me look like a big wimp.”

He stood up on his hind legs, razor-sharp front claws extended and the bone dangling from its mouth. Strange looking bone.

She took a step forward, squinting. The raccoon turned and raced the length of the stove to escape into the pile of debris, leaving little doubt as to what it was carrying.

A finger.

A
fleshy
human finger.

Vomit burned in her throat. Dani staggered backward, nearly falling onto the dilapidated steps. Using the broom for balance, she tried to steady herself.

Another wave of horrid stench slammed her nose.

Reality caught up with Dani and punched her in the stomach. It couldn’t be. Mustn’t be.

Sweat beading on her forehead and her stomach ready to revolt, she forced herself to shine light on the area where the bones had been found. For a moment, she saw nothing but dirt. She managed to breathe easier.

Then she moved the beam to the right and saw dark plastic–a round, cylinder shape. Something was haphazardly sticking out of it, a lumpy shape that looked as though it had been pulled out of the ground by the determined raccoon.

Dani took a step closer. Then a second.

Fear gripped her insides until her breath evaporated. Her hot skin turned cold. Blood whooshed through her ears.

She dropped the broom. Clutched the heavy flashlight and staggered up the stairs. Through the kitchen and then the parlor. Into the foyer, plastic sandals loud against the marble.

Fumbled with the lock on the door and then wrenched it open.

Welcoming muggy air greeted her. She ran down Ironwood’s steps and across the lawn, the beam making crazy shapes over the grass. The carriage house. Cage.

She pounded hard on the door, the pattern matching the banging of her pulse.

Dani glanced behind her as though somehow, the horror she’d just seen would emerge from the mansion and drag itself toward her.

“Cage! It’s Dani. Open the door, please!” Her scream shattered the still night, and a throng of birds left a giant oak with angry squawks.

The carriage house door flew open. She saw only Cage’s shocked eyes before the words tumbled out of her mouth.

“There’s a body in the basement.”

C
age tried to
dislodge the cobwebs of sleep from his brain. “You mean there are bones in the basement.”

“No.” Dani’s eyes went wide, wild. Her hair fell in tangled waves to her shoulders, and her entire body trembled. “There is a body in my basement. As in one covered with flesh.”

“You’ve had a long day. New place, the skeletal remains. You had a bad dream, s’all.”

“Listen to me.” Her voice turned shrill. “I heard noises and knew it was an animal. So I went to investigate.” He stared at her mouth as she spoke, trying to comprehend what she was saying.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“Hold on.” He ran upstairs and tugged on some jeans. Thankfully, Dani had been too freaked out to notice he was only wearing his boxers. Back at the door, he slipped on his old running shoes.

He held out his hand. “Can I see the flashlight?”

“Be careful.” She handed him the impressive model. “My best one. Which is a really stupid thing to say right now, sorry.”

“Right. Come on.”

He hoofed it across the yard, trying not to walk too fast so Dani could keep up. Inside the house, he told her to wait in the parlor. She sat down on the couch. “No argument here. But be careful. That raccoon is a mean one.”

He pulled his service revolver out of the back of his jeans. “That’s what I brought this for.”

“Don’t shoot him!”

“You just said–”

“I said be careful. I didn’t say kill him.”

“Fine. Just stay here.”

Cage prayed Dani had just been sleepwalking or had grotesquely vivid dreams, but the smell emanating from the basement promised something horrifyingly different.

“Where the hell is that smell coming from?” Dani asked from the top of the stairs. “It wasn’t there when I got home, or I would have noticed.”

“If this body’s got flesh like you say,” Cage gritted his teeth, “I’d guess the coon found remains that are a lot more recent than the bones we’ve been digging up.”

She swayed on the spot and then took a deep breath. “God Almighty.”

“Pretty much.”

The raccoon growled from somewhere deep in the darkness, and Cage readied his pistol. At the base of the steps, he found the string and turned on the weak light. Something skittered beneath the junk pile and ran for cover, but he barely noticed.