Down Among The Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Instead of taking the water, Brayden touched her hand and then pulled her into his arms. His mouth pressed against hers.

  Zoe let herself slump against him, let herself sink into the kiss, felt herself relax for the first time in days. When they pulled apart, she let out a satisfied sigh. “Does that mean Dani’s not in the running?”

  He cracked a grin. “Dani might’ve been at one time, but not anymore. Wanna go see a movie with me tonight?”

  She looped her arm around his. “I’d love to. But there’s a problem to consider. How do we ditch the rest of the team and get time all to ourselves?”

  “Leave that to me. I’ll come up with some excuse even if I have to fake it.”

  “Why Brayden Lachlann? Does that mean you’d lie to Skye to get a night with me?”

  “To get to spend a night with you, I shouldn’t have to lie.”

  Zoe pressed up against his side. “Then, let’s not lie. We’ll just tell everyone the truth. That we want a night off to spend by ourselves.”

  “Do you think they’ll go for it?”

  “Skye’s a romantic at heart. Didn’t you know that? She might’ve been late to the game, but she and Josh have made up for it big time.”

  Across the highway, romance was the farthest thing on Skye’s mind—either hers or Zoe’s. She focused on bringing her drone back down to earth, downloaded the images to her laptop, and began to skim through the files.

  Just when her optimism was at risk of fading to nothing, an image popped on the screen that caught her eye. It was an unmistakable pattern of depressions in the ground that would not occur naturally.

  Noting the location—it was a mile or so back—she almost reached for the walkie-talkie to alert the others. At the last moment, she decided to check it out first, reasoning that everything else up to now had been a bust, this probably was too.

  After gauging how far she had to retrace her steps, she loaded the coordinates into her GPS, blotted the sweat from her forehead, and then flipped up the cap on her water bottle to guzzle the liquid to quench her thirst.

  Taking out her map, she studied the terrain before heading off through a thick hedge of Pacific yew tucked under a canopy of towering spruce. She used the conifers as a cover, cool shade out of the heat of the summer sun. But soon, she lost the umbrella the trees provided and walked into blinding sunlight. She blinked back the bright light and reached for a pair of sunglasses she kept in her backpack. But before she could put them on, the trail she expected to find ahead was too overgrown. Sliding the glasses in place, she stopped to refer to her map again. After deciding which way to go, when she looked up, Kiya stood in her way, beckoning her to use another path.

  Following the wolf’s lead took her through a field of wildflowers where heather and huckleberry grew alongside glacier lilies and Indian paintbrush. Vines laden with ripened blackberries growing in the wild rubbed against her jeans, leaving behind traces of a purple stain on the soft denim.

  Finches and ring-billed gulls flitted from tree to tree. The wolf picked that moment to let out a howl, sending the birds scattering—all except the stubborn vultures and blackbirds.

  Skye’s focus tracked to their activity. She closed her eyes and let herself adjust, let herself listen. She could hear the fluttering wind whistle through the trees behind her. Then nothing but calm. The sounds had dulled. Not even the scavengers dared disturb the silence.

  Day went to dark. Clarity came out of that blackness as the scene began to take shape in front of her. She felt the vision as it closed off her throat, as she saw Emelia twisting at the mercy of her abductor while his hands clamped tight around her throat. She watched as he strangled the life out of her.

  She knew the moment Emelia drew her last breath, felt that essence of life escape in a pale plume of mist, the mist so light she could barely pick it up on the trembling wind.

  She heard the killer inhale, suck in the air he’d taken. She saw the wild look of satisfaction on the man’s face, in his pale, cold blue eyes. She’d never seen eyes so empty, so blank. For some time, this monster had stayed with the body, toying with his kill.

  The vision cleared. Her eyes tried to adjust to the light, but she removed her sunglasses anyway to get a better look. This time what lay before her was real. Birds continued to peck at Emelia or what remained of the young teen.

  On automatic, Skye shooed them away. Like a sentry, instinct had her guarding what was left. She swallowed her upchuck reflex, prepared to take inventory. There were other bodies left to rot alongside Emelia’s.

  She wanted to run but couldn’t get her feet to move.

  It wasn’t until her walkie-talkie crackled to life that she reacted. It was Josh’s voice that brought her back from the edge of darkness, back to the task at hand.

  His words seemed like a mishmash jumbled together. “We’ve exhausted this side of the highway. We’re loading up, then heading over to where you are. We need to break for lunch anyway. Give us your coordinates, and we’ll meet up.”

  Skye rattled off her location then added, “Forget about food. Kiya’s led me to Emelia and the second circle of hell. Although I’d say this one’s more like a half-circle and it’s been here a lot longer than the first one.”

  ****

  Dave Foley scratched his chin and stared at the scattered bones and mounds of dirt—shallow graves dug to hide the bodies, no doubt trying to make the victims disappear. A half-assed attempt at best, he decided. They’d found six skulls so far. But evidence showed animals and birds had been holding a feast here, coming back, again and again, to drag away essential body parts that could’ve been used for identification.

  “I don’t know how you guys do it,” Dave stated. “Emelia disappeared Thursday night, and you guys find remains on Sunday morning. Less than sixty hours into an investigation, and you come up with results. I’ve had tracking dogs that weren’t that successful. I can tell you this much. The Artemis Foundation gets my next charitable contribution.”

  “We appreciate it,” Skye managed. “But who will tell Mrs. Navarro that her daughter won’t be coming home?”

  “We sent someone to the house,” Dave returned, then frowned. “Unless you want me to hold off and one of you go tell her?”

  Skye looked over at Brayden. Without saying a word, the implication was clear.

  Brayden rubbed the back of his neck. “I think the police would do a better job of that. I don’t know Dani that well. And the second semester for the summer is over. I doubt I’ll ever see her again.”

  “You don’t think she’d prefer hearing it from you?” Josh asked, confused as to why the change of heart.

  Brayden took a while to answer. He couldn’t get that morning conversation with Dani out of his head. Or was it more like an inquisition? Dani had pestered him about where he was, where the team was. Her voice had seemed urgent, insistent. It wasn’t the flirtatious Dani on the other end of the line but rather the sound of a woman who seemed irritated and annoyed. The change in her demeanor bothered him. When he realized Josh was waiting for an answer, he went with his gut. “I don’t know. Maybe. Something seemed off the last time we spoke. At the time, I chalked it up to worry, concern for Emelia. But I don’t know; she just didn’t seem like herself.”

  Or maybe she did, Brayden thought. Maybe that was the problem. When he analyzed the last couple of weeks in class, Dani had gone out of her way to show interest in him, a sharp one-eighty from the beginning of the semester. Toward the end, when she needed help with the project, she’d become friendlier, scooting her chair closer to his, batting her eyes. Her attention had flattered him.

  Skye broke his thoughts by pulling him aside, away from the carnage. “What’re your instincts telling you about Dani? You seem upset with her. Level with me.”

  “Maybe I’m way off base. But I’m beginning to think Dani only became friends with me to help her pass the course. It was only during the last two weeks of class that she all of a sudden, realized I wasn’t
struggling like some of the other kids. We had a project to do together, an app. But she didn’t seem that interested until the final weeks when it came down to compiling all the code and getting it to work.”

  Zoe was already suspicious, not to mention jealous, of the mysterious Dani. “Maybe she needed you for a lot more than that.”

  Brayden winced. “What does that mean?”

  “Did you tell Skye how Dani grilled you this morning about your exact whereabouts?” Zoe asked, pivoting toward Skye. “She tried to coax Brayden into telling her where we were in the field, where we were looking.”

  Brayden nodded. “She did insist on knowing the precise location. And got upset when I wouldn’t reveal the details.”

  Skye set up her jaw. “That is odd. She never mentioned that she wanted to join us? Did you ever tell her our focus was off I-90, east of Taylor Mountain?”

  “I’m not a rookie. Of course not. The fact is, after Thursday night when Dani got us involved, and we left Ander All Games, I haven’t heard a word from her, which I thought was somewhat odd. I expected her to—”

  “Fawn all over you to get results,” Zoe completed with a roll of her eyes. “Typical male ego.”

  “Not exactly fawn over me but at least stay more involved than she did. We were, after all, looking for her beloved cousin, a woman who shared her apartment, a blood relative, family.”

  “It is strange behavior. Family members often make pests of themselves impatient for results. And you don’t think Dani showed much interested in participating in the searches? You don’t believe that was where she was coming from?”

  “No, not at all. That wasn’t the tone of her questions, more like geared toward learning where we were today, our exact location.”

  “Interesting. If you don’t mind, I’d like to mention this to Dave Foley.”

  “Go for it. I think someone in charge should know how odd Dani’s behavior has been since Thursday night.”

  “When Foley’s not so busy, I’ll bring it up. I need to know what he plans to do about going through the contracts at that private mail facility near Emelia’s apartment. Just in case, don’t plan anything this evening. We might get pulled in to handle the chore.”

  Zoe waited until Skye walked away, back toward the gruesome circle of hell before she whacked Brayden on the arm.

  “Ouch! What’d you do that for?”

  “You were supposed to speak up and give us an out so we could spend some alone time tonight. Remember?”

  Rubbing his arm, exaggerating the pain, he muttered, “After slugging me like that, I’m rethinking the whole invitation.”

  Zoe leaned in, wrapping her arms around his waist. “No, you’re not. You want me. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Even as he swung an arm around her shoulders, giving her a playful squeeze, his tone took on a teasing element. “Yeah? But maybe I’m having second thoughts about your violent nature and how prone you are to the green-eyed monster, not to mention your tendency to argue about every little thing.”

  She drilled a finger into his ribs. “And those are my good points. Sue me if I just wanted us to be alone.”

  As the medical examiner’s car pulled up, he brought her closer to kiss the top of her head. Maybe because while the gut-churning, chaotic scene played out, he needed to hold on to someone. A jolt of bad memories flooded his brain. He thought about his mom and dad, his sister.

  Each time he saw a coroner arriving with his head bent low, or techs gathering to put on their protective gear, he always felt conflicted. Relief came first that he’d survived. But it was always tinged with that ever-present degree of guilt.

  Barely above a whisper, his voice turned somber. “I’m grateful somebody cares enough about me to feel jealous. What do you say, we get out here? I don’t feel like watching the crime techs look for more bones. Do you?”

  “No.” As if knowing what thoughts swirled in his head, Zoe laid a hand on his cheek. “I do care, Brayden. Ever since I met you that first time, I’ve cared. I tried to get you to notice me—everything from purple hair to blonde highlights. Nothing worked. You’re not like other people. But then neither am I. You and me, we understand what it’s like to be completely alone, standing on the outside looking in, watching other people take what they have for granted. That’s not us. We know what it’s like to survive difficult situations. That’s what makes this team so wonderful. We’re all a bunch of misfits thrown together to help people, to right wrongs, to care about others.”

  He looked down into her eyes. “I didn’t think I was worthy of you. That’s why I tried to ignore you. I’ve got scars, Zoe. Scars I’m not proud of, scars that come with nightmares. I still have nightmares.”

  “We all have scars. Some you can see, others you can’t. And sometimes we still have bad dreams. It’s all part of getting over a traumatic experience. We’ll take it slow, one day at a time.”

  “What if I don’t want to go slow?”

  She grinned. “Fast is okay, too.”

  ****

  Brayden had gone to great lengths to make his studio apartment bright and airy. He’d taken a page out of Skye’s decorating playbook and painted the walls a glass-bottle green shade that went with practically everything he owned. His big-ticket items—a small, caramel-colored leather loveseat and a full-size platform bed with storage underneath—dominated the space. But he’d brought in lots of plants and installed track lighting from one end of the room to the other. He’d ripped out the carpeting and replaced it with laminated wood flooring that looked like the real thing. He’d plastered the walls with canvas art he’d found at nearby thrift stores. One of his favorite pieces was a large watercolor drawing of the St. Louis gateway arch hung in a prominent spot over his sofa.

  When he unlocked the door later that afternoon, Zoe found herself as impressed as she’d been the other night. The place wasn’t just stylish but neat and tidy. He’d made his bed in military-style precision. His kitchen remained spotless. “I had no idea you were such a neat freak.”

  “Am I?”

  “You didn’t even know you’d be bringing me back here tonight. Or did you?”

  “A guy could hope.”

  She looped her arms around his neck. “How long have we known each other?”

  “Almost a year and a half.”

  “That’s what I thought. It’s past time we got to know each other better.” She laid a hand on his chest, felt his heartbeat quicken. “I don’t care what’s under your shirt, Brayden. If you promise not to judge my scars, I won’t judge yours.”

  “You have scars? You didn’t say anything about that earlier. What happened?”

  On tiptoes, she brought his head down to her level, placed tender kisses on each corner of his mouth. “Mother’s boyfriend got drunk one night. Do you really want to have this conversation right now and break the mood?”

  He grinned and picked her up off her feet, whirled her around to the bed. “No.”

  There was no more talk of the past. Instead, they made slow, quiet love until both were exhausted.

  Later that night, as the two slept together for the first time, Brayden had a tough time getting to sleep. He wasn’t used to sharing his bed. And Zoe tossed and turned a lot.

  But he knew neither of those things was the source of the problem. No, he kept hearing Dani’s agitated, angry voice in his head. Why was that one conversation nagging at him so?

  He tried to analyze everything about it. Dani’s last phone call to him had started with mere curiosity, asking the same questions any family member might about a missing loved one. But then her tone had changed to irritation, especially when he hadn’t divulged the information she’d wanted most—where exactly are you searching today?

  How many times during the call had she demanded to know his location? Five, maybe six times. It bugged him that she’d insisted on getting it out of him, then turned livid when he’d refused.

  Beside him, Zoe stirred. Her head popped up. Groggy, sh
e opened one eye, then another. “What’s wrong? Why are you awake?”

  “No reason.”

  “Why do I not believe you? Go to sleep. We have to be at Skye’s first thing.”

  “Then go back to sleep.”

  She groaned and flopped over on her side to face him. “If you’re not sleepy, I can’t sleep either. Wait a minute, are you still trying to figure out why Dani was such a jerk on the phone?”

  “Well…yeah…I am.”

  Zoe used her arm at a forty-five-degree angle to prop up her head. “Do you know what I think?”

  “I don’t have a clue.”

  “I think she’s guilty of something.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. But think about it. She got you involved super-fast when her cousin went missing. How did she know you helped out the Artemis Foundation in your spare time? Did you talk about it in class?”

  “No. Not ever. I’ve wondered that myself.”

  “See? I bet she looked you up.”

  “She admitted she already knew about my family and the serial killer Michael Smith. It pissed me off that she pretended to ask when she already knew the answer.”

  “Were you two dating or something? Because why else would she look you up online?”

  “That’s a good question. She didn’t even act interested until she needed me to finish the app.”

  “There you go. Dani’s a user, a manipulator. Now go to sleep.” Zoe fluffed her pillow again, got comfortable, and closed her eyes.

  Brayden pretended to do the same, punching his pillow a couple of times for effect. But as he lay there on his back, he finally figured out why he’d let Dani get to him. Bottom line. His gut told him his classmate had something to do with her cousin going missing. He just didn’t fully understand how she fit into the serial killer scenario.

  But he intended to find out.

  Eleven

  On Monday morning, Harry arrived at the Artemis Foundation early to set up in the conference room. Surprised when greeted by a trio of dogs, he called out, “I should’ve known you’d beat me here.” When he got no answer, he lumbered into the conference room. “Hey, what gives? I get here to share the preliminary results of the autopsies, and you’re already rewriting the whiteboard.”