Skeleton Key

by Jeff LaFerney

  “Thanks, Chief Hopper. I’m sorry to be here under these circumstances, but I’m here to present my findings, hopefully in a way that is understandable to each of you.” The mood in the room was extremely tense. Clay felt heartache, and it hurt him to see that Erika was afraid of what she was about to hear. “First of all, let me explain that a forensic anthropologist is different than a pathologist. I’ve been trained specifically to study bones, like the anthropologists on the TV show, Bones. During his examination, the forensic pathologist would have naturally overlooked some bone trauma since the train wreck broke so many of Mr. Payne’s bones. He reached the obvious conclusion, once the body was identified, that Adrian Payne died as a result of the train wreck. The body was completely skeletonized when it was discovered, so all he could base his judgment upon was the broken bones. There was no way to conclude that the deceased died in any other manner because there was no other forensic evidence.

  “However, because of the information that Chief Hopper shared with me, I knew exactly what I was looking for.” Haynes pulled out some pictures. “I was able to use my expertise to reach some conclusions that the pathologist was unable to determine.”

  Erika had her arm around Logan’s shoulders in hopes of reassuring him, but her own confusion and uncertainty were obvious. Haynes showed an anatomical picture of the human chest. “This bone here, the sternum or breastbone, is protecting the heart. I found a wound just to the left of this bone,” he pointed. He showed another picture of a human heart. “There is a pericardial sac that encloses the heart.” Again, he pointed. “A knife wound passed through this bone—yes, it is possible for a knife to cut through bone. It would cut into the muscles as well. A wound like this, especially with a small knife and a small puncture, would cause blood to seep out of the heart, but it would get trapped in the sac that protects the heart. The end result is the heart would be constricted and, in a sense, suffocate itself. It would stop beating, much like with a heart attack.”

  Erika gave a confused and questioning look toward the anthropologist. “With a possible weapon in my possession, I could run tests to see if that specific blade cut through the sternum. We believe we have a match to that specific blade—the one that caused the death of Mr. Payne.”

  ***

  Clay found that his hands were sweating. He looked over at Erika, who had a lost look on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was concerned about the findings or simply hurt about the manner she was finding out. Clay cleared his throat and began to speak. “I’ve spent the last two days trying to figure out what I might say at this moment. I’ve spent the majority of my life hiding secrets from people I care about. A little less than a year ago, as a couple of you know, my wife was murdered. I learned a lot of things from that tragic event and from several events leading up to it. But one of the things I learned was to be honest and quit keeping secrets.

  “Why I’m telling you this is because there is no way that Chief Hopper and I could have figured this mystery out without clues from Adrian’s ghost. As hard as it is to fully comprehend, somehow I can hear him speak when I’m in the train depot. He actually hasn’t been fully cooperative. The obscure clues that he gave me have often been really difficult to interpret. But his clues did lead us to his body, and they also led us directly to the arrest of Marshall Mortonson.

  “However, the ghost would continue to repeat the same clues. We would think we had the mystery solved, yet Adrian’s ghost didn’t seem to agree. Until two days ago, I believe I was either flat out not understanding him or I was misunderstanding him or I was misinterpreting his clues. He kept saying he died of a heart attack, for instance. That was confusing, but it led us to ask questions about the day of the wreck. Evidence about the train brakes and the stolen truck resulted. Because of those discoveries, we began to wonder if Adrian was murdered, but if Adrian was murdered, why did he think he died from a heart attack? The heart attack clue was one that I believe I was, flat out, not understanding. He also kept saying “skeleton key.” Because of Marshall Mortonson’s set of skeleton keys, we were able to find evidence against Morty, but that particular clue, I believe, was one that I was simply misunderstanding. Also, the ghost kept saying, “ease the pain.” Because he was a ghost, and because he was a man who understandably would have many regrets in his life, I completely misinterpreted that clue. We kept thinking he wanted us to solve the case and somehow “ease [his] pain” before he could cross over into the next life, or some such thing.

  “A few days ago,” Clay said directly to Erika, “Logan took the jackknife that his father gave him and threw it in the wastebasket in your office. Adrian said ‘waste not want not’ and when I finally figured out that he wanted me to retrieve the knife, he said it would help me figure out ‘the point of all of this.’ Saturday, he asked me again, ‘What’s the point?’ I asked him if that was a clue, and his response was ‘Yes, it is.’ Adrian restated all his previous clues—‘heart attack, skeleton key, and ease the pain.’ Erika, sometimes when I was talking to Adrian’s ghost, I’d look at the family picture on your wall. While I was looking at the picture on Saturday, I realized for the first time that he wasn’t saying ‘ease the pain.’ All along, he’d been saying, “He’s the Payne.’ Not P-A-I-N. P-A-Y-N-E. That’s when I figured it out. All of a sudden, the other three clues made sense too. I’m so sorry that I abandoned you so suddenly, but I stopped by to see Chief Hopper to tell him what I’d figured out, and he contacted the morgue where Adrian’s skeleton was still being stored. Adrian’s skeleton was the key to the solution of the mystery.”

  Chief Hopper stepped in at that point. “On the day of the train accident, Adrian had taken Logan with him to East Lansing. Morty went along to watch over Logan while his father was otherwise unavailable. When we asked Logan what he remembered from seven years ago, he explained to us that about a half-hour into the trip home, he went to see his father. He wanted to ride with him in the train engine. A few minutes later, according to Morty, he returned, very upset, and hiding his face against the train seat-cushion. We now know that his father struck him in the face. Minutes later, Morty went to talk to Adrian about Logan. When he reached the train car just behind the engine, he found Adrian apparently passed out on the floor of the train.

  “We obviously wondered if he’d had a heart attack. The ghost kept saying ‘heart attack’ and Morty never mentioned an injury or blood or anything of the sort. When the train was about to crash, Morty picked up Adrian and jumped from the train, but one of the overturned cars after the crash fell on Adrian and crushed him. Morty realized that Adrian was dead and proceeded to hide and later bury the body—a body that was not killed in the wreck. Because of what Clay figured out on Saturday, I contacted the pathologist who originally examined Adrian’s body. We needed him to take a closer look at the bones. He expressed that I would need a forensic anthropologist, an expert in trauma to the bones. Dr. Haynes, then, is the man who re-examined Adrian’s body. Clay had given me the jackknife that he had retrieved from the wastebasket. Dr. Haynes was able to identify that it was that knife that sliced Adrian Payne’s sternum and entered his heart—the knife ‘point’ and the ‘heart attack’ from Adrian’s clues. We believe that Logan is the ‘Payne’ that Adrian was talking about. Adrian’s skeleton was the key. Logan is responsible for killing his father.”

  Chapter 31

  Andi Nickel transitioned immediately from curious bystander to attorney. “Chief Hopper, I’m here to represent Logan Payne on behalf of my client.”

  “And your client is?” Hopper asked.

  “Confidential,” she responded, but Hopper looked immediately to Clay and Clay simply smiled a sheepish smile. Erika looked up, tears in her sad, hurting eyes, and looked at Clay.

  “You’re not leaving this time, are you? You’re gonna be here for us, right?” The words were more of a statement than a question. They came from a woman who knew her heart and was determined to have faith in a man she cared about deeply.

  Clay
replied, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Andi Nickel started in on Hopper again. “He was ten years old.”

  “The case will be referred to the county prosecutor, Ms. Nickel. It’s my guess that the prosecutor won’t even bring the case to court. It’s not even conceivable that he’d be tried as an adult, so the case would go to a magistrate, who would rule first in a preliminary hearing. Because of the probability that Logan acted in self-defense, the case would almost certainly be dismissed anyway, but if for some reason it wasn’t, and Logan was tried for manslaughter or second degree murder, a conviction by a juvenile court judge would put him into the juvenile system. In five days, Logan is going to be eighteen years old, and at that point, he’ll have already aged out of the system. He hasn’t had any trouble in the past seven years either—he’s been a good, clean kid. A prosecutor will almost certainly see any court action as a complete waste of the county’s money.”

  “So I’m free to escort my client from the premises?”

  “We’ve done our job here. We found the answers that we were looking for, Andi. Get him home to be with his mother. He’s been through enough already today. The prosecutor will be in touch, but it’s my feeling that there’s nothing to worry about. It’s time for the healing to begin.”

  ***

  It was Logan’s eighteenth birthday party. Clay and Tanner had arrived early. Logan gave Clay a firm handshake with steady eye contact. Clay had been a steady presence at his home ever since the meeting at the police department, just like he’d promised.

  Logan had opened up first to Lydia Frauss and then to his mother and Clay. His father had punched him hard in the face, knocking him to the floor. When Logan cried and told his father that he was going to tell his mother, Adrian had threatened to kill Erika and abandon Logan if he said a word. Logan had flipped open his jackknife and had palmed it in his hand with the blade sticking between his fingers. When his father attempted to strike him again simply because he was crying, Logan punched back, hitting him in the chest. Then he ran back to his seat on the train. He had no idea what had happened to his father. He had lived in fear for seven years that his father would return and hurt him again, or worse yet, hurt his mother. He cried at the gravesite when his father’s body was recovered partly out of relief that Adrian would never return and partly out of grief that he would never experience his father’s love.

  Being rid of the constant fear, and freeing himself to tell the truth had made a remarkable difference in Logan. He was a different kid, and now he was eighteen years old and an adult. He fist-bumped Tanner and explained that at his game the day before, he had started and scored fourteen points. Durand had lost to Lakeville, but the game was close.

  The Gomezes also came to the party and so did Logan’s woodshop teacher, Mr. Jorgenson. “Everyone gather around. It’s time for cake and ice cream,” Erika announced. They sang “Happy Birthday,” and after his mother made him make a wish, Logan blew out the candles.

  “Let’s open presents!” Anna squealed. “She had a present in her hands and was bursting with excitement to have Logan open it.

  Mr. Jorgenson spoke up. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to open my gift first. I have to get going. Indoor soccer with my daughter.”

  Logan took a neatly wrapped package, shook it, shrugged his shoulders, and then opened it slowly. It was a complete wood carving knife set. “I was planning on giving you this for your graduation, but I think it’s best if you got it now. I’ve never seen anyone as talented as you, Logan. With this set, you’ll do amazing things.”

  Logan stood, approached his favorite teacher, and literally gave him a hug. “Thank you, Mr. Jorgenson. This means a lot to me.”

  As Mr. Jorgenson said his goodbyes, Anna cried out, “Mine next!” Stacy told her to be patient. Logan next opened a card from Clay and Tanner. It was four tickets for the Detroit Tigers home opener. “Yes!” Logan shouted. “Thank you. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.” Then he smiled, looked at Clay, and said, “I wonder who I’ll take?”

  Clay laughed. “Whoever you want.” Logan’s smile was contagious, just like his mother’s.

  He opened his gift from Erika next. Tanner helped her pick it out. It was a pair of Jordan XVII’s, a pair of basketball shoes that would make every Durand teammate envious. “Oh, man. These are the best! Thank you, Mom.”

  “I love you, Logan.”

  “Love you too,” he said with not a hint of embarrassment. He meant it and openly shared it.

  Finally, Anna was permitted to share her gift. Erika put her arm around Clay’s waist in anticipation of what was coming next. Anna ran to Logan and skidded to her knees on the floor right in front of where Logan was sitting. “This is from me!” Anna announced excitedly.

  “Thank you. I can’t wait to see what it is, Anna.” He tore open the neatly wrapped package. It was a picture frame with a picture of Anna.

  “Read the card,” she said.

  Logan opened it up. He started reading out loud. “Happy Birthday, Logan. Put this picture somewhere that you can see it every day. Love, your sister, Anna Gomez.”

  Logan paused as what he read slowly sank in. He looked at Anna, who was smiling the biggest dimpled smile imaginable. Then he looked at his mother, who was crying and shaking her head up and down to let Logan know that, yes, it was true. Finally, he looked at Stacy Gomez, who was also crying and nodding affirmation. Then Anna spoke up again. “Momma said that even though our dad isn’t here today, he would want you to know that he gave you a gift this year anyway. He gave you a sister.”

  The enormity of what Anna said sunk in and Logan also started crying. “Come here, you nut.” He gave his sister the first of many, many hugs to come. “You’re the best birthday present I ever got. I love you, Anna. I’m gonna be the best brother in the world. You just wait and see.”

  “You already are, Logan.”

  ***

  Clay was sitting in a chair in Erika’s office while she was on the phone. A knock sounded on her door, so Clay opened it and leaned forward, looking both ways down the hallway, but there was no one there.

  “I’m down here, you moron. Jeesch, Clay!”

  Clay started laughing. When he looked down, he said, “You’re not going to jump me again, are you?” He said it with a sincere smile of friendship on his face. “Just toying with ya, Jasper. I saw you down there. What’s up?”

  “Everything’s up compared to me, Dipstick. I’ve come to see, Erika, if you don’t mind.” He was smiling too.

  Erika had her back to the men, a hand covering her free ear. She was starting to hang up the phone as she spun in her chair. When she saw Jasper, she screamed, and the phone jumped from her hand, landing four feet away in the wastebasket.

  “You really have a way with women, Jasper,” Clay continued to joke. He retrieved the phone from the wastebasket.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Erika.

  “It’s me that needs to apologize. That’s one of the reasons I’m here. Maybe someday we’ll be friends and you won’t scream when you see me.” Jasper smiled, and Erika returned his smile with her thousand-watt specialty. She could really light up a room. She walked to the front of her desk and Jasper extended his hand. “Would you accept my apology for being such a rotten person over the years?”

  Erika put a knee on the floor and faced him at eye-level. “I’ve been afraid of you for years and years. I guess I made a bad first impression a long time ago, didn’t I? I accept your apology, Jasper, if you’ll accept mine, and then we can be friends.” Then instead of shaking his hand, she gave him one of her signature hugs. Jasper held on extra-long. Who could blame the guy for enjoying hug perfection?

  When he managed to compose himself, he said, “Deal! Now do you mind if I sit down?” He literally jumped into the chair that Clay had been using. His feet were dangling off the floor as he pulled some papers out of a file folder. “Erika, when I talked with Clay about a week ago, I felt ashamed. I’ve
lived a long time as a selfish, bitter man. And then Clay came along, forgave me, and did something nice for me that I didn’t deserve. I’ve been ashamed of myself ever since.”

  “The moment Clay told me about your talk, I forgave you too, Jasper. Unconditionally. If you will just trust that you’re forgiven, you can forgive yourself, and we can have a friendship that we both appreciate. I don’t need or want anything else from you.”

  Jasper smiled. It was a smile that confirmed in his mind that Erika was the person that Clay had said she was. “Your ex-husband was a creep. Don’t know if I’ve ever met a more unlikable person. Except me, at times. He liked me, I think, because I was just as self-centered as he was. We put together a will and a living trust. Because of the contract with Morty, you got half ownership of the Depot, no matter what, unless he could divorce you or convince Morty to write up a new contract. And unless he could get you to sign a different insurance policy, which he never did before he disappeared, you were the beneficiary of his life insurance. I made those things part of the trust for tax purposes. What no one knew was that Adrian had lots of money stashed away for himself. We wrote his will, and in it, he gave it all to me. He said if he died, he wanted to make sure that you and Logan didn’t get any of it.”

  “Why would he do that?” Clay wanted to know.

  “Said he hated his wife’s spirituality. All her prayers. Going to church. Raising Logan to be kind-hearted and sensitive. Said he cheated on her and used and hurt people—many of them her friends—and she didn’t have the guts to stand up to him. Instead she prayed for him. He didn’t love her, and he cared less for Logan. In our last meeting, ironically just a short time before the train wreck, he outlined for me that he had more than a million dollars that I could have if he ever passed away. Said that helping me after he passed away was the one good deed he would do. When his body was never discovered after the wreck, he was never declared dead, so I never got his money. That made me bitter too.”