by Nora Roberts
“We’re able to pull in a lot of volunteers on the weekends.”
“Yes, so I see,” she said, smiling over at where little Tyler scooped a trowel through a small pile of soil. “Starting them young.”
“That’s Lana Campbell’s little boy. He’s a Saturday regular. We give him spoil we’ve already sieved. One of us seeds his pile with a couple of minor finds. He gets a charge out of it. The spoil’s dirt we take out of the plots, then it’s sieved so any small artifact isn’t missed.”
“And every piece tells you something about who lived here, and how. If I understood your radio interview.”
“That’s right. You have to find the past in order to understand the past, and understand it in order to reconstruct it.” She paused as her words echoed back to her. “I’m trying to do that, Suzanne.”
“Yes, I know you are.” Suzanne touched a hand to Callie’s arm. “You’re uncomfortable with me, and that’s partly my fault for going to pieces the way I did in Lana’s office that day. Jay gave me a hell of a lecture over it.”
“Well, you were understandably—”
“No, you wouldn’t understand.” And there was quiet sorrow in the words. “Jay isn’t a man who normally gives anyone hell. He’s so patient, so quiet. Just some of the reasons I fell in love with him when I was about six years old. But he laid it on the line for me the other day. It was very unexpected. And, I suppose, exactly what I needed.”
“I guess this isn’t easy for him either.”
“No, it’s not. That’s something I found it very convenient to forget over the years. I need to tell you before this goes any further that I’m not going to put that kind of pressure on you again.”
She let out a little breath, a half laugh. “I’m going to try not to put that kind of pressure on you again. I want to get to know you, Callie. I want that chance. I want you to get to know me. I know you’re trying to . . .reconstruct. Betsy Poffenberger called me this morning. She heard you on the radio, too.”
“Popular show.”
“Apparently. She told me you’d been to see her. She said she wanted to make sure it was all right with me to give you information, but what she wanted was to pump me for it. I didn’t tell her anything, but people are starting to put things together.”
“I know. Are you all right with that?”
“I don’t know yet.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I’m jittery all the time. The idea of answering questions when everything’s still evolving is hard. Harder than I could have imagined. But I can handle it. I’m stronger than I’ve given you reason to think.”
“I’ve read some of your letters. I think you’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever known.”
“Oh. Well.” Eyes stinging, Suzanne looked away. “That’s a lovely thing to hear from a grown daughter. I’d really like you to tell me more about your work here. I’d really like to understand more about it, and you. I really want us to be comfortable with each other. That would be enough for right now. Just to be comfortable with each other.”
“I’m working this section.” Needing to make the effort, Callie took Suzanne’s arm, turned her. “We’re establishing that this area was a Neolithic settlement. And this section their cemetery. You can see here we’ve uncovered a low stone wall, which we believe the tribe built to enclose their graveyard. As we excavate bones—bones are my specialty, by the way.”
“Bones are your specialty?”
“Yeah. I almost went into forensic archaeology, but it’s too much time in the lab. I like to dig. Here, this is pretty sweet. I found this the other day.”
She crouched down for her clipboard, flipped back sheets and pulled out a photo of a skull. “It’s already at the lab, so I can’t show you the real deal.”
“This will do.” Gingerly, Suzanne took the photo. “There’s a hole in it. Is that a wound?”
“Trepanning. An operation,” Callie explained when Suzanne looked blank. “They’d scrape or cut away bone, using a stone knife or drill. The purpose, we speculate, might have been to relieve cranial pressure caused by fractures or tumors.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. Had to seriously hurt. The point is, they tried, didn’t they? However crude the healing, they attempted to heal their sick and injured. A tribe gathers together for defense and survival, and evolves into a settlement. Housing, rituals—you can talk to Graystone if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Hunting, gathering, organized tasks, leadership, healing, mating. Farming,” she added, gesturing toward the area not yet disturbed. “Grains, domesticated animals. From settlement to village, and village to town. From town to city. Why? Why here, why them?”
“You find out the who and the how first.”
“Yeah.” Pleased, Callie glanced back at Suzanne and continued. “To do that, you have to plot the site. That’s considering you have permission to dig, financial support and a team. You’ve got to do your surveys. Once you start digging, you’re destroying the site. Every step and stage has to be recorded, in detail. Measurements, readings, photography, sketches, reports.”
Jake watched Callie give Suzanne a tour of the site. He could gauge Callie’s emotional state by her body language. She’d closed in immediately upon seeing Suzanne, then had gone on the defensive, from there to uneasy, and now to relaxed.
In her element now, he thought, as he noted her using her hands to gesture, to draw pictures.
“It’s nice to see them together,” Lana said as she stepped beside him. “To see them able to be together like that. It can’t be easy for either of them, trying to find some common ground without trespassing. Particularly challenging for Callie, I’d think, as she’s sectioned off in so many areas.”
“Meaning?”
“Oh, I think you get the meaning. This project is her professional focus right now, and one that challenges and excites her. At the same time, she’s dealing with the trauma of uncovering answers to her past, trying to forge a relationship with Suzanne they can both live with. And in, around and through all that is you. Personally, professionally, every which way. And, if you don’t mind my saying so—”
“Whether I mind or not, you strike me as a woman who says what she has to say.”
“You’re right about that. And you strike me as a difficult man. I’ve always liked difficult men because they’re rarely boring. Added to that, I like Callie, very much. So I enjoy seeing her more at ease with Suzanne, and I enjoy watching the two of you trying to figure each other out.”
“We’ve been at that for a long time.” He turned as Ty raced over, clutching a bone in his grimy fist.
“Look! Look what I got. I found a bone.”
Jake chuckled at the low and essentially female sound of disgust Lana tried to muffle. He swung Ty up, shifting so Ty could wag the bone in his mother’s face.
“It’s neat, huh, Mom?”
“Mmm. Very neat.”
“Is it from a people? A dead people?”
“Ty, I don’t know where you’ve developed this ghoulish interest in dead people.”
“Dead people are neat,” Jake said soberly. “Let’s have a look.” But he was still watching Callie. “Why don’t we ask the expert?”
“And wooing a woman with bones isn’t ghoulish?” Lana said under her breath.
“Not when she’s Callie. Hey! Got a find over here, Dr. Dunbrook.”
“It’s a bone!” Ty called out, waving it like a flag as Callie walked over with Suzanne.
“It certainly is.” Callie stepped close, examined it thoughtfully.
“From a dead person?” Ty asked.
“A deer,” she said, and watched his face fall in disappointment. “It’s a very important find,” she told him. “Someone hunted this deer so the tribe could eat. So they could make clothing and tools and weapons. Do you see those woods, Ty-Rex?” She brushed a hand over his hair as she turned to point. “Maybe that deer walked in those woods. Maybe a young boy, not much older than you, went out wit
h his father and his brother, his uncle, on a day just like today, to hunt. He was excited, but he knew he had a job to do. An important job. His family, his tribe was depending on him. When he brought down this deer, maybe it was the very first time he did his job. And you have this to remember him.”
“Can I take it to show-and-tell?”
“I’ll show you how to clean it and label it.”
He reached out, and Callie reached for him. For a moment she and Jake held the child together. Something fluttered in her belly as their eyes met. “Ah, maybe you could explain the site to Suzanne from the anthropological level,” she said. “Ty and I have—ha ha—a bone to pick.”
“Sure.”
“It’s a strange world, isn’t it?” Suzanne said when Callie carted Tyler off.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’re my son-in-law. More or less. And since I don’t know the circumstances of your relationship with Callie, I don’t know if I should be mad at you or disappointed in you or sorry for you.”
“I probably deserve a little of all three.”
“You were waiting for her outside Lana’s office the day we all met there. And you went with her to Atlanta. Would that mean you’re looking out for her?”
“That’s right.”
“Good.”
He thought a moment, then dug his wallet out of his pocket. Glancing over to be sure Callie was occupied with Ty, he flipped it open, took out a snapshot.
“I can’t give it to you,” he said. “It’s the only one I’ve got. But I thought you might like to see it. Wedding photo. Sort of. We drove out to Vegas and got it done in one of those get-hitched-quick places. In fact, we looked for the tackiest one we could find. We had some guy take this for us outside, right after.”
The snapshot showed some creases and hard wear, but the colors were still lurid and bright. Callie had chosen siren red for her wedding gown, and “gown” was an exaggeration. The dress was short, skimpy and strapless. She had a full-blown red rose behind her ear, and both arms wrapped around Jake’s waist.
He wore a dark suit and a tie with a green-and-blue parrot on a red background. His arms were around her.
The wall behind them was a candy pink, and the red, heart-shaped door bore a sign that read MARRIAGE-GO-ROUND.
They were both grinning like idiots, and looked ridiculously happy.
“She picked out the tie,” Jake commented. “First and last time for that one, let me tell you. See, the place had this merry-go-round thing you stood on, with horses dressed up like brides and grooms. You stood on it while it went around and this guy in a clown suit . . . Anyway.”
“You look terribly in love,” Suzanne managed. “Stupid with it.”
“Yeah, stupid was the theme.”
“You’re still in love with her.”
“Look at her. How the hell do you get that out of your system? So . . .” He closed the wallet, stuck it back in his pocket. “Since you’re my mother-in-law, more or less, how about making me some of those macadamia nut brownies?”
She smiled at him. “I might just do that.”
“If we could keep that between you and me, because if any of the pigs in the house find out, I’ll be lucky to get crumbs.” His attention was diverted by a noise. “Seems to be visitors’ day around here.”
Suzanne looked over as a car pulled up. “It’s Doug. I didn’t think he’d be back so soon.” She started toward the fence, then pulled up short when she saw Lana dash over, watched her son nip Lana at the waist and lift her off her feet and kiss her with the fence between them.
“Oh.” Suzanne pressed a fist to her heart as it lurched. “Well. I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Problem?” Jake asked her.
“No. No,” she decided. “Just a surprise.” She saw Ty race over, still waving the deer bone. When Doug swung over the fence, crouched down to look at it, Suzanne pressed that fist a little harder against her heart. “A very big surprise.”
Doug studied the bone, listened to Ty chatter, then shook his head. “This is very cool. I don’t know if you’re going to want what I’ve got in here when you’ve got something like this.”
“What is it?” Ty asked excitedly as he looked at the little bag in Doug’s hand. “Is it for me?”
“Yeah. But if you don’t want it, I’ll hang on to it.” Doug reached in, pulled a palm-sized tyrannosaurus out of the bag.
“It’s a dinosaur. It’s a T-rex! Thanks!” Ty fell on Doug’s neck in gratitude and the love a four-year-old boy has in abundance. “It’s the best! Can I go bury it and dig it up again?”
“You bet.” He straightened as Ty sprinted off to the spoil pile. “That seems to be a hit.” He looked back to see Lana grinning at him. “Want a present?”
“I do.”
He reached in the bag again, watched her mouth fall open as he pulled out her gift.
“Is that . . .”
“Yes, it is. An official electric-blue, guitar-shaped Elvis flyswatter. After considerable search and debate, this was the silliest thing I could find. I hope it does the job.”
“It’s perfect.” Laughing, she threw her arms around his neck as Ty had done.
“I missed you. I don’t know if I like that or not. I’m not used to missing anyone, but I missed you.”
She drew back. “Are you used to being missed?”
“Not really.”
“You were,” she said and took his hand.
Callie had just called for the team to gather up their loose when the last visitor arrived. Diggers and students began the routine of gathering tools for cleaning and storage.
Bill McDowell, his arms full of trowels and pails, jogged over. “Want me to take this one, Callie?” He nodded toward the baby blue sedan. “I don’t mind.”
“That’s okay.” Callie watched Betsy Poffenberger lever herself out of the driver’s seat of the blue Camry. “I know her.”
“Okay, well, a bunch of us are going to camp out here tonight. Grill up some dogs, have some beer. Just hang out. You gonna?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“I’ll get your loose for you.”
“Thanks.” She spoke absently, and was already walking away. “Mrs. Poffenberger.”
“Isn’t this just something. Look at all those holes in the ground. All those trenches. You dig those yourself?”
“Some of them. I was hoping to hear from you.”
“Thought I’d take a drive out, have a look-see for myself. Heard you on the radio this morning. Sounded real scientific.”
“Thank you. Were you able to find out anything for me?”
Betsy studied Callie’s face. “You didn’t mention you were Suzanne Cullen’s girl.”
“Does that make a difference?”
“Sure it does. It’s just like a mystery story. I recollect when it all happened. Suzanne and Jay Cullen’s picture was in the paper. Yours, too. Just a baby then, of course. There were flyers, too, all over Hagerstown. Now here you are. Isn’t that something?”
“I’d appreciate anything you can tell me. If anything you can tell me helps, there’ll probably be more newspaper stories down the road. I imagine reporters will want to talk to you.”
“You think? Wouldn’t that be something. Well, I talked to Alice and Kate, and Alice, she remembered that it was Mary Stern who was the delivery-room nurse when Suzanne Cullen’s babies were born. Remembered for sure because she said she spoke to Mary about you after you got snatched away. Alice, she’ll gossip about the phase of the moon if you give her half a chance. Got a couple other names for you, people she remembered. Night-shift nurse, and so on. Don’t know as all of them’re still in the area.”
She took out a sheet of paper. “I looked the names up in the phone book myself. Got a curious nature. Mary Stern is living down in Florida now, got divorced and remarried. Had herself a baby when she was damn near forty. Sandy Parker here, she died in a car wreck about five years ago. Terrible thing, read about it in
the paper. She was on the night shift.”
Callie tried to tug the sheet away, but Betsy clung tight, adjusted her glasses and continued to read. “Now, this one, this Barbara Halloway, I didn’t remember her till Alice reminded me. She wasn’t on staff more than a year, and on night shift, too. I didn’t know many of the night-shifters well, but I remembered her after Alice jogged my memory.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Poffenberger. I’m sure this will help.”
“Snooty young thing,” she continued. “Fresh out of nursing school. Redheaded girl, had her sights set on bagging a doctor, from what I heard. Got one, too. Not around here, up north somewhere. She moved away not long after the whole thing happened. That’s why I didn’t remember her right off. Had a cool way about her. That’s one I’d take a second look at if I were you. Had a cool way.”
“Thank you. I will. And I’ll be sure to let you know what I find out.”
“Got some orderlies on there, too. That Jack Brewster, he was a slick one. Always sniffing around the nurses, be they married or not.”
“Dr. Dunbrook?” Jake sauntered up. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’re needed at grid thirty-five.”
“Oh. Of course. You’ll have to excuse me, Mrs. Poffenberger. But again, I appreciate your time and trouble.”
“Don’t you worry about that. You just give me a call if you need anything else. Like a mystery story.”
Callie tucked the paper in her back pocket, stepped back from the fence as Betsy climbed in her car. “There is no grid thirty-five,” she announced.
“You were sending off panic signals, so I decided to ride to the rescue.”
“That wasn’t panic, it was my ears ringing. She doesn’t shut up.” Callie blew out a breath. “And she did me an enormous favor. I’ve got names. At least a dozen names.”
“How do you want to handle it?”
“I think I’ll start with a search on the net. See how many are still alive, still in the area. Go from there.”
“Want some help?”
“You’re awfully accommodating these days.”
He stepped forward, leaned down, caught her bottom lip in his teeth. “I’m going to bill you later.”