The Devil's Bones

by Carolyn Haines

  At last I came to the little path to the lake. I pressed through the low shrub branches to the edge of the lake. My heart almost stopped when Brutus joined me, staring intently out at the water. He began to bark, running in and out of the lake, almost demanding that I follow.

  “What?” I asked him, wishing he could talk. With his keener senses, he knew something I didn’t. Hampered by the dark night, I didn’t see anything in the water. The moon had shifted behind a cloud and the horizon was merely black.

  “Cece!” I called. “Cece, where are you?”

  “Give it up, Sarah Booth. You can’t save her. She’s gone.”

  Hans stood behind me with the gun I should’ve looked harder to find. It was pointed at my chest.

  “Rookie mistake to leave the gun.” He was gloating.

  My aggravation level rocketed to red alert. “What are you, freaking Jason? Somebody kills you and you pop right back to life? You were out cold. I hit you really, really hard. You should be in the hospital with a brain bleed. I know I broke your ribs.”

  “I’m not as fragile as my sister.”

  As much as I wanted to do something dastardly to Hans, my focus was on the lake as the moon broke through and the silvery light illuminated the water perfectly. Hans was between me and dry land. I would have to figure a way to get around him if I intended to escape. I was a strong swimmer, but not faster than a speeding bullet. In the water there was no cover.

  “I figured it all out, Hans. You blame Erik for dropping your sister during a dance and causing her paralysis. She killed herself recently and that was the trigger that sent you on a killing spree.” I waved a hand at him. “That’s pretty standard psychological profiling 101 trigger stuff. Not very original, you know.” I hoped to provoke him so he might rush at me and at least I’d have a chance at knocking the gun from his hand.

  His features were visible as the moonlight slipped through the branches of a tree, and I saw the anger building. Yet he was too smart to come at me directly. “My sister was everything to me. She didn’t deserve to have her life stolen from her. I had to change my name, create Hans out of thin air. A big weight loss, a little nip and tuck, and I was a whole new person with a chance to avenge my sister.”

  “Do you think Erik really meant to drop her? Did your sister believe Erik was negligent or deliberately failed to lift her properly? Did Claudia blame Erik or herself? Erik said they were both to blame. He told me that Claudia went into the lift with bad footing and was off balance. She overbalanced him and they both fell. It was an accident.”

  “He pushed her to do that lift. She was hesitant, but he kept pushing. You can’t shame a person into doing something they’re afraid of and then pretend you’re not responsible for the consequences. She’d be alive and happy today if he hadn’t made her feel like a coward about that lift. She didn’t blame him, but she should have.”

  I couldn’t speak to what had happened to his sister. Unless he was there, neither could he. Now probably wasn’t the time to make that point. “Tragedies don’t always have logical explanations.” I was speaking from personal experience. “Bad things happen.” My parents died in a one-car accident on a straight road through cotton fields. There was no explanation for the wreck that had killed them both when I was only twelve. I had a crazy woman chasing after me with one desire—to put me and the people I cared about in an early grave. There was no logical reason for Gertrude to hate me so much, but she did.

  “You don’t know how Claudia suffered. You have no idea what losing the use of her legs did to her. My sister was so beautiful and alive. When she danced people couldn’t look away. She was in love with the world. The day they put her in that wheelchair she began to die. She just curled into herself and stopped living until, in the end, she was only a dried little husk of the person she’d once been. It was a long and cruel death.”

  “You went after Erik because you blame him for the accident. And Slay let you down in the lawsuit. Snaith you blame for giving her bad medical advice. But why Patrice and Ana Arguello and Betsy?”

  “Patrice and Ana made it clear they were ready to step on Claudia to get what they wanted. She felt she didn’t have time to heal properly, that she had to dance even when she should have rested and recovered because they were ready to push her aside.”

  There was no point in arguing with Hans that Claudia always had the right to say no. That she could have insisted on self-care instead of pushing too hard. It was a predicament a lot of athletes faced. “And Betsy? She was on your side. She wanted to punish Erik.”

  “At first. But she was losing her nerve. I sent her the ad copy and the money to have it printed. She was about to fold and tell the sheriff.”

  “Betsy knew you were Claudia’s brother?”

  He shook his head. “No, I sent her the material anonymously. With a little extra cash for her trouble. She was only too happy to do it. But you and your partner and the sheriff would have figured it out. You were getting closer and closer every day.”

  “You left Snaith alive. Why didn’t you finish the job?”

  “That moron Cosmo showed up to get something Snaith was concocting for him. I spooked him out of the apothecary, but I was afraid he got a look at me. That’s why I lured him over to the Reynoldses’ shed.”

  “I know you’re hurting from the loss of your sister, but will any of this help? Erik can’t undo anything that happened. He never meant for any harm to come to your sister, but he can’t change any of it. I honestly believe he would if he could.”

  “You believe.” He mocked me. “Give Erik the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he didn’t mean for it to happen.” He swung the gun around. “No! I’m not giving him anything. My sister was destroyed and now she’s dead. That’s on him. He dropped her. She didn’t weigh more than ninety pounds, and he dropped her. That’s on him!”

  Clearly this wasn’t the topic to debate. The more he talked, the angrier he became. I had to calm him down. I shifted closer to the lake, and the ground trembled. The slight, rhythmic rumbling of … a running horse. I knew of only one person who might be riding her horse in a miniature Holy Land at midnight. Sheriff Glory was on the way. I had to alert her that Hans had a gun. He could easily shoot her as she rode up. He had nothing to lose, and he knew it.

  Brutus, who’d been so quiet, suddenly erupted into barking and growling. He stood at the edge of the lake bouncing up and down, barking at the rippling moonglow that a soft wind had kicked up. The dog was laser focused on something floating about halfway across the surface of the big lake.

  “Cece!” I started into the water. “Cece!”

  “You’re too late. She’s been floating out there for too long now. She was too sedated to swim. Stop or I’ll shoot you in the back. I don’t have anything to lose.”

  “Why? What did Cece ever do to you?”

  “She found the herbicide I used on Patrice. When we were doing some stories for my cable show, she went out to the car to get something. She found the herbicide in the backseat and she put it together, just the way you did. I told her if she didn’t leave with me I’d kill you and Tinkie.”

  Brutus gave one desperate volley of barking, and far in the distance I heard an answering bay. I listened again. It wasn’t possible, but I knew that voice! It was Sweetie Pie Delaney, my very own red tick hound. If Sweetie Pie was here, so was Coleman. If I’d ever needed his protection, now was the time.

  “Sarah Booth, don’t try anything stupid. Get back up here,” Hans ordered.

  “Come and get me.” I waded deeper, expecting a bullet in the back at any minute, but I had to take the risk. The farther away from him I stood, the better my chances.

  The beat of a horse traveling hard and fast was now clear even to Hans. “I’ll shoot her, too,” he said. “I like Sheriff Glory, but I’ll shoot her just the same.”

  “You don’t have to take this further. Hans, does the revenge taste as sweet as you anticipated? It never does.”

  “It’s
not about sweetness. It’s about justice. My sister is dead because of Erik. It’s only fitting that Erik should be punished. And he will be. I’ll see to that.”

  He cocked the gun just as Raylee burst into sight. The horse was running wide open, but he was riderless.

  “Where the hell is Sheriff Glory?” Hans noticed the empty saddle and he started to laugh. “She’s fallen off her own horse. Some trick rider she is! Now, Sarah Booth, this is your last chance, get your ass out of that lake. Now!”

  The appearance of the riderless horse disconcerted me. I’d been counting heavily on Glory’s help to save Cece. Now it looked like only half the cavalry was coming to the rescue.

  “Glory! He has a gun.” I didn’t know if she’d dismounted down the trail or if the horse had gotten away from her, but I had to try to warn her. And I wanted a distraction. As soon as he looked toward the horse, I hurled myself into the cold water.

  Hans whipped back to me. “Shut up.” He fired.

  I came up for air and dove back into the deeper water, and the chill was such a shock I couldn’t tell if I’d been hit. Brutus had reached whatever was floating in the water and he had grabbed it and was pulling it toward shore. I could only pray it wasn’t Cece, or if it was her, that she wasn’t dead.

  I came up for air and saw that Raylee had passed Hans, turned around, and was coming at the killer again. When Raylee circled sideways to reverse, I had a clear view of Glory hanging on the offside of the horse, biding her time to jump Hans. With his superior weight and power, she’d need the element of surprise if she meant to take him. I saw her plan, and I rushed toward the shore and Hans. I would divert him to give her a chance.

  “Hans! I’m going to kill you!” I hurled the threat at him as I plowed out of the water and onto dry land. My teeth were chattering and I felt like my joints were frozen.

  Hans took the bait, but only for a split second. He shot once at me and then fired the gun up in the air to divert the horse, but Raylee kept coming. When Hans pointed the weapon at the horse, I screamed out. Taking another wild shot at me, Hans failed to notice the form that suddenly appeared in the saddle with a lariat. Glory swung the rope and neatly captured his gun arm. She jerked the rope tight and when Raylee hit the end of the slack, Hans was jerked slam out of his shoes. I was surprised his arm wasn’t ripped off by the force of the galloping horse. His scream was sweet music.

  I began swimming toward the body that Brutus was dragging back. There was a splash behind me and Sweetie Pie was also in the water speeding toward us. In a moment she had hold of Cece’s clothes and the two dogs and I worked as a team to bring Cece to shore, for it was indeed my friend.

  All I wanted was my friends to be safe and a quiet corner to sit down in and stop the ridiculous shivering that made me feel like the protagonist in some creepy Victorian novel.

  I put all of my thoughts and focus into getting Cece to shore, and I swam with the dogs. I could clearly see the edge of the lake and the horse and rider as Glory dragged Hans to the place where I’d been standing. A tall, broad-shouldered man jogged up. When he looked out to the water and saw us coming with Cece, he threw off his hat and gun, did a shallow racer’s dive, and came after us. Coleman was a terrific swimmer—something I hadn’t realized.

  He was at my side in record time. “Are you okay?”

  “I am. It’s Cece. I don’t think she’s breathing.”

  He didn’t try to verify my worst fear, he merely put his effort into helping the dogs get her to shore.

  36

  Cece’s skin was flawless white porcelain, a color not seen on a person with pumping blood. Water dripped down her cheeks as we pulled her up on the bank. Her mouth was open slightly, but I couldn’t tell if she was breathing. She’d been floating on her back, but I didn’t know if that was a good sign or happenstance.

  “Cece! Cece!” I knelt beside her and chafed her cold hands. The water temperature was frigid. That’s what had stolen the blush from her cheeks. That had to be it. My friend was alive. “Cece, don’t leave us.”

  Brutus had withdrawn into a guard stance beside Hans O’Shea, who lay facedown in the sandy path. Sweetie Pie hovered over Cece and licked her face as if she were drying her tears.

  “Call the paramedics,” Coleman said.

  I had to get the phone out of his pocket because mine was drenched. My trembling hands didn’t help matters. “Is she alive?” I asked, terrified of the answer.

  “Her pulse is really weak,” Coleman said as he began chest compressions. “She’s still with us, but I don’t know if she’s inhaled water or if she’s been drugged.”

  “She’s been drugged.” I told him what I’d learned from Hans. If Coleman needed more information I’d get it out of Hans one way or the other. He was conscious on the path. I could see the gleam of his eyes in the moonlight. Oh, I would welcome the chance to make him sing.

  The dispatcher answered and I gave her the information. She assured me an ambulance had already been called for my location and was on the way.

  Kneeling beside Cece, I gave two rescue breaths for every thirty chest compressions Coleman performed. Whenever I glanced at Hans, it gave me great pleasure to see Brutus hovering, saliva dripping from jaws that could almost contain Hans’s entire head. Anytime Hans tried to move, Brutus sat on him, crushing the air out of his lungs, which I thought was a fine and fitting thing to do.

  “Tinkie!” I had to trust Cece to Coleman and Glory. Tinkie was still AWOL.

  “Where is Tinkie?” Coleman asked, his question coming in a short, breathless gasp as he worked to keep Cece’s heart pumping.

  “Calm down, Sarah Booth. She’s keeping an eye on the Reynoldses,” Glory answered. “I’m still not certain what their role is in this, but when I arrived I found them all trussed up. I cut Tinkie loose and left her to guard them.”

  “You swear Tinkie is okay?”

  Glory nodded. “She’s doing what I asked her.”

  “You think the Reynoldses have a role?” I asked. I would plot some very delicious revenge for them, too, if they were involved in my friend’s situation.

  “Not in the murders,” Glory said, “but something is going on with Cosmo. They definitely know something about that, and they’re going to spill everything before this night is over.”

  “We should call Erik,” I said.

  “Tinkie did,” Glory said. “He’s rounding up Betsy Dell to bring her out here.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Betsy has something she needs to tell Hans. Something he’s going to want to hear. She’s going to tell him in front of Erik,” Glory said.

  I heard the sirens wailing through the woods, and in five minutes a team of paramedics arrived with a stretcher. We cleared back and let them work on Cece. Glory and Coleman moved over to Hans. They untied him, cuffed him, and Glory tied his cuffed hands to a rope and then to her saddle horn and began to ride Raylee back to the office of the Garden of Bones. I hoped she’d get out of sight and put the horse in a fast trot so Hans had to run to keep up or be dragged.

  I walked up to Hans and got in his face. “Justice rides a slow horse, Hans. Now you’re going to see what it feels like to be behind that horse.” I slapped Raylee’s rump and he and Glory took off at a trot. When the slack went out of the rope, Hans was jerked forward at a brisk jog. Glory wouldn’t hurt him, but she would put him through his paces.

  * * *

  After we got everyone back to the main office area of the gardens, Tinkie and I stood, arms around each other’s waists, as the paramedics set up fluids, blood pressure checks, and all the things necessary to stabilize Cece. She was alive, and her color was returning as they tucked warm blankets around her. The paramedics were reassuring us that she would fully recover once her body temperature was brought back to normal. Whatever drug she’d ingested was not going to be fatal.

  Erik and Betsy arrived just as the ambulance left. Once Cece was on her way to the hospital, Erik literally pushed Betsy forward t
o stand in front of Hans. “Tell him.” Erik’s voice cracked with anger. “You’d better tell him right now.”

  Betsy looked around. If she was hoping for help from any of us, she was sadly mistaken.

  “Do you have something to add to the case?” Glory asked.

  Betsy started to cry. “I can’t say it to Charlie.”

  “You can and you’d better start now.” Erik pushed her even closer to Hans.

  “What?” Hans’s voice was ironhard, and it snapped Betsy’s face up so that she stared into his eyes.

  “I put soap on Claudia’s shoe bottoms that night. I wanted to win the competition. I wanted to be the star just for that one night, to be the center of attention. I knew Erik and Claudia had the talent and were going to win, but I thought if maybe she slipped in one of the dances, I would have a chance. I didn’t know she was going to do the lift. I swear it. I only wanted her to slip on the dance floor, not on the way into a lift.”

  “She was your best friend. She loved you like a sister.” Hans was colder than anyone I’d ever heard. “Her death is on you, Betsy. You killed your best friend.”

  “I know,” she sobbed. “Don’t you think I know that? Why else would I agree to help you with this crazy revenge scheme? I knew it was you who sent me the ad to put in the paper. I knew you were hurting people. I knew you were the one who attacked me and tried to poison me. But I didn’t say anything, because guilt has been eating at me.”

  “People are dead,” Tinkie said to her. “My friend almost died here tonight. You’re as guilty of murder as Hans.”

  “I hated Perry Slay. He did screw over Claudia. I didn’t care what you did to him. I didn’t like Patrice, but she didn’t deserve to die. But Ana? She wasn’t even on the scene when all of this started. You shouldn’t have killed her.”

  “No, you’re right about that,” Hans said. He leaned into Betsy’s face. “I should have killed you. And if I get a chance to, I will.”