A Gift of Bones--A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery

by Carolyn Haines

  I picked up the go boxes I’d ordered for Pluto, Sweetie Pie, and Chablis, Tinkie’s little dust-mop dog. We had to hit it before Cece came out from under Millie’s motherly spell and tried to join us. We would be far more effective without her.

  8

  Our first stop was Marlon Drugs, where Dara Peterson had filled her vitamin prescription. There were still two refills left on the bottle, and I thought I’d give it a try to see if the pharmacy might have an address for Dara. The Tallahatchie County pharmacy was in an old building and exuded character. Tinkie decided I should try to get Dara’s address for a delivery. Tinkie, as the daughter of Avery Bellcase and the wife of Oscar Richmond and the Queen Bee Daddy’s Girl, was too well known.

  I turned in the bottle to be refilled and then moseyed around the store, looking at nail polish and Christmas candy. I was ready for a dark chocolate-covered almond reindeer. Yum. I resisted and kept moving. When Dara’s name was called, I went to pick it up.

  “Birthdate, please,” the clerk said.

  “I’m a friend. I didn’t get her birthday. Sorry.” I smiled sincerely. “I’m just doing Dara a favor.”

  “Address and phone,” she said.

  Another smile. “Look, I work with Dara. I’m sorry, I just don’t know this information. I’m going to take the prescription back to the office with me. She’ll pick it up later. Like I said, I’m only doing a favor.”

  She looked me dead in the eye. “Ms. Peterson will have to pick up the prescription herself. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s prenatal vitamins, not crack,” I couldn’t stop myself from snapping. “Call her.”

  The clerk had gone from uninterested to annoyed. She began tapping on her screen and reached for a telephone. From behind the orthotic aisle, Tinkie let out a horrific scream of pain. “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

  I had to turn away to hide my smile. Tinkie was awful. She was playing her part way over the top, but it was working.

  “Help! I’m going to sue this place. There was water on the floor. Help me!”

  The clerk and the pharmacist raced out from behind their counters and ran to help Tinkie. I swiveled the computer screen so that I could see Dara’s address and phone number. When I had it memorized, I sashayed to the front of the store and left. I was waiting in the car when Tinkie came outside, looking like the cat that ate the canary.

  “I take it you were successful in getting an address for Dara, thanks to my great acting,” Tinkie said.

  “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up? What are you, a hundred and twelve?”

  Tinkie laughed with delight. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “It’s the little things that make life worth living.” I put the car in drive and headed out for Bison Street.

  The property listed as the address for Dara Peterson put a pall over us. The lot was beautiful and shady, but the little house seemed to slump in the middle, as if the foundation had given out. Rusted tools and toys were scattered around the yard that was barren of any color or attention. Debris had clogged the gutters of the house, and a front porch swing hung by one chain.

  “This is one of the most depressing houses I’ve ever seen,” Tinkie said. “It isn’t the poverty, it’s the neglect. I mean, look at the mess. It wouldn’t take much just to pick up the trash.”

  I had a terrible sense that Dara Peterson didn’t have a single ounce of energy to spare. She was drowning in her life. “Do you think anyone lives here now?” The place certainly seemed abandoned to me.

  “Maybe not.” She got out of the car and walked to the front door. Sweetie, Chablis, and Pluto were right behind her. I was the caboose, but I put it in high gear.

  No one answered Tinkie’s knock, but Sweetie nosed the door open and we all trooped inside. The interior was worse than the outside. Dirty clothes and dishes were scattered about the floor. Even in the bitter cold, the detritus had attracted a swarm of flies. I heard them buzzing in the kitchen with a loud drone.

  “Someone should call the health department,” Tinkie said as she started toward the kitchen. “Or else the fire department. It might be kinder to torch this place.”

  “I’ll take the kitchen if you check the bathroom,” I said. Either room could contain a plague. I headed for the sound of the flies. The minute I stepped into the kitchen, I stopped. Blood was all over the floor. Not a pool big enough to indicate a person had died, but a lot of blood.

  “There’s nothing in the bathroom,” Tinkie said. “I’ll help in the kitchen.”

  I backed out and closed the door. “Call Coleman.”

  “He doesn’t have any jurisdiction in this county,” Tinkie reminded me, puzzled by my behavior. “What’s wrong?”

  I didn’t want her to see the blood. I didn’t know if it belonged to Dara, Eve, the baby, or what. “Just call him and ask him to meet us here. Now.”

  “Okay.” She whipped out her phone and made the call. “He wants to know why he should come here.”

  “Because someone’s been hurt really bad.”

  She relayed the message and hung up. “He’s on the way. What’s in the kitchen?”

  I couldn’t keep her out, so I pushed the door open and we went in together. Sweetie, Chablis, and Pluto had taken a seat by the front door. They were smart enough not to step into a crime scene. Tinkie and I stopped two feet into the room.

  Blood had been smeared over the cabinets and the sink was filled with bloody towels. Beneath a chair at the kitchen table the flies had begun to settle in the carnage.

  “What the hell happened here?” Tinkie asked.

  “I don’t know.” It looked like a lot of blood. “I don’t think it was a fatal accident.”

  “We should call Cece.” Tinkie said it but I knew she didn’t want to. Not until we had no other option.

  “Let’s see what Coleman says. Cece is already going to be furious that I called him, but I don’t know the sheriff here in Tallahatchie County. It’s best to let Coleman handle it or we might end up in jail. We’re the closest thing to a suspect the sheriff is going to have.”

  She handed me her phone. “Better call Cece.”

  “Coward.” But I took the phone and dialed. When Cece answered, I got right to it. “We’re at Dara Peterson’s house.” I gave the address. “Something terrible has happened here, Cece. There’s a lot of blood. I’ve called Coleman. I’m sorry, but this is a crime scene.”

  I listened to Cece’s reply and then gave the phone back to Tinkie. “She’s on her way. She’s not mad that we called Coleman. In fact, I think she was more than a little relieved.”

  “Yeah, I’m glad Cece wasn’t angry.”

  We talked back and forth for a few minutes, trying to get past the shock of the scene and the terror of what might have happened. At last, Tinkie spoke of the elephant in the room.

  “Do you think Eve started to have the baby and got into trouble?”

  I’d been thinking the same thing. “No, of course not. Probably someone was chopping up food and cut themselves.” Man, was that ever lame.

  “Yeah, that’s probably it. Should we go outside and wait for Coleman?”

  “And think of why we entered this house without permission.” We had some stories to fabricate and quick. “We can say we thought we heard a struggle.”

  “Okay.” Tinkie backed up until she was well out of the kitchen. We both went out the front door with our pets following. “We can say that. He won’t believe it, but we can say it.”

  “If you think of something better, let me know.” I was agreeable to a more digestible lie. “In fact, you handle Coleman. I’m going to search the grounds before he gets here.” I took off for the backyard, ignoring Tinkie’s pleas for me to wait. Coleman was going to be furious with the two of us. Tinkie could be the sacrifice this time.

  “Coward!” Tinkie hurled after me, but I just kept going. Sweetie, Chablis, and Pluto were with me. Tinkie was on her own in dealing with an irate lawman.

 
The property sloped down the back toward what was a fast-running little creek. It had to be spring fed from some source, but I wasn’t in the mood to play Lewis and Clark and track upstream. It was big enough for a small boat or canoe to navigate, but I gathered it was mostly used to drain storm water. My goal was to hang out in the canopy of trees until Tinkie had soothed Coleman’s ruffled feathers. Sometimes it was smart to be spineless.

  The water’s light and airy babbling drew me down the slope. Weaving among the trunks and fallen limbs and leaves, I found my way to the water’s edge and stopped. Farther upstream, Sweetie Pie had started barking relentlessly. It was the big hound-dog bark, with Chablis filling in with her squealing little bark that was like an ice pick in my ear.

  “Give it a rest,” I said as I moved along the bank until I came up on the dogs. Then I understood. Trapped among the limbs and branches was a pink baby blanket. It had hung on a root, and was bobbing in the water.

  A dozen questions came at me all at once, but the most important one was, where was the baby? The blood in the house, the blanket here in the creek, it was too much. I grabbed a tree trunk to steady myself and turned back to the house at a run.

  I blasted in the back door and found Coleman talking to Tinkie in the living room. The anger faded from his face when he saw me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Baby blanket.” I pointed the way I’d come. “In the creek.”

  Coleman looked at Tinkie. “Stay here. When the crime scene people arrive, tell them everything you and Sarah Booth touched. Sarah Booth, show me. Quickly.”

  I saw the pain in Tinkie’s eyes, but there was nothing I could say to protect her from the truth. If a baby had been put in the freezing creek, we had to find it right away. If it was still alive, it wouldn’t be for long.

  “I’m afraid someone put a baby in the creek,” I said to Coleman as we fought our way down the slope and to the water.

  “Where?” Coleman asked.

  I pointed to the pink blanket bobbing in the amber water. “There.”

  He started forward and stopped on the edge of the water. The day was sunny, but the water was very cold. Without hesitation, Sweetie Pie plunged into the current and swam across to grab the blanket in her teeth. In a moment she was back beside me, shaking off the cold water. Pluto and Chablis did their best to avoid getting soaked.

  Coleman examined the blanket and faced me, his expression grim. “There’s blood here, too. We’ll have to see if it matches the blood in the kitchen.”

  “Do you think…?” I couldn’t finish the question. I didn’t want to know what Coleman thought about all that blood.

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” he said. “This isn’t my jurisdiction, but I called Sheriff Cobbs. I’m sure he’s up at the house by now. He’s going to be aggravated by you and Tinkie messing up his crime scene.”

  “He wouldn’t have found it if it weren’t for me and Tinkie,” I said.

  “True. Be sure and remind him of that.”

  “And Sweetie and Chablis found that blanket.”

  “Another point to remind Sheriff Cobbs about.”

  I could see Coleman wasn’t going to work very hard to get me and Tinkie off the hook of a possible trespassing charge. Maybe even breaking and entering, since we’d opened the door and entered. I glared at him. “I did call you.”

  “And now you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on.” He put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me in my tracks. “Now.”

  It was pointless to fight him—and I didn’t really want to. “Cece’s cousin, Eve Falcon, has been kidnapped and is being held for a one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar ransom. She’s very pregnant and due to give birth sometime around Christmas Eve. Tinkie and I have been trying to find her. Last night we had to go with Cece when she got a call that someone had found Eve’s purse in the mud at the boat launch in Fortis Landing. That’s where we went. That’s how we ended up here, at this house.”

  “All of this in twenty-four hours?” Coleman asked.

  I nodded.

  “When is the drop for the ransom?”

  “We don’t know. The person said they would call. Cece knows to ask for proof of life, but I don’t think she will. The kidnapper said if she called the law Eve would be killed. Cece’s terrified. And she asked Tinkie and me, as her friends, to honor her decision to handle things herself.”

  “I understand.” He turned away. “Let’s get Cece and see if we can find who made those ransom calls to her.”

  I almost told him she would be furious with me, but it didn’t matter. “I should have told you immediately.”

  “Second-guessing won’t change a thing, Sarah Booth. You did what you thought was right, and that’s all anyone can do.”

  That he wasn’t angry with me was completely terrifying. It was almost as if he knew something tragic had occurred and he was trying to hold back the self-blame that might kill me.

  9

  The Tallahatchie sheriff had some questions and a few pointed remarks to make to me and Tinkie, but when his deputies found no additional evidence in the small creek behind Dara Peterson’s place, he let us go after Coleman vouched for us.

  Earning my everlasting gratitude, Coleman kept quiet about Eve Falcon’s abduction. Her case now stretched across Sunflower, Leflore, and Tallahatchie counties, if we could prove that Dara Peterson was somehow involved in Eve’s disappearance. There was no sign of Dara and no one who seemed to know anything about who she was. The Tallahatchie sheriff revealed to Coleman that he knew almost everyone in his county, but not her.

  The house where Dara supposedly lived had been vacant for months; the owner had moved to Arizona for health reasons. It looked as if Dara was a squatter.

  “What about the blood?” I asked Coleman as he was pretty much strong-arming me and Tinkie out of the cottage and into our car.

  “That’s up to the Tallahatchie sheriff now. Get out before he decides to arrest you. He could, and I wouldn’t blame him.”

  “But what if Eve is hurt?” Tinkie said. She looked back at the wooded cottage, but got in the car when Sheriff Cobb came to stand on the little front porch.

  “You need to take your detecting somewhere else right now,” Coleman said. “I’ll find out what I can, but drive away from here.”

  “You bet.” I made sure my critters were in the backseat and put the car in drive. “See you tonight,” I called back to Coleman.

  When we arrived at Dahlia House, Cece and Madame Tomeeka were waiting. They’d decorated the entire balustrade on the front porch with magnolia boughs, cedar branches, and red ribbon. It looked wonderful, but they looked stressed out.

  “Has anyone called about making the money drop?” I asked as I walked up the steps.

  “No.” Cece was on the verge of tears. “We decided to decorate to kill time. I’ve always loved Christmas, until this year.”

  “It’s beautiful.” And it was, but also sad. “Cece, I think you should call Jaytee and tell him to come home.”

  “I did,” she said. “I’ve faced so many hard things in my life alone. I don’t want to do that now. Not at Christmas. He and the band cancelled the rest of the tour and they’re coming home.”

  I put an arm around her and gave her a hug. “I know how hard this is,” I whispered.

  Madame Tomeeka joined us in a huddle. “That baby’s still alive,” she said. “I feel it in my bones. I had a dream about two babies. They were in little bassinets, side by side. They were both healthy.”

  Tinkie jumped on it. “Are you sure, Tammy?”

  “It’s Christmas.” Tammy nodded sagely. “Miracles happen at this time of the year.”

  Madame was trying to put the best spin on Eve’s disappearance, but it might backfire on us if Eve was harmed. False hope was worse than no hope.

  We trooped into Dahlia House and Tinkie made drinks while I put on coffee for Tammy. When we all had a beverage, we told Cece and Tammy everything we’d learned. Even a
bout the blood. Cece took it hard, but she didn’t break. She was made of sterner stuff.

  “Has the kidnapper called again?” I asked.

  “No. I’ve kept my phone on me to make certain I didn’t miss a call. What if I never hear from him?” Cece’s eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

  It was a bleak prospect, but one I couldn’t protect her from. “Cece, make some calls to the Bank of the Deep South at their Memphis headquarters. As Eve’s cousin, you can ask about her. See if you can find someone who knows anything that might help us. She hasn’t lived in Cleveland all that long. Maybe the kidnapper is someone from her past. Maybe even someone who cares about her.” I, too, was grasping at straws. “We’re jumping to the worst possible conclusion and we have to stop it.”

  “People who love you don’t hold you for ransom,” Cece pointed out.

  “Not normally. But nothing about this case is normal,” I insisted.

  “What are you going to do?” Tammy asked me, swiftly changing the subject.

  “Tinkie and I are going back to the river. We’ll take a photo of Eve with us and see if anyone at Fortis Landing has seen her.” I also wanted to get some clothing from Dara’s house. It might not be useful, but if we found something with her scent on it, Sweetie Pie and Chablis might be able to track her. We had nothing to lose by trying. And I intended to pay a visit to Dr. Warren, the obstetrician listed on Dara’s vitamin prescription. He might not tell us much, but I intended to ask.

  “Okay.” Cece stood up and paced. “I can’t sit still. Let’s move on this. I left some pastries in the kitchen, Sarah Booth. They’re really good. Millie baked them and I watched.”

  Tinkie and I rose also. “I think I’ll have one for the road,” I said.

  Cece tried for a smile and failed miserably. “Call me as soon as you find anything.”

  “Of course.” Tinkie and I spoke simultaneously.

  “Would you mind making some small holly wreaths to put around the candles on the dining room table?” Keeping Cece busy was an act of kindness. “And there are twenty or so presents to wrap in the closet under the stairs. The gift paper is there, too. You know I’m all thumbs with that kind of thing. Thanks!” I waved brightly as I drove away.