Sea of Bones

by Vickie McKeehan

  Harry pulled out a dog-eared folder from his ratty old briefcase. He pushed it toward Josh. “I hate to ask, but I have no one else I trust to look into this the way it needs to be done.”

  Josh opened the file and instantly recognized the victim’s name at the top because it had been in the news as recently as Monday. “So you want us to look into the Stacey Dysart disappearance? Isn’t that the job of Seattle PD? I don’t think they’d appreciate us butting into an active investigation.”

  Harry took a deep breath before beginning his pitch. “Just hear me out. It’s like this. My friends in the department believe foul play was involved. They’re convinced this is a homicide.”

  “And?”

  “Everything you need to know, I’ve typed up and put in that file. Stacey’s purse, keys, checkbook, and money were still there in the entryway, along with her coat and shoes. Her luggage was still in the bedroom closet. Nothing of value was taken. The house was immaculate, dishes done, bathroom clean as a whistle. The only mess in the entire place was dog poop from Stacey’s little dog. He’d gone to the bathroom in the corner of the bedroom and the hallway.”

  “How long before she was discovered missing?”

  “The next morning at ten o’clock. When Stacey failed to show up for work, her boss sent a coworker over to the house. This coworker said she smelled the strong odor of chloroform in the bedroom. It’s all there in the file. Everything I know about this case is in that file folder.”

  “Everything except why you’re here.”

  “Okay, look. I need you to interview Stacey’s ex-boyfriend. His name’s Clayton Spencer. I need you to determine if he had anything to do with her disappearance or somehow show that he wasn’t involved.”

  Josh gave Harry a sharp look. “Why the interest in the boyfriend?”

  Harry cleared his throat. “Clayton’s parents have been friends of mine since…before high school. I grew up with Dewayne and Kay in the same neighborhood. Kay became Elizabeth’s best friend and Dewayne was already mine. In fact, he was best man at my wedding. I watched Clay grow up. He was a great kid until he went off the rails a bit and wound up in some trouble down in California during college. His parents asked me to look into this…situation…as a favor to them. I owe them, Josh. I owe them big time because they helped me get through the tough time right after Elizabeth was diagnosed. Kay even took her to chemo. She was a rock during Elizabeth’s treatment. We all knew what Stage 4 cancer meant. But Kay and Dewayne got Elizabeth and me through the toughest part. Then after Elizabeth’s funeral, they were there to help me every day in some way. On the days that I’m lost without Elizabeth, they try to pick up my spirits. It doesn’t always work, but they try. Now Clayton is the major suspect in Stacey’s disappearance. I’m too close to this to be neutral. I need you and Skye to tell me what you think.”

  “About Clayton?” Josh tried to read the lines on Harry’s face. He let out a low sigh. “We’re sorry about Elizabeth. Sorrier than you may ever know. I suppose that crack about you coming here more often works both ways. We should’ve taken the time to come visit you after Elizabeth’s…funeral.”

  Harry waved away the comment. “It’s okay. I understand you two are busy with work and being parents. I get it. That’s why it’s important to me to be there for Kay and Dewayne at a time like this. I don’t think Clayton was involved. I’m sure of it. But I need to take a step back and make sure my gut is right.”

  Skye had been listening from the bottom step of the back staircase. She went over, laid a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “You know this isn’t something we usually do. We try to steer clear of an active investigation, make sure we don’t piss off the cops any more than we already have. You told us to do that. So you need to understand that if we do agree to talk to this guy, we’ll follow it all the way to its proper conclusion. If this guy’s guilty, we’ll turn everything over to the lead detective.”

  “I wouldn’t want it any other way. All I’m asking is for you both to talk to Clay. Look into Stacey’s disappearance. If it turns out Clay is guilty, I’ll slap the cuffs on him myself and take him to the county lockup. I just made a promise to his parents that I would get the best people I know to look at this. The police are putting a lot of pressure on the kid, and I just want to make sure he gets a square deal, guilty or innocent.”

  Skye laid a hand over Harry’s, then looked over at Josh. “What should we do?”

  Josh parsed his lips. “Why don’t you have this Clayton call our office and set up an appointment. We’ll talk to him there.”

  After Harry left and they were alone, Josh built a fire in the living room and the two of them sat in front of it, curled up on the sofa, listening to Chopin. Josh had stretched out with his head in Skye’s lap, eyes closed, unwinding.

  She absently twirled strands of his hair around her finger. “I did some research while I was loading the dishwasher. Stacey Dysart is thirty years old. The only way this Clayton guy could be a “kid” is in Harry’s vernacular.”

  “Yeah. I noticed that, too. Harry seems convinced Clayton is squeaky clean. I wonder what kind of trouble he got into down in California?”

  “Only one way to find out,” she said as she lifted his head to get up.

  He stopped her progress before she could disrupt their solitude. “Later, like tomorrow. Checking on Clayton is a bad idea. We don’t even know if the guy will show up.”

  “You’re right. This Clayton is probably BSing Harry anyway by protesting his innocence.”

  “He might be. Innocent.”

  “I suppose. Always keep an open mind. How much of the file did you read on Lindsey and David?”

  “All of it. What there was of it anyway. Those two didn’t run off, that much I’m sure of.”

  “Wrong place, wrong time. Somewhere that Saturday they crossed paths with a killer.”

  “Are we gonna talk about Sierra seeing Margie Dolan?”

  “What would be the point? It’s happened before. She’s barely three and already having visions strong enough to clearly see people who aren’t there and people who are most likely dead.”

  “Spirits,” Josh muttered. “Margie wants to be found.”

  “Seems like. I’ve been thinking about getting in touch with a Nez Perce shaman, someone who knows about this sort of thing and asking for her help, maybe help Sierra better understand what’s happening.”

  Josh bolted upright and swung his legs to a sitting position. “When did you decide this? Sierra seems perfectly fine with it. She’s never shown the slightest hint of uneasiness whenever it happens.”

  “Relax. I haven’t decided anything for certain yet. That’s why I’m bringing it up now—for discussion. Sierra might be okay with it at three, but what happens down the road when she’s dogged by this so-called “gift”—for lack of a better word—and it gets to be too much, becomes a burden for her to handle on her own? What happens when she gets tired of ghosts popping up in parking lots? What happens when she grows tired of the voices talking to her? As her parents, I think we should be prepared to take steps to help her understand that it’s a natural part of her DNA, part of who she is. We need to help her accept this so it won’t torment her later on.”

  “Then we should be the ones to help her through it. Not some stranger, some shaman who doesn’t know the family background.”

  “Okay. That’s fair. But I’m not sure I can fully explain it to her when I’m emotional about her ability. I remember a time when I wasn’t so sure I understood it myself. If you can, if you’re willing to cover more than the basics, then I guess you’ll handle it when the time is right.”

  “Let’s go to bed,” Josh said, his hand grazing up her thigh. He pulled her closer so he could nibble her earlobe. “It’ll be a long day tomorrow.”

  “I thought you were tired,” she whispered as he moved to nuzzle her neck.

  “Never too tired for this.”

  Smiling, she stood up, tugging him off the couch. “I need a
bed. I’m not doing it on the sofa again.”

  “Even if it’s warm and toasty here?”

  “Even if. I want cozy. I want a bed,” she repeated.

  He obliged by sweeping her up in his arms and heading for the stairs.

  Three

  The bedroom had a chilly, autumn morning feel to it when the alarm went off at six-thirty. Skye rolled over to shut it off and could already hear Sierra singing through the monitor.

  “Sounds like she’s entertaining Kiya,” Josh mumbled, unwilling to open his eyes and crawl out of bed just yet.

  Skye grabbed her robe and stuck her feet into a pair of fluffy slippers. “I’ll go see if she needs to potty. Thankfully it’s Friday. After talking to this Clayton guy, I don’t intend to hang around the office for long. What time is the big reveal for the release again?”

  “Noon. Press conference. After that, we can head back home.”

  “You mean after we finish with Clayton?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Whatever. Don’t hold your breath though I’m not convinced he’ll show up.”

  Skye headed down the hall to her daughter’s room. She found Sierra sitting on the floor with Atka playing with her dolls and stuffed animals. “Mama! Look, my dollies talk.”

  “I see that. Sometimes you make them talk. Do you need to use the bathroom?”

  Sierra nodded. “I’ll take some of my dollies with me.”

  After taking showers to get their day going, Josh tried to help Skye fix scrambled eggs. But his efforts were interrupted several times fielding calls from the media and answering questions about the release of Desolation Zone, a game that had been talked up for the better part of a year.

  Wearing a suit and tie, Josh went about his daddy duties while holding a receiver up to his ear. Stretching out the cord from the old wall phone to its longest length, he was able to walk the distance from the refrigerator to the table, pouring out orange juice for Sierra and back again. He did this all while trying to stay out of the splatter zone to avoid getting anything sticky or buttery on his silk tie.

  “All I can tell you is what we’ve already put out there on the website. Desolation Zone is the ultimate gaming experience for pre-teens to adults. The graphics will simply blow you away. But you’ll have to wait for noon like everyone else to add it to the cart.”

  He ended the call and turned to Skye. “I don’t know how these people get my home number.”

  “It’s a landline. Who was it this time, some eager blogger wanting to be the first in line to play it and review it before anyone else does?”

  “How’d you know? Gamers are usually so mild-mannered until you dangle a new game in front of them and then they become like a pack of rabid wolves.”

  Stuffing her face, Sierra suddenly stopped eating. “Wolf! Good! Kiya, good wolf.”

  Skye leveled the spatula toward her elegantly dressed husband. “No disparaging wolves around here, Daddy.”

  “My mistake. Wolves are awesome.”

  “Awesome!” Sierra yelled, clapping her hands together.

  “I’m glad someone’s ready to face the world today,” Skye noted, sliding a plate of fluffy eggs in front of Josh. “Lena and Pop-pop are coming to babysit.”

  He checked his watch. “I hope they get here soon. Otherwise I’ll have to leave ahead of you. I still have to make sure everything sails smoothly through to noon and then hope the website doesn’t crash.”

  “You seem nervous about this launch. Why?”

  “We wanted local buzz and we got it. I just didn’t think it’d spread all over the Internet as fast as it has. There’s something cool about knowing the whole world is anxiously waiting for what we created. But then, there’s always worry about what if it flops.”

  The doorbell rang. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and got up to answer the door. He came back in with Travis and Lena.

  “Hi Dad, Mom,” Skye emphasized the word with a grin. “Help yourself to scrambled eggs and bacon. There’s plenty.”

  Lena spread her arms around Skye’s shoulders and hugged the woman she considered a daughter. “You’ve just been itching to call me Mom for years, haven’t you?”

  “And now I get to. How was the honeymoon?”

  Lena looked over at Travis, moony-eyed. “We had the best time down in New Mexico and Arizona buying horses. I know we’ve been gone three weeks, but it was absolutely worth every minute of it.”

  Travis snuck an arm around Lena’s waist. “You bet. Nothing better than spending time with the one you love on the open road looking for the best horses out there.”

  “And we found them.” Lena held Travis’s face in both her hands. “See? Look at that face, he was in heaven the entire time.”

  “That’s because Lena enjoyed herself. And she’s a natural sitting on top of the Sorrel bay we bought.” He rounded the island to ruffle Sierra’s hair. “We found a sweet little pony for this one, too. I thought Sierra could pick out a name for the registration since it’ll be her horse.”

  Josh slapped his father-in-law on the back. “You’re spoiling her.”

  “Nonsense. A Nez Perce warrior needs a horse. She’ll need to know how to take care of it properly. That’s what I’m here for.”

  Skye sent her dad a smile. “Right now, I just need you to make sure she doesn’t follow Kiya off into the woods on a grand adventure. Lately…” Skye leaned in toward Travis and lowered her voice. “…Sierra’s been seeing…people who’ve…gone missing.”

  “In other words, ghosts,” Josh added in a hushed tone.

  Skye kissed Sierra on the forehead. “Be good for Pop-pop and Lena. We’ll be back around four. Call if you need to reach us before then.” She turned to grab her coat and stopped. “And plan to stay for dinner. I want to hear all about your trip to Santa Fe. I’ve always wanted to go there but never made it south. Is it as bohemian as they say?”

  “It’s beautiful there with the most wonderful art galleries. I wish we could’ve stayed longer.”

  “Next time,” Travis promised with a kiss to his bride’s cheek.

  “When do you want me back at work?” Lena asked, helping herself to a piece of bacon. “I could go with you…”

  “No way, not today,” Skye returned. “We’re stepping into the middle of a live case by interviewing the main suspect. Harry’s idea, not ours. Not a good time to get your feet wet right after a relaxing vacation.”

  “The guy probably won’t even show up,” Josh grumbled. “Sorry to run, but we really do have to catch the ferry.”

  Lena put him in a bear hug. “Happy release day. Go play hero to a bunch of gamers.”

  Josh grinned. “Not me. In Desolation Zone you, too, can become the hero.”

  ****

  Skye waited in her office for the call from Clayton Spencer to come. Instead, it was Harry who confirmed the man’s appointment for two that afternoon.

  But two o’clock came and went, and Clayton was a no-show.

  By two-thirty, Josh was pacing the small room and checking his watch every five minutes. Judy Howe tried to focus on her work as she sat across the desk, her laptop open, adding details about Clayton into the database they kept.

  Antsy, Skye drummed her fingers on the desk as she read through the background check on their subject. By now, she knew every line by heart. “I can tell you this much,” Skye began. “Mr. Spencer was in more than a little trouble during his time at Sonoma State University. He was arrested for assaulting a woman at a campus party.”

  Josh narrowed his eyes. “This is sounding more and more like we’re wasting our time here. I have better things to do.”

  “We’re doing this for Harry,” Skye reiterated.

  “Maybe so, but I’m tired of waiting,” Josh stated, as he headed toward the door. “If this guy ever shows up call me and I’ll come back down. I still have a few things to take care of before we head home for the weekend.”

  “Go do…whatever. I want to leave by four. By the way, you looked good at the press
conference this morning,” Skye noted as he turned to flash her a sappy smile.

  “Sales are already breaking records. It seems Desolation Zone is as big a winner with adults as it is with teens.”

  “Congratulations,” Judy muttered as she watched Josh disappear out the door. “What’s he so worked up about? I’ve never seen him this nervous before about a new game.”

  “He sunk a lot of his own money into this one,” Skye explained. “Then for the first several months in development, they couldn’t get rid of a bug in one of the quests. Reggie must’ve mentioned it.”

  Judy nodded. “Since we moved in together, Reggie doesn’t talk much about his work anymore. But I do know that for the longest time, no one could get past that one level without everyone dying.”

  “Exactly. The programmers kept losing all their lives, and those are the ones who’d written the code. For weeks, they were stumped. There were nights last summer when Josh didn’t even come home at all. That’s how hard the development team worked on getting it fixed. They were trying to use technology that had never been done before, do some weird thing with the graphics, making it look true-to-life.”

  “Reggie said the problem was getting it to work on all platforms. Once they figured that out, piece of cake.”

  “Whatever it was, I’m glad they figured out how to get past the issue. It was driving Josh nuts.”

  “Five to one this Clayton guy doesn’t show,” Judy muttered.

  “That’d be a sucker’s bet. I’m not much liking the guy already.”

  Another fifteen minutes ticked by before Clayton Spencer arrived and looked put out for having to be there and answer questions.

  Skye glanced up from the Mathieson / Collins file she’d been studying to get her first look at the man of the hour. Although he was nice to look at—if you liked a Ralph Lauren catalog model—she wasn’t impressed. She closed the manila folder and noted that if not for the scar on his forehead, his face was almost too perfect to be real.