Game of Bones

by Carolyn Haines

  My phone was in my pocket and I checked the time. Dawn was just breaking. It was ten minutes after six. I had calls from Tinkie, Doc, and Coleman. I didn’t bother listening to the messages but called Tinkie.

  “Where the hell are you?” Tinkie was angry, and I knew it was worry more than temper.

  “Memphis. Cissy Hartley’s house.”

  “You’re still there?” Tinkie was less angry and more annoyed. “You had a sleepover with a reporter friend and couldn’t bother to call me. You sure as hell had better have Cece with you.”

  “I don’t. I haven’t seen her, but I’m expecting her this morning. How is Coleman?”

  “Looking for you. Doc is trying to keep him in the hospital, but he’s about to burst out of there and he’s wondering where you are.”

  That wasn’t a good thing. “I was exhausted. If I’d tried to drive home I might have wrecked. I did play it safe, and I also have some new thoughts on the case. I’ll be bringing Cece home with me. I’m sorry I worried you.”

  “I’m glad you’re sorry, but I’m still annoyed. Things in this case don’t add up, especially not you and Cece ending up in Memphis. Care to explain?”

  “When I get home. I promise. Cece’s been following a lead, or so the television reporter tells me. We’ll explain everything when I get to Zinnia.”

  “Be careful, Sarah Booth. You’d better call Coleman and you’d better have a really good story to tell him. And Doc. Both of them are upset.”

  “Can you call them, Tinkie? I hear someone coming back. I have to go.” I lied with great urgency and hung up before she could protest. Yes it was a lowdown trick, but if anyone could soothe Coleman and Doc, it would be Tinkie. I’d just make a muddle of it.

  I found my shoes, picked them up, and opened the bedroom door. I paused with my hand on the knob. From somewhere in the house I could hear voices. It sounded like two women talking, not the big, hulking bodyguard. Sweetie Pie passed me, tail wagging, as she headed toward the voices.

  “Sweetie!” I whispered her name, but she kept going. “Sweetie!”

  She went down the hall and turned the corner, her toenails clicking. Pluto and I were after her in a flash. When Sweetie entered the kitchen, I heard an exclamation of happiness. I stopped. That sounded a lot like my missing journalist, Cece Dee Falcon.

  I burst into the kitchen. Cece sat at a cozy breakfast nook with Cissy and the huge boulder of a man named Neville. They were sipping mimosas and snacking on little toasted triangles of cheese.

  “Sarah Booth, glad to see you in the land of the living,” Cece said, indicating a chair I should take.

  “Where have you been? Half the county is looking for you and I left Coleman injured in the hospital to come search for you. I thought you were in danger!”

  “I was,” Cece said. “If you’ll let me explain, I think you’ll see why I had to come up here.”

  “Oh, I’m ready for an explanation.”

  “I feared I was in danger. Ms. Hartley saved me. Well, it was actually Neville, but she ordered it to happen.”

  “What are you talking about? You left Peter Deerstalker at the Winterville Mound with no way to get home.”

  “That’s not exactly how it happened. Peter left me. He went up the mound ahead of me while I was on the phone. I heard something in the woods. When I went to check on it, I realized I’d dropped my phone. I searched for it but couldn’t find it in the dark. I went up the mound to find Peter, he was gone. Not a trace of him. I figured he’d set me up and—” She broke off abruptly. “I thought he was going to try to kill me.”

  “I was worried you were dead!” The more I talked the angrier I became. “I abandoned Coleman in the hospital after he’d been shot because I was so worried about you. Why didn’t you let us know where you were?”

  “I did send texts. Didn’t you get them? Then I lost the phone.”

  I remembered what Tinkie had said about the texts that we’d never received. It wasn’t Cece’s fault. She had tried. Cece looked suitably contrite. Neville continued to eat little toast triangles and ignore me. Cece had the decency to hand a few tidbits down to Sweetie, who was thumping her tail on the floor at her feet. “How did you get here in Memphis?”

  It was the television reporter who answered. “Bella Devareaux told me that Peter Deerstalker was into some really weird stuff. She thought Peter had something to hide. I was about to check into the Prince Albert when I called Cece and realized she was at Winterville Mound … with Peter. I was talking to her when she heard something in the woods and rushed to check it out. I thought she was potentially in a lot of danger. That’s really why Neville and I drove there. Plus I needed some footage.”

  “Okay, what was the big danger? Did Peter try to harm you?”

  “There was someone else at the mound,” Cece said. She wouldn’t meet my gaze, which was not like my friend.

  “Okay, so who was there? Cooley Marsh? Delane? Frank Hafner? Elton Cade?”

  “None of the above. It was someone else.”

  My patience was thin. “I’m done playing sixty questions. Who was there?”

  “It’s difficult to explain, because it doesn’t make sense.” Cece hesitated and looked at Cissy again, as if to get their stories straight.

  “Stop the footsy with each other and just tell me what happened.”

  “You aren’t going to believe it.” Cissy was almost gleeful. “I was about to pop to tell you last night, but I promised I would wait until Cece got here.”

  “For heaven’s sake, spit it out!” I nudged Cece’s leg under the table. “Tell me or I promise I’ll hurt you.”

  “When I got to the top of the mound, there wasn’t a sign of Peter, like I said. It was like he’d vanished. I figured he’d lured me out there and set me up to be harmed.” Cece held my gaze, almost willing me to believe her. “When the moon wasn’t behind a cloud I could see pretty well. There wasn’t any evidence Peter had ever been there. When I was on the phone to Cissy, she’d told me about some of the things Peter’s name had been hooked to. Supernatural things. Marie Laveau, spells, voodoo. Kawania was also involved.”

  She glanced over at Cissy. Something like an electric current passed between them. It made me uneasy. I remembered the talk I’d had with Peter at the hospital. “Peter said he was at the top of the mound and didn’t see anything. He didn’t find any evidence of anything. He said he went back down and you were gone from his vehicle.”

  “I don’t know where he was but he wasn’t on top of that mound. I searched for him. I thought he might have gone down the back side so I went to the north edge and looked down. There’re some trees there and I guess he could have been camouflaged by the trees and shadows. I guess almost anything could have been waiting in those woods.”

  I could see her pulse in her throat. She was making me very nervous. “And what?”

  “I didn’t see Peter, but I saw something else. Someone else.”

  “Who?” I wanted to shake her. “Quit dinking around and just tell me.”

  “It looked like someone who shouldn’t be there.”

  “Who?” I was going to have to squeeze it out of her.

  “It looked an awful lot like Sandra Wells.”

  It took a few seconds for what she was saying to really register with me. “You saw a corpse?”

  “Not a corpse.”

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know what it was. I didn’t get a clear view, but it was walking in the trees. Kind of walking. More like stumbling.”

  I looked from one to the other, and Cissy confirmed what she’d said with a nod. “Tell me you got a photo,” I said. This was too preposterous to be a lie or excuse.

  “It was too dark and I was too far away.” She held up a hand. “It could have been a trick of the light. It could have been someone else. I couldn’t swear to anything. When Cissy and Neville showed up, I’d searched everywhere for Peter and by that time I didn’t want to find him. I was more than ready to lea
ve.” She sighed. “Peter had abandoned me, and I was creeped out by what I’d seen in the woods.” She pushed her hair back from her cheek. “I shouldn’t have left Peter but I thought he’d left me. I didn’t have a weapon or a camera or even a phone. That … thing shifting around in the woods. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. And there was one other thing.”

  “What?” I still wasn’t certain what to make of the scene Cece had witnessed. My friend wasn’t prone to flights of fancy or nightmares of corpses walking around.

  “This.” Cece reached into her purse beside her chair and brought out a beautiful purple cloth. She unwrapped an object. When she pushed the curved stone knife toward me, I eased back from it. It was a beautiful instrument, but wickedly crafted. Deadly. A dark brown crust was near the hilt.

  “I found that at the top of the mound,” Cece continued. “The cloth was spread out and the knife in the center of it. Look at the handle. It’s bone. Probably buffalo bone. The blade is chiseled stone, like the blade used to kill the two women.”

  I leaned closer. A carving in the bone depicted the very same tattoo that had been found on the bodies of the two dead women. “I think you found the murder weapon.”

  “I think so, too. And I’m concerned that it was left there to be used on me.”

  I looked at my friend. I didn’t want to imagine her as a ritual sacrifice for some sicko, but it was hard to avoid. The knife told a violent and scary story. “We need to find out what that symbol means and who it’s significant to.”

  “That’s what I’ve been doing here in Memphis,” Cece said. “I borrowed a car from Cissy and I’ve been going to every spiritual healer, card reader, Native American historian—whoever I could find who would talk to me.”

  “What did you find out?” I asked.

  “The symbol isn’t historic. It doesn’t have a history of use in any organization, religion, or cult that I could find. It seems it’s specific to the two dead women.”

  I had something to add to that—Sister Grace also had the tattoo—but not in front of Cissy and Neville. “I have to get back to Zinnia. Coleman will be awake and waiting for me. Ed Oakes, your boss in case you’ve forgotten that, is going to be out for blood, Cece. He’s been worried and you know that makes him angry. He’d never forgive himself if you were hurt. And taking off with Peter Deerstalker! What was that all about? A man you considered a possible serial killer.” I was on a roll and I didn’t intend to let her off easy.

  “Ed is okay. I called Jaytee and he told me about Coleman getting shot. How bad is it?”

  “He’s going to be okay. I may not be when he’s up and about. I left him so I could find you.”

  “Thank you, Sarah Booth. I’m sorry. I did try to contact you.”

  “Did Jaytee say how Elton was doing? He was injured at Winterville Mound also.”

  “Elton was there?”

  I nodded. “He got a call that Peter was in danger.”

  Cece’s brow furrowed. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but that makes me question Peter’s role in this even more. I really thought he was innocent, but now I’m just not sure. I thought we were all lured to that mound to be either a victim or a scapegoat. How did he miss that knife and cloth? It’s possible, in the dark, in the grass.” She clenched her fists. “Someone is playing with us. It could be that Peter is behind all of this. He was there. He could have manipulated the whole thing.” She frowned. “But he might also be innocent.”

  “Do you have any evidence, either way? The private investigator whose body was left in the basement of the old Bailey house lived in the same small town as the Biloxi-Tunica reservation. What are the chances of that being a coincidence?”

  “I did find out some interesting facts about Bella’s background. From Peter,” Cece said. “Bella moved to Marksville about nine months ago from New Orleans.”

  There was another New Orleans connection—Kawania Laveau. And Peter was also connected to Kawania through her Tunica blood. Peter was deep into what was happening at both of the burial mounds.

  Cece had accomplished a good bit with her investigation, but I’d wasted hours in Memphis and had little to show. “Get your things. I have to go. Now that you’re safe, I’m worried about Coleman.”

  “Don’t be too hard on her. She’s been afraid,” Cissy added. “And with good cause.”

  “Ya think?”

  “Not afraid of you.” Cissy sighed heavily. “She has a reason to be afraid.”

  She actually sounded sincere. “What are you talking about?”

  “Cece should tell you herself.”

  I focused on Cece. This was worse than pulling teeth. “Can you just tell me the whole damn story and quit piecemealing it out?”

  “Let me borrow your phone, please, and give me a moment of privacy. You already know everything.” Cece held out her hand and I forked over my phone, but I couldn’t resist one last dig. “We need to get back to Zinnia, so make it quick.” I went to the back door and let Sweetie Pie and Pluto out into a lovely backyard so they could do their business before we hit the road home. When real spring came, this yard would be a haven for bees and butterflies. Cissy obviously called the shots at her television station, and they paid her plenty to keep her working there. She had to have a gardener along with her chauffeur/bodyguard Neville. Good help didn’t come cheap.

  I dialed Doc Sawyer to let him know I was delayed but that Cece was safe and sound. Coleman would welcome that news, though he was likely to be prickly over my defection.

  “Coleman is fine. Ready to go home. I’ll give him the good news on Cece, and let him know you’ll be here soon.”

  “Thanks, Doc.” I let out a deep breath.

  The back door closed and I heard footsteps. “How about some breakfast, Sarah Booth?” Cissy asked.

  “No, thanks. We really have to get back to Zinnia.” I was feeling the pressure of deeds undone. “Cece needs to explain to some people. And so do I. I have people upset with me because I came here to help Cece.”

  “Don’t be mad with her. She really thought Peter was going to reveal something that would point to the killer. The problem is, she could have gotten herself killed.” She hesitated. “Whatever she saw in those woods scared the hell out of her. I wanted to stay and investigate. I mean, we had Neville. But she wouldn’t hear of it. She wanted away from that place.”

  “Yeah. The knife, Peter disappearing, the thing she saw.” I could see how she’d be eager to kick up some heel dust. “How did you get to the Winterville Mound so quickly?”

  She blew air out in exasperation. “I was already in the area. I’d arranged to do a live shot on top of the Winterville Mound. You know, the whole full moon, Mississippi River mystique. We chose Winterville because it’s a regulated site and has been maintained. Better optics. Then I got a call from Cece and she was really upset. I like her. She’s a great reporter. And it was the chance of a lifetime. You have to admit that it’s one helluva crime story to run with.”

  I wasn’t certain Cissy was being totally honest, but she was at least 85 percent there. “Did you see anything in the woods?” I didn’t believe in the walking dead, but Cece wasn’t a person prone to wild imaginings.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t. I wanted to send Neville to search but Cece was freaked out. I’m telling you, she wanted to go. There was no reasoning with her.”

  “And so you left a potential killer running around a burial site.”

  “That was a flaw in our thinking, for sure. I’m sorry, Sarah Booth. It could have been a fatal mistake for you or Sheriff Peters.”

  The door opened and Cece also came out. “Cissy, there’s a phone call for you.” She stepped aside as Cissy went into the house.

  For a long moment neither of us said anything. Cece put a hand on my shoulder. “I feel like a fool, going off with Peter like that to an isolated place without telling anyone. He told me to keep it under wraps. There was supposed to be evidence there that would reveal the killer.�
�� She rolled her eyes. “Right, the evidence was going to be my body. Blood drained for his sicko ritual.”

  “You did find the knife, which may be the murder weapon. If your scenario is correct, we have to find out, and fast. Peter is either the perpetrator or another intended victim. Remember, if he’s telling the truth, he was the one contacted to go to the site, not you.”

  “Good point.”

  “We don’t know if the killer targets women only, or if he takes whoever is available. Peter could also be in danger.”

  “He could be.” Cece looked perfectly anguished. “And I left him there without his keys.”

  “He escaped without damage. Now let’s head home and put the pieces of this mess together. I feel like we’re all being jerked around, and I’m more than a little tired of it.”

  “I did come to a conclusion,” Cece said. Her sassy smile was back in place.

  “Yeah? I swear if you don’t just tell me everything, I am going to have Coleman arrest you.”

  “We’ve been asking the wrong question. What did Bella Devareaux find that cost her her life? The answer to that could unravel the whole case.”

  24

  I navigated the Memphis traffic in silence. It wasn’t far to the interstate that would take us straight home. When I was on the four-lane, Cece didn’t relax. A tiny muscle jumped in her jaw.

  “What gives?” I asked.

  “Some of the students claim that they’ve seen an apparition at the dig. They swear it’s true.” She took a deep breath. “I thought they were being hysterical or drama queens, until I saw it, too.”

  I cast a glance at Cece. She was sitting forward, clearly worried. “Go on.”

  “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I know Peter is the obvious suspect here, but I think he believed there was evidence at Winterville Mound. He seemed convinced that we’d be able to solve Dr. Wells’ and Bella Devareaux’s murders and absolve him of any blame.” She clenched her fist. “He was positive and eager. I believed him at the time and, now, I’m beginning to swing back to believing him again.”