“Did you stake the location of your discovery?”
“As close as I could get to the bank, Doc, and tagged it aswell. Just like the other remains I found down there.”
“Show me your treasure, Aladdin.”
A quarter hour passes as Kelly deliberates over Tom’s findings.Waiting for the doctor to share his theories, I feel cold, hungry, andbruised—not a combination to encourage patience, especially when I lack thatquality on a good day.
What? I finally sign. Tell now!
“Sorry, Hester. Tom brought us an incomplete hand—partial carpaland metacarpal as well as proximal and intermediate phalanges. Lucky the mud bythe creek kept them together. I assume the whole appendage was separated fromthe body and dropped there, stuck, and decomposed. Some of the hand might haveindeed fallen into the creek, as Tom surmised. Though small, the bones are not immatureor childlike. They belong to a woman.”
I huff out some air and turn telepathic. Is Kelly going totell us something we don’t already know, Tom?
He nudges me. Be quiet. I’m trying to listen.
“She’s delicate,” Kelly observes. “Like you.” He lowers mypalm to the bone puzzle, comparing my frame with that of the dead woman. A flashof supernatural heat and truth vibrates between the victim and me. This isFreckles all right.
“Aside from the traces of mud, the remains are quite clean,”the doctor says. “Partly, I assume, because they’ve been exposed to theelements for a while. Well over a year, I’d say.”
Now Kelly moves my fingers to another piece of evidence. “Thetibia is a part of the leg. Feel that indentation?” I wince and pull my handout of his grasp. “Too squeamish? Never mind, then. This tibia’s covered withnotches. Animal bite marks, would be my guess. One set of teeth is bigger, butthe others are little. Maybe a family of mountain lions? A mother and her cubs?Lady X is probably scattered all across this range.”
Bile rises in my throat. Stop him, Tom! I don’t need to knowmore!
Tom covers his laugh with a cough. As they say, be carefulwhat you ask for.
The doctor is on a deductive roll. “I doubt she was alive atthe time the animals fed. No bites on the phalanges to indicate she foughtagainst them. The creatures most likely found her later and then nibbled away.”I hear Kelly scoot back on his heels, a man in thought. “Wish I had the skull.Death by falling? Is this what you overheard the killer say, Hester? That he’dpushed her?”
Another nudge from Tom. Stick to the story we told him,love.
Correct, I sign to Kelly. She fell.
The men discuss the shredded square of gingham next, sayingit’s spotted with tiny flecks of blood. “Where did you find it, Craddock?”
“By a cave. Some rocks blocked the opening, like there was alandslide recently, and made the hole too small for me to go inside. But thegingham was fluttering in the wind, caught in the branches of a dead sagebrush.I couldn’t see it until I bent over to drive a stake into the ground. I suspectwe’ll find more gingham in the cave. Might have been where your cougars lived,Kelly. ”
“I’ll put the cloth in an envelope and store it in my bag.”
Tom reaches for something else in his pocket. “What about thisring? Saw the gold shining under a thistle. Ever seen the like, Doc?”
“Not an expert on jewelry, I’m afraid, but it’s definitely aman’s ring. Looks like good-quality gold, too. It might have slipped off thekiller’s finger.”
Kelly drops the thing in my lap. “Have you an opinion, Hester?”
I feel the band. Raised rectangle on top, etched with a symbol.I’ve come across one of these before. Look at the etching, Tom. Does it havean eagle’s head and a lion’s body?
Yes, it does.
That’s the symbol of Griffin House, my father’s club.Members wear those rings.
Tom is not even remotely involved in fashionable society. Theconcept of people wasting money and time on a stuffy, elitist establishmentmust be foreign to him. However, for the doctor’s sake, he feigns a suddenburst of inspiration.
“I’d check at Griffin House. I recall hearing the members aregiven similar rings after joining the club.”
“Good memory, Craddock,” Kelly says, moving the bones back intoTom’s pack. “Now we know where to begin the search.”
“The search?” Tom helps me to my feet. “Shouldn’t we give thisinformation to Inspector Jones? He’ll listen now that we have some evidence.”
“Certainly, but I’ll look into it as well.”
“What are you talking about, Kelly?”
“You and Hester haven’t heard the news yet?” He gives my righthand a quick shake. “Newly appointed coroner of Stonehenge. How do you do?”
14
Nec mora nec requies.
Neither delay nor rest.—Virgil
Weemerge from the trees, cold and wet, and return to the horses. Holding ontoJupiter’s lead line, Tom rides a little ahead of the doctor and me.
I turn to Kelly and sign. New job. When?
“Official as of this morning,” he says. “If I were the medicalexaminer in Boston or New York, more would be required of me. But I can wear anadditional hat here and maintain my daily practice. That’s the idea anyway.”
We ride on for a moment and then Kelly exhales. “I have to askyou some questions, Hester—about Lady X’s death. When did you encounter the manwho killed her?”
I scrunch up my nose, thinking of how to answer. Three weeks,I sign.
“About twenty-one days ago?”
Correct.
Kelly guides his horse around something in the road. “OnHalloween?”
Correct.
Tom shifts in his saddle. You okay, Hettie? Is he botheringyou?
No. I can handle him. Just slow down and give us a littlemore time.
As you like.
“Where were you when you overheard the alleged killer?” Kellyasks.
I try to set the scene, hoping he gets the gist. Town party.Alone. Park.
“You went to the town party and ended up alone in the park,”Kelly says, voice harsh. “Must you always do the dangerous thing, Hester?Wherever was Miss Collins?”
Dancing.
He makes a disparaging noise. “Companions aren’t paid todance.”
My idea.
“On top of my
