One Grave Too Many

you?”

“What’s this about?” asked Frank.

“Nothing. It’s just that the crew is staying in the Abercrombie house.”

The sheriff laughed. “Boy, wouldn’t that be funny.”

“It might be Mrs. Abercrombie,” said Frank. “Maybe this vegetarian fellow was a guest, and he insulted her by not having any of her pot roast.”

“This isn’t funny at all,” said Diane.

“Yes, it is,” said Frank. “I know these people. Do you think Whit would lead us right to the dump site if it’d been him? I think you-and the sheriff,” Frank glared at him, “are letting your imaginations run away with you.”

The sheriff chuckled again, clearly enjoying letting his imagination run away with him. “I’m going back to the office. I’ll tell my deputies to keep an eye out if they see one of the Abercrombies wielding an axe. Seriously, Ms. Fallon, I’ve know’d ol’ Luther all my life. He’s a good ol’ boy and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Neither would Whit. They’re good churchgoing folk.” The sheriff took a deep breath before he started back to his car. “I do wish the perp could have picked a more convenient place to dump the body,” he was saying as they watched his stout body disappear through the trees and underbrush.

“Maybe you’re right,” said Diane. “How’s Star?”

“Angry. Angry at the guards who found her before she bled to death, angry at the police for arresting her and not looking for whoever wiped out her family, at her parents for dying, at herself for not dying with them. I think she’s afraid if she gets over the anger, the grief will be more than she can stand.”

Like all the people who couldn’t find anything to say to her, Diane couldn’t think of any comfort for Frank. She couldn’t say that Star would get over it, because that would be a lie. Or that time will heal-it hadn’t healed her. She’d learned to get by, day by day, but that was hardly a comfort.

“Maybe anger’s a good thing right now. It takes up space,” she said.

“I’m going back to see her this evening. I’ve been staying with her at the hospital as much as I can-to let her know she’s not alone. Why don’t you come with me tonight to visit? You can tell her what you’re doing.”

Diane hesitated a moment, not wanting to watch someone else’s grief when she had no comfort to offer her, but in the end relented. “Sure, if you think it will help. When do you have to get back to work?”

“The end of next week. Think we can solve this thing by then?”

Diane offered a weak smile. “I don’t see why not.”

Frank shook his head. “I can’t help but wonder”-he gestured toward the pit where the crew were laying grid lines to start excavating-“what if this is not related to what happened to George and Louise and we’ve wasted all this time and energy in the wrong direction?”

“This is someone who needs justice too. Besides, what are the chances that your friends find a human bone, then get murdered within the week? My gut feeling is that someone didn’t want this site found. Have you talked to people they might have told about the bone?”

“Some. So far, looks like they either told no one or no one is admitting it.”

After arranging with Frank to pick her up at the museum later on, she went back to digging. The crew had laid out a grid of string and stakes. One of the guys was setting up the tripod and transit for mapping. Another guy and one of the women were setting up a screen to sift out the smaller objects from the dirt they removed. The remaining members of the crew were either driving stakes around the outlying bones or beginning excavation of the grids. It was going well; they didn’t seem to need her. How tempting to just leave in their hands this thing that looked too much like a mass burial.

Let’s just do it and get it over with, she told herself, squatting down beside a grid containing exposed bone. There was a row of teeth that looked like a deer’s. Not human; that was good. She took her trowel and began removing the dirt from the bone. Before long she’d uncovered a deer skull. The top skull plate had been sawed through to remove the antlers and a portion of the skull. Normal find for a taxidermist’s pit.

By the end of the day, a large portion of the first layer of the pit had been uncovered, leaving a tangle of exposed animal bones standing out in relief.

“We’ll call it a day,” said Diane, standing up, observing the completed work. “You guys are doing a good job. Fast too.” She carefully walked among the grid squares, surveying the bone. All animal that she saw. A little easier than a pit of all humans, but it was death just the same. She didn’t think she could be a hunter. As she started to step out of the grids so they could cover the area with plastic for the night, she spotted the end of a bone just about to be uncovered. Diane walked over and squatted down beside the woman who was working on that square.

“See something?” the young woman asked.

“It’s been gnawed on by one of the canine family, but it’s the distal end of a human humerus-the end that fits with the radius and ulna, the bones of the forearm,” said Diane. She had expected to find an arm and perhaps a shoulder girdle close to the surface, since the original clavicle had made its way to the surface. She liked it when her expectations were met.

“Think the rest of him is close by?” asked the woman.

Diane shrugged. “Maybe. Or an animal could have separated the arm from the torso and dragged it here, or it may have percolated to the top.”

“Grim stuff,” she said.

“Yes, that’s the word for it. Grim.”

Diane went from the site to the museum to check the day’s activities before meeting Frank. Andie had left notes on her desk. Nothing urgent. She showered in her private bathroom off the conference room of her office. She slicked back her short wet hair, put on her minimalist makeup, and changed into denim pants, a black tee and maroon shirt jacket. It was good to feel clean.

There were more people in the museum after hours these days; the closer they got to the public opening, the more people stayed late. Her absence today reminded her that she needed to find an assistant director. She hadn’t liked any of the applications that had come across her desk and wasn’t sure she wanted to promote anyone in house.

She took the stairs to Jonas’ office. Inside, she studied his chessboard. She had started the game to make Jonas feel at home, and was surprised how much she enjoyed it. It had been a long time since she had played her last game with Gregory. He nearly always won, except that time she had beat him in forty-six moves. She moved her other knight to the bishop three position and left the office, locking it behind her, and went down to meet Frank.

The museum seemed to be looking gentler-not quite so harsh as her first images of it-perhaps due to the good work of the groundskeepers, who were constantly planting, landscaping and manicuring.

“Dr. Fallon.”

Diane turned from looking at the building to two girls coming up the steps-Emily, the cellist, and Lacy, the violist from the string quartet.

“Hello. You here to meet Melissa and Alix? Are they working late?”

“No. We came to see you,” said Emily.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” said Lacy, grabbing her friend’s arm.

“You want a job?” asked Diane, smiling at them. “We can always use energetic workers.”

“No, it’s not that,” said Emily. “It’s something else.” She looked up at the windows as if looking for a spy. “It’s kind of personal.”

“Would you like to go to my office?”

“That would be better.”

As Diane led them to her office, she called Frank and told him she would be running a little late. Entering her office from the private door, she led the two young women to her conference room. The stuffed sofa and chairs in the corner were more comfortable and less forbidding than her main office. She sat in one of the chairs and motioned for Emily and Lacy to sit on the sofa.

“Now, what can I do for you?”

“It’s about Melissa,” said Emily. She hesitated a moment, and Lacy interrupted.

“We’re friends with Mike Seger, her boyfriend, too.” She stopped a moment and took a breath. “This is really