A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery (27 page)

The sheriff stared at him for several moments
before taking the bag from Derrick's hand. "It is one
of them, then," he said quietly. "Probably Mickey."
Then he looked up at Derrick. "This is the first direct
evidence we have found. I'll get a search warrant."

"Do the Tylers have a lot of power in the community?" Derrick asked. "Maybe they paid people off."

"They used to. They still do with some of the oldtimers. To tell you the truth, many of the younger
people in Merry Claymoore find the Tylers a little too odd to take seriously. It helps that their financial holdings are not what they once were. They don't own the
banks anymore, and the sawmill has a lot of competitors in the area. Most of their holdings now are in
land, and I think stocks."

"I wonder," said Derrick, "if Isabel could be behind
Seymour Plackert's accusations and murder. We
thought it had something to do with the power company but couldn't think of any motive for them.
Plackert was Isabel's lawyer, too, and it was her sister
buried on the site."

"There's a lot to look into. And I'm still not satisfied that Ned doesn't have something to do with this
thing. I'll tell you what I've been thinking," the sheriff
said, "and I'm telling you this because since I've been
working with you, I believe you really want to find the
child killer and won't let friendship interfere."

"Of course," Lindsay agreed.

"I've been toying with the idea that there are two
killers." Derrick and Lindsay looked at each other.
"One taking photographs and another molesting and
killing the children."

"We've had a similar idea," Derrick said.

"I think Mickey may be the photographer, and Ned
may be the killer," the sheriff said, "and that is why
Isabel sprung Ned-to avoid a scandal in her family."

Lindsay had to agree that it made sense. She hated
it, but it made sense.

Lindsay and Derrick watched the sheriff drive off
toward town. Some of the crew members were gradually coming back to the site. They could see the Fourthof-July celebration was still going strong over at the
scout encampment. Soon the fireworks would start.

Maybe this will be the end of it, Lindsay thought,
but she doubted it would be the case.

Bones make good witnesses,
they never lie and they never forget.

-Clyde Snow

FRANK BROUGHT THE newspaper when he came
to the site the next morning. Though Lindsay had
expected that Mickey Lawson would be arrested for
the murder of his niece, Peggy Pruitt, it still came as a
surprise. Isabel Tyler took to her bed, and the town
was divided on the issue. For the most part, the evidence was circumstantial, except that it had been
established that Mickey had been the last person to see
his niece before she disappeared. Her mother had
picked her up from school and had taken her home,
leaving her in the backyard to play. It was thought that
Peggy had disappeared from there.

Upon closer inquiries from the sheriff, however, it
was discovered that the druggist had seen Mickey buy
her an ice cream cone thirty minutes after her mother
had last seen her. The druggist remembered the time
because his watch had chimed for his 3:30 pill. In
addition to the eyewitness evidence, it turned out that Mickey owned the tripod found at the Tyler estate, the
tripod that exactly fit the broken pan lock.

Mickey vehemently denied killing his niece or any
of the other children. He did admit to taking Peggy
for ice cream, but witnesses and family members
reported that it had been a common practice. He was
close to his cousin Sarah, and he often looked after
Peggy for short periods of time.

"Why didn't you tell her mother that you took
her?" the sheriff had asked.

"We often did that," Mickey had said. "She wasn't
supposed to have ice cream so close to supper. It was
just a thing we did."

When the dominoes started falling against Mickey,
they fell quickly, thought Lindsay.

"Will you show me how to identify animal bones?"
Sally asked later in the day as she helped Lindsay
and Thomas take bones out of a large trash pit near
the palisade. "I think I'd like to become a zooarchae-
ologist °"

"Sure. First you divide them into mammal, reptile,
fish, bird, amphibian, and unidentified bones"

"That's easy," Thomas said. "It's all unidentified
bones to me."

Lindsay smiled. "It's really pretty easy once you
develop an eye for it. Bird bone is lighter and has
thinner walls." Lindsay looked around in the pile of
bones. "This is the humerus of a wild turkey. All
humeri tend to look alike. So once you've learned
what the upper arm looks like, you can identify it
immediately, no matter what animal it comes from."

She handed the bone to Sally. "Feel how light it is and look down the middle of the shaft where it's
broken. See how much smoother on the inside it is
than, say, this deer bone?" Lindsay gave Sally a section of deer bone for comparison.

"Okay," said Sally. "Bird bone is light, smoother,
and mostly hollow, and mammal bone has thicker
walls and is heavier."

"Right. Some species of animals have specific
bones that are easily recognizable. Take this for
instance." She handed Sally a bone with a very prominent thin ridge running its length. "This is a breast
bone, a sternum. Whereas human sternums look like
an atlatl ..." Sally laughed, and Thomas rolled his
eyes "... bird breast bones have this keel."

"What about reptile bones?" Sally asked.

"They are thick and heavy. I don't see any here, but
once you see them, they are easy to recognize." Lindsay looked up to see the sheriff's car pulling into the
parking lot. "Oh, dear," she whispered.

Thomas and Sally looked up from the bones.
"What now?" Thomas exclaimed.

Sheriff Duggan and two deputies got out of the car
and came walking toward the site, as if on a mission.
Lindsay automatically looked to see if Ned was in
Section 3. He was, and for a moment Lindsay
thought he was going to drop his trowel and run. She
could see his body tense, but he stood there watching
the lawmen come to get him. The sheriff cuffed him,
read him his rights, and led him off the site. They
could hear the protest in Ned's voice but could not
hear his words.

Frank came over to Lindsay. "I guess I had better
follow in my car. Do you want to go with me?"

"Yes." She left Thomas and Sally to gather up the
bones.

Frank and Lindsay sat in the sheriff's office in front of
his desk. Sheriff Duggan sat looking grim, his hands
clasped in front of him on top of his desk.

"Why did you re-arrest Ned?" Frank asked.

"I think Isabel Tyler gave him an alibi to protect
Mickey. We can't find anyone to corroborate Mrs.
Tyler's story that Ned was on her property that day or
any other day. We are building a good case for
Mickey murdering Peggy Pruitt. We believe we have
a good case for Ned trying to kidnap Jenna Venable.
If I can get them to tell on each other, I'll have them
both for all the murders"

"I hate to hear that about Ned," said Frank.

"I know," the sheriff agreed. "I've known Mickey
for a long time, too."

"Can I talk to Ned?" Lindsay asked.

"I don't know what you can accomplish," the sheriff answered.

"Perhaps nothing," Lindsay said, "but I won't do
any harm."

The sheriff nodded and stood up. "I'll take you
down there."

For the second time, Lindsay walked into the cell
block. Nothing had changed. It still smelled and
looked the same. She passed by Mickey's cell. He
called out to them, and they stopped.

"You've got the wrong guy, sheriff. I didn't do this.
Sarah's my cousin, for God's sake. I hardly know
Ned. We went to school together when he was in
Merry Claymoore, but we weren't friends. Hell, I wouldn't go on a life of crime with him. This is crazy.
Dammit, Greg, let me out of here!"

"I know," the sheriff replied. "Everybody I lock up
is innocent."

They came to Ned's cell. He was stretched out on
his bed but sat up when the sheriff let Lindsay in.
This time she didn't sit down but stood in front of
him. Ned didn't rise. He looked as if he hadn't the
energy.

"You came to see me again?" he asked. "I guess
you think I did it."

"Actually, I don't," Lindsay replied, "though the
sheriff is convinced you did. Jenna did identify you.
That's pretty strong evidence."

"I know. I can't explain that. Why did you come
by?"

"I want to ask you two things, and I want you to
answer me with the truth"

"What?"

"Why did Isabel Tyler give you an alibi?"

"I guess I can tell you now. Last time I was here
and you came, it got me to thinking about the past and
staying with my grandparents. I remembered
Grandma telling me about Isabel Tyler and her sister
Augustine, how Isabel hated Augustine and how
Augustine disappeared, how there were lots of rumors
about what happened to her. It just dawned on me.
That Burial 23. It could be her." He shrugged. "It was
worth a chance, and I was right. Old lady Tyler came
down here and gave me an alibi."

It has the ring of truth, Lindsay thought. "Okay.
Why did you undermine Frank? Why did you think
they were going to flood the site ahead of schedule?"

Ned took a deep breath. "Seymour Plackert told me
that was their plan, and I thought he knew. He told me
he would help me be in charge of the dig."

Lindsay was not surprised. She had thought it was
something like that. "He was lying to you," she said.

"I know that now."

"Did you know he was going to plant pot at the
site?"

Ned sighed. "He asked me to do it." He looked up
at Lindsay, his eyes puffy and bloodshot. "I refused. I
did. That's why he hired that other guy."

"What if they had found the pot in Derrick and
Brian's tent?" she asked.

"1 would've said something," Ned mumbled.

Lindsay wondered if he would have.

"Plackert using you that way gives you motive to
murder him."

Ned stood up and faced her. "I didn't, Lindsay. I'm
not a killer, for heaven's sake. I'm not a killer."

"Do you know who killed him?"

"I have no idea, and I've racked my brain. I knew
how it would look for me if this came out."

"Thanks for telling me"

"You believe me?"

"Yes, I do" Lindsay put a hand on his shoulder.
"Take care. I'll see what I can do."

Lindsay called for the sheriff to let her out. The
keys clanked loudly against the cell door as he opened
the lock. Every noise seems loud down here, she
thought. As they walked back to his office, Lindsay
told the sheriff why Isabel Tyler gave Ned the alibi.

"Don't you think he heard what happened at the
picnic and just made up the story?"

"His story sounds true to me "

"Well-crafted lies usually do"

Lindsay didn't tell him about Ned's association
with Plackert.

"Thank you for letting me see him."

"It doesn't make me happy doing this," he said.

Lindsay stopped and looked at him. "I didn't think
it did," she said. "We all want this solved with the true
solution. It just doesn't feel right to me about Ned"

"I don't imagine he put child killing on his
resume," the sheriff said darkly.

"You believe it's him, don't you?"

The sheriff let out a long breath. "The little girl
identified him, and he lied about his alibi."

"He was scared, and ... and I don't know about the
identification."

The sheriff put an arm around her shoulder. "I
understand how you feel." He squeezed her shoulder,
then dropped his arm to his side. "How do you think I
feel locking up Mickey? I've known him a long time.
I've got half the town wanting to lynch him, and the
other half telling me I'm a damn fool."

"I know. It's bad any way you look at it."

"Yes, it is. Go back to the site and dig up artifacts
and try to forget this. It's not that I don't appreciate
the help that you ... and Derrick ... have given me,
but now I think you are too close."

Lindsay said nothing as she walked with the sheriff
to his office. She wasn't sure she was objective anymore either. When she was talking to Ned, he seemed
truthful and she believed him. Away, talking with
others, she had doubts.

Frank took Lindsay to the diner to eat before they
went back to the site. She told him everything Ned had
told her.

"I wasn't aware until all this came up how much it
meant to him to be in charge of this particular site,"
said Frank.

"Everything he said sounded so true," Lindsay
said.

Frank shrugged. "I can't imagine him killing the
children. But Plackert, that's a different story. As
much as the site meant to Ned, to discover that Plackert was using him and may have cost him all association with the site ... well ..."

" 1 know," Lindsay agreed. "I think I might hang up
this detective business and become an archaeologist.
What do you think? Do you think archaeologists run
into this much murder and mayhem?"