Reflecting Love's Charms (Bellingwood Book 14) (2 page)

"Bones. Obviously."

"Where are you and why are you sending pictures of bones?"

"I fell in a hole." Polly pulled the phone away as she chuckled. She was having fun with these guys. It was probably quite unseemly, but if finding dead bodies was her thing, she might as well just deal with it and move on.

When she got back to the phone, Henry was saying something along the lines of "…call for help?"

"I missed that," she said. "We must be breaking up."

"Did you fall in a hole behind the garage?"

"Yeah. It's a room, Henry. And there's a tunnel that looks like it leads back to the house. Do you want me to check it out?"

"No!" he shouted. "Don't you dare."

"If someone doesn't come get me out of this hole, it might be my only escape," Polly said.

"You can't get out?"

She looked around. "No. I can't. There's no way up. I'm going to need a ladder, but I'm worried about the ground above me being dangerous."

"Okay." He went silent and she waited while he thought it through. Even from a distance, she could hear his wheels turning. "Okay. How far down are you?"

"Six or seven feet."

"You fell six or seven feet. Did you hurt anything?"

"There's my good husband. Finally, someone asks me how I'm doing."

"I'm sorry." The sound of chagrin in his voice made her feel guilty.

"Don't worry. I'm fine. I probably bruised my butt, otherwise everything else is in good shape. So are you coming to rescue me?"

"Yeah. I'm coming in from Ames, though. It's going to take time. Maybe Dad and Eliseo can come over."

"I'd trust them," Polly said. "Aaron wants you to call him."

"Why?"

"If they're going to be down here collecting bones, he wants it to be safe. You and he should work this out."

"This is ridiculous. What is that room?"

"Let me send more pictures and I'll call you right back," Polly said.

"Send the pictures and I'll call
you
back. I'm getting hold of Eliseo first," he replied. "I love you and I'm sorry that you're in a hole."

"You should be. But Henry, I'm glad it was me and not you or anyone else."

"That doesn't make me feel much better. Send pictures and I'll call in a few minutes."

Polly took pictures of the other items in the room and sent them to Henry, then wandered over to the tunnel and stepped inside. She would have to crouch to walk through it. Who would have used this? She turned around again and walked the perimeter of the room, then stopped and looked at the wall behind the body. Was that another door?

She pursed her lips and looked down at the bones and back at the wall. If she stepped on something and crushed it, that would be a problem. Her curiosity was just going to have to wait. But if there was another room back there, Eliseo wouldn't want to walk on that part of the yard either. She shuddered at the thought of kids and animals playing back here and falling through the ground. Hopefully these were the only rooms that had been dug out, but now she worried.

"Who are you?" she asked the bones on the floor again. "What were you doing in here? How did you die?"

The phone buzzing in her hand made Polly jump and she swiped it open. "You scared me."

"Sorry. You weren't trying to go down that tunnel, were you?"

She looked back at it guiltily and decided that Henry didn’t need to know how close she’d come. "No. I was talking to the bones."

"As long as they didn't talk back. Polly, you’re going to be the death of me. How am I ever going to keep you safe?"

"Did you see the pictures?"

"Yeah. That's an old still."

Polly thought for a moment and then realized what he said. "Of course. I've seen pictures of them. That's why I recognized it. Were they making whiskey down here?" she asked.

"Who knows. It will be interesting to find out, though."

"I think there's another room."

He took a quick breath. "Dad and Len are meeting Eliseo there in a few minutes. Dad's got a big ladder."

"Will the ground hold it if we lean against it?"

"Eliseo will make sure you get out safely. Just do what he tells you to do, okay?"

"Did you talk to Aaron?"

"I'm calling him right now. I want you out of there first."

"Darn," Polly said. "No more hauling rock for me."

Henry chuckled. "I think you've done enough of that for now. I don't want you working in the back yard until we make sure the ground is solid."

"I'm fine with that. I was tired of this job anyway. Thanks for taking care of me."

"Why wouldn't I take care of you?"

"It's just so nice to be able to call you and know that someone will rescue me."

"I love you, too," Henry said. "I'm already on my way so don't leave without letting me see that you're in one piece."

CHAPTER TWO

Once she finally got out of the hole, Polly looked down and couldn’t believe what she’d managed to do. Eliseo and Bill Sturtz had brought a couple of tall ladders and cut away the remaining ceiling in the room until a ladder safely stood against solid ground.

Polly stood with Henry as the sheriff's department roped off the gaping hole.

"Maybe we should have brought in an archaeologist," Aaron said.

"How in the world do you expect to identify these bones?" Henry asked.

Aaron shook his head. "I have no idea. That's why I called Digger. He's got a better team than I do for something this old."

"How old do you think?" Polly asked.

"We’ll have to see what they can tell us about the body, the teeth, the fabric and whatever else is down there," Aaron replied.

She nodded. "This is pretty crazy. I didn't even have to leave my own back yard." Polly's phone rang with a local number. "Just a second," she said and stepped away. "This is Polly Giller."

"Polly? Something's wrong," Rebecca said.

"Rebecca, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Henry turned around and walked toward her, his brow furrowed.

"It's not me. Stephanie just came in and took Kayla away. They talked in the hall and Kayla was crying. She came back into the room and took her coat and said she had to leave. Polly, she hugged me and said good-bye. What's going on?"

"I don't know," Polly said. "But I'll try to find out. Go back to class and hopefully I'll know more when you come home from school."

"But I can't concentrate. What if something terrible has happened? Can you please come get me?"

Polly looked at Henry. "Not yet, honey. You have to believe that everything is going to be fine. Go on back to class. I'm sure it's nothing."

"It's something." Rebecca's voice broke. "It's something bad."

"Let me hang up and make some calls, honey. I will try to find out what's going on. Okay?"

"Please come get me."

"Rebecca, I'm sorry. Go back to class. I’ll contact you later." Polly swiped the call closed, only to have her phone ring again, this time from Jeff.

"Hey, Jeff. What's going on with Stephanie? Rebecca just called me."

"I have no idea," Jeff replied. "She asked if she could take an early lunch, then grabbed all of her things and left. I called her cell phone and she's not answering."

"Henry's here with me," Polly said. "We'll go over to their place and see what we can find out."

"I'll meet you there."

"What's going on?" Henry asked.

She shook her head. "I have no idea. Stephanie left work and picked Kayla up from school. She's not answering Jeff's calls." Polly swiped to call Stephanie's phone as she walked to her truck. "Come with me?" she asked Henry.

He walked to the passenger side of her truck and got in. When Polly got Stephanie's voice mail, she said, "Hey Stephanie. Rebecca and Jeff have both called me. They're worried about you. Tell us what's happening. We can help. Please call me back."

Polly got in her truck and pulled around the sheriff's vehicles and drove toward the highway, then turned left and headed for the trailer park where Stephanie and Kayla lived. The girls were saving money to get into an apartment, but hadn't yet made the move. Stephanie had announced that she'd spent her last winter in the trailer, though. By the time Thanksgiving came, she wanted to live somewhere that she and Kayla could be proud of. They'd done what they could with their little trailer, but it was old and decrepit and not well insulated.

Her car wasn't in front of the trailer, but Polly pulled in, then waited for Henry as they walked up to the front door. Jeff arrived within moments.

"If they aren't here," Jeff said, "I have a key. Stephanie wanted me to be able to get in, if necessary."

Henry knocked, waited a few minutes, then tried the handle. He stepped back so Jeff could unlock the door.

"Stephanie, honey," Jeff said as he crossed the threshold. "Are you..." He stopped talking as they looked around.

The girls had left in a hurry, taking things that were important, but leaving most everything else. The dining room table that Stephanie had rescued and refinished was still there, but photographs they'd had sitting around and hanging on the walls were gone. Polly walked down the hall to Kayla's room and though the bedding was still there, the dresser and closet were emptied of the girl's clothes.

She heard a phone ringing and walked back out to the living room.

Jeff was holding Stephanie's phone. "She left it," he said.

"What in the hell is going on?" Polly asked. "Did something spook her? Why are they running?"

Henry took his phone out. "You need to call Aaron. Something is going on and we aren't equipped to deal with it."

"What am I going to tell Rebecca?" Polly said. She dropped onto the sofa and waved Henry's hand away, taking out her own phone and dialing a familiar number.

"Didn't we just talk to each other?" Aaron asked. "Where did you go?"

"I'm at Stephanie's trailer," Polly said. "She and Kayla left town in a hurry."

"Did something come up?"

"I don't know. They emptied their trailer and she left her phone here."

"She what?"

"Something happened, Aaron. We need you to help us find them."

"I'm busy here. Digger just arrived, but I'll send Stu. You don't see anything there that will give us a hint as to where they've gone?"

"Nothing," Polly said wearily. "Nothing at all." She ran her hand through her hair and when she pulled it away, huffed a small laugh at the amount of dirt and dust she stirred up.

"He's on his way. I'm sorry, Polly."

"Me too. I wish I knew what was going on."

"We'll figure it out."

Polly closed her phone and leaned back. "What could have scared Stephanie so badly? Did she take any strange phone calls at work this morning, Jeff?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I was on the phone all morning. She was just working in the office."

"Did Rachel talk to her?"

"I don't know. She's keeping an eye on the office for me, but I didn't tell her what was wrong."

"Let me call her." Polly swiped through her contacts and called Rachel.

"Hi Polly. What's going on?" Rachel asked.

"Did Stephanie say anything to you this morning?"

"No, not really. Just the normal stuff. Hello and about how she needed coffee. She and Kayla didn't get back until late last night from some concert down in Des Moines. She felt really guilty about keeping Kayla up late, but they had so much fun, she wouldn't have done anything different. Is she okay?"

"She's gone and we don't know where she went."

"Yeah, but she'll be back, right?"

"It doesn't look like she plans to come back. They packed everything up."

"That doesn't sound right. She was normal this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Okay, thanks. I'll talk to you later."

Polly dropped the phone in her lap. "Nothing." She pointed to the cell phone in Jeff's hands. "Can you get to last calls on there?"

"I don't know her password."

"Okay. Yeah. I wonder if Rebecca knows what it is," Polly said quietly. "I'm going to have to take her out of school. This will really mess her up. And her birthday is coming up this weekend, too." She leaned forward and propping her arms on her knees, put her head into her hands. "Oh honey, what's going on?"

Henry sat down beside her. "I’ll take your truck and pick up Rebecca. If she can help get into Stephanie's phone or if she knows anything else, it's better for her to be with us, don't you think?"

Polly nodded and leaned back to reach into the pocket of her jeans for the keys. "She's going to want to come over here with you. You might as well take her out of school and bring her. She's just like me and needs to see things so she doesn't turn them into a bigger deal than they are. This is already big enough."

"We'll be back," he said.

"Are you okay with work?" Polly asked.

"We're fine. Don't worry."

Jeff walked to the door with Henry and then came back to sit down beside Polly. "Do you think this has to do with her dad?"

"He's in jail. That's why you guys went back to Ohio last year, isn't it?"

"Then that can't be it."

"I hope not. But what else would make them run like this?" Polly asked.

"Maybe Deputy Decker can check into that for us."

"Why wouldn't she tell you or me where she was going?"

He reached over and took Polly's hand. "I have no idea. I keep asking myself that same question. I thought we were family. I'd have done anything for her."

The two of them sat back on the sofa and let the silence of the empty trailer wash over them. Jeff continued to hold Polly's hand and she was thankful for the warmth and support that simple touch offered. They were family and one of their own was gone. She wanted to believe that it would all work out, but right now Polly wasn’t sure how. They didn't know where the girls had gone, why they'd left or how to reach them. If Stephanie intentionally left her cell phone, she wasn't planning to contact anyone that way. And besides, if she wanted them to know where she was going, she would have told Jeff. She loved him like a big brother, a father and a best friend, all rolled into one.

Polly gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

They looked up at the sound of feet on the steps, and Rebecca rushed in the front door. She pulled up short, looked around, then ran down the hall to Kayla's bedroom. She slammed the bedroom door before coming back to the living room and without a word, walked past the sofa to the dining room table. Rebecca pulled a chair out and dragged it to the wall between the dining room and kitchen, then stood up on it and rapped the grate on the air vent. It fell off into her hands and she patted around, then snapped the vent back into place and stepped to the floor.

"They're really gone," she said, slumping into the chair.

"What were you looking for?" Henry asked.

"Stephanie and Kayla have been putting money up there since they moved in. Kayla told me it was their running away money." She slowly shook her head. "She bought a throw away cell phone at Walgreens, too. That was also up there. It's gone."

"Why would they need that?" Polly asked.

"I don't know. I just know that there was more than a thousand dollars. Stephanie said she never wanted to have to move to another town without having enough money to get started. I think she wanted to build it up to about two thousand." Rebecca's head drooped. "I can't believe they ran away."

"Do you know what the code is on Stephanie's cell?" Polly asked, putting her hand out.

Jeff put Stephanie's phone in it and Polly walked over to Rebecca.

Rebecca's lower lip started to quiver. "It's my birthday," she said. "Stephanie said they'd always remember that number, but since it wasn't anybody in their family, nobody else would know."

Polly swiped the phone open and pressed the four numbers, 0508. "That's it, honey. Thank you." She opened the recent call history and took her own phone out to record the numbers. "What's the 740 area code?" Polly asked.

Jeff looked up. "That's Ohio."

"She took a call from a number there this morning."

He shuddered and swallowed. "Now do you think it has something to do with her father?"

"I hope not," Polly said. She walked over to the front door and looked out. "Where is Stu? I thought he'd be here by now."

As if on cue, his vehicle pulled in behind hers and Polly pushed the door open.

"This is quite a gathering," Stu said, when he walked in. He took a look around, walked into the kitchen and back through the bedrooms, then came back out. "There's no sign of a struggle. They just picked up and left, right?"

Polly nodded. "It looks like it. Rebecca says they'd hidden some cash and a cell phone in the vent up there." She pointed above Rebecca's head. "It's gone, too."

"And they didn't say anything to any of you?" Stu asked.