Terry Odell - Mapleton 02 - Deadly Bones (15 page)

Gordon refused to offer any opening pleasantries. He merely stood, waiting. The mayor had summoned him. Let him make the first move.

The mayor made a show of squaring a stack of paper—Gordon wondered if his last report was in there—and placing the sheets into a file folder before lifting his gaze.

“Gordon. Thank you for coming.”

As if he had a choice. Gordon wondered what would happen if he called the mayor by his first name.
Sure, Martin. Happy to oblige
. He lowered his eyes from the mayor’s portrait to the flesh version. As he did, he noticed a police scanner on the credenza below the painting. He tried to remember how much he’d put out over the air, and how much he’d kept to the telephone. Dare he think this meeting was about Irv’s journey into the unprofessional on Saturday?

Not likely. If the scanner was here and the mayor was at Rose’s party, he wouldn’t have heard it. Somehow, although the mayor apparently had no qualms about expecting others to work on weekends or days off, Gordon couldn’t see him doing the same.

Keep your mouth shut. Wait and see what he has to say. Don’t open cans of worms that are better left on the shelf.

“I read your revised report,” the mayor said. “Thank you for taking care of it so quickly.”

The honey before the vinegar. Gordon nearly choked, but gathered himself in time to give a polite “You’re welcome” in response.

“I understand Rose Kretzer is in the hospital. I’m sorry to hear that. She’s a valued citizen of Mapleton. I thought I’d send flowers. Do you know what she likes?”

Okay, what the hell was going on? More honey? Or was this another campaign effort? The Kretzers were well-respected. Was the mayor trying to squeeze his way into Rose and Sam’s sphere of influence? Somehow, he doubted Rose and Sam had voted for the mayor in the last election, but he’d never heard them speak their political opinions. Then again, the mayor and his wife
had
been at Rose’s party. No, it had been a surprise, so Megan and Angie would have invited them, not Rose or Sam. Or had they crashed it? Nobody would have demanded they show proof they’d been invited.

Stop thinking so much.

“Flowers. Um… no, I don’t.” He wondered what Laurie had sent, and made a mental note not to forget to send some himself. Although if the mayor was sending flowers, anything Gordon sent would undoubtedly be dwarfed in comparison.

He could hear Rose.
It’s the thought that counts.
And he knew she meant it.

Be nice.

“I’m sure she’d appreciate anything you sent,” Gordon said.

The mayor scribbled something on a note pad. When he looked up, his expression shifted, as though he’d drunk a big glass of that vinegar.

Ah. Here it comes.

Gordon’s gut tightened as he awaited the real reason he was here.

The mayor waggled the pen he’d been writing with. “I’m hearing a rumor that you’re exploiting Mapleton’s resources because a dog picked up a bone.”

Gordon’s spine stiffened. “Sir, with all due respect, that bone turned out to be human, and I’m merely doing my job. Any human remains not in a cemetery are subject to investigation.”

The mayor scowled. “Do you know who the bones belong to? Do you have any evidence a crime has been committed?”

“Other than the bones not being where they belong, no, Sir, I don’t. Sir. The Coroner’s Office is investigating, and they’re not part of our force, so our budget and our resources aren’t being impacted.”

“Hmmph. Let’s keep it that way. You have more important things to do. I strongly suggest you drop any further… investigations. Unfounded rumors of crime in our city are detrimental to our image. I don’t want to find out our limited number of police officers has been wasting time better spent upholding the laws of Mapleton.”

Like issuing parking tickets and catching tourist speeders.

A campaign-poster grin flitted across the mayor’s rugged features. A hand went to his hair, as if making sure every brown strand was in place. “Not that long ago, people buried their own in family plots on their farms or ranches. I’m sure that’s all we have here.”

“Yes, Sir.”
Like hell, Sir.

The mayor extended his beefy hand across the desk. “I knew I could count on you.”

Like hell, Sir.
Gordon didn’t have the guts to refuse the handshake.

* * * * *

Like a terrier with a bone,
Gordon thought as he dragged the stack of paper across his desk. Clearly, the mayor didn’t know him very well. If anything, the meeting was having the opposite effect. Instead of backing off, Gordon was more determined than ever to follow through. Count on him, the mayor had said. Damn right. He could count on Gordon to do his job. Oh, he wouldn’t be assigning officers to investigate. But that didn’t mean
he
couldn’t continue to poke around.

At least he’d kept his mouth shut and hadn’t pointed out the errors in the mayor’s thinking. A family plot? Not thirty—or even forty—years ago. He added a mental back-pat for not making a snarky comment about how people flocking to Mapleton to see where these bones were discovered would undoubtedly increase the budgetary coffers.

Enough
. Thinking about the scanner in the mayor’s office, Gordon adjusted his radio so he could monitor dispatch’s transmissions. He turned to the first page in the stack of paper. By the third, he was reaching for the eye drops. When his internal line rang somewhere around page five, he was more than ready for a break.

“Chief, Pierce Asel with the Coroner’s Office is on line one.”

“Thanks, Laurie.”

“And I ordered the flowers. They’ll be delivered today.”

“More thanks.” Gordon switched to Asel’s call. Definitely a welcome break. “Gordon Hepler. Tell me you have something.”

“Other than bones?”

Gordon smiled. This guy with a sense of humor was
definitely
not Asel the Asshole. “Something new.”

“First, let me commend your officers for maintaining scene integrity. Please don’t take offense, but I’m going to call out a Crime Scene Response team from the county to complete the excavation.”

“No offense taken. I can’t spare the manpower, and your people are experts.” Gordon wondered how the mayor would react to this good news-bad news situation. Let him argue with the county. See where that would get him.

“I can tell you that it looks very much like we have bones from a single body. Of course, there’s always the possibility that these bones came from different individuals, which only DNA could confirm. However, the fact that these bones all fit with someone of the same size, and I’m not seeing any duplicates, I feel confident in my assumption that we’re looking at one person.”

“So somebody cut up a body and buried it in pieces,” Gordon said.

“Not necessarily. It’s possible that the bones moved over time. However, since we found an arm in one place, a femur and tarsals in another, and ribs and vertebrae in another site, I’d go with a dismembered corpse, yes.”

The mayor’s going to love this one.

“You think you’ll end up with a whole skeleton when you finish?” Gordon asked.

“I hope so,” Asel said. “Otherwise, we’re going to have to do a much more extensive search for the remaining bones.”

The mayor would
really
love that.

“I’m going to call for a team immediately,” Asel said. “I’m also going to enter what we find into the NamUS database and see if I get a hit.”

“NamUS?” Gordon said.

“The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. It’s designed to match up reports of missing persons with unidentified bodies. It’s relatively new. Only went live in 2009.”

“You can do it with bones?”

“I don’t expect results with what I have, but yes, we input bones and add data as we get it. Civilians can also input information about missing persons, and every now and then we get a match.”

“Keep me apprised of your progress, please. But do me a favor. Use your phone, not the radio.” No telling what channels the mayor monitored. “And speaking of phones, use my cell.” Gordon gave him the number.

“Understood. Although once a team arrives, it’s going to be hard to keep this off the grid. Especially in a small town.”

Gordon had images of Rose serving cake and coffee to the lookie-loos, his gut twisting as he remembered where she was. She did
not
need a crowd in her yard. Not now. He rested a hand on his cell, wishing it would ring with an update.

“My guys can handle it,” Gordon said. “I’ll have an officer keep the scene secure until your team arrives. And feel free to put Officer Titchener to work. The more experience my staff gets, the less we’ll have to bother yours.”

After disconnecting, Gordon strolled to Dispatch. He instructed Connie to make sure an officer had the area covered, without making it sound like he was diverting patrol officers from their assignments.

“Not a problem, Chief.”

He was about to ask her if she’d discovered anything in her reviews of Irv’s shifts when his cell buzzed against his waist. He grabbed it and read the display. Sam.

* * * * *

Gordon hauled ass to the hospital elevator and mashed the call button three times, as if that might make the car appear. By the time it arrived, he’d calmed down some. Rose wasn’t at death’s door, which was the first thought in his head when he’d heard how distraught Sam sounded. As if he’d been crying.

But Sam had assured him, although Rose was still in ICU, she was strong and fighting. He carried that image with him as he rode up to the Intensive Care floor. He hadn’t set foot in a hospital room since he’d watched Dix waste away and die.

He followed the directions Sam had given him, and was stopped by a round, silver-haired woman in scrubs before he could pass. Ready to badge her if she refused him entry, he introduced himself and regrouped when she smiled.

“Mr. Kretzer said he was expecting you, Chief Hepler. Bed seven. Second from the end on the left. Mr. Kretzer is with her.”

Gordon thanked her and scanned the room. Nine curtained areas arranged in a horseshoe, with numbers painted on the floor at the entrance to each. The antiseptic smells, and the sounds of beeping monitors inundated his senses. Shoving memories of Dix aside, he focused on the numeral seven and strode toward the cubicle. He paused outside. You couldn’t exactly knock on a curtain. “Sam?” he whispered.

He heard a creak, then shuffling footfalls. The curtain opened. Sam, red-eyed and pasty-white motioned him inside. “Thank you for getting here so quickly. It’s the fever, they say, but Rose, she won’t relax until she knows you are here.”

Gordon stepped to the bedside where Rose tossed and turned, trying to see beyond the tubes in her hand and nose. He grasped Rose’s bird-like hand, the one without the IV tubing. Hot. Dry. She seemed to calm at his touch. At least she stopped thrashing.

Sam stroked her hair. “Gordon is here, Rose.” He blinked behind his glasses. “She keeps talking about Benny and Zannah. And the bones. I tried to tell her it couldn’t be them buried there, but she’s not making sense. When she mentioned your name, I thought it wise to call you. Maybe you can interpret her ramblings.”

“Rose? It’s Gordon. Can you hear me?”

Her eyes snapped open. Glassy and bright, but clearly focused. She tried to yank the green tubes from her nose, but Sam waylaid her hand.

“No, Rose. You must leave them in. For oxygen.”

“Bones. Benny. Zannah.” Rose’s voice was barely a croak.

“Rose. It’s all right.” Gordon tried to calm her. “The coroner says the bones are from one person. So it can’t be Benny and Zannah.”

Unless Benny had killed Zannah and buried her in the woods. Or vice-versa. Could that be possible? Was that what Rose wanted to tell him?

“No, no. The woods. Benny. Zannah. The woods.”

Gordon lifted his eyebrows at Sam. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

Sam gave a rueful frown. “No, and I’m not sure she does, either. But it’s obviously very important to her.”

“Rose, listen to me. I’ve been following up some leads. I’ve been in touch with the person who’s living in their old house. I’m going to locate Benny and Zannah. And when I find them, I’ll tell you first thing.”

Rose fixed pleading eyes on Sam. “The woods. Benny and Zannah. Not our bones.”

The curtain swished open and the nurse Gordon had met on his way in appeared. She frowned at Gordon. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You’ve upset her. She needs rest and quiet, not excitement.”

Gordon took Sam’s arm and gestured him out of the cubicle. “Let the nurse do her job. Can we go down to the cafeteria for some coffee?” He tried for a smile. “Maybe a nosh? Rose will feel better if she knows you’re taking care of yourself. And we can talk.”

“Ja
, maybe we can figure out what Rose means. And, I’m afraid Meggie and Justin are worried sick. They’re in the waiting room. But I must tell Rose I’m leaving.”

While Sam was in the cubicle, Gordon marched out of ICU into the hospital corridor. Although the hospital smell still permeated every breath, it seemed less intense here, and he breathed more easily. Sam came up alongside and pressed the elevator button.

“You don’t care for the hospital environment,
ja
? I am grateful you came.”

Gordon studied the man’s compassionate countenance, and his all-knowing gaze. Sam seemed more in tune with other people’s
feelings
than Angie. Maybe she should talk to him. “To be honest, I’d rather be at a homicide scene than in a hospital.”

“We all have our personal demons. I am glad you are willing to face yours for Rose.”

Gordon squeezed Sam’s shoulder. “I’d face anything for Rose. You know that. And you, too, for that matter.”

Sam merely stared at him. The ding of the elevator broke the uncomfortable silence. The doors opened, but Sam slapped his hand to his forehead. “
Ach
, I forgot already. Meggie and Justin. The waiting room for ICU is down the hall.” He shuffled briskly away, and Gordon followed.