The Haunted Bones (A Lin Coffin Mystery Book 3) (10 page)

M
iraculously
, Lin found a parking space in town and she and the dog hurried along the streets dodging the tourists to Jonas Bradley’s office building. She followed the side road that was the size of an alley that ran next to the building and led to a small parking lot tucked behind the offices. As Lin rushed down the road, she heard Viv call to her.

Her cousin stood across the street in an entryway to the back of a restaurant. Viv waved Lin over.

“What’s going on?” Lin asked.

Nicky gave Viv a lick on her ankle.

“I had to make a stop at my dessert supplier.” She gestured to the street Lin had turned off from. “I noticed Jonas Bradley’s office sign when I left the supplier and I had to go to the bank so I took a short cut down this way. The parking lot is over there.” Viv nodded towards the space. “I peeked at the cars as I went by.” She paused for effect. “There’s a large, dark sedan in there. It’s in a space reserved for Bradley Accounting and Financial.”

Lin’s eyes widened and she turned to look at the lot.

Viv said, “We have to go over there to see it. I’ve been lurking on this side of the street in case Jonas came out. I only saw his picture on the internet and he’s never seen me, but I still wanted to hide over here. I don’t want him to see me.”

“Let’s go check it out.” Lin and Viv and Nicky crossed the street and entered the lot which appeared to be only for owner or employee parking for the three-story building. The space was small, providing just ten parking spaces.

Viv pointed at the dark sedan, its front end facing the brick building. The car was an old, black Buick, but in very good condition. Lin bent to look at the tires.

“What are you doing?” Viv watched the door to the building. “Why are you looking at the tires?”

Lin stood up and fished her phone out of her back pocket. She slid her index finger across the screen and held it up to show Viv.

Viv squinted and lean close. “What’s this?”

“It’s a picture of tire marks in the dirt at the end of the fire road near the cemetery. I took the picture in case we could use it to match the tires on an actual car.” Lin looked at the tire tread on the Buick and at the photograph. She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell if it’s similar.”

Viv held the phone and took a turn trying to compare the tires with the ones in the photo. “Ugh. How are we supposed to figure this out?”

Lin moved close to the side of the car and peered in through the windows to see if anything was on the seats.

“Don’t lean against it,” Viv warned. “There might be an alarm. That’s all we’d need.”

“There isn’t anything on the seats.” Lin straightened. “It’s a coincidence, isn’t it, that Jonas drives a car that looks like the one that was at the cemetery the other night?” She glanced up at the second floor windows. “I would love to question him with a lie detector test about where he was the other evening.”

“He’d probably pass the test despite lying about everything. Come on, Lin, let’s get out of here.” Viv started away.

“Let me write down the license plate number, first.” Lin reached into her small bag looking for a pencil and scrap of paper.

“Already done.” Viv winked and smiled. She held up a piece of small note paper with the license number written on it.

The girls crossed the street and when they got to the other side, they heard the whomp of the brick building’s back door slamming shut. They turned discreetly towards the lot to see if Jonas had come out.

Lin looked down at the sidewalk and let her hair fall around her face. “That’s Chloe Waring. Remember I told you about her? The receptionist. She works for Jonas. I don’t want her to recognize me.”

Chloe, with her straight blonde hair cascading down her back, held a key in her hand and moved briskly through the lot. She had on a tight red skirt, fitted white blouse, and black heels. A pair of dark sunglasses completed her outfit and made her look like a celebrity hurrying away from paparazzi.

Viv watched the young woman out of the corner of her eye. “Hey. She’s getting into the Buick.”

“She
is
?” Lin desperately wanted to look, but stopped herself.

“She’s backing out.” Viv flicked her eyes to the lot while she and Lin continued to walk slowly up the road. “She’s turning in the other direction. There she goes.”

“Is it
her
car?” Lin looked at her cousin with wide eyes.

Viv gave a shoulder shrug. “Or maybe she’s doing an errand for Jonas and is borrowing his car.”

“How can we find out if the car belongs to her?”

Viv said, “We could hide over here tomorrow morning and see who drives it into the lot.”

Lin glanced back from where they’d come. “There isn’t any place to hide though.”

“We could park on the road and scrunch down. We might be able to see who drives up without them seeing us.” Viv looked wary like she didn’t want to actually do it.

Lin’s face brightened. “Maybe we can find out where Jonas and Chloe live. We could maybe drive by their houses and see if that car is in one of their driveways.”

“Figuring out where they live will be the trick though. We can check online later.” Viv checked her watch. “I need to get back to the store.”

“And I need to get to the farmhouse.” Lin smiled. “Good thing Leonard is my partner, otherwise he might fire me.” As they turned the corner, she took a quick look down the street. “We should have followed her.”

“How?” Viv chuckled. “Run after her? She never would have noticed us chasing after her car.”

L
in received
a text from Leonard saying he was running late and wouldn’t be at the farmhouse until later in the afternoon. She breathed a sigh of relief that her business partner wasn’t already at the job tapping his foot waiting for her. Lin, Leonard, and the husband-wife landscaping team had completed a ton of work on the backyard project and Lin could easily handle the tasks of the day on her own. She replied to Leonard’s text telling him she’d take care of the work at the farmhouse if he wanted to stay at the other client’s property to get that work done. They agreed to meet bright and early the next day at the farmhouse to tackle the final parts of the project together.

Lin used the wheelbarrow to add loam to all of the planned landscaped beds. She hauled some of the plants to the beds and before putting them into the ground, she arranged them in their pots according to the plan. Stepping back, she checked the positions and the way everything looked together. Satisfied, Lin walked to the pile of tools that they kept near the house and picked up one of the shovels, but she changed her mind and placed it back on the grass.

She stretched and opened her cooler removing a cold bottle of water. The day was hot and Lin’s tank top was drenched with sweat. Eyeing the patch of shade under the tree, she and Nicky walked over and sank down to cool off.

“I think it’s the hottest day yet.” Lin ran her hand over the dog’s smooth fur while he lay on his belly watching the squirrels scurry about at the back of the property.

Lin glanced through the tree branches and bushes over to Olive and Lloyd’s place. She couldn’t see any cars in the driveway and wondered if either of them was at home. Lin decided to find out.

As soon as Lin knocked, Olive opened the front door and gave the young woman a broad smile. “Come in.”

“I only have a minute and anyway, I’m a dirty mess. I’ll stay out here on the porch.”

Olive stepped out and closed the door behind her.

“I was wondering if you happened to recall the name of the landscaping service that took care of the mowing and trimming when the farmhouse was being rented.”

Olive screwed up her face in thought and tapped the side of her cheek with her finger. She brightened. “It was a small company, just a man and his son. I don’t know if they’re in business anymore. I never see them around, at least not out this way.”

Lin waited for Olive to tell her the name of the landscapers, but she didn’t say anything. “What was their name?”

“Oh, of course.” Olive tittered at her omission. “It was something like Thomas Mowing and Clean-up. Why do you ask?”

“Some of us were talking. We wondered if the lawn guys might have noticed anything odd going on at the farmhouse when they were working there.” Lin left out the concern that one of the lawn guys might be the very person stealing the bones and hiding them. “I met Jonas Bradley the other day.”

Olive’s face looked like she’d sucked on a lemon. “Why?”

“An acquaintance suggested him to me to review tax issues for my new landscaping business. He has an office in town.”

Olive groaned. “I hope I never run into him. What did you think of him?”

“He was very professional.” Lin chose her words carefully. “He didn’t have a lot of personality. No casual talk at all. Only business.”

“That’s about the nicest thing you can say about him.” Olive glanced to the farmhouse. “I’m just glad he doesn’t live next door anymore.”

“Did he have a run-in with you or Lloyd?”

Olive was about to say something, but the front door opened and Lloyd’s head poked out. “I wondered where you were. I heard voices.” He looked at Lin.

“Hello,” Lin said.

“We’re just chatting.” Olive’s tone was slightly dismissive. Lin thought the woman probably picked up the tone from her husband and was now using it on him.

“Something I can help with?” Lloyd looked over his reading glasses.

“No, dear.” Olive stared at her husband until he started to withdraw into the house like a turtle pulling back into his shell.

“What about lunch?” Lloyd asked.

“Soon, dear. I’ll let you know.”

Lloyd closed the door.

“You were about to say something about a run-in with Jonas?” Lin tried to jog Olive’s memory.

“Was I? It was nothing.” Olive bent and pulled a spent blossom from the huge container of flowers near the steps. “Would you like some lunch?”

Lin declined noting all the work she still had to do. She almost forgot to ask, but then the question popped into her head. “Do you remember what kind of car Jonas drove?”

Olive frowned. “He had a big old boat of a car. Black. In good shape, but really? Why would a younger man want to drive that ugly old thing? So old-fashioned. Lloyd liked the car. He loves all those big old things. Not me. Give me something fun or classy.” She chuckled. “Or both.” Olive checked to see if the soil in the flower pot was dry. “Right before Jonas moved out, he got a new car. A Toyota SUV. Not my style, but an improvement over what he’d had.” Olive straightened. “Why do you ask?”

Lin lied. “Someone almost side-swiped me the other day. I thought the driver looked like Jonas. I wondered if he was unhappy with the meeting we had.” She chuckled. “It was a truck that did it, so it wasn’t him.” Lin walked down the steps. “Thanks for your help.”

“Anytime.”

Lin heard the click of the Sawyer’s front door shut as Olive went inside the house. A sensation of cold slid over Lin’s skin and she glanced around to see if a ghost was nearby. Seeing nothing, she shrugged and thought her goose bumps must be from having been so sweaty and then standing in the shade of the porch while talking to Olive. Walking into the warm sunshine, the hint of an idea flickered for a moment in Lin’s brain, and then was gone.

L
in
, Jeff, Jeff’s older sister, Dana and her husband, Andrew sat around the small pub table listening to Viv and John’s band and sipping drinks. Lin agreed to go to the new venue on the condition that her cousin wouldn’t call her up on stage to join them in a song. “I just want to sit with Jeff and relax tonight.”

The place was packed and the band was getting a raucous reception. Lin had never heard her cousin sing and play so well. When the set was over, the band members walked through the crowd talking with friends and acquaintances while they took their break. Dana and Andrew headed for the bar.

Lin told Jeff the latest developments about Chloe Waring driving the dark car and about chatting with Olive Sawyer.

“Maybe Chloe bought Jonas’s car when he got the new SUV.” Jeff leaned on the table and watched the people milling about.

“So Jonas might not be involved with the bones at all.” Lin held a glass of seltzer in her hand and brought it to her lips. “But what about Chloe?”

Jeff gave a shrug. “There are probably quite a few large dark cars driving around Nantucket. Just because Chloe drives one doesn’t mean she has anything to do with the bones.”

Lin pushed her hair back and groaned. “Nothing adds up. Nothing stands out.”

“At least there haven’t been any new bones showing up anywhere.”

Lin sat up. Jeff’s comment made her stomach feel icy cold. She scanned the room looking for ghosts. “Jonas and Olive seem to really dislike each other. Neither one says why though.”

“Some neighbors don’t get along.” Jeff ordered a beer from the waitress. “There might not be any one thing that set off the dislike. Olive seems friendly and Jonas sounds the opposite. She may have found Jonas’s behavior aloof and he might have found Olive intrusive.”

“Why do you make so much sense?” A smile crept over Lin’s lips and Jeff leaned down and kissed her.

Dana came back to the table. “No public smooching,” she teased.

“Where’s Andrew?” Lin asked.

“He’s talking to someone he knows about buying a car.” The noise level in the pub was increasing so Dana leaned forward to get closer to her brother and Lin. “He’s just about run his car into the ground.”

“How’s your truck been running?” Jeff asked Lin.

She rolled her eyes. “I think I need to replace it. I need a reliable vehicle for my business. I just hate to spend the money.”

“Maybe you should talk to Andrew’s friend.” Dana turned around to see if Andrew was heading back. “He sells used cars. We always buy from him.”

“The manager of the cemetery where I have a contract told me he has a truck he’s selling. I was planning to talk to him about it next time I’m working. If that doesn’t work out then I’ll try Andrew’s friend.”

“Quinn’s selling a truck?” Jeff asked.

Lin nodded. “He told me it runs great.”

Dana looked interested. “Is that Quinn from the Mid-Island Cemetery? He and his wife love cars. They collect them. He has a huge barn where he keeps them.”

“How do you know Quinn?” Lin asked.

“I knew him in school. He was a few years younger.” Dana smiled. “I should pretend I’m younger than he is. I run into Quinn and his wife from time to time. We have some mutual friends.”

Lin said, “Recently he’s had to go off island every week or so to take care of some family issues. I hope he’s around later this week so I can make arrangements to see the truck.”

“What family issues does he have?” Dana increased her voice volume since the band was re-taking the stage.

“He said elderly problems. He didn’t elaborate.”

Dana made a face. “Really? His parents died right after he graduated high school. Maybe he means his wife’s parents.”

“Could be.”

The music started up and some people hurried to a small dance floor to gyrate to the beat. Andrew had to maneuver around the patrons to make his way back to the table. He looked glum. Leaning close, he told them, “My car won’t start. I was showing it to my friend as a trade-in and it not starting made a really good impression.” Andrew gave a wry smile and looked at Jeff. “We’ll need a ride home, if you don’t mind.”

“You want to go now?”

“We both have early mornings tomorrow,” Dana told her brother.

Lin declined to go along for the ride to the other side of the island in favor of walking home and getting to bed since she and Leonard had arranged an early start time at the farmhouse.

It took some effort to get through the crowd, but Dana and Andrew shuffled along following Jeff who made a path through the teeming mass.

Lin sat for a few more minutes sipping her drink and enjoying her cousin’s band until a few too many yawns convinced her to head home as well.

T
he evening air
felt refreshing after the crowded noisy pub and Lin sucked in a long deep breath. Walking along the brick sidewalks under the old-fashioned streetlamps, she looked in store windows and watched the people strolling past. Summer was her favorite time of year. Lin loved the hustle and bustle of tourist season, the sunshine, swimming in the ocean, and riding her bike along the many dedicated bicycle paths around the island.

Lin’s thoughts turned to the bones and who might be responsible for hiding them. A wave of uneasiness engulfed her. She didn’t feel that she was doing enough to find the culprit and she carried a heavy sense of responsibility about helping the spirits who showed themselves to her. There were a number of people who seemed suspicious or at least who could be possible suspects, but Lin didn’t feel particularly drawn to any of them as the guilty party. Something was missing.

A couple passed her carrying ice cream cones and Lin suddenly had a craving for a sweet, cold, and creamy taste of ice cream. She turned into the pharmacy where a good-sized line of people waited at the small take-out counter to order their milky treats.

A little boy who was up way past his bedtime was fussing and clinging to his mother’s leg. She bent and spoke kindly to him asking if he’d like to go home or would he like to wait and get the ice cream. If he wanted to wait, then he would have to be quiet. The boy rubbed his eyes with his little fist. He wanted the ice cream so he would stop fussing. His mom picked him up and he rested his head on her shoulder.

Lin smiled at the way the young mother had handled the crying and at the little boy who did what he had to do to get what he wanted.

A light went off in Lin’s head.
Motive.
Who had motive to steal the bones? If she could figure that out, then she’d have a better chance to find the thief. Selling bones could bring in a lot of money.

Lin looked out the pharmacy window at the people strolling by. Just as she was about to move up in the line, something across the street caught her eye.

A tall, slender woman with long blonde hair hurried down the street.
Chloe?

Lin left the ice cream line and stepped outside craning her neck to try to see the person. Catching a glimpse, she headed after the woman keeping her distance and trying to blend in with the crowd. After following for a few blocks, she was almost certain that it was Chloe Waring. Lin wondered if she lived in town and wanted to follow to see if she was heading home. Chloe walked towards the docks and stopped at the corner of the first boat slips. There were plenty of tourists strolling around the area, but Lin felt vulnerable and wanted to be sure she wasn’t seen, so she stepped into a small shop and pretended to browse near the window display.

Chloe shifted from foot to foot and looked around like she was expecting someone. She wasn’t standing directly under a streetlamp and Lin wouldn’t have recognized her if she didn’t have that long blonde hair which seemed to glow even in the meager light. Lin thought Chloe needed to push her white blonde hair up under a hat if she wanted to be discreet.

A man approached from the docks walking in a slow, relaxed way, but there was something about him that made Lin guess that he was meeting the pretty blonde. She watched as he walked up to Chloe, said a few words, and handed her what looked like a small white envelope. As soon as the exchange was over, Chloe moved an inch closer to the man, put her hand on his arm, and then turned around to head back up the street.

Lin squinted through the shop’s window. The man watched the young woman for a few seconds as she walked away, then he headed back the way he’d come. As he turned to go, he stepped into the pool of light from the streetlamp. Lin’s heartbeat sped up.

Quinn Whitaker from the cemetery.