The Haunted Bones (A Lin Coffin Mystery Book 3) (7 page)

A
fter Lin
and Viv recovered from their laughing fit, they sat on the ground beneath the trees with Nicky resting on the grass in front of them. The night air was warm and pleasant and the cloud cover was breaking up allowing some light from the stars and moon to filter down between the branches.

“Those poor teenagers.” Viv still had a huge smile on her face. “We must have frightened them.”

The tension and worry of the past few days drained away as the girls chatted about things unrelated to bones and graves and unoccupied houses. The strong wind was dying down to just a gentle breeze that rustled the leaves overhead. The night sounds of insects calling to one another filled the air with chirps and clicks and buzzing.

Viv leaned back against the tree trunk and yawned. “What a beautiful evening. I could fall asleep sitting right here on the grass.”

Lin took in a long relaxing breath and looked out over the dark cemetery.

“Shall we head home before I doze off?” Viv yawned again.

When the girls stood up, Lin shivered in the cool night air. She rubbed her hands over her arms to warm them.

Viv eyed her cousin. “Are you cold?”

“A little.” Lin’s eyes went wide and she slowly shifted her gaze from side to side.

“Do you see something?” Viv moved a step closer and took quick glances over her shoulders.

The dog whined and wagged his little tail. Lin followed the direction the dog was facing. Something shimmered by some gravestones and a form took shape. Emily Coffin stood transparent in her long dress with the high collar, her hair up in a loose bun. She raised her arm and pointed.

“You see something, don’t you?” Viv whispered. She huddled close to Lin.

Lin gave a nod, keeping her eyes on Emily. The ghost remained with her arm outstretched for several seconds and then the shining particles of her form began to swirl, faster and faster until she disappeared.

“Is it Emily?” Viv’s voice shook.

“She’s gone.” Lin looked in the direction that the ghost had pointed. “The mausoleums.” She tugged on Viv’s arm as she moved towards them. “We need to check them out.”

Viv groaned, but followed Lin as she made her way towards one of the small stone buildings built partially into the hill. She flicked on the flashlight and moved the light up and down and from side to side over the stonework. “Everything looks intact.” She adjusted the light so it shined on the lock. “It doesn’t seem disturbed.”

The girls moved to the next one and repeated the process while the dog hurried about with his nose to the ground. After checking all five mausoleums built into the hillside, Lin walked along a path that ran between graves and led to another small stone building. The girls inspected the outside stones and then went to the front to see if anyone had tampered with the door or the window. Lin pulled on the heavy lock attached to the door. It didn’t budge.

“Maybe Emily was pointing to something else,” Viv offered.

“She was definitely pointing to the mausoleums.” Lin looked back at the group of crypts near the hill. “She pointed to those.” Lin gestured back to where they had started. “Let’s go back there.”

“It’s late, you know.” Viv had her flashlight beam pointed at the ground. “We both have to get up early. Let’s come back another time.”

Lin had to agree that she was feeling fatigued and wouldn’t mind crawling into her soft, comfy bed. She stopped and stretched. “Okay. We’ll come back another time. I’m beat.”

Viv clasped her hands together and looked skyward. “Thank heavens.”

Lin chuckled and slipped her arm through her cousin’s. “Come on, Nick.”

The dog wasn’t with them. The girls stopped and turned to see the dog staring back at the road where the young couple had been parked earlier in the night. Lin called to him again, but he didn’t budge.

“Now what?” Lin sighed and walked towards the dog. A few feet from the animal, she came to a dead stop. Coming from the dirt road, the sound of a car’s engine floated on the air. It was getting closer. Lin scrambled back to her cousin, grabbed her arm, and pulled her across the grass to the tree line. “Get down.”

The girls squatted.

“Nicky.” Lin kept her voice down.

The dog dashed to Lin’s side and sat next to the crouched young women.

“Is this spot lover’s lane, or what?” Viv asked softly. “Is it just another couple arriving to make out?”

The girls stared through the branches and saw the car come to a stop where the dirt road met the cemetery boundary. The engine quit and someone stepped out. The person was wearing a hoodie. The face was hidden by the hood and the darkness. Reaching into the back seat, the person took something from the back seat.

“A duffel bag?” Viv whispered.

Lin raised her index finger to her lips to urge quiet.

The man headed down to the second stone building where he fiddled with the lock. The door opened and he disappeared into the mausoleum.

The girls exchanged wide-eyed looks. After about five minutes, the person reemerged, closed the heavy door, and carried the bag up the short hill to the car, where he got in, turned the vehicle around, and drove away.

“What was that all about?” Viv practically leapt to her feet. “What did he do? Who is he?” One hand was on her hip while the other hand flew about gesturing wildly.

Lin slowly rose from her crouched position. “It can’t be anything above-board that he just did. It’s nearly midnight.” She let out a long sigh. “Did you notice what kind of car he was driving?”

“I couldn’t see it very well in the dark. It just looked like a dark sedan. Maybe it was an older model? It seemed kind of big. Like a big old Lincoln?”

“I wish I had paid more attention to it.” Lin started towards the mausoleum. “Let’s go have a look.”

When the girls and Nicky reached the front door of the tomb, Lin focused her flashlight on the lock. She moved it about and gave it a solid yank. The bolt unfastened. Lin blinked with surprise that the lock came undone. She leaned forward tilting her head so she could inspect the lock more closely. “This is clever work. Someone cut the bolt from behind. It looks fine until you see it from the back. It’s cut so that it looks locked and it requires a good pull on it for it to loosen.” Putting her hand on the large metal handle, she pulled the door open with a loud metallic creak.

“We’re not going in, are we?” Viv fussed.

Lin stepped inside, shining her light along the crypts in the walls. Viv stayed in the doorway.

“There are five crypts. It’s a family entombed here.” Lin moved closer to see if any of the crypts looked to be tampered with.

Standing outside, Viv pointed her flashlight above the door. “It says ‘Sparrow’ above the doorway. That’s the family name.”

Lin moved her hand over the large marble squares in the wall that marked each crypt. A small central hole in a plate on the marble seemed to be a lock hole. She pointed the flashlight beam at the holes. “This is odd. There seems to be scratch marks on some of these crypts. I wonder if someone used a piece of metal to pick the locks.” Lin tried to tug on the edges of the marble to see if it would move. “I can’t open it.”

“Oh!” Viv practically screeched. “Don’t open anything. Lin, don’t open those crypts.”

“I wouldn’t open it. I just want to see if it moves.” Lin emerged from the mausoleum. “We need to report this. I’ll call the police in the morning.”

The girls and the dog followed the paths through the cemetery heading back to the trail that would lead to their parked truck.

“We need to come up with a reason why we were here so late at night.” Viv kept nervously looking about the open space. “Or the police might think we’re involved in stealing bones.”

“Well,” Lin tried to come up with an idea. “We could say that during the day we were biking on that dirt road that leads to the cemetery and you lost a necklace. We think you lost it when we were sitting in the cemetery resting before our return ride. We came back to look for it.”

Viv narrowed her eyes. “In the middle of the night?”

“Maybe we could gloss over that part?”

“We better come up with something more believable than that,” Viv suggested. “Why not just tell the truth?”

Lin tilted her head. “That I see ghosts and they want me to figure this out?”

Viv smiled. “No. Tell them you found those bones and you were reading on the internet about graves being robbed and wondered if this could be the case here. So we decided to come walk around and see if anything looked amiss.”

“Won’t they be suspicious because we’re here late at night?”

“It’s the only time we could both do it” Viv said. “We have businesses to run during the day.”

“Maybe.” Lin thought it over and wondered how the police would handle the information. “I wonder if I should report it to Quinn first? Since he’s the manager, he might want to be involved in the call to the police. I don’t want to jeopardize our professional relationship.”

“That’s a good idea.” Viv agreed. “Tell him in the morning and then you can make the call together.”

The girls arrived at the entrance to the trail. “Where’s Nick?”

Viv spotted the dog walking in the woods to their right. “He’s there.” She pointed. Out of the corner of her eye, Viv saw something and she hooked her arm through Lin’s and pulled her behind the trees at the beginning of the trail.

“What?” Lin questioned her cousin’s action.

Viv stared at the office building. “There was a light on in there, in one of the back rooms. Now it’s out.”

Lin turned slowly towards the cottage that housed the cemetery’s office. “There aren’t any cars parked over there. Could it have been a reflection on the window?”

Viv raised her eyebrows and made a face. “Isn’t that what Quinn asked
you
when you told him you saw a light on in there? It was definitely a light.”

The girls watched the building for ten minutes, but the cottage remained dark and they didn’t see anyone leave the building.

“The person could have left from the side door.” Lin sighed. “We should have split up so we could each watch an exit.”

“What could someone be doing in there?” Viv frowned.

“Another piece of the puzzle.” Tired and frustrated, Lin led the way down the trail to the truck and drove home to their waiting beds.

B
efore meeting
Leonard at the farmhouse site, Lin drove to the Mid-Island Cemetery to talk to Quinn. She and Nicky stood on the front stoop and knocked on the door. Quinn’s car was parked in its usual spot so Lin was sure he was inside.

“Come in.” Quinn called from the front room. “Oh, Lin. Everything okay? I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“I just wanted to talk to you for a minute.” Lin and the dog went in.

“Sit down. Please.” Quinn gestured to the earth-toned sofa on one side of the space. A coffee table stood on a rug of muted colors and a caramel-colored leather chair stood on each side of the sofa. A large desk was positioned near the windows with two chairs placed in front of it.

Quinn took one of the leather chairs. “What’s on your mind? You’re not quitting are you?” His eyebrows pinched together in an expression of worry.

“No, no, I’m not giving up the contract.” Lin smiled. She held her hands in her lap. “You’ve heard the news about the bones?”

Quinn nodded.

“I happened to be the lucky one who found the bones both times.” Lin gave a weak smile.

“You? How did you happen to make both finds?” Quinn sat upright near the edge of the chair.

Lin explained about doing the landscaping at the farmhouse and accompanying John to the house showing. “My cousin and I were here last night. We saw something. I wanted to let you know about it before I reported it to the police.”

Quinn’s eyebrows shot up.

Lin spoke fast hoping if she spewed out information quickly, then Quinn wouldn’t be able to poke holes in her explanation about why she happened to be at the cemetery late at night. “My cousin lost a watch at the end of the fire road on a bike ride. She works late. She owns the bookstore-café in town. I work late. We came last night because she realized she lost it and was upset about it and didn’t want to wait until morning.” Lin sucked in a breath. “We saw something … near the mausoleums. A man got out of a car, and went into one of them. He looked to be carrying a duffle bag. When he left, Viv and I went to inspect. The lock on the door is cut in the back. That way, it doesn’t look broken, but allows access by moving the bolt. In light of finding the bones, we wondered if they may have been taken from here.”

Quinn had a look of alarm on his face. “Which mausoleum is it?”

“It says ‘Sparrow’ above the door. Shall I show you what I mean about the lock?”

Quinn gave a nod and stood up. He took a set of keys from the desk and when they left the office, he locked the door.

“When we were leaving last night, my cousin saw a light on in the back room,” Lin told Quinn as they walked across the cemetery on the paths between the gravestones.

“There has to be some light reflecting off the window that makes it seem that lights are on inside,” Quinn said. “You thought you saw lights there the other night. I wasn’t here late last evening and no one else has a key. Nothing was disturbed in the office this morning. A reflection is the only explanation.”

They walked up the incline to the mausoleums with Nicky following behind.

“It was that one.” Lin pointed and they walked to the door. She lifted the lock up to show Quinn the cut on the back. Lin’s eyes widened and her hand started to shake. “It was cut right here along the edge, but….”

Quinn leaned forward and craned his neck to get a look at the lock. “But, what?”

Lin rubbed the back of the metal with her fingers. Her heart pounded and a bit of sweat rolled down her back. She let go of it and it hit the door with a thunk. Lin’s jaw tightened. “Somebody changed the lock.”

Quinn stared at the young woman.

Lin’s cheeks flushed and her breathing sped up. “It was cut last night. Somebody must have changed it. Maybe the person saw us here and changed the lock.”

“Maybe it was a different vault? Let’s check the others.”

Lin didn’t want to move from the spot. She knew this was the right mausoleum. Viv had read the name above the door. Grabbing the lock again, Lin yanked it like she had last night. She yanked on it again. It wouldn’t budge. Fury rose in her throat. “We were here at this vault last night. The lock on one of the crypts looks like someone had been picking it.”

Quinn looked at her, his mouth hanging open.

Lin’s jaw muscles twitched. “Someone changed this lock.”

“Did you and your cousin…?” Quinn hesitated. “Did you have a few drinks with dinner last night or maybe…?”

“We weren’t drunk, Quinn.” Lin folded her arms over her chest.

Quinn lifted his hands up in a helpless gesture. “Well, things seem fine now.” Shrugging a shoulder, he said, “I’ll have one of the caretakers check all of the mausoleum locks just to be sure they’re functional.” He nodded reassuringly. “Let’s go back to the office. I’ll talk to the caretaker right now.”

Walking back to the front of the cemetery, Lin and Quinn remained silent. Lin knew he was questioning her judgment and she felt like a fool. Her mind was racing. The only answer was that someone saw her and Viv in the mausoleum last night and changed the lock. “I think I should tell the police what I saw last night.”

“Oh?” Quinn said cautiously. “I’d really rather not have any bad publicity.”

Lin shot him a look.

Quinn backtracked. “Well, if you feel like it’s necessary.”

When they reached the office cottage, Lin said, “Sorry for the confusion. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She hurried to her truck, let the dog in, and drove away.

Turning onto the street that would take her to the farmhouse, Lin drove along with her mind going a mile a minute. She pulled to the side of the road and reached for her phone to call Viv to let her know what had happened at the cemetery. Before she pushed the numbers, a thought popped into her head. She tossed her phone into her bag and started the truck, turning in the opposite direction from where she should be headed.

After driving a few miles, Lin took a left onto the fire road that led to the cemetery. She stopped the truck a few yards from where the car with the person carrying the duffel bag had been parked last night. She and Nicky got out and walked to the end of the road.

Lin saw the tire tracks of the making-out couple’s car and then looked to the other side of the road. A smile crept over her face.

There was the second set of tire impressions in the dirt road right where the person’s car had parked. Lin returned to the truck and took out her phone. She walked back to where the tire tracks were and photographed them.

We’re not crazy, Quinn. We weren’t drunk. And we aren’t mistaken.

Lin walked to the end of the road and looked down the slight hill to the mausoleums. She stepped onto the grass and shuffled along keeping her eyes on the ground, moving them side to side. Reaching the Sparrow mausoleum, Lin kicked at the ground trying to find anything that might indicate that the lock had been changed.

She sighed. Leonard was waiting for her at the farmhouse. She had to give up her search.

Heading back to the truck, she was almost at the top of the hill when she saw something glint in the grass. At the same time she spotted the thing, Nicky found it in the grass and woofed. Lin rushed over, bent down, and picked up a curved piece of metal. It looked just like a section of a padlock shackle.

She winked at the dog and reached down to pat his head. “I think we found what we were looking for.”

Sliding the piece of metal into her back pocket, a wide smile spread over Lin’s face.
Someone changed that lock.