Cora Lee swallowed, and put her other hand on Charlie’s, in a hard grip. “They found Kathy’s bones washed up from a shallow grave in someone’s garden. That,” Cora Lee said, “that came back to me, too, this morning, seeing those newspaper pictures again. Pictures of her little bones. My mother hid the paper, but you can’t hide something like that, it was everywhere, Kathy’s bones strewn across a tiny yard in the French Quarter.” Cora Lee turned away, but Charlie drew her close again. After a moment, Cora Lee leaned her face against Charlie’s shoulder.
“I thought that life in the French Quarter had toughened me.” She looked down the garden, and was quiet. “I guess it didn’t.” She said nothing more. Beside them, Dulcie felt cold and sick, distressed not only for Cora Lee, but also for that long-ago dead child. And for the child who might be buried here, in the garden. And she was suddenly frightened for Lori, for the living child.Can that be why Lori’s hiding? Because she knows something about that grave down there? Because someone wants to keep her quiet? Oh, but this is only coincidence�
Sitting rigid on the picnic bench close to Charlie, Dulcie didn’t know what to think or what to do about Lori, but now, suddenly she was afraid to do nothing. Should she take Lori’s story to Captain Harper? An anonymous message such as she and Joe often managed, to tip the cops? She knew she could trust Harper-but trust him to do what? To follow the law, as he was sworn and committed to do? If there was something badly wrong in Lori’s home, and if Lori had no other family, Harper might have no choice but to petition the court to send Lori to child welfare-where Lori seemed afraid to go.
Watching the three officers drive their metal stakes into the lawn and string the last line of tape, she wondered how many miles of yellow tape she and Joe had seen strung in such a way, around some grisly scene. No crime scene they had yet encountered had been like this, with the shocking impact of that one small hand, a hand that seemed to reach out so beseechingly, like the victim in a nightmare come alive.
When another car arrived and Detective Garza came around the corner of the house, Dulcie felt an added sense of security and strength, much the way a cat feels when all her family is at home. They were here now, the chief and both detectives, and they would make things right.
Garza looked tired, his square, smooth face drawn into deep, serious planes, his dark eyes studying the cluster of officers as he moved down the garden. He walked slowly, looking everywhere, taking in every detail. He was still dressed in the sport coat and slacks he’d worn to the theater the night before, the slacks wrinkled; and his jaw was dark with stubble. Had he not been home at all, had he not slept? He moved to where Max Harper stood at the end of the garden watching Juana photograph the scene.
Garza studied the hand and looked up at Harper. “I finished up with the last witnesses. Not much more of value. Nine people heard the shots, no one saw a damn thing. Except one of the inn’s guests we had waiting. Said she saw a man running out through the side entrance to the patio, but she was vague about whether it was before or after the shots. Couldn’t describe him. I’ll talk with her again.
“Besides Lucinda Greenlaw, two more witnesses say they’ve seen a man hanging around the inn. Small man, much like Lucinda described. Lucinda thought he might be watching Patty, but said he was casual, laid-back, so meek and harmless looking she thought maybe he was a fan. She knew Patty had seen him, that Patty didn’t seem concerned. She never asked Patty, and Patty never mentioned him.” He looked at Max. “I’d like to use the newspaper, let theGazetterun a clip. See if anyone coming out of the theater last night saw him. Four blocks from the inn; he could’ve doubled over there, strolled out with the crowd. Someone might remember a car, or where he was headed.”
As the two officers stood talking, watching Detective Davis at work, Dulcie wondered if Davis would take this case, and leave Garza with Patty’s murder. She’d observed the department long enough to know that the two detectives meshed like clockwork, that Harper seldom told them what to do. When Captain Harper motioned to Charlie, Charlie went down to join him. Dulcie was tensed to leap down and follow quietly through the weeds, when she saw Wilma coming around the side of the house leading Susan Brittain’s standard poodle and dalmatian.
Rearing up on the bench, her paws on the table, Dulcie looked questioningly at Wilma. Wilma shook her head.No Kit. Nothing.Dulcie’s tall, silver-haired housemate studied the yard full of uniforms only briefly, then she hurried the big dogs inside the house, getting them out of the way. Lamb, the chocolate standard poodle, looked around with dignity at the action, but the young dalmatian pranced and huffed and pulled, wanting to join the fun. Dulcie imagined Wilma inside wiping paws and offering doggie treats; but Wilma was soon out again, having settled the dogs, probably where they could watch the action. Wilma sat down at the picnic table, between Mavity and Cora Lee. Apparently, she already knew what had happened.
Stepping into Wilma’s lap, Dulcie stood looking over the top of the table, watching the officers at work. Wilma’s faded jeans and sweatshirt smelled of dog and of the juniper she’d brushed in passing the overgrown neighborhood bushes. Dulcie could hear the dogs inside the nearest empty apartment, probably jockeying for position at the sliding door, with both noses pressed against the glass. She heard a car door slam out in front, but this time no police radio. In a moment the coroner, John Bern, come around the house.
Bern was a slight, bald man, his head as shiny as a clean supper bowl. His face was thin, fine boned. He wore rimless glasses that reflected glancing light. He was dressed in tan chinos, Dockers, and a pristine white lab coat buttoned over a bright-red polo shirt. He paused to speak with Captain Harper, then approached the dirt excavation to study the small, skeletal hand and to ask Juana the usual obligatory questions: had anything been removed or touched, that sort of thing, expecting Juana to answer in the negative. He made a few notes in a spiral binder, then adjusted his camera and began to take his own set of pictures. He took maybe two dozen shots very close up, then stepped away for longer angles, then turned to speak with Harper.
“We’ll want a forensic pathologist on this, Max. I’d prefer a forensic anthropologist. I’d like to get Hyden down here. Meantime, I can do some preliminary digging.”
Harper moved around so the noon sun was not directly in his face. “I have a call in for Hyden. We sure don’t want to ship the bones to Sacramento if we can help it. If Hyden’s not available, we’ll try for Anderson-maybe luck out and get them both.” Alan Hyden and James Anderson worked out of Sacramento. Dulcie supposed that, even if they left the state capital at once, the drive would take maybe four hours.
“I have a tent on the way,” Max said. “We could be getting more rain, and there are coyotes in the canyon. We’ll put guards on the site, of course.” It was at this moment-as if additional assistance might be needed-that Joe Grey strolled on the scene.
Dulcie considered with interest the gray tomcat’s bold entrance as, in plain sight, he sauntered across the cop-filled yard exhibiting all the casual authority of a high-ranking police detective. The tomcat made no effort to hide himself, and this was not Joe’s usual mode of operation. In fact, why were neither of them taking their usual secretive approach? Her own attitude puzzled her nearly as much as Joe’s brazen entrance.
Was it because there was such a crowd in the yard-cops, the senior ladies, Charlie and Wilma? But last night, even in that crowd, they had made some effort to keep out of sight. Or was it because this was a much more bucolic scene, the weedy yard, the open, wild canyon, where a cat would not seem out of place? A slower scene, too, and less frenetic. And because there was no hurried urgency, because a murder hadn’tjusthappened.