We didn’t arrive back at John’s house until just after one, the Impala laden with grocery bags. I’d ordered an oven and paid extra for it to be delivered and installed tomorrow. We’d stopped by Doris’s house to grab fresh linen and towels, plus the pedestal fan she’d promised to loan me.
Things were coming together nicely, despite the rocky start to the day, and I was smiling as I limped up the front path, my already slow gait slowing further when I spied a note tacked to the front door. It wasn’t until I’d climbed the two warped steps that I noticed what was sitting on the doorstep beneath the message.
“What the hell?” I backed up a step, then leaned over, peering at the skeletal hand that lay there. Straightening, I read the note.
“You weren’t home, so I collected rubbish from out back. Call if you need anything further.” It was signed Ken Opener, followed by a phone number. Pulling the note from the door, I shoved it into my shorts pocket, making a note to ring and thank him and find out how much I owed.
“Holy heck, is that Seth’s other hand?” Doris appeared behind me, a bag of groceries under each arm.
Wrestling the door open, I stepped over the hand and ushered Doris inside. “No. I think it’s the same hand. Left. The question is, what is it doing on my doorstep?”
“Maybe Calder dropped it off? Maybe it’s a fake or something?”
I glanced at her, noticed the flush of color in her cheeks and the way her eyes darted away. She was lying through her teeth. She knew as well as I did that the bones weren’t fake.
Hands-on-hips, I tapped my good foot, demanding, “Okay, Doris. Spill. What do you know?”
“I know we should get the rest of the groceries out of the car before they spoil, and you should get rid of that hand before Calder comes looking for it,” she said, stepping over the bones and returning to the car for the next load of groceries. She had a point. It wasn’t going to look good for me if the sheriff turned up and found me in possession of the bones.
“Fine,” I huffed, heading in search of a plastic bag. Doris had left behind the roll of garbage bags the day before, and I quickly snapped one off, returning to the front porch to snatch up the bones and wrap them in the plastic. The question was, where to hide them? My stomach churned like I’d eaten a box of ex-lax. The bones meant something, only what? And why did they return to me? Was it magic, or was it something else? Was someone messing with me? Planting evidence to force me to leave town?
I snorted out a laugh at my overactive imagination. Flynn appeared, paused to sniff the bones through the plastic, stood on his haunches for a moment while his nose twitched, and rubbed his paws over his face. He was rather adorable, I had to admit. And that’s when I noticed something else.
“You’ve changed color!” I pointed at my once gray and white rat, who was now ginger and white.
Doris shoved past me, a bag of groceries under each arm. “Oh, you’ve got another rat. What’s this one’s name?”
“This is the same one.” At least I was pretty sure this was Flynn. He still wore the leather harness. I squinted for a closer look. “You are Flynn, aren’t you?”
He nodded, watching me watch him, no answers forthcoming on why his fur was now a different color. I scooped him up and held him up to my face. “What have you been up to, hmm?”
His whiskers twitched, and he rubbed his paws over his face. If only he could talk.
“Are you going to lend a hand, or are you going to gaze lovingly at your rat all day?” Doris inquired, sarcasm dripping from her words. “These groceries aren’t going to unpack themselves.”
“Sorry.” Lowering Flynn to the floor, I hobbled to the bags vying for space on the counter. Unpacking the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, more flour, and spices of almost every flavor, the shelves were soon bulging with baking ingredients, and a slither of excitement shot up my spine. Maybe I’d enjoy this enforced vacation after all. Once I’d solved the mystery of the bones, of course.
Doris was still coming and going, lugging in everything we’d managed to shove into the Impala and dumping it in my living room. I felt guilty that I couldn’t help her, but the extra walking was making its presence felt in the throbbing of my broken foot. I refused to dwell on the fact that the medics couldn’t heal me. I was a witch, and we healed fast naturally. Only, on this occasion? Not so much. Nope. Refused to dwell. It would be fine.
“Here.” Doris threw a box at me, and I automatically caught it, staggering back a step to keep my balance. “Do something useful and get that going, would you?”
I grinned. “Now that, I can do.” After unpacking the coffee maker, I had it set up within minutes. Flynn ran up my leg, gripped my shorts, and then leaped onto the counter, inspecting the remaining groceries.
“Do not be nibbling any holes in anything,” I warned him, shaking my finger. “You will be amply fed, don’t worry.” Working around the rat, I slowly put away the rest of the groceries, thankful the ladies from yesterday had thoroughly cleaned everything, and I mean everything. Every shelf and every cupboard had been scrubbed. While they didn’t precisely sparkle given their age and lack of maintenance up until this point, they did smell pleasantly of lemon. “Did you see who brought the bones back?” I asked Flynn.
He shook his head.
“That’s even if they are the same bones. But what are the chances of two lots of skeletal remains turning up, and both left hands are found on my property?”
Flynn shrugged.
“And why on earth has your fur changed color?” I added. The bones thing was weird. The fur thing was even weirder.
“Maybe it was the fright he got when Calder shot at him,” Doris suggested, dusting her hands together. “Everything’s in,” she added.
“Thanks, Doris, you’ve been such a help.”
“Nonsense, it’s what we small-town folks do.”
My fingers stroked over the mark on my collarbone. “Doris, what you said earlier, before Flynn bit you and Calder shot at him….”
Doris’s eyes dropped to the mark and then back up to my face. “Your birthmark?”
“You said it was a rune.”
Her eyes shot to Flynn, then back to me. I glanced at the rat who was standing on his hind legs, front legs crossed over his chest, and if rats could frown, I’d say he was definitely frowning.
“Okay, spill.” I crossed my own arms. “What’s going on?”
“Ask him.” Doris huffed, pointing at Flynn.
“I can’t speak rat,” I pointed out, then cocked my head. “Do you know why Flynn changed color?”
She shook her head. “No idea. But may I suggest we continue this conversation after we’ve hidden those bones? Because I suspect Calder is going to be beating down your door sometime soon, accusing you of taking them.”
My eyebrows shot into my hairline. “Why would he accuse me of taking them? I was in the lockup!”
“You and I both know you didn’t take them.” Doris waved a hand as if to say the suggestion was ludicrous. “But you were there. In the vicinity. And you seem to have a good understanding of how lawmen think, how their minds work. Like it or not, you’re a suspect.”
“As are you. You were there too. I was the one locked up; you weren’t. Maybe you had ample opportunity to slip into the evidence locker and snatch them.” I glossed over the fact that she’d caught on to my knowledge of police procedures. One day in, and I was close to blowing my cover, to a little old lady no less.
Her eyes narrowed to mere slits. She didn’t say anything, but the cogs were turning. Then her face cleared, and she smiled. “I didn’t take them, and you didn’t take them. This means the killer most likely took them and dumped them on your doorstep to try and implicate you somehow. Stupid plan. But regardless, Calder isn’t likely to believe either of us.”
I chewed my lip. “You’re right. It sounds far-fetched. We need to hide the bones.” The question was, where?
Standing beneath the cedar elm tree, I watched Doris shimmy her way up the trunk. Her idea of hiding the bones in the tree was actually pretty good, only I hadn’t expected her to snatch them up, shove them into the back of her waist band, stick a roll of tape around her wrist like a bracelet, and practically sprint for the tree behind John’s shed and begin climbing. By the time I’d reached the base of the trunk, she was halfway up.
“Doris, please be careful,” I called, my heart skipping a beat watching this white-haired old lady climb the tree with remarkable ease. “I’m not sure it’s safe for you to be up there.”
“Have to go high enough that they won’t be spotted from the ground,” she shouted down at me.
“Don’t fall,” I yelled back.
“Roger.”
Flynn scampered up behind her, which wasn’t much of a comfort, for he wouldn’t be able to stop her from falling, but at least she wasn’t alone, and that, such as it was, was a comfort. I sighed, shaking my head. How had this become so complicated so fast? Who had taken the bones and left them on my doorstep? And why? It just didn’t make sense.
I heard the sound of tape ripping and glanced up. I couldn’t see Doris or the bones. “Everything okay?”
“Yep. Just taping them to this branch, so they don’t fall down, then we’re set.” I imagined her wrapping the tape around and around the bones and the branch, the ripping sound a dead giveaway. Then I heard a grunt and a whispered, “Shit.”
“What is it?”
“Nearly lost my dentures.”
I frowned. “What? How?”
“Trying to bite through the tape. To cut it, you know?”
“Can’t you just tear it with your fingers?”
“Nah. Need something sharper.”
I thought for a moment, considered throwing a knife up to her, but if she caught it wrong, she’d either cut herself or fall out of the tree. A knife was not an option.
“Flynn? Can you assist?”
I thought I heard a squeak in response but couldn’t be one hundred percent certain. A minute later, “By gads, he’s done it. On my way down.”
I didn’t relax until Doris was back on solid ground, dusting off her blouse and pants. Flynn was on her shoulder, and she held up her hand to high-five him. “Thanks, Flynn.” To my surprise, Flynn returned her high-five.
“You two friends now?” My eyes darted from Flynn to Doris and back again. Earlier, he’d bitten her. Now he was sitting on her shoulder exchanging high-fives. Today was not making sense.
Doris ignored my question and stood back, hands-on-hips, tilting her head back to peer up into the tree. Flynn mimicked her. I did, too, unable to stop myself.
“That’s actually a pretty good hiding spot,” I said. Even if the sheriff turned up with a warrant, he wouldn’t think to search the tree.
Doris grinned and linked her elbow with mine, and we slowly made our way back to the house. “Sometimes, I shock myself with the smart things I say and do,” she said. “Then there are the times when I try to get out of the car with the seatbelt on.”
I burst out laughing. I could totally see that being the case. We’d just stepped through the back door when we both heard it. A car pulling up out front. No bets on who it could be.
“Show time,” Doris said, patting her hair. “How do I look?”
I plucked a leaf from her hair and shoved it in my pocket, straightened her blouse, and smoothed my hands over her shoulders. “Not like you just climbed a tree,” I said with a nod.
“How’s that coffee coming along?” She nodded to the machine that I’d set up earlier, and while I was busy pouring us both a cup, Calder hammered on the front door. Doris called, “I’ll get it!” and I couldn’t help the grin at our subterfuge.
“You still here?” Calder barked.
“As you can see, Sheriff,” Doris replied. I stilled, listening in. She’d called him Sheriff. What did that mean, if anything? That he was pissed? I’d bet he was.
“May I come in?” His voice sounded like he’d been chewing nails. Definitely pissed. The hinges on the front door squawked their protest as Doris opened the door wider, ushering him inside.
“Coffee?” I called from the kitchen, looking up when he appeared in the doorway.
“Where are they?” he demanded, jaw clamped, pulse ticking in the vein at his temple.
“Where are what?” I played dumb, holding out a cup to Doris, who took it from me and sat at the kitchen table, settling in to watch how this would play out.
“The bones,” he snapped. “They were at the station. Now they’re not. Where are they?”
I flattened a hand against my chest and gasped, eyes wide. “Why, Sheriff, are you telling me you lost evidence?” I looked down at Doris. “Are the bones actually evidence? They’re human remains, so that would make them… the victim?”
Doris nodded like a bobblehead. “You’re right!”
“Enough!” Calder barked. If he clenched his jaw any tighter, he’d break some teeth. “You were at the station.” He pointed an accusing finger at me. “You had the opportunity.”
I refrained from saying to Doris I told you so. “I was in your lockup,” I pointed out. “How, pray tell, would I manage to steal the bones? And have you stopped to ask yourself why I would even want to? I have absolutely zero motive, Sheriff, and yet here you are, accusing me of a heinous crime.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, slapping it down on the kitchen counter. “I have a warrant to search the premises.”
Doris gasped, her hand clutching her neck. “Calder!” she admonished. “Leave the poor girl alone. She didn’t take your precious bones.”
He pinned her with a glare. “I’m searching your house next, Doris, so I suggest you pipe down.”
“Well, I never!” she declared, fanning her face.
“Pretty quick off the draw with that warrant.” I picked it up and gave it a cursory glance. “You really didn’t need to go to all that trouble. I’d have happily let you look around if only you’d asked.” I blinked and batted my lashes, doing my best to convey my utter innocence.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re toying with me?” He relaxed a fraction, his jaw unclenching.
“I don’t know, why?”
He sighed a heartfelt sigh that went all the way down to his toes. He rubbed a hand around his neck, then looked at me. “That offer of coffee still stand?”
I smiled brightly. My face almost cracked. “Sure.”