A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery (16 page)

Ned lunged at Frank, pushing him backward.
Frank started forward, fists ready to pummel Ned.
Derrick, Brian, and Lindsay ran to them. Brian
grabbed Ned, while Derrick and Lindsay stepped in
front of Frank.

"Stop this." Derrick ordered. "It's scaring the field
crew"

Frank looked at Derrick as if he were the enemy.
"Do you know what he has done'?"

"I think we're getting the picture."

"I suppose you are behind the so-called pothunters
and everything else that has been going on," Frank
yelled at Ned. "And the anonymous calls about the
pot. Was that your doing as well'?"

"That's right, blame everything on me" Ned pulled
back from Brian's grasp.

"Hold on, guys," said Brian.

"Why don't you two go to opposite sides of the site
for a while?" Lindsay suggested. "Frank, can I read the
letter?"

Frank handed Lindsay the letter, and she began
reading. "It says here that due to the number of
irregularities and sampling errors ... Sampling
errors?" reiterated Lindsay, then continued reading,
"... we find it necessary to review the research
design and its execution." Lindsay looked up. "I
don't understand."

"It's simple," said Frank. "I got this letter when I
picked up the mail at lunch. Ned's been reporting to
the contracting agent and the archaeology department
that we're doing a piss-poor job of excavating the site,
and they may just shut it down. And the stupid little
beggar thinks they are going to put him in charge"

Ned started to lunge toward Frank, and Brian held
him back again.

"Well, Frank," said Lindsay, "I think you and I can
convince them otherwise. We are all doing a good
job." Frank had a stubborn set to his jaw. He said
nothing. "Besides, look at the date they set for the
review. It's not for several months. You know what
that means. This letter is just to satisfy some bureaucrat that they are addressing the issue." She looked
to see who got copies: the board members of the
power company. "Frank," she said in a low voice,
"I'll talk to Ned and find out who else is involved
in this. I don't think this is just his doing." Frank
relaxed a little and nodded. "Derrick is right," she continued. "The crew are a little taken aback by all
this yelling."

Brian talked Ned into going to the house. Lindsay
and Derrick stayed with Frank down by the dock.

"I just don't understand him," said Frank. "I know
he has his little theories, and he thinks he won't be
able to prove them unless the whole site is finished.
But it will be finished. This is one of the better
planned sites I've worked on."

"OK," said Lindsay. "You know most of the archaeology department will back us up, and I know several
people on the contract committee. Everything's going
to be fine. We'll just convince them they have the
wrong impression. I'll talk Ned into helping."

"Over my dead body-"

"We get him to convince the committee at the
department that they misunderstood what he was talking about. They won't want to make a big deal out of
this anyway."

"Lindsay's right, Frank," Derrick said. "Besides,
they aren't going to ditch the whole site after this
much is done. You know that."

"Yes, I know all of that. It's just that he was betraying me ... us ... behind our backs."

"I know," said Lindsay. "Ned's paranoid. I don't
know why, but he is. He's just gone a little overboard.
It may be that someone else is pushing his buttons.
Someone at the power company."

It took until lunchtime the next day for the camp to
get back to normal. Derrick was back in stride. Ned
and Frank didn't speak, and Frank put Derrick in
charge of overseeing Ned's work. The site was quiet again. Most of the crew were eating when Ronald the
Radio came up shyly to Derrick, who was sitting with
Lindsay.

"Some of the scouts are saying I called the sheriff
and told him lies about you, and now we won't be able
to dig anymore. I didn't. I wouldn't do anything like
that, honest. Sure, I was mad at you, but I wouldn't
have done anything like lie about you to the sheriff."

"That's all right. I believe you, kid. And nothing's
going to happen to the dig."

Ronald relaxed, then became solemn again. "I did
cut your bow string."

Derrick's sandwich was halfway to his mouth.
"You what!" he cried. Ronald stepped back with
renewed anxiety. "My bow string. You cut my bow
string? Do you know how hard it is to make a bow
string? Now I have to go kill a deer, and it isn't even
hunting season. Then I have to dress it and strip and
cure the sinew. I hate that"

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry"

"Well then, I guess I can go to Wal-Mart, instead."
Derrick grinned at him, and Ronald grinned back.
Lindsay rolled her eyes at the two of them, picked up
the remains of her lunch, and tossed them in the trash
can.

After lunch, Lindsay helped Jane with a burial. It
had been a while since she could relax and excavate a
burial herself. She was brushing dirt away from a long
bone when a shadow suddenly blocked out the light.
She looked up to see Thomas.

"I have something," he said, calmly. "Really, this
time. I know I have hollered wolf many times before,
but this looks really neat."

"Have you finally been taking your medicine,
Thomas?" Lindsay asked.

"No, ma'am. I'm just working on a new image."
She followed him across the site. When they arrived,
Sally was standing beside the excavation looking
down into it and beaming with a smile. "There," he
said.

Lindsay was astonished. The smaller feature had
indeed been a burial. The skeleton was in a flexed
position facing the larger feature. It was the larger
feature that was astonishing. It was a horse.

It was not completely excavated yet, but Sally and
Thomas had done a good job so far. The finished portions stood out in clear relief. She noticed the horse's
teeth were worn down, indicating advanced age at
death, but the most surprising attributes were a clay
pot by its head and a healed break in one foreleg. An
identical looking clay pot was in the burial with the
human bones.

"I've never seen anything like this," Lindsay said.

"We thought it was rare," said Sally.

"It's unique," Lindsay observed. "Have you shown
it to Frank?"

"Not yet."

"I'll go get him," Sally said.

"This is really nice," Lindsay told Thomas.
"You've found something significant here."

"Yeah, Sally and I thought so, too"

Lindsay lay down on her stomach and peered into
the excavated pit to get a closer look at the bones.

Frank came with Marsha, who was now working at
the site.

"Look what Thomas and Sally found," Lindsay said.

"I'll be damned," said Frank.

Derrick came to see what was going on. He leaned
over the edge and examined the horse. "It has a healed
break," he said.

"I know," said Lindsay.

Others drifted over to have a look at what the
excitement was about.

"Are you sure this belongs with the site?" Ned
asked.

"Look at the pots buried with them," answered Sally,
who was not going to allow her find to be reduced in
any way.

"Were the man and the horse buried together`?"
Marsha asked.

Sally shook her head. "These were two discrete
holes."

"It's a woman," Lindsay said. "She was old when
she died. She may have had arthritis." Lindsay
pointed to features of the skeleton as she talked. She
examined the burial goods: a single pot and an obsidian knife.

"Aren't stone tools rare in a woman's burial?"
Thomas asked.

"This kind is," Lindsay replied, turning the knife
over in her hand.

"Is there any other evidence of horses at this site?"
Thomas asked.

"No," Frank said. "None."

"The space between the graves makes it unclear
whether they were buried together, or even at the
same time," Derrick said. "But Sally's right. The presence of grave goods with the horse definitely places it
contiguous in time with Indian habitation."

Lindsay lifted out the pot in the woman's burial
and examined it.

"Let me see the other one," she said.

Thomas gently lifted the ancient pot out of the
horse burial and gave it to Lindsay.

"I think they were made by the same person. Or at
least the same tool was used to stamp in the design.
Look, it had a nick in the bottom that is repeated in
the design of both pots."

"The pots look identical," said Thomas. "Maybe
they were both made by her."

"This certainly raises as many questions as it
answers," Frank said. "Quite a set of mysteries."

Lindsay sat rubbing her fingers across the design
on the pot, lost in thought.

"Tell us what happened, Lindsay," asked Derrick.

"Yes, tell us what happened." Frank smiled at her.

Lindsay sat beside the burial. Derrick sat beside
her. All the others sat, too, and Lindsay began her
story.

"The conquistadors were riding in the distant
woods looking for a village that could tell them where
to find gold. One man was riding too fast on the
uneven ground, and his horse stepped in a hole and
fractured its leg. The man abandoned the horse and
rode one of the pack animals. The conquistadors continued their search for the gold and gave no thought to
the injured animal. The horse hobbled on three legs
looking for water and comfort.

"Meanwhile, there was a woman in the village. She
was approaching old age, but she was not yet old. Her
husband was dead. He had no brothers, and she had no
family, so taking care of herself was very hard. She was a medicine woman, and she traded her cures for
food and hides. One day she was in the woods looking
for herbs when she happened on a wondrous being. He
must be a spirit, she thought, for she had never seen
such a beautiful being. He was large, bigger than a
deer or a bear, with a broad chest and long back. His
fur was black and shiny. He had long hair flowing
from a gracefully arched neck, and he had a beautiful
long tail that touched the ground. The spirit had
hooves-not split like a deer's, but a single pieceand they were very large. He had large, dark eyes and
a white patch of fur in the middle of his forehead.
Large, sleek muscles moved easily under the shiny
coat. The spirit was powerful, but he was injured.

"The woman drew her doeskin skirt up to make a
container and poured water into it. The spirit smelled
the water and let the woman come to him. He bent his
head and drank from her skirt. She searched her
pouch for the right herbs and made a poultice. She
took her most valuable possession, an obsidian knife
that her husband had traded several of her pots for,
and cut a strip of leather from her skirt. She put the
poultice on the broken leg and wound the strip of
leather around it.

"The woman walked back to her village, and the
spirit followed, walking slowly on his three good legs.
The other people in the village were frightened of the
spirit when they saw him and would not let her bring
him into the palisade, so she made her home outside
where she could care for him. She discovered he liked
grass, corn, grain, nuts, and berries. She fed the spirit
well, and he healed, though he always walked with a
limp.

"The woman found that the animal could pull a
travois, so when she went to the woods to gather food
and herbs, she could bring back much more than she
did when she had to carry it herself. The spirit could
drag trees and do the work of many braves, and the
people became less afraid of him. He allowed children to sit on his back and ride when he pulled logs or
the travois laden with food. He would take nuts,
berries, and corn from their hands, gently caressing
their palms with his soft lips.

"In the winter, the spirit's coat became shaggy and
he could work, no matter how cold or harsh the
weather. In the summer, his coat was slick and shiny,
and he was very beautiful.

"The spirit lived with the old woman for many
years, and both grew very old. One day the spirit died
and, because he had done so much work over the
years, the men in the village helped the old woman
bury him. They dug a large grave for the spirit, and
the old woman made a special pot and put corn in it.
She set it beside his head.

"The woman was very old and lonely without the
spirit, and though the people in the village took care
of her, she was so sad she died soon after her friend.
The people buried her beside the spirit and put her
best possessions in her grave with her, and she was
happy."

"I'll bet they were impressed with horses when
they first saw them," said Sally. "I remember when I
saw a real live horse for the first time. I was five, and
it was running in a field. I thought it was the most
beautiful creature in the world."

Lindsay was delighted with Thomas's find. So much
of the time, archaeology is about looking for the patterns of a people that define and separate them as a
culture distinct from other cultures. Rarely did they
uncover an example of idiosyncratic behavior. She
was looking forward to analyzing the bones.