A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery (19 page)

Lindsay smiled broadly. "I'm sorry I missed that"

Frank looked at her and raised his eyebrows. Again
he looked as if he wanted to say something, yet didn't.

When they finished breakfast, Frank helped Lindsay carry her things to the Jeep. It was dark at 4:30
A.M. and cool, but it made Lindsay feel good. She
walked back into the house with Frank.

"It was scary here anyway," she told him. "I kept
seeing ghosts and villains in the shadows."

Frank hugged her. "Take care."

"I'm all right. I'll see you at the site."

She walked out to the Jeep and was getting into it
when someone grabbed her shoulder painfully hard.
Lindsay instinctively elbowed the attacker, knocking
him back slightly. He came forward and pushed her
hard. She fell against the Jeep and slid to the ground.
The large, dark form advanced on her, his hands
curled into fists. Lindsay hooked the instep of her left
foot behind his right calf and kicked his knee with her
right foot with all her strength. He fell back, screaming. Frank came flying out of the house.

"Lindsay!" He rushed to help her up. "Are you
hurt? What happened?"

"He attacked me. I'm all right." But she was about
to lose her pancakes. She leaned against the Jeep and
took slow deep breaths.

Frank turned to the attacker, writhing on the
ground, moaning and crying. He wore a ski mask.
The students flowed out of the house next door and
gathered around the scene. Frank pulled the mask off.

"Jeremy!"

"Oh, man, it hurts, it hurts. I'm gonna die. Help
me."

"What the hell were you doing?" Frank demanded.

"Just scare her. Just meant to scare her, that's all."
His breaths were coming in ragged gasps.

"Someone call an ambulance," Frank ordered. "And
get a blanket." He turned to Lindsay, who sat on the
ground with her head down between her knees. "Are
you all right?"

"Yes," she replied. "I'm just a little sick."

In a few moments a student appeared with a blanket, and Frank covered Jeremy up. "Get another blanket for Lindsay," he said.

"The ambulance will be here soon. They'll give
you something for the pain," Frank told Jeremy.

"What happened?" someone asked.

"He attacked Lindsay," answered another.

"He said he was going to do something to scare
her. I thought he meant to put a snake in her bed or
something," someone else said.

Jeremy was still groaning on the ground when the
ambulance came. Frank had also called the sheriff's
office, and a deputy arrived as Jeremy was being
carted off to the hospital. After Lindsay gave her story
to the deputy, several students jumped in with what
they knew. It was 6:15 before Lindsay, Frank, and the
students arrived at the site.

Derrick was emerging from the laboratory when he
saw Lindsay carrying a suitcase to her tent. "I thought
I was going to have to go looking for the whole crew.
What happened? What are you doing?"

"Moving back into my tent."

"Why?"

"Among other things, I was attacked at Frank's
early this morning."

"What? Are you all right'?" He started to look her
over.

"Yes, I'm fine, but that's more than I can say for
Jeremy Reynolds." Lindsay went into her tent and sat
on her bed, shaking.

"Tell me what happened" Derrick sat down beside
her and put his arm around her as she explained. "Well,
that's what can happen when you attack someone,"
said Derrick. "You don't know if the other person is
stronger. Don't give the bastard another thought"

"I probably ruined his leg."

"So what? He shouldn't have attacked you."

"I know. I'm going to lie down for a while. Would
you ask Jane to take charge of the burials'?"

"Sure. Can I get you anything?"

Lindsay shook her head.

"Call if you need anything." Derrick kissed her
head.

It was 11:00 before Lindsay felt like working. She
went out to the site, feeling tired and depressed.
"Thanks, Jane. I appreciate your taking charge so much
these days."

"No problem. I'm sorry all this stuff is happening
to you. What a jerk. I hope his leg falls off!"

Lindsay winced and went to check on the burials.

Marsha was working on the other half of her
burial. Jane had shown her how to smooth the crosssection with her trowel and how to draw the pattern
of layers.

"I am so sorry about what happened," Marsha said.
For a moment, Lindsay didn't know which incident she
was talking about, Jeremy, or her and Frank. "You certainly have been seeing the bad side of our town lately."

"This was someone we brought"

"Well, with all the killings ... It's just too much."

"I'm inclined to agree"

Lindsay saw Marsha search her face for any signs
of knowledge or hostility and smile slightly when she
saw none.

"Can you tell me something about my burial?"
Marsha asked.

"Well, let's see. You don't have the pelvis uncovered yet, so I can't be definitive on the gender, but it is
probably a male." Lindsay pointed to the brow ridge.
"Females have a more gracile forehead. Notice the
prominent brow ridge on the skull. When we're at
lunch today, look at the women and men. You'll see
that most of the men have prominent brow ridges and
squarer jaws. Some look positively Neanderthal."

Marsha laughed.

"The pelvis is a better indicator because some
women have large brow ridges and some men have
small ones." Lindsay looked at the teeth. "He is older
than 21. He has his wisdom teeth. I'd guess he's less
than 45 from the wear on them" Lindsay took a brush
and brushed off the skull. "Oh, dear, it looks like the
poor fellow had syphilis."

Marsha's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes. That probably pushes his age up some
because the syphilis was fairly advanced"

"Wasn't that something brought by the Europeans?"

"I think this is probably a New World variety."

"It must be wonderful to know all the things you
know."

"Lately it's been damn inconvenient."

"I guess it has, but you like it, don't you'? I mean,
looking at these bones?"

"Yes, I do. Very much. I'll leave you to it. You're
doing a great job."

At lunch Frank told Lindsay that Jeremy's knee would
require surgery and would eventually be all right. But
he would need a lot of therapy. "Don't feel bad about
him," Frank said. "He'll have a long convalescence to
think about his behavior."

"I'm relieved to hear he is going to be all right."

"You need to sign a statement at the sheriff's office
and bring charges against him. That will protect you
from anything his parents might want to do."

"Okay," Lindsay said. "I'll do it when we finish
today"

After work Lindsay and Frank went to the sheriff's
office and filed charges against Jeremy Reynolds.
While they were there, they learned that the person
who planted the pot in Derrick and Brian's tents was
working for Seymore Plackert, but he did not know
who Plackert worked for. He said Plackert just
showed up in the bar looking for someone to do a job.
It was another depressing bit of information in a thoroughly depressing day for Lindsay.

She waited in Frank's car with the windows down
as he went into the hardware store for supplies. A car
pulled into the parking lot beside her, cutting off
another car trying to get into the parking space. Lindsay glanced over at the driver. It was Patrick Tyler,
and he was grinning at her.

"Hi, Miss Lindsay. Do you want to go dancing this
Saturday?"

"I have other plans."

"Why don't you change them?"

"I don't want to" Lindsay kept her eyes straight
ahead.

"I'll bet we could have a real good time."

"No."

"I've been taking dancing lessons."

Lindsay said nothing. Patrick got out of his car.
Lindsay thought he was going into the hardware
store. Instead, he came around and got in the driver's
side of Frank's car.

"What are you doing?" Lindsay's hand gripped the
door handle. "Get out! Right now!"

"I just thought if you had the opportunity to get to
know me-"

I don't believe this, thought Lindsay. "Get out, or
I'll tell your grandmother!" It sounded foolish. Lindsay had meant to say sheriff, but the threat got the
desired effect. Patrick got out of the car and closed
the door. He started to say something, but Frank came
out of the hardware store and got in the car. "The
screen ought to be in next Wednesday," he said.

"Good," said Lindsay. "I'm ready to go back to the
site."

It was 4:30 when Lindsay got back. The site was
vacant and covered, and no one was in the crew village. She thought she heard laughter and splashing
down at the dock. Some of the crew apparently were
swimming in the river.

She smiled to herself as she changed into her swimsuit and walked down to the pool in the river. Jane was
there, and Brian and Sally, Thomas and Michelle. Suddenly, Derrick broke through the water. Lindsay smiled upon seeing him. Michelle swam toward him,
and he picked her up in the air and threw her into the
water. Michelle came up laughing and turned to swim
away, Derrick chasing her. The feelings-the jealousy,
the pain-that Lindsay hadn't seemed to feel at the
sight of Marsha and Frank came to her with a gutwrenching force as she watched Derrick and Michelle.
She turned and walked back to her tent. It definitely
had been a thoroughly depressing day.

During the night, it rained, a hard driving rain. Lindsay lay awake worrying about the two burials that
were half finished and worrying that the black plastic
covering was not anchored well enough. She turned
over on her bed and thought about how long she had
had a crush on Frank, about their few promising dates
last year, and now about her feelings for Derrick. Her
good friend Derrick. When had her feelings started to
change? What exactly were her feelings anyway? She
was still awake when her alarm went off.

"Some rain we had last night," Derrick said when
Lindsay came out of her tent.

"I hope the burials didn't fill up," she replied.

"Let's go have a look."

They walked across the site to a burial. The ground
was muddy, and pools of water stood everywhere. Derrick shined a flashlight on the burial. It was still covered. They looked under the plastic at the dry bones.

"That's a relief," Lindsay said. They walked to the
other one. "Damn," she said when she saw that the
rain had puddled on top of the plastic covering and
collapsed it into the burial, filling it with water.

"I'll get the pump," Derrick said.

They had drained most of the water by the time
Frank and the van arrived.

"How much damage?" Frank asked.

"One burial flooded," Lindsay said. "The structures look okay, just small pools of water here and
there. It's not too bad, considering how much rain we
had"

"It came down in torrents, didn't it!" he said.

"Yeah, I'm surprised we didn't have more
damage."

"You all right'?"

"Sure, my tent stayed dry"

"That's not what I mean."

"I'm fine. I just have to salvage this waterlogged
burial."

Frank studied her face for a moment, then went to
check the structures.

A letter came for Lindsay. Frank handed it to her at
lunch. She didn't recognize the handwriting on the
envelope. It was a spidery scrawl, and the i's were
dotted with small hearts. What in the world, thought
Lindsay, as she tore the envelope open:

Dear Beautiful Lindsay,

I think if you got to know me you
would find we have a lot in common. I
know you probably feel self-conscious
dating a member of the community, not to
mention a member of the Tyler family, but
I assure you no one would think anything
about it. I have made reservations at Le
Jour for us. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you have accepted my invitation
and will pick you up at 6:00 Tuesday
evening.

Sincerely,

Patrick Tyler

"I don't believe this!" Lindsay exclaimed.

"What?" Jane asked.

"This letter from Patrick Tyler. Read this." She
handed the letter to Jane.

"Cheeky" Jane laughed and shook her head. "What
are you going to do?"

"Nothing. I don't feel obligated to call him. If he
wants to get all dressed up for nothing and drive out
here, let him."

"Le Jour is an expensive place. He must be trying
to impress you"

Lindsay threw the letter into the trash with the
remains of her lunch and went back to work.

Tuesday evening, Lindsay and Jane returned from a
shopping trip in Cullins. They had stocked up on groceries, toilet paper, soap, and paperback books and
were putting soft drinks in the refrigerator when Derrick came up to Lindsay, looking puzzled. "Lindsay,
were you supposed to have a date with Patrick Tyler
this evening?"

"He came by at 6:00, all dressed up. Said you and
he were supposed to go to Le Jour."

"He wrote a letter saying he had made reservations, and he would take it for granted that I had
accepted if I didn't contact him. I did not feel oblig ated to accommodate his fantasies and just ignored
the whole thing."

"What was it he said, Lindsay?" laughed Jane.
"You shouldn't feel self-conscious dating a Tyler."

"Something like that."

Lindsay took a sack of supplies and walked toward
the storage tent.

"Wait up," said Derrick, following her. "Isn't he the
guy in the picture?"

"Yeah."

"Is he bothering you?"

"Not really," she said as she quickly marched to the
supply tent.

"I'd say he is. You're obviously worried about
something."

Lindsay stopped and looked up at Derrick. His
brown eyes were narrowed, and his face was creased
in a concerned frown. Lindsay smiled.

"I'm fine. He is just an annoyance, that's all."