A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery (26 page)

They all stared blankly, even Derrick. Then a voice
came from the corner. It was Marsha's grandmother.
She had been resting on an antique stuffed chair.

"You have a good eye, Miss Chamberlain. Everybody knew, at one time anyway, that Isabel was deathly
afraid of horses. She even made Edward tear the stables down. It was Augustine who loved horses. I
remember when she had this painted. Augustine was
Isabel's twin sister."

"So you have a good eye," said Frank, still not mollified. "Clever, but so what?"

"Don't you see?"

Suddenly Derrick's mouth dropped open. "I don't
believe it. God, Lindsay, you're right!"

"What?" asked Marsha.

The sheriff had been studying the painting hard.
Then he, too, realized. "Well, I'll be damned! It's
her."

"Who?" asked Frank.

"Burial 23," Derrick replied.

They were all silent for a full minute, staring at the
face in the painting. The sheriff spoke first. "Mrs.
Darby, do you know what happened to Augustine?"

"Why, she disappeared. Let's see, about 60 years
ago. Yes, 60 years ago today, in fact. The Fourth-ofJuly picnic was the last time anyone saw her."

When Lindsay told them she had finished the facial
reconstruction of Burial 23, they decided to go back
to the site immediately. Marsha's grandmother was
delighted to be involved in a mystery, after she got
over the shock that the long-lost Augustine may have
been found.

"Augustine! After all these years, I can't believe
it," she said, shaking her head as they walked back to
the car. "What a wonderful mystery. I get the volun teers to read me Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts
Rinehart. I enjoy Miss Marple the most, but this is so
much more exciting. Augustine. I can't believe it ..."

They gathered around a picnic table and waited for
Lindsay to bring out the reconstruction. The site was
closed, and the crew who did not go to the picnic
were gone for the day. It was about five minutes
before she came from her tent with the bust and set it
at the head of the table so that they all could see. It
was covered with a cloth.

"I smoothed out the face and worked on the features. I painted the skin, put in the eyelashes, and
bought a couple of wigs, a dark one and a blonde one.
I put the blonde one on a minute ago. I have put in the
eyes since you saw it last, sheriff." Lindsay removed
the cloth, and they all gasped.

"Augustine, it is you. After all these years, you've
been found," whispered Mrs. Darby.

"Mrs. Darby," asked the sheriff, "do you remember
any details of her disappearance?"

Elaine Darby smiled slightly. "Oh, yes. It was all
we talked about for a long time. And it was also at the
same time I met David, Marsha's grandfather. He was
a writer come down from the north to write about
small southern towns during the Depression. He was
part of the Work Projects Administration for writers.
That was one of Roosevelt's programs to get the country out of the Depression. I was almost seventeen.
Augustine and Isabel were a year older than me °"

"I remember the first time I saw David. He was so
handsome. He was getting off the train with a small
suitcase in his hand and a shock of black hair falling in
his face. I think I fell in love with him at that moment. I remember Augustine that day because she was meeting the train, too, and I was afraid that this handsome
stranger would see her first and fall in love with her, as
most of the boys did at one time or another. But he
walked past her without even a glance.

"Augustine had on riding clothes, and I remember
that she had Gideon and Victor-those were two of
her horses-tied in back of the station, so I guessed
she was meeting Edward Tyler. Both of them loved to
ride."
"

"Let me get you something to drink, Mrs. Darby,"
said Derrick. He and Lindsay went to the cooler and
passed around cold drinks to everyone.

I was meeting Mother," Mrs. Darby continued after
she had taken a sip of the cold drink. "She had gone to
visit my aunt, who had just had a baby. She got off the
train soon after David, so I didn't see who Augustine
met. As it turned out, Mother had met David on the
train and offered to put him up at our house. We took in
boarders back then. A lot of people did. You did about
anything you could do. Anyway, I was so pleased with
my mother that day. I had picked her up in our old
truck, and I didn't even mind that she sat between
David and me. I remember looking out and seeing
Augustine and whoever it was with her running their
horses across the field. Augustine loved to ride.

"Augustine and Isabel Beaufort's father owned a
dry goods store where the hardware store is now. If
you look close to the top, you can still see the name
Beaufort in large, faded letters. Their father, Rudolph
Beaufort, was a strict man, but it didn't seem to do
them any good. Both of them were wild and willful.
Augustine and Isabel fought like cats and dogs. Teachers never put them in the same classroom if they
could help it. Augustine was the nicer of the two, but
that wasn't saying a whole lot. They were rich children, and every other child's father in school owed
their dad money. They enjoyed their position in the
community.

"Edward Tyler, Sr., was the only man in town
richer than Rudolph Beaufort. He owned both the
sawmill and the bank. His son, Edward, Jr., would
have been the most eligible bachelor in town if he
hadn't been such a scoundrel. He was always trying
to get us girls alone and touch us. We always had to
travel in twos and threes if he were anywhere around.
But, I'll say one thing," she said, and nodded for
emphasis, "he brought David and me together.
Edward caught me out by myself, and he had ahold of
me with those roving hands of his. That boy had the
ugliest hands I have ever seen. Too big, I always
thought. Anyway, he had just taken ahold of my arms
and pushed me down when David came up behind
him and knocked him down. Edward scrambled up
and ran. He was a coward when it came to other men,
even ones smaller than himself."

Elaine Darby took another drink, then smiled at the
memory. "I remember David held out his hand, gallant as a knight. I took it, and he pulled me up" Then
she frowned. "The thing that none of us could understand was that Augustine seemed to really love
Edward, and he loved her. She was a pretty girl and
could have just about anybody, for a while anyway,
until her personality caught up with her." She shook
her head. "We all guessed that the rich only liked the
rich, no matter what kind of ugly rascals they were."

"You never told me these stories, Grandma,"
Marsha said.

Mrs. Darby shrugged and patted her granddaughter's hand. "It was a long time ago."

"The problem was," she continued, "Isabel liked
Edward, too. But Isabel was such a hateful girl. Even
a scoundrel like Edward did not like to be around her
for very long. I remember overhearing an argument
between Augustine and Edward that afternoon. The
Tylers had us town folk over to Tylerwynd for the
annual Fourth-of-July picnic, same as the one we had
today. David and I were out by the stables when we
heard Augustine's voice, and she was so angry. I can't
remember after all this time exactly what she said, but
at first I thought it was Isabel because it was so hateful. I do remember her saying something like, `It may
turn out to be a grand joke on Isabel herself.' She
came charging out, Edward following meekly behind.
David and I stood back in the bushes. That was the
last time I ever saw Augustine."

"No one had any idea what happened to her?" Derrick asked.

"Oh, there were lots of ideas and rumors. There
were just no real clues. No one saw any suspicious
strangers or anything else. One theory was that
Augustine fought with her father and ran away. They
were always fighting, and Augustine was always
threatening to go up north where there were more
things to do. Another was that she got pregnant by
some fellow passing through and ran off with him. I
always wished it were that one, mainly because I
didn't like to think she was dead, and I liked the idea
of her jilting Edward. But it would not be like her to just leave her inheritance. One story went that Augustine got pregnant by Edward and he killed her.
But he was crazy about her. Some said she was kidnapped and sold as a white slave. That one was popular with a lot of folk."

"What did you think?" asked the sheriff.

Elaine Darby shook her head. "I don't know. At the
time, I thought she had just run off to worry everybody, but now ... I guess somebody killed her, didn't
they? Isabel got everything she wanted after Augustine disappeared."

Marsha's grandmother shook her head again.
"Isabel and Edward became engaged that next winter.
After they married, Isabel started going to church.
The family always went to church, but now Isabel
took an active role. She became much more like her
father-stern"

"I can remember always being scared of her when I
had her for Sunday School," Marsha said.

"I sure remember her chasing me off her property
once with that cane of hers," the sheriff said, grinning.
"Me and a couple of buddies were in her strawberry
patch. She caught old Billy and walloped him good
with that cane. We pulled him away and got out of
there fast"

"That's just the way her father was about the strawberry patch. Rudolph Beaufort refused to talk about
Augustine. It was as if she never existed. He thought
with all the stories going around, she had shamed the
family. David and I got married that next year and
moved away for about six years. A lot of people
moved away from Merry Claymoore looking for
work. When we moved back, no one ever mentioned Augustine. A lot of people didn't even know Isabel
had a sister. I thought that was real sad." Mrs. Darby
hesitated a moment. "Would you think it terrible of
me if I asked to see her bones?"

"Of course not," said Lindsay. She rose and they
went to the laboratory tent. Marsha, Mrs. Darby, and
the sheriff walked in as if they were about to view a
body. Lindsay retrieved the box containing Burial 23
and set out the bones on the table.

"Augustine, I'm sorry none of us knew what happened to you," whispered Mrs. Darby when Augustine's bones were laid out. "I know you loved living"

"Are you all right, Grandma?" Marsha asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, dear. It's just poor Augustine ... All
this time she was right here, and her father was too
concerned about the family name to even look for her.
That's all I know, sheriff."

"We'd better go back home, anyway," Marsha said.

"Frankly," said the sheriff when Marsha and Frank
had gone to take Mrs. Darby back to her retirement
home, "I'm going to have to figure out how to proceed
on this thing. I don't know how Isabel is going to take
it that her sister has been found after all these years."

"Who do you think killed her?" Derrick asked.

The sheriff shook his head.

"Isabel was certainly disturbed when I discovered
that she even had a twin sister," said Lindsay. "It
seems to me she would be the prime suspect"

"I'll have to see if I can find any old records on the
case," the sheriff said. "I don't think I can accuse
Isabel of murder based on her reaction to your statement. The woman is well-known for her strange reactions to people."

"It is not remarkable for one twin to have schizophrenia and the other one not," Lindsay said. "I suspect that is where the scenario of the so-called evil
twin comes from"

"Are you saying Isabel is schizophrenic?" The
sheriff was skeptical.

"No. I'm not an expert by any means, but people
can lead relatively normal lives and have mild cases
of it." Lindsay threw up her hands. "I don't know. I'm
obviously reaching because of Isabel's dramatic reaction to my mention of her twin. I do believe this, however: The Tylers are a dysfunctional family, and Isabel
is a sadistic old woman. After talking to Rachel, I suspect the daughters were molested by their father. One
grandchild has committed suicide, another is in an
institution, and others can't seem to choose a direction for their lives. Oddly enough, despite my suspicions of Mickey Lawson, he seems the most normal."

Sheriff Duggan said nothing. Derrick, too, was
silent throughout her dissertation. Lindsay began to
feel unsure. "I just find it more than a coincidence that
so much seems to lead back to that family-Isabel's
sister, Augustine, and her grandniece, Peggy Pruitt,
both murdered. Two murders in the same family?
What are the odds?"

"You're right. All roads seem to lead to the Tylers
these days," the sheriff agreed while nodding his
head. "But there is absolutely no real evidence that
links them to anything. I'll question Isabel about her
sister, but I'm sure not looking forward to that.
Maybe some folks are still around who remember
Augustine Beaufort's disappearance. Elaine Darby
can't be the only one." The sheriff set down his drink bottle and stood up. "Don't get your hopes up that I'll
find who killed Augustine Beaufort. After all this
time, unless someone confesses to doing it or witnessing it, it's probably a dead end."

Lindsay and Derrick stood, too. "What about
Mickey Lawson?" she asked. "I suppose that is a dead
end, too?"

"I've been looking into his background. So far,
I've not found any complaints of child molestation or
anything like it lodged against him. There is usually
a history of this kind of thing starting from a very
early age, and it escalates. It's hard to believe that if
he is guilty the molestation and murder just started as
an adult. So far, I haven't come up with anything
against him."

Derrick had a smug smile on his face. "This may
help. I've been waiting to tell you and Lindsay some
news that should make your job easier." He held out
a plastic bag containing the rusted pan lock. "I did a
bit of snooping around the Tylers' outbuildings. If
you get a warrant for the one farthest from the house
next to the pond, I believe you will find the tripod
that this fits"