His Garden of Bones (Skye Cree Book 4) (32 page)

Skye took the device, studied the photos. “I’ll be damned. I don’t know much about the drug trade but I’d say those are prime plants. Maybe I could get a few tips from Dillard, the grower. You know, for my own garden. This guy definitely has a green thumb.” The words had no sooner left her lips than the shocking truth dawned on her. “Oh. My. God. You don’t suppose it’s because of the human remains scattered in all these places do you?”

Josh got a sick look on his face. “That’s disturbing. But it might explain a few things. Who mentions that to Bayliss?”

“That there are possibly other burial sites? Not me. I don’t want the medical examiner to get his panties in a wad. That guy doesn’t like me as it is.” Her eyes darted around the property, checking out all the places where the most thriving flowers had existed yesterday before the landslide. From memory she counted twelve spots that had seemed to flourish more than the rest. “How many bodies do you think are out there?”

“Too many. Dillard spent years using his personal landmass to bury his victims. He counted on the bodies staying put where they were. But he forgot one thing.”

“Yeah. You don’t mess with Mother Nature.”

Three days later, Christmas Eve

Bainbridge Island, Washington

P
eople could see the farmhouse lit up once they turned the corner at the end of the block. It was hard to miss. For the past couple of days, Skye and Josh had gone crazy putting up decorations—everywhere. Out on the front lawn a lighted Mr. and Mrs. Claus display, complete with reindeer, waved to neighbors. They’d strung hundreds of lights that dangled from the roofline and eaves. They’d wrapped another hundred or so around the posts on the porch. A real lush wreath, laden with berries and pinecones, set off the red front door.

By the time they’d gotten around to hunting down a tree, the selections had been dismal at best. So they’d settled for a slightly lopsided, irregularly shaped, but no less beautiful, locally grown Fraser fir. The fifteen-foot tree dominated the corner of the living room.

Santa, otherwise known as Reggie Bechtol, was a hit with the kids. Skye had arranged for him to have his own big chair next to the tree where he sat handing out candy.

Even though there was no snow in sight,
Frosty the Snowman
played in the background while guests continued to stream through the door.

Phyllis and Doug Ander walked in, immediately oohing and aahing over the festive decor. “You’ve done such a wonderful job on the outside. And look at that tree, Doug.”

“I see it, hard not to.” Doug sent a sidelong glance toward his son. “Your mother’s always been a sucker for a glittery tree. You know she still insists on putting it up the day after Thanksgiving.”

Josh put his arm around Skye. “Some people hit the stores on Black Friday. Not Mom. She gets up at five a.m., spends all morning dragging out the decorations from the attic, and then recruits Dad to hang the lights around the house. She makes it an exhausting, all-day event.”

Phyllis cuffed her son’s arm. “It’s not that bad. Sue me because I get into the Christmas mood early on. You’ve done an amazing job here, Skye.”

“Thanks. It was sort of a last-minute rush to the finish line.”

Josh directed his mom and dad to the bar. “It’s set up in the dining room, wine, beer, cocktails. Mom, I’m pretty sure there’s a martini with your name on it in there.”

Phyllis waved a hand in the air. “I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch, so I’ll hold off on the martini until I get something on my stomach.”

Skye picked up a tray filled with appetizers. “Try one of these mini shrimp cocktails, or a cranberry meatball, or maybe the cherry-pecan Brie with these little crackers. I’m told it’s tasty. And we have non-alcoholic Christmas punch to drink for the kids made with cranberry juice, lemonade, and pineapple juice. Try a glass.”

“Oh, that’s sounds good. I’ll start with that.”

Once his parents had moved on to the dining room, Josh greeted Lena and Travis with the same directive as Zoe tagged along behind.

“Do I get a beer? Maybe a rum and Coke?” Zoe piped up.

“Yeah, in about ten years,” Travis shot back. “Dream on.”

“Hey, I’d be an old woman by then,” Zoe argued. “And it’s Christmas Eve.”

“Try again in another seven years,” Lena said to the teen.

Zoe shrugged off the joking around and immediately launched into something else. “Lena said I might be getting some work babysitting in the future. Where’s the couple with the baby?”

Skye momentarily bungled her hold on the hors d'oeuvres tray. Josh noticed, reached over and took it out of her hands before she dropped it.

“Zoe’s talking about Hank and Melina and little Alec,” Josh gauged. “They’re standing over by the tree. Go introduce yourself.”

“Where’s Atka?” Again Zoe had changed topics almost in mid-sentence.

“We put her in the upstairs bedroom. Maybe in an hour or so you could free her from confinement and take her out to pee,” Skye suggested.

“Sure thing.”

When the trio drifted to the other room, Skye leaned in and wanted to know, “Did those three just happen to show up at the same time or did they come together?”

Josh sent her a sly grin. “They got out of Travis’s truck. So…”

“Ah.”

Velma overheard the exchange and raised a brow. “You two better stop gossiping. The boss it seems has a new girlfriend. Who’d have thought, he and Lena, huh? What do you think?”

“That he’s finally coming to his senses,” Skye joked.

Skye fixed her gaze on Harry walking through the doorway with his wife, Elizabeth. Skye offered up a wave. “What do you think about Harry retiring?”

“He’ll drive me crazy,” Elizabeth retorted. “All kidding aside though, it’s time. After so many years the job’s getting to him. And the cases just keep piling up.”

“And getting weirder all the time,” Josh added.

“That’s the truth of it,” Elizabeth agreed. “This one kept him up nights walking the floor. It’s a good time for me to thank both of you for how much you’ve helped Harry these past few years. You’ve taken so much of the pressure off him that I really appreciate the job you guys do.”

Skye patted Elizabeth’s hand. “You forget how much Harry helped me. In those early days when I first came back to Seattle, Harry was the one who looked me up, determined to become a friend. Maybe that’s because he knew I needed one.”

“It’s good of you to remember that,” Harry finally chimed in.

Before the conversation turned overly emotional, Skye wanted to know, “So how will you spend your time? If you find yourself bored, there’s always private work you could do for the foundation.” She leaned in to Elizabeth. “That goes for you, too.”

Harry rocked back on his heels. “We’ll keep that in mind. Right now, though, the plan is to take some time off to travel. Elizabeth and I have always talked about seeing a little bit of the world other than our own boring backyard.”

“We’re starting with Hawaii,” Elizabeth offered. “I want to see Maui before the kids decide to ship us off to a nursing home. We have reservations for March to stay in Kahului.”

“Good for you,” Skye said. “Be sure to send us a postcard.”

The background music changed to something a tad more adult. Leon Redbone’s distinctive baritone sang out with his rendition of
Let it Snow
about the time Rhonda Braddock glided into the entryway. True to her word Skye had made sure Rhonda showed up without a date.

Skye spotted Winston the moment he caught sight of his heart’s desire. Rhonda had managed to squeeze herself into a low-cut, tight-fitting red dress. It would be darn near impossible for any male in the room not to notice her. Which, of course, Skye supposed was the point.

Before the programmer’s eyes bugged out for real, Skye decided to dish out some advice. “Hey Winston, dig deep, find your courage to approach her. Go for what you want.” When Winston stood planted in one spot, Skye took his arm. “Come on, I’ll break the ice for you. But after initial contact, the rest is all up to you. And it seems you’re in luck. From the looks of that outfit Rhonda’s wearing, she’s in a party mood.”

Winston’s only comment was, “She’s gorgeous.”

“That’s a given.” Skye gave him a little push toward the target. “Now shoo, go impress her with your brain.” She watched Winston walk away and could only hope that Rhonda saw the intelligent side to the shy man.

“What are you thinking?” Josh wanted to know.

“That if Rhonda dares to break Winston’s heart, I’ll do something vile to her.”

Josh grinned just as Lena circled back around sipping a vodka and tonic.

Lena glanced out into the darkness of the backyard and teased her friend, “I thought you wanted to plant a vegetable garden out back. Why haven’t you done that already in your spare time?”

Skye burst out laughing. “You’re kidding, right? Maybe if serial killers would take a break for a few months, I might be able to turn that patch around the pond into a decent garden. After admiring Theron King’s massive gardens, minus the bones of course…” She shuddered remembering all the graves unearthed there, twenty at last count. But she refused to let evil touch the festivities tonight. “Josh even agreed to help me build raised beds to keep Atka from digging up the seeds.”

“She’s waiting until spring when the weather warms up. Right now she’s drawing up plans to plot the ground using the ‘Three Sisters’ approach,” Josh explained.

“I’ve heard of that,” Lena said to Skye. “Actually, your father explained it to me yesterday when he talked about what steps he might have to take to replace Theron King’s produce. He was exaggerating of course, but the system, as I understand it, is Native American and goes back centuries.”

Travis came up, looped an arm around Lena’s waist. “The Three Sisters concept involved planting beans, corn, and squash as an interdependent crop in a way that best served the village. Since Natives believe the bounty of the harvest was a gift from the Great Spirit, they held ceremonies before planting and when it was time to bring in the crops. They passed the knowledge down from generation to generation. There are Native people who farm in the Pacific Northwest that still use this concept today.”

Skye took up the story adding her own take on what she’d learned. “Because the corn depletes the soil of nitrogen, and the beans add nitrogen to it, the combination makes for an all-around balance. They’d begin by planting the corn in the center, then move out from there to plant the beans around the base of the corn because the stalk acted like the perfect climbing pole, allowing the beans to wrap and grow up. The cornstalk trunk also acted as a shield in harsh weather, protecting the squash growing below and closer to the ground, in between the rows. In turn, the squash acted as a buffer, keeping the garden soil sufficiently moist but weed free. When you stop and think about it, the system was incredibly savvy and offered up a near perfect diet. Corn is a great carbohydrate, beans offer protein, and squash is considered a fruit with a ton of vitamins. No wonder they took time out to thank the Great Spirit with songs and legends for what generally yielded a fairly nutritious meal.”

Zoe had been listening. Impressed with just about anything that came out of Skye’s mouth, the teenager wanted to know, “ever think of giving up the pursuit of bad guys to be a stay-at-home mom? ’Cause it sounds like you want to go domestic.”

Zoe took in the faces in the crowd and realized she might’ve opened her big mouth only to stick her foot in it. “Not that it’s a bad thing.”

Skye slung her arm over the girl’s shoulder to show she wasn’t upset by the question. “I’ve given some serious thought to it lately. Should we tell them our news, Josh?”

“Now’s as good a time as any.” Josh drew Skye close, raised his glass. “If you guys could give us your attention for a minute, we have an announcement.”

A hush fell over the crowd as everyone gathered in a circle around the couple.

“We’re happy to tell you all that we’re having a baby,” Skye said, clasping hands with Josh.

“What? You’re adopting?” Travis asked as he pushed a few people aside in the throng to get to his daughter’s side.

Skye smiled. “Not exactly, although we were prepared to do that. But it seems the Great Spirit has other plans, giving us our very own Christmas present. I’m pregnant, due next August.”

Travis wrapped her up in a hug even though he had to wait to take his turn. After Phyllis and Doug let go, Travis latched on. “I thought…there was no chance of that,” he whispered in his daughter’s ear.

“So did we. So I phoned my doctor this morning after I took the test for the fifth time and he couldn’t explain how it happened either.”

Josh squeezed her a little tighter, nibbled her mouth. “However it happened, we’re over the moon. We’d already discussed making an appointment with an adoption agency after the first of the year.”

Lena took her turn bundling Skye up. Curiosity got the better of her though. “I’m wondering, how long have you known?”

Josh fielded this one. “A couple days. Skye hasn’t been feeling well for the past week. We thought it might be stress. That business with Dillard Barstow took its toll. We decided she might be suffering from exhaustion or maybe coming down with the flu.”

Skye patted his chest. “What he isn’t telling you is that as the date of the party grew closer, I started freaking out a little. There were so many things I hadn’t done—shopping, ordering food, getting the tree, seeing to every detail. The very last thing either one of us thought about was that I might be pregnant.”

She spread her arms out wide. “Just look around though, it all came together. Josh and I discussed not telling anyone until a few months had passed but… Right before the party, we both had a change of heart. Caught up in the spirit of the holiday, I guess. Anyway, we’re so happy it wouldn’t be right to keep the news to ourselves. We’re sharing it with the people we love. Everyone in this room at one time or another has come through for us when we needed you the most, whether it was at the foundation or something more personal. So to all of you, thanks for coming. There’s plenty to eat and drink. And know that Josh and I wish you all a very merry Christmas.”

Hank Fielding stepped forward holding little Alec in his arms, his other hand gripping Melina’s. “My wife and son wouldn’t even have a place to live if it weren’t for these two. I wouldn’t have a job either. I’m pretty sure everyone in the room feels the same way we do. You gave us a second chance. We’re grateful for it, more than you’ll ever know.”