Chapter Four

“A body?” I repeated, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.

“Not a fresh one,” said Pete as his wife elbowed him. His already flushed cheeks reddened further. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I meant it’s obviously been there a while. It’s a skeleton. I thought it was a prank at first. I actually laughed! I thought they got me good! I thought maybe the construction crew were playing a joke on me because I mentioned I wanted to get this done while they finished working on the interiors, but then I looked closer and well, it looked real.”

“Because it is real,” said Carrie.

“How can you be sure?” asked Solomon.

“They’re sure,” said Mom, shushing him. “Tell them.”

“I dug up more of it,” said Pete. “I thought since the guys went to the effort of this big prank, I might as well dig it up anyway and see what other business the crew had in store for me. But the earth was more compacted than if it had been freshly dug, which was weird and when I started to reveal more of it, that’s when I got the horrible feeling it was no joke. I called Carrie out to check.”

“I got the fright of my life,” said Carrie. “I knew right away it was a human skeleton. I’m a doctor. I’ve seen enough of them in medical school to know a real one when I see it, even if it is caked in dirt.”

“I just happened to be walking past when I heard a yelp. Since the fence was down, I figured I’d make sure no one was hurt,” said Mom.

“We were concentrating so hard on the body that we didn’t even hear Mrs. Graves come into the yard. We got a second fright when she spoke and then it was just such a relief that we were all stood there, agreeing we weren’t seeing things and were, in fact, seeing the same thing,” said Carrie. “Pete got on his phone to call the police, and Mrs. Graves said we should call you too. She said if anyone could figure out why there’s a body in our yard, it would be you.”

“That’s nice of you, Mom,” I said. “But you do remember your oldest son is a homicide detective?”

“Homicide!” Carrie clapped a hand to her chest, her eyes widening.

I pulled a face, realizing my faux pas. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that’s what it is. Only that human remains in your yard is suspicious so it’s likely there will be an investigation into the death and improper burial. My brother is the type of detective who would ascertain if there were any wrongdoing, and how the body came to be buried in your yard.”

“But he would be on the side of the police. If you hire Lexi, she’ll be on your side,” said Mom.

I flashed her a look. On the one hand, it was nice she was trying to drum up business. On the other, the Dugans looked even more worried. Plus, I wasn’t sure what Mom was trying to say about my detective brothers. Or my ex-detective dad.

“There’s no way we could have done this,” said Pete. “We only brought the house three months ago!”

“I’m sure the body has been in the ground much longer than that,” said Carrie. “I’m not an expert on decomposition but I’m positive that the body was put there long before we gained ownership, and we can guarantee no one had any opportunity to place it here since we bought the house.”

“How can you guarantee that?” asked Solomon.

“We put up security cameras as soon as we could. We couldn’t move in immediately because of the work that needed to be done. Then a friend of ours scared us with a story about squatters moving into their friend’s newly bought home and the expensive legal fight to get them out so we wanted to put up cameras for some peace of mind. We put one at the front of the house and one at the back,” said Pete. “The only time we get an alert, it’s a cat.”

“It’s pretty annoying,” added Carrie, with an eye roll that seemed to momentarily distract her from her worries. “But I’d be more worried if we hadn’t installed the cameras. It’s costing us more than we anticipated for the renovation and a legal fight would be more than we could afford.”

“The point is we would absolutely have been alerted by the system if someone decided to bury a body while they thought the house was unoccupied. The system records everything and we can access the recordings any time.”

“I’m convinced its burial pre-dates us moving here,” said Carrie. She rubbed her arms and glanced toward the yard, worry written across her face.

“Damn right it does,” scoffed Pete. He darted a glance towards the backyard, his jaw stiff.

“Security was a smart choice,” said Solomon. “Make sure to offer the police access to the system when they ask so they can rule you out of any inquiries.”

“There’s going to be an investigation, isn’t there?” asked Carrie. She folded her arms across her chest, almost hugging herself.

I nodded. “Almost certainly. The police will want to know how the deceased came to be that way, and how they got into your backyard.”

“What are the neighbors going to think of us?” Carrie asked as she looked around. “I know it’s selfish to think that way but we just moved here. They must all have seen the police car by now.”

“They’ll be feeling awful sorry for you,” said Mom, reaching to pat her arm. “No one will think badly of you and hardly anyone will think you did it.”

Carrie let out an upset squeak and clasped her hand over her mouth.

I flashed a look at my mom. She shrugged and raised hands in surrender, mouthing, “What did I say?”

Flashing lights appeared in the periphery of my vision before two dark, unmarked, sedans rolled to a stop. I turned away, ignoring the slamming of the doors until the police officers emerged from the backyard burial site and moved to greet them.

I twisted to see who had arrived. A familiar face made me smile.

“Hi, Garrett!” I called, waving to my brother as I seized the opportunity to be not only noticed but acknowledged by the most senior ranking officer on scene. It wasn’t often I got to work with two of my brothers in one day, a fact that didn’t seem to have reached my mom yet. Long may that continue.

“Not a surprise to see you here,” said Garrett, his face an expressionless mask. “I hear it’s been an evening of mayhem.” Then he spotted my mom and swallowed a groan. “Or you,” he added. “Stay here, all of you. I mean it.” He barely broke stride as he spoke, waving a stern finger, and then he was past us, disappearing through the hole in the fence into the yard. As I began to follow him, one of the officers blocked my way. Then Solomon, my mom and the Dugans joined me. I thought about getting them to rush to one side and distract the officer while I made it through but it didn’t seem fair with five against one. Plus, Garrett would shout at me.

Stepping to one side of the officer, who seemed content with allowing us to watch so long as we didn’t edge past, I regarded the scene of devastation that had once been a yard. Piles of dirt were heaped around the corner lot, shrubbery had been cut back, but the flower beds were long overgrown, shapeless, and weedy. The area spanning the length of the back of the house had been cleared but not leveled and a pallet of stone pavers had been deposited close to the fence disruption. A shovel lay abandoned on the ground where the yard level abruptly rose up.

Garrett came to a stop by a pile of dirt, knelt and surveyed the scene. He pulled on gloves and reached for something, taking a long look at whatever he found.

“Should we hire you to represent us?” asked Pete, watching Garrett examine the ground.

“We’re not lawyers,” replied Solomon. “We can’t represent you in any legal matters, but we can help you find out what happened and also make sure any evidence exonerating you is looked at. Fortunately, we have a good relationship with Lieutenant Graves.” Solomon nodded in Garrett’s direction.

“He’s my son,” said Mom.

“A son for a police lieutenant and a daughter for a PI. That’s impressive,” said Pete.

“And another son who is also a detective, and another who just joined the FBI, and my other daughter is at the top of her field. She owns her own business now.”

“That’s a lot of children,” said Carrie, quickly adding, “I mean, those are amazing achievements.”

“I don’t recommend more than two,” said Mom with a decisive nod. “One child for each hand.”

“If I count your two hands, and Dad’s two hands, that leaves one of us over. Which of us would you give up?” I asked, my attention briefly distracted from Garrett’s poking in the dirt.

“It depends on the day,” said Mom but before I could ask about today she nudged me. “Garrett’s coming over.”

“I’d like a word with the homeowners,” he said, addressing all of us and then the couple. “You’re Mr. and Mrs. Dugan? You called in the discovery? Can you step over here for a moment?”

“Those poor people,” said Mom when the trio had moved away, just out of earshot. Then she smacked my arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” I rubbed my arm.

“I thought you’d be more helpful. You didn’t even examine the body!”

“We can’t do that. The police are here!”

“We’d be contaminating the scene,” added Solomon. “That would be unwise to do.”

“Oh, well, all right then, but I thought you’d be more reassuring,” huffed Mom.

“I can’t say how reassuring I would be examining a skeleton. I don’t know how to examine one for starters! I think we’re making it obvious we don’t think the Dugans are murderers,” I said. “They seem relieved by that. Plus, we all know Garrett. He’s hardly going to railroad them into confessing a murder they didn’t commit. He’ll want to get to the truth.”

“We do have to consider they might have something to do with it,” said Solomon. He shrugged as Mom and I both turned, open-mouthed. “I agree it’s unlikely but the Dugans will need to be ruled out. I’ve seen very convincing suspects before who have sworn on their mother’s grave it wasn’t them and later proved it was.”

“But they didn’t buy the house until years after the death according to Carrie,” I pointed out.

“That may be so but it doesn’t mean they don’t have an existing connection to the house or the body,” said Solomon.

“Let’s say they did do it,” I said, softening my voice so no one around us could possibly hear. “Why wouldn’t they just stuff the body under the new foundation and never let it be found? Why call it in?”

“We have to stop calling it… it ,” said Mom.

“We don’t know if it’s a man or a woman. So it’s an it,” I said. “Although we could call it Roger, if you like?”

“Why Roger?”

“Why not Roger?” I countered.

Solomon cleared his throat, pulling attention back to him. “They might want to get rid of it. Not everyone wants to live in a home where they know a corpse is buried. Even murderers get the heebie-jeebies. Plus, let’s say it…”

“ Roger ,” said Mom.

“Let’s say it was hidden under the foundation. They can’t be certain one day something doesn’t happen that ends up in the body being revealed and then it’s easily proven that they did the renovations and had the means to put it there or knew about it. Now a surprise discovery during the renovations could be blamed on countless other people, especially with the house lying empty for a period.”

“He has a point,” I said. “Although they did volunteer the security footage to prove it didn’t happen under their ownership.”

“Could have been tampered with,” said Solomon, “But at present, I assume not. They’re candidness works in their favor.”

“I still can’t work out that even if they did do it, why come back here at all? Surely most murderers like to put some distance between them and their victims,” I said, pondering out loud.

“These are my neighbors ,” said Mom, not even trying to hide her disgust at the discussion.

“They live at the end of the block,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter. A neighbor is a neighbor. We don’t have murderers as neighbors. I would know!”

“Well, you definitely had a dead body as a neighbor and you didn’t know anything about that,” I pointed out. Mom narrowed her eyes at me and I contemplated stepping behind Solomon, out of her glare. Not that I was scared of my mom but… well, yes, she was scary.

“Looks like Garrett is wrapping up with the Dugans,” said Solomon. “Let’s split tasks. You find out what he knows, and I’ll quiz the Dugans.”

“And then you’ll take the case?” asked Mom.

“They haven’t asked us yet,” I said, while nodding my agreement to Solomon’s suggestion.

When the Dugans returned to our small group, their worries still evident across their faces and the way they clenched their hands, I took the moment of distraction to slip away and walk over to Garrett where he stood, his phone pressed to his ear. I made sure he saw me, then waited for him to finish the call.

“I’m told Mom called you,” he said, glancing at her. “I don’t see why. There’s nothing here MPD can’t handle.”

“I don’t doubt it. Have you had a case like this before?” I asked.

“Here and there, although residential neighborhood cases are rare. I think I recall handling two cold cases in the past year and before you ask, there are no similarities so far. One was under a flowerbed for twenty years and the husband definitely did it. The other victim had been killed by his housemate and when the housemate died years later, and the drywall was being ripped out prior to the sale, there he was, just hanging out in the wall cavity. Another clear-cut case. You probably read about them in the newspaper.”

“The first one sounds familiar. Was there a trial?”

“Yeah, it went on for a while too. They ended up tearing the house down. No one wanted to buy it and with the homeowner in jail for the rest of his life, no one was maintaining it. I think the bank foreclosed on it eventually, and sold the land to developers who replaced it with condos.”

“It is kind of creepy,” I said.

“Yeah, but not altogether rare. Anyway, you might as well take off. I’ve got this covered. I’m waiting on the medical examiner to get here. I think the body will be declared dead,” Garrett added with a chuckle.

“Very funny. I think I’m going to stick around. The Dugans might want to hire us to help them navigate all this.”

“They’ll be wasting their money. Hope you tell them that.”

“We’ll discuss the merits of the case with them before we take it, if it comes to that.”

“And Mom?” asked Garrett.

“Can you talk to her?”

“Nope. She didn’t call me.”

I sighed. “What can you tell me? Is there anything you can say about the body, or the location, that stands out?”

“Nothing about the location. Just a regular house. I think I’ve known every owner since we were kids. There’s been three? Maybe? I don’t recall anything weird about any of them but who knows? I’ll need to think about that and ask the neighbors if anyone remembers any of them or one of them seemingly disappearing. The backyard isn’t exactly an odd location for concealing a body. It’s convenient and the location isn’t readily visible to other homes. The deceased might have a connection to one of the prior owners so once I get an identity, I’ll be looking into that first.”

“And the body?”

“I’d like the ME to confirm, but it’s most likely a man in his fifties when he died, and it looks like he’s been there for years.”

“As in a few years? Or decades?”

“Hard to say. I’ll need a better look at his clothing and the coroner will run tests, but it’s definitely not clothing we would consider fashionable now.”

“So he still looked… male?” I asked, trying to find words that had the intent of “partially intact body” but wasn’t quite as gross to say. “Or you could tell from the skeleton size and appearance? That’s impressive.”

“I’m not that good at skeletal anatomy and this one has definitely been in the ground long enough to lose its features. No, as it happens, I pulled a wallet from the deceased’s jacket pocket, which was a nice surprise.”

“A wallet? Really? What was inside?”

“Driver’s license, a photo, and a few other things. Some of the paper is very degraded but the license and photo were in a reasonable state.”

“So you know who it… who he … is?”

“I know who the license belongs to. Whether that’s the deceased is another matter.”

“Can I see?”

Garrett’s eyebrows knitted together and he gave me a look that suggested my question was utterly absurd. “No,” he snorted.

“Please.”

“No. I’m not showing my key evidence to random bystanders.”

“I’m not random or a bystander. I’m your sister!”

“Guess I’ll show Mom then too since she’s my mom.” Garrett chuckled.

I gave him the sisterly death look. “I’m a PI too.”

“You already said you haven’t been engaged on the case. However, I have been, by virtue of the Montgomery Police Department.”

“You know Traci asked me to babysit next week? She said you two are going to dinner and a concert.”

“Yeah. And?”

“I might be busy that night.” I stared him down, daring him to defy me further.

Garrett’s face fell. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Really, really, super busy,” I said, turning my gaze to check my nails. They looked surprisingly nice given the evening’s events.

“Are you really trying this?”

“And I probably misplaced the craft kit I was going to bring around for the kids.” I shrugged nonchalantly.

Garrett narrowed his eyes. “I can show you something ,” he said.

I returned my attention to him and held back the grin. “Okay!”

Garrett reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of plastic baggies. He shuffled the packets in his hand and held one out to me. I took it, peering at the contents in the darkening night. The photo was rumpled around the edges and peeling in the lower left corner but the image was clear enough despite some fading. Two men standing together; the older had his arm around the younger and both smiled at the camera. The older man wore a tweed sports coat, the younger a denim jacket slightly too big for his shoulders, a patch on the chest pocket. Their eyes were a similar shape and there was something familiar in the shape of their mouths.

“The photo was in the wallet,” he said.

“They look like father and son. Or maybe uncle and nephew. Definitely a family resemblance.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Could the body be the older man? Or the younger?”

“I don’t know but I’m guessing the older from the clothing in the grave.”

“There’s something sort of familiar about the younger man, like I’ve seen him somewhere.”

Garrett brightened. “Really?”

I shook my head, uncertain. “I don’t know… maybe.”

“If he lived here years back, could you have hung out?”

I shook my head. “No, definitely not. He’s not someone I was friendly with. I’d recognize him if that were the case. I can’t put my finger on it except that he seems familiar.” I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe it’s the patch on the jacket. It looks like it might be a high school’s emblem.”

“It’s not local. I would recognize it.”

“Same. Those jackets were popular back when I was in high school. All the boys had them. The patches were sewn on.”

“Is that a regional fashion choice or was it a thing? I don’t remember having one.”

“You were long out of high school by the time I was a student,” I reminded him. “I think it was a generational thing, not regional. Sorry. I know that doesn’t help narrow it down.”

“It gives me a time period to look at. This kid would be in his mid-thirties now. That makes the older guy, let’s see—” Garrett paused in thought while I took the opportunity to count on my fingers “—Sixties or seventies now at a guess, maybe a little either way. I’m going to run both their faces through missing persons, but missing adult white males aren’t exactly a rare thing so I’ll be surprised if I get anything beyond whittling the numbers down to a few thousand.”

“Maybe you’ll strike it lucky with DNA or the skeleton has a titanium plate or something like that with a serial number.”

“Maybe,” agreed Garrett.

I studied the photo again. “I still think there’s something familiar about the younger one. Could he have played on a sports team perhaps? Like, his school team came to play our school in a tournament? He’s cute.” But even as I said it, it didn’t feel right. I turned the baggie over, hoping something might be written on the back of the photo but there was nothing, not even a printer’s mark. “What else did you find?”

“I think I’ve told you enough,” he said, scooping the baggie from my hand and depositing it in his pocket, “given that you’re a mere bystander.”

“Lieutenant!” A woman hopped out of the ME’s van and jogged across to us. She held overalls in her hand, along with booties. Two men followed her, carrying lights and more equipment. “Where do you want us?” she asked.

“Follow me,” said Garrett, starting to step away.

“Call when you have some information,” I said.

“Unlikely,” snorted Garrett. He stopped and turned back to me, leaning in. “You’re not on the case, remember? Don’t you have something better to do than hang around here? Maybe something to do with multiple thefts.” He sucked in his cheeks and held his lips firm but I knew from his amusement he’d heard about my calamities earlier. Terrific.

“I solved my most recent case and the thieves were caught red-handed. Not quite as exciting as Maddox’s jewel heists unfortunately.”

Garrett stilled. “Say again.”

“Jewel heists. He didn’t say who or what, just that he’s looking into it.”

“Well, that’s interesting.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No, I meant… that’s interesting .”

“Yeah, you said.” Then I caught the hint of something else, something Garrett hadn’t told me. “Why?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.

“Because when I extracted the wallet from the deceased’s jacket pocket, I also found this,” said Garrett. He pulled another plastic packet from his pocket containing what looked like a scrunched cotton handkerchief. He opened his palm and shook the bag.

Several jewels, shiny in the moonlight, tumbled out.