I was slapping a mosquito when I heard something odd: silence. Looking up, I confronted three grumpy faces. Interest in excavation had dropped to zero.
Hi spoke first. "I don't want to bitch, but this isn't working. Three and a half feet down and we've got zilch."
"There's nothing here," Ben said.
"It was a good gamble." Shelton braced to climb out of the pit. "No shame in that."
"Fifteen more minutes?" I implored. "Please? I have this gut feeling. We could be close."
"Fifteen. One-five." Ben picked up his shovel.
Shrugging, Shelton followed suit.
Hi shot an are you kidding? look my way.
"Hi, switch with me," I said. "You sift; I'll dig."
He nodded and we exchanged places.
We'll go to four feet. That's it.
As I dug, emotions kaleidoscoped inside me. Relief? Disappointment? Embarrassment?
While a part of me wanted to be right--to show the others I wasn't insane--another part wasn't totally unhappy that I'd struck out. Yes, I wanted to solve the mystery of Katherine Heaton. But I had no desire to unearth a murdered human being.
Then I saw it. A dark oval materializing in the soil by my feet.
Switching to a trowel, I dropped to my knees and began slicing thin layers of dirt. The oval darkened. Grew.
More slicing.
Sensing my excitement, Ben and Shelton stopped to watch.
Slice.
Slice.
Tick.
My trowel nicked something solid.
I grabbed a brush and, moving ever so gingerly, swept overlying dirt from the surface of the object.
A musty scent rose from the earth. Ancient. Organic.
A chill traveled my spine.
I brushed gently. Shapes emerged. Tiny cylinders arranged in a familiar pattern.
Heart hammering, I stared.
"Okay, that's fifteen." Hiram dropped the bucket he'd been sifting. "I'm bushed."
Still I stared. So did Ben and Shelton.
"Tory?" Hi ventured. "You upset? No one's blaming you or anything. If I'd read more about bodies, I might've thought the same thing."
Still I was speechless.
"Hey, Victoria Brennan!" Hi shouted. "What's what?"
A cloud crossed the sun, casting shadow over the small space in which I knelt. Crickets chirped from hidden places. Sweat glued my shirt to my back.
Nothing penetrated. My mind was locked onto the tiny brown objects before me.
I forced myself to acknowledge the truth.
I'd uncovered the delicate bones of a human hand.
CHAPTER 24
Isnapped out of my trance.
My head whipped up.
"I've got bones here."
"Where?" Ben dropped his shovel and peered over my shoulder. "Holy crap! You were right."
Shelton's response was less manly. Spotting the gruesome discovery, he yelled, "Grave, grave!" and scrambled from the pit.
Hiram took one look and promptly upchucked.
Both dropped to the grass, flushed and panting.
Only Ben kept his head. "They're human, right?"
"Absolutely," I confirmed. "I'm positive." And I was. I'd seen enough diagrams of the human skeleton to recognize human carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges.
"Then we call the cops." Ben's tone was decisive. "Now."
Practicality tempered my roiling emotions. "Yes. But first we have to be sure."
Ben nodded. "How?"
"I want to see more than hand bones." I took a deep breath. "I want to know exactly what's buried here."
"We find a freakin' dead body, and y'all want to keep on digging?" Shelton's alarm was escalating by the second. "That's crazy!"
"It's a police matter now," Hi whined. "They'll be pissed if you mess with a crime scene. Especially if that's the Heaton girl."
"Don't say that!" I snapped. "We've no proof it's her." Inexplicably, I wanted to punch Hi like a speed bag.
"Silly me." Hi held up both hands. "Let's dig a little more. Maybe it's someone else."
Shelton and Ben eyed me, clearly surprised. I'd jumped on Hi for stating the obvious.
Easy. What did you think you would find?
I took a deep breath. Admitted to myself. As illogical as it was, I didn't want to accept that Hi was right. Not yet.
"I'm sorry, Hi. That wasn't fair. I just need to be sure."
"No sweat," Hi replied. "I don't think before I talk." But he still looked wary, like a cat circling a sleeping dog.
Ben and Shelton said nothing. But I could read their faces. They, too, were convinced we'd found Katherine Heaton.
"I know what you're all thinking," I said. "Just let me examine the bones."
Skeptical looks.
"The cops won't believe us without proof," I said. "Not those Folly Beach yokels. We need pictures of the grave, the skeleton, everything we find."
"We can't mess anything up," Shelton said.
"We'll be careful," I promised. "We'll document as we work. That way we preserve the evidence in case monkeys disturb the site after we leave."
Reluctantly, the boys agreed.
I formulated a plan. Ben and I would dig inside the pit. The 'fraidy cats would stay topside, Shelton hauling dirt, Hi capturing images on his iPhone.
Two more hours of steady, painstaking excavation exposed a fully articulated skeleton. Darkened to the color of very strong tea, the bones looked like relics from another time.
One glance extinguished any lingering doubts.