Дана Стейбнау - Spoils of the Dead

McGuire was trying to be polite and Liam wasn’t so far gone he didn’t recognize it but he still bristled. Nobody flirted with Wy but him. He didn’t need Jo Dunaway grinning like the Cheshire Cat all over her face, either.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

Liam tried not to glare. “You gave me to understand that this wasn’t a social call.”

“It isn’t.”

“So? I’m here because…?”

“Well, you, specifically, are here because the Blewestown PD say they won’t respond to anything outside of the city limits. They say that’s for the troopers to handle. A direct quote from whoever answered the phone and took down my name and in particular my address.”

Liam thought of Chief Armstrong’s polite but obdurate attitude over lunch earlier that day. “Okay. Fine. What requires any law enforcement presence outside the city limits at ten at night?”

McGuire looked across the room. “All yours, Kyle.”

Upon closer inspection, Kyle, the skinny kid with the bright gray eyes and dark hair, looked a little the worse for wear. His hair stuck up in sweaty wads and the sides of his face were scratched and oddly shiny. His left ear might be a little lopsided, too, and the collar of his T-shirt was irregularly stained a dark brown, as if he’d been bleeding on it and the blood had dried there. He looked around at his audience, clearly enjoying the attention, and puffed out his insubstantial chest. “I found a body!”

Into the resulting dead silence that followed, during which Liam felt rather than saw Jo Dunaway go on red alert, the second kid, slightly less skinny but considerably wider of eye and with hair in infinitely better shape said, “I told you I had a bad feeling about this.”

“And you are?” Liam said.

“Logan,” McGuire said. “That’s Logan. And that’s Logan’s mom, Cynthia Reese, and that’s Kyle’s dad, Greg Kinnison.”

Liam nodded at both of them. “Nice to meet you. Liam Campbell, Alaska State Troopers.” He looked back at Kyle. “What do you mean, you found a body?”

The stern note in his voice caused Kyle’s grin to fade a little. “I mean we found a body.”

“You mean you found a body,” Logan said, although it was more of a mutter.

Kyle gave him an impatient shove. “Shut up. And I can prove it.”

“Dude, you’re just going to freak them the hell out.”

“Logan!” his mother said. “Language.”

Kyle ignored them both and reached down to unbutton the pocket on the calf of his cargo pants, which also looked much the worse for wear. He produced a package wrapped clumsily in what looked like paper towels. He slid to his knees on the floor and with a due sense of ceremony folded back the towels to reveal what was within. Cynthia looked ill and averted her eyes. Greg folded his arms and tried to out-manly the trooper and the movie star.

Liam heard Wy draw in a quick breath and he said to Jo in a low voice, “Not a word. Not yet.”

Kyle, a little apologetically, said, “It kind of fell apart when I grabbed it.”

It was a collection of small bones. Finger bones, if Liam was not mistaken, and he had the sinking feeling that he wasn’t. “You said a body, Kyle.”

“The rest of it is still back there, sir. This was all I could reach before they pulled me out.”

“Pulled you out of where?”

“Out of the cave.”

Liam looked at Gabe.

“Erik’s dig.”

Liam sat down. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

“Yes, please,” Jo said, and ignored the look of death Liam sent her.

“You sure I can’t get you something to drink?” Gabe said.

It transpired that the boys had taken advantage of Erik’s absence to explore Erik’s dig and the cave behind it. During said exploration, they had discovered a crack at the back of said cave. Kyle found that his arm fit in the crack, which inspired him to see if his head could fit in it, too. At which point he became stuck. After futile efforts to extract him that resulted in the marks of mauling on display on Kyle’s face, Logan went for help.

“Why you?” Liam said.

“Mine’s the closest house.”

McGuire had sent Logan to alert the parents—the Kinnisons and the Reeses lived off the same driveway nearer to East Bay Road—and had gone down to the cave to see what he could do. “I’ll give you this, dude, when you get stuck into something you really commit.”

Kyle looked hugely delighted to be called “dude” by Gabe McGuire. Logan scowled at his shoes.

Gabe looked at Liam. “So then I thought maybe if I got some grease or something, that might work him loose, so I brought down a bottle of olive oil.”

No wonder Kyle’s hair looked so weird.

Kyle grinned and Gabe laughed. “I poured the whole thing over as much of his head as the neck of the bottle would reach and I told him to rub it in. It worked.”

“Cool, huh?” Kyle said proudly. Logan rolled his eyes.

“About which time,” Gabe said, “Logan showed back up with Cynthia and Greg in tow. And then we called you.”

“Okay,” Liam said, “am I to understand that these bones came from the other side of the crack?”

“Yep.” Kyle nodded vigorously. “And that’s not all. When Gabe went back for the oil I felt around for the flashlight I’d dropped when I got stuck and shined it around. And—” building for a big finish “—that’s when I saw it!”

“Saw—”

Kyle pointed at the bones. “The rest of the body! The whole skeleton! It’s kind of crumpled up but you can tell right away what it is! There’s a spine, and legs and a skull and everything!” He paused, and then, clearly unhappy at the response to this earthshaking announcement, added, “The whole thing is still there!”

“You want to go take a look?” Gabe said.

Liam glanced up at the windows, behind which the sun had without question set. He was not attempting that death-defying trail in the dark. “Tomorrow, maybe. Have you talked to Erik?”

“I called him but he didn’t pick up. Let me try again.” Gabe picked up his phone, called up a number, and held the phone to his ear. After a minute or so he shook his head. “Still not picking up. Probably keeping company somewhere. Guy gets more action than any other ten men on the Bay, including me.”

Cynthia cleared her throat meaningfully, and Gabe didn’t quite blush.

Wy, speaking and possibly moving for the first time since coming into the house, smiled impartially at Cynthia and Greg. “Isn’t there school tomorrow?”

Greg said, “Yeah, Logan, time to head for the barn.”

“Yes, Kyle, way past your bedtime,” Cynthia said.

“C’mon, Mom—”

“And we’re going to have a conversation about your choice of friends first thing tomorrow.”

“What?” Greg said.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Logan said. “It wasn’t even my idea!”

“Let’s go, Kyle.” Cynthia bustled toward the door, outrage in the line of her spine.

Kyle looked at Greg. “She gets like this, Mr. Kinnison. Don’t worry about it, Dad’ll calm her down.” He looked at Liam. “Can I keep the bones?”

“Nope,” Liam said.

“Didn’t think so,” Kyle said regretfully, “but it was worth the ask.” He grinned at Logan and extended a fist. Logan bumped it with his own. “Later, dude.”

“Later.”

The Kinnisons p è re et fils followed Kyle out the door.

“Erik never said anything about a cave behind a cave when he was showing me around,” Liam said.

“Never did to me, either.”

“Could he have not known it was there?”

Gabe gave him a look. “Wait till you see the opening. It’s barely worthy of being called a crack.”

“Yeah, but he’s an archeologist. Don’t they, like, survey everything and measure it twice?”