Дана Стейбнау - Spoils of the Dead

They sat down at the dining room table and tried not to make pigs of themselves.

“You’re not rushing down to the post.” Jo’s tone was more mild inquiry than outraged taxpayer so Liam didn’t rise.

“I’m not officially on duty until next Monday.”

“Are you going back out to take a look in that cave?”

“I thought I might.” He waited.

“I think I’ll follow you out there.”

“I thought you might.”

She flipped him off. Wy laughed.

“Jesus,” Jo said, standing next to him at the top of the cliff.

“Yeah,” Liam said, for once in complete agreement with her.

Her vehicle and Liam’s truck were squeezed in next to Erik’s old Ford. The sky was cloudy but at least it wasn’t raining yet. He hesitated, and then shrugged. He turned sideways to the slope and began side-stepping down, digging the edges of his boots into the ground. Even then he slid almost halfway there, but at least it was a more controlled slide than Monday’s. Above him, Jo inched her way, sometimes by the seat of her pants, sometimes voluntarily.

He was dusting himself off when a bird called and he looked up to see a seagull cruising by, followed a second later by two more. No ravens, though.

The tent looked the same. The tables stood on either side of the tent, the coffee table in one corner, the fold-up Styrofoam bed in another, the aged Blazo boxes converted to shelves containing the cleaned, neatly laid out tools of Erik’s profession and the carefully labeled artifacts. The Shawshank rock hammer was still there.

“Erik?” Liam said. No answer. He raised his voice. “Erik?”

Behind him he heard a scatter of sand and rock. “It’s easier going up than coming down,” he said without turning.

“Good to know,” Jo said breathlessly. “Berglund still not around?”

“Doesn’t appear so.”

“Have you checked the cave?”

“I was just about to.” He pulled the tactical flashlight from the holster on his belt and led the way through the tent into the mouth of the cave.

The darkness of the cave gulped down the light of the flash and if possible made the interior look even darker and somehow larger than he had noticed on Monday. It was colder than he remembered, he thought fifty degrees at most. It smelled off, too, more than just of decaying seaweed. A chill ran down his spine and his heart sank.

He took a step forward toward what he guessed what the back of the cave and immediately tripped over something and fell to his knees. He dropped the flash and it went out. “Damn it.” He groped for the flash, hoping it hadn’t broken against the rock, hampered by being totally disoriented, only dimly aware of Jo’s figure outlined against the light of the cave entrance. The dimensions of the cave seemed to expand exponentially in the dark.

“Liam?”

“Don’t come in. The floor is a bunch of rock.” He understood now why Erik hadn’t walked him inside it during his visit. “Just stay there until I find the flashlight.” His hand closed over it finally. He felt for the switch and pushed it.

It lit immediately, illuminating the face of Erik Berglund peering out from behind an outcropping of rock separated from the wall of the cave.

“Erik?”

But Erik’s eyes were wide and staring. His blond hair was matted with what could only be dried blood.

Behind him Liam heard Jo take a sharp, inward breath.

“Stay there, Jo.” He got to his feet and picked his way carefully to the little rock wall Erik’s body had fallen—or been placed—behind.

He put out a hand. Erik’s skin was cold and clammy to the touch.

Erik’s right arm was outstretched over his shoulder. Liam traced it with the beam of the flash and saw a phone under his lifeless hand.

He bent to pull it free and straightened to thumb it on.

It was dead.

Like Erik.

Twelve

Wednesday, September 4

“RIGOR IS STARTING TO PASS OFF,” LIAM said, “but the cave where the body was is pretty cool and I’d guess colder at night.”

Brillo grunted. “Anybody around who can take a read?”

“No.”

“You sure it wasn’t an accident?”

“I can’t tell, Brillo. I can say that his skull shifts when you touch it.”

“He couldn’t have fallen?”

“Not where the body is. I mean, yes, he could have tripped and fallen, there is plenty to fall over in the cave, but at least at first glance he looks like he’s taken a lot of damage, more than could be reasonably expected from a trip-and-fall. His clothes, too.”

“Well, shit.” An aggravated sigh. “Put him on a plane.”

“Don’t hang up, Brillo, there’s something else.”

“Color me surprised.” Dr. Hans Brilleaux, the state medical inspector, went heavy on the sarcasm.

“There is another body in the cave, a skeleton. Been there a while, just the bones. I can see it but I can’t get at it yet. I do have one of the hands.”

A huff of exasperation. “Send it up with the body.”

“I want to know if it’s human and how long it’s been there, Brillo.”

“Miracle workers R us.” Click.

Liam lowered his phone.

“It takes thirty-six hours for rigor to go off,” Jo said.

“This is now a crime scene, Jo. I need to ask you to leave.”

“If he’s been lying there for thirty-six hours, how did the boys miss him?”

“Jo.”

“You and what army?” she said impatiently. “How are you going to get the body up that trail?”

He called the post. Ms. Petroff answered. He explained the situation. “I will notify the Blewestown volunteer fire department, sir.”

“We’re sure they will respond all the way out here?”

“The fire department always responds everywhere, sir,” she said, the reproof clear in her tone.

“Thank you, Ms. Petroff.”

Instead of hanging up in her usual efficient fashion, she said hesitantly, “Did I understand you to say that you were at the archeological dig up East Bay Road, sir?”

“You did.”

“And the deceased?”

“We don’t comment on ongoing investigations, Ms. Petroff.”

A brief silence. “I see. Thank you, sir. I will so inform the fire department.” Click.

He stared at his phone. In the entirety of his acquaintance with Ms. Petroff, all one and a half days of it, that was the first time she had requested clarification on any point at issue. Don’t go soft on me now, Ms. Petroff, he thought, and called Wy. “Got a job for you, not a fun one.”

“Do tell.”

He was momentarily distracted by the husky quality of her voice but called himself sternly to order and to duty. “I’ve got a body that needs transporting to Anchorage. The ME’s office will meet you at Merrill to take it off your hands.”

“Height and weight?”

He had never loved her more. “Six foot plus, a hundred and sixty pounds or thereabouts. Maybe less, skinny guy.”

“I’ll head for the airport and start prepping the Cessna.”

“Need a favor.”

“Name it.”

“Those hand bones from yesterday night. I want you to take those to Brillo, too.”

“Sure. Where are they?”

“In my truck.” He looked at Jo, who wasn’t even pretending not to listen. “Jo will bring them to you.”

“Now just a damn minute—”

“Of course,” Wy said.

“Thanks, babe. Usual rates. I’ll clear it through the office.”

“Always a pleasure doing business with the state, Sergeant Campbell.” She paused, and then said delicately, “Someone you know?”

“Unfortunately. One of two possible friends I’ve met since I got here. The archeologist.”

“Oh.” A sigh. “He sounded like a good guy. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Later, babe.”