The Burying Place

Maggie sighed. She was tired of keeping it a secret from everyone. 'It's me and Stride. Something happened.'

'Something?' Troy asked. Then he read her face. 'Oh, that kind of something. Yeah, well, that is complicated.'

'Tell me about it.'

'Isn't he involved with someone else?'

'Yeah.'

'So now what?'

'Now I tell myself what an idiot I am.'

Troy chuckled. 'Sorry. Wish I could help. Romantic advice isn't really my thing.'

'Me neither. Listen, keep this to yourself, OK? Nobody knows.'

'My lips are sealed.'

Maggie heard her cell phone ringing. She dug it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID, but the source of the call was blocked. 'This is Maggie Bei,' she answered.

'Ms Bei, my name is Jim Nieman.'

Maggie didn't recognize the name or the voice. 'What can I do for you, Mr Nieman?'

'I got a call from Matt Clayton in Buckthorn today. He said you were making inquiries about that falling-down school they've got out there. I handle security on the place for the township.'

She remembered the name now. 'Did you have a chance to check it out today?'

'I did. As a matter of fact, I'm over there right now. I was hoping to get out here earlier in the day, but I got pulled into some home security jobs.'

'What did you find?' she asked.

'Matt said something about looking for red pistachio shells. Is that right? What's that all about?'

'Did you find any?' she replied without explaining.

'Actually, I did.'

Maggie covered the speaker with her hand and said to Troy, 'This is the security guy for the Buckthorn School. I think Nick Garaldo was out there.' She spoke into the phone again. 'Did you check inside the school?'

'I was going to do that, but I thought I'd call you first. Since I found those shells, I didn't know if you wanted me to hold off on searching the interior. I didn't want to screw up any evidence if you think we've got a crime scene there.'

'When were you last inside?' she asked.

'A couple days ago, I guess.'

'Have you been inside since Saturday night?'

'Yeah, I think it was Sunday,' Nieman told her.

'Did you find anything out of the ordinary?'

He laughed. 'Well, the whole thing is pretty creepy, if you ask me.'

'Was there any evidence that someone had broken in recently? Could someone have been inside and you didn't realize it?'

She heard him pause. 'Anything's possible, I guess. There are a lot of nooks and crannies in the place. I didn't see evidence of a break-in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.' 'OK.'

'You want me to go inside?' Nieman asked. 'Like I said, I'm outside the place right now.'

'Yeah, I do. Check it out carefully. We've got a missing person, and I think he's been at the school recently. It's possible he broke in, or tried to break in, and got hurt. Call me back when you've checked it out, OK?'

'Will do.'

Maggie heard him hesitate. 'Is something wrong?'

'Oh, no, I'm happy to do it. Anything for the boys and girls in blue, you know. I just thought, if something did happen to this guy inside, you might want to have a cop with me when I search the place. I know it's late, but I thought maybe you could get someone to join me here.'

Maggie thought about it. 'Sure, that's a good idea.'

'I'd leave it in your hands entirely, but I'm the guy with the keys,' he added.

'Understood.' 'I'll wait for the cavalry before I open the doors. Do you think it will be long?'

Maggie checked her watch. 'Tell you what, Mr Nieman. I'm just five minutes away from the school right now. I'll drive over there myself.'

Chapter Forty-eight

Denise Sheridan slapped her phone shut. 'Still no answer,' she said.

'Are you going to drive over there?' Serena asked.

Denise shook her head. 'It's late. If Valerie's in bed, let her sleep.'

Serena didn't think Valerie was sleeping. If she was in bed, she was staring at the ceiling. If her phone was off, it was because she didn't want to hear the news about Callie.

The two women rejoined Stride among the scattered headstones of the cemetery. Behind him, one of the light towers set up by the crime scene technicians cast his shadow across the grass into the trees. He stopped in front of a line of graves that all bore the name GLENN.

Serena watched him. His arms were folded over his chest, and his face was dark and thoughtful. Snow flew sideways through the light, landing on him and turning him into a white statue. He wore the leather jacket he had owned for years. His hair looked as if he had just rolled out of bed. In his eyes, she saw the intensity of a man who never let go. She couldn't help herself, she was still in love with him. She couldn't imagine turning her back on what she felt, not when they had spent three years together. The easy thing for her was to whisper, I'm not going anywhere. See what he did. See how he reacted. See if he still felt the same things for her.

But she didn't do that. She said nothing at all.

'So what the hell does this mean, Stride?' Denise demanded. 'Who's the boy in the ground?'

Stride stared at the graves. 'I don't know yet.'

'What's the medical team saying?' Serena asked. 'How did the baby die?'

'There's no sign of foul play,' he replied. 'There's no trauma, no obvious evidence of injury or abuse, but we won't know until the autopsy is completed.'

'Recent death?' Denise asked.

'Based on the condition of the body, yes. We're talking days, not weeks.'

'But nothing to help with identification?'

'No.'

Serena took a long look at the cemetery and at the surrounding forest. She put herself in the shoes of someone who would carry a baby to the woods and dig its grave. There were so many places you could lay a body where it would never be found. Why so close to the cemetery?

'How was the body placed in the ground?' she asked Stride.

She wanted a sense of the kind of burial that had happened here, whether it was something sacred or profane. Their eyes met, and she knew he had been thinking the same thing. That was another part of their relationship she couldn't escape — their minds were connected.

'He was wrapped in a white sheet.'

'Carefully?'

Stride nodded. 'Someone took time to do it right. It was almost tender.'

'This doesn’t make sense,' Denise protested. 'Who takes the care to wrap up a dead child and then buries it in the woods like garbage?'

'Not like garbage,' Serena said, shaking her head. 'Whoever did this couldn't bury the baby in a cemetery where he might be discovered. But the baby was close to the cemetery. I think that's significant.'

'I agree,' Stride said. 'It feels ritualistic. Almost religious.'

'But what does it have to do with Callie and Marcus?' Denise asked.

'I don't know. Maybe nothing at all. Maybe we stumbled on to something unrelated to Callie's case.'

'Or maybe Micki's lying,' Denise suggested.

They heard a harsh, tired voice cut through the wind. 'I'm not lying.'

When they turned, they saw Migdalia Vega on the slope of the cemetery behind them. Her round face glistened with melting snow. Her feet were planted in the ground, and she had her hands on her hips. 'You hear me?' she continued. 'I'm not lying. I did what you asked. I showed you where I found the toy. Where Mama saw the light.'

'You knew we'd find a body,' Denise snapped, 'but we only have your word that you found the toy there at all. Who's the kid, Micki? Who did we find buried there?'

'I don't know. And I found the horn in the woods, just like I said.'

Stride put a hand gently on Denise's arm. He stepped closer to Micki, his voice calm. 'We don't think you're lying,' he told her.