“The bones have been stolen.”
“Stolen!” Penny repeated. “Who on earth would have stolen old bones?”
“Are you sure?” Darcy said. “They were just dug out in the very early hours of this morning.”
“I’m sure. This is a small town, Miss Darcy. I’m with the fire department, and we know the minute something has happened down at the sheriff’s office.”
“So Matt is down there already?” Darcy said.
“He’s been down there for hours now,” Harry Smith said. He smiled. “It isn’t exactly morning anymore. It’s almost one in the afternoon.”
Darcy hadn’t had the least idea it could be so late. But then, she hadn’t gone to sleep until very late—or very early.
“Who would want old bones?” Penny said again.
Harry shrugged. “Looks like a fraternity prank. Like a challenge, even. Thayer told Bill Jenkins that there were some Greek letters chalked on one of the walls. And some money was taken, too. Not a lot. Maybe a hundred dollars. Anyway, Matt is livid. Don’t blame him. We make a discovery, hold the bones overnight in a mortuary so that they can be brought up to Washington the next day—and they disappear. Bad business. Makes us small-town folk look like real hicks. Anyway, he’s on it. Don’t you all worry.”
But Darcy was worried. She didn’t think that it was any kind of fraternity prank. “That’s very strange. The bones must have been stolen during a very small window of time.”
“Yep,” Harry said.
“How would fraternity pranksters even know they were at the funeral home?” Darcy asked.
“Ah, the kids can listen in on the police radio,” Harry said, waving a hand in the air. “Had to be kids. Who else would want old bones?”
The front door had remained open when Harry had come in and Clint came up behind him then. “Hi, Harry. Why, you old geezer! You look like a million bucks.”
“Thank you, young sir,” Harry said, and went on to explain that they were discussing the bones—and the fact that they’d been stolen.
“That’s friggin’ bizarre,” Clint said.
“Clint, mind the language,” Penny said.
“Yes’m,” Clint said, rolling his eyes. “You should hear her swear when she’s got a bee in her bonnet.”
“Not true at all.”
“What’s not true?” Carter had arrived as well. Entering behind Clint, he too looked Harry Smith over, and whistled. “Man, you look like the real thing.”
“So do you, once you’re in uniform,” Harry reminded him.
“So what’s going on? Why would Penny be swearing? What bee is in her bonnet?” Clint asked, and once again, Harry Smith went through the explanation.
“Probably was frat boys,” Carter said, shrugging. “And those bones will show up somewhere again. Maybe on the field on one of the college campuses.”
“Matt isn’t taking it as a prank,” Harry said. “He’s going after the offenders, with a vengeance.”
“Sure, right now, because he’s really pissed off,” Clint said. “But I know Matt. If he doesn’t get them right away, he’ll know that it’s more important to protect and serve the living, and go after the real criminals. Then the bones will show up.”
“I don’t know,” Carter mused. “I can see how a thing like this might make him look bad to all the big boys he knows up in the D.C. area.”
“He must be running on empty, too,” Penny said. “After last night…well, the rest of us have all slept really late. He has to be exhausted.”
“He’ll be fine, you know Matt,” Clint said. “That is some thing, though, isn’t it? We’re all feeling this incredible elation, this triumph, because Darcy found the skeleton. And here we are—bones all gone in just a matter of hours. Easy come, easy go. Sadly, that’s life. Hey, Harry, what are you doing all dressed up today? The reenactment isn’t until tomorrow.”
“I came to take out old Tannenbaum,” Harry said. “I haven’t been out on him for a while. I just want to make sure that he and I are still real good friends, before we get out in front of the crowds tomorrow.”
“Sure. I’ll go saddle him up for you,” Clint said.
“I lead one of the cavalry charges,” Harry told Darcy. “You ever been to one of these things?”
“No. I’ve been to a lot of the national parks, but I’ve never really seen a reenactment,” Darcy told him.
“Well, want to take a ride with me, young lady? I’ll show you where it’s all taking place. Sorry—you do ride?”
“I love to ride. And if you’ll give me a minute to get dressed, I’d be happy to go with you. Unless…” She hesitated and looked at Penny.
“You can go to the mortuary if you want, if you think you can help,” Penny said. “But I’d be staying the hell away from Matt myself this morning. Let him handle things the way the police would do it, first.”
“Hell! Did you hear that? My, my, Penny Sawyer swearing!” Carter teased. “But seriously, I’d stay away from Matt right now, too.”
“You saddle Tannebaum for Harry, and I’ll get Nellie ready for a ride,” Clint said.
“There’s really nothing else you can do at the moment,” Penny told Darcy. “Go with Harry. You’ll enjoy it.”
Darcy nodded. “Give me just a minute, then.”
“Hell, I think I’ll go for the ride, too,” Carter said.
“Hell, I’ll join you, too,” Clint said, grinning at Penny.
“I’ll be right down,” Darcy said.
“No hurry,” Harry Smith said. “I’m off the next three days. Take your time.”
“Yes, dear, take your time. I have muffins in the kitchen—how rude of me. Harry, come on in and have some coffee and muffins.” She looked both Clint and Carter up and down. “And when you ne’er-do-wells with all that time on your hands have saddled the horses, you can have coffee and muffins, too.”
“Ne’er-do-wells!” Carter protested. “I’m a hardworking entrepreneur!”
“And I even have some work this evening,” Clint said. He winked at Penny. “You wait and see. You’ll be eating your words.”
Penny sniffed. “Coffee when the horses are saddled. Darcy, you take your time. Harry, you come with me.”
Darcy ran back up the stairs, but didn’t head straight for her room. She tapped lightly at Adam’s door.
He told her to come in, and she found him still in bed.
“I might be getting a cold,” he told her sheepishly. “Anyway, Penny brought me some cold pills and tea and toast awhile ago. I’ll just hang out in here for a few hours.”
“Adam, the skeleton was stolen from the mortuary,” she said.
“I know. Matt called.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t worry. He’s on it like a hornet.”
“Adam, doesn’t it seem really suspicious to you?”
“Of course.”
“They all seem to think it was a fraternity prank,” she said. “They—Clint, Carter, and the rest of the town, I imagine.”
“Sure. They all think that you discovered a skeleton that was hundreds of years old.”
“There was nothing there, right? No jewelry, no remnants of cloth…nothing?” Darcy asked.
Adam shook his head. “The remains, from what Matt said, were purely skeletal.”
“Still…there would be teeth,” she said.
“Yep.”
“Adam, do you think it’s possible that the skeleton isn’t so old, and therefore someone really wanted to get it back?”
“Darcy, I told you I’d find Lavinia Harper.”
“I wasn’t particularly implying that it would be Lavinia Harper.”
“Darcy, let’s give Matt a chance to be a sheriff, okay?”
“Right, but…if there was a break-in…”
“Yes?”
“Wouldn’t it be most feasible that it was done by someone who definitely knew that the bones were there?”
“Darcy, give Matt a chance.”
“Of course.” She told him then that she was going riding, and she would check in on him later.
A few minutes, she was dressed, and she ran downstairs. Penny had a plate with corn muffins set for her, along with juice and coffee.
“Did you check in on Adam, dear?” Penny asked her.
“Yes, he’s just going to sleep for a bit. Hopefully, he’ll feel some better by this evening.”
“Let him get some rest today,” Clint said. “He’ll want to enjoy the show tomorrow.”
“The reenactments are fun,” Carter told Darcy. “You’ll see today when we go riding—there are already a bunch of encampments set up. Wives come along and dress in antebellum fashion and cook on the battlefield. Some women dress up as laundresses…and those who just kind of follow armies, if you know what I mean.”
“Prostitutes,” Penny said impatiently.
Carter grinned and laughed. “Right. Prostitutes. Since General Hooker gave his name to one of the current labels for such ladies, we know that they were in abundance in the Civil War. And, hey, do you know how many soldiers came down with sexual diseases?”
“No, and we don’t want to know,” Penny said.
“Well, that’s good. I don’t really know the number. But a lot,” Carter said.
“Shall we ride?” Harry asked.
Darcy gulped down the last of her orange juice and stood. “I’m ready, whenever. Penny, did you want to join us?” she asked.
“Heavens, no! I watched these boys play soldier far too long. Have a lovely afternoon.” She waved them all away, and they headed out to the stables.
