A lethal legacy, p.14
A Lethal Legacy, page 14
She gave the corpse a last glimpse.
He waited until she half walked and was half hauled back up the slope. Then he pulled out his camera to take pictures of the corpse.
The rope came back down. Going back up was no easy deal; getting out of the small hole was even more difficult.
“She was...small, I think. Hard to tell now,” Kieran was telling Bracken. “She could have gotten down on her own, but...how? Why?”
Craig crawled through the hole and made it to his feet.
“Man, that wasn’t easy,” he murmured.
“Hey, you weigh a hell of lot more than she does!” Bracken said.
“Yeah, yeah. We’re going to have to dig this out somehow, though. We’ll never get a team down there if we don’t.”
“I’ll talk to Egan as soon as we’re out of the caves. The team will bring pickaxes. And I assume you’d appreciate the same medical examiner on this.”
Craig nodded.
“What did you see?” Bracken asked him.
Craig shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. The environment of the cave half preserved her—and yet...creatures down there were not kind to her at all.”
“Five to ten years,” Kieran said.
He looked at her. She shrugged. “When your cousin was here, involved with the case at the new Egyptian museum... I spent some time with her. She told me about natural mummification. That poor woman...she’s partially mummified and I’m not an expert, but I think she’s been down there five to ten years.”
Craig looked at Bracken. “Egan is on the way?”
“He has people heading to a boat as we speak.”
Craig nodded, looking at Kieran. “Exploration is over for the day,” he said softly.
She nodded. She looked okay. Just a little pale. He was probably a little pale himself.
“We need to tell Danny and Mike,” she said.
She started walking toward the opening to the caves. He glanced at Bracken.
“I won’t move,” Bracken promised.
“I’ll send the pictures to you and Mike and Egan at the same time,” Craig told him.
Bracken just nodded grimly.
When they reached the entrance, both Mike and Danny were down on the ground. They were covered in dirt, and working away with their trowels.
“Hey, you’re back pretty quickly,” Mike said, rising and trying to dust the dirt from himself. All he managed to do was just smudge it in.
“You found something?” he asked. “More of those brac—those medallion things?”
“Scratches on the wall—and a corpse,” Kieran said.
“What?”
Danny leaped to his feet as well, staring at his sister.
“Bones?” Mike asked.
“No, a corpse. Not...” Kieran’s voice trailed as she looked for the right word. “Fresh?” she said.
“Egan has people on the way,” Craig said. “They’ll be here within the hour, I imagine. You know Egan. When he says jump...”
“I thought we were just getting somewhere,” Danny said. “Can we keep working until they get here?”
“Danny! We just found a woman’s body!” Kieran said.
“Yes, you just found her. But it sounds as if she’s been here a while. Kieran, there’s something here, just below. I tapped the way that Bracken said to—when Mike and I started. And there’s something...we heard it,” Danny said.
“We have some time,” Craig said.
Danny was already back on the ground. Craig didn’t want to forget that they had found someone who had once been a living human being, and who had—one way or another—died alone and in misery.
But he took up a trowel himself.
And began to dig.
Before he knew it, Kieran was down beside him, and then Mike, as well.
“Careful, careful... I can feel it!” Craig said. “No more trowels. Brushes... I’m sure we brought brushes, hell, fingers! But don’t...”
He didn’t need to be giving any instructions. They were all being as careful as possible. Minutes passed.
And more minutes.
“There’s something. There’s definitely something. Maybe... Damn! Maybe a treasure chest,” Mike said. “Or...”
His voice trailed.
Kieran had found a brush. She was working slowly. Painstakingly slowly.
The others sat back.
And something began to appear.
It wasn’t a treasure chest.
It was a stone, buried under less than a foot of packed dirt. Mike shone the light on it.
They all stared.
It was covered in symbols that meant nothing to any of them.
“‘Park horse here,’” Craig murmured softly. “Or...”
He stopped speaking, surprised to hear noises coming from beyond the cave. The forensic crew and perhaps the medical examiner had arrived. They had all become so engrossed in carefully completing their task that none of them had realized the passing of time. They had been at it longer than the half hour or so it took to reach the island from the mainland.
He made an instant decision. “Let’s get it out and covered up,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else knowing what we found.”
Tuesday night
While the forensic team was still down in the cave, Kieran, Danny and Mike sat with the household at the dinner table.
Craig and Bracken had remained behind, overseeing the work.
It was a late dinner. Finn had taken one look at them—all covered in dirt and grime—and put the meal on hold until they’d had a chance to clean up.
This time, Kieran had locked the door when she’d gone in to shower. And, as an added safeguard, she had taken her clothing with her. She wasn’t sure why—there was nothing to be found in her pockets. And she didn’t even really know if someone had been in her room the last time.
At the dinner table, only Mike really seemed to be eating.
Finn was glum, deeply disturbed about yet another death on the island. He’d been shocked to see the boat arriving filled with crime scene technicians.
Margie was quiet, withdrawn as usual.
Only Elayne tried to make conversation. “Here’s the thing, Finn. You mustn’t let this stop you. Your idea is a good one. Turn this island around. The body found today...well, one way or another, it’s been there awhile. Whether a year or twenty years. We had nothing to do with it. Someone was using the island for bad things, and you’re going to make it into something good. It was an old body, right, Kieran?”
“It had definitely been there awhile,” Kieran said. “And, Finn, she’s right—I don’t know how long. I do know that it has been there quite some time. Elayne is right—none of this is your fault.”
“Frank is my fault,” Finn said. “He wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t been for this ridiculous plan of my mine. A body a day,” he said glumly. “So it seems. Maybe I should just give it all up.”
“Finn, no,” Elayne said.
“It is cursed—the island is cursed,” Margie said. She looked around the table and said, “Oh, I am so sorry. I’m like a broken record, a voice of doom.” She took a deep breath. “Finn, I don’t know—I just don’t know. On the one hand, I had felt that you shouldn’t give up. Frank wouldn’t have wanted you to give up. But now, and with my whole heart, I think you should stop. I’m wondering if there is really a curse—and if Frank’s death wasn’t a sign to stop what we’re doing.”
“Thank you, Margie,” Finn said. “I appreciate that sentiment. And I know... I know that none of us are really thinking straight right now. Still...we haven’t managed to accept the fact that Frank is gone, and all this...”
Mike cleared his throat. “Craig and I spoke briefly before Danny, Kieran and I walked back here. He believes we might discover that the dead woman was out here at the same time as the bank robbers. This young woman might have been with them.”
Finn stood suddenly. “Forgive me. Please, enjoy dinner. I’m just not very social this evening.”
Elayne started to rise as well. Finn set a hand on her shoulder. “No, sweetheart, stay here. Finish eating.”
“I’m not very hungry, really,” Elayne said.
“Forgive me, I need to be alone,” he told her. He smiled tightly. “Please don’t worry. I do appreciate you and how hard you’re trying to help me—come up to the room in a bit.”
Finn left the dining room. Kieran could have sworn that he didn’t go upstairs; she was certain that she heard the front door open and close.
A moment later, Evie came into the room. “Where is Finn?”
“He, uh, needed a walk, I guess,” Mike offered.
“Evie,” Danny said. “You have done an outstanding job, as usual. But you’ll have to excuse us, too. Kieran, I’ve got to put a call into Declan about the event at the pub. He’s going to want to talk to you, as well.”
“Of course,” Kieran said, rising. “We’ll call from my room. We have great reception there.”
Mike arched a brow. He must have known they’d fill him in later.
On what, Kieran didn’t know.
But Danny wanted her.
They fled the dining room and hurried up the stairs. Kieran followed Danny into his room, and he closed the door. “Someone was in my room,” he said quietly. “While I was in the shower. I’m not being paranoid.”
“And I thought someone was in mine...and I know Evie was up here earlier. Danny, I know you handed your maps over to Craig and Bracken, but is there anything else in here that someone would want?”
“My computer, but it’s well protected,” he said.
She pulled out her phone. “I’m texting Craig.”
“Craig can’t do anything right now. He’s knee deep in...a half-mummified corpse!”
“I want him to know that Finn went out.”
“Finn might just be in his room.”
“I’m pretty sure that Finn went outside. That he’s walking around the island. It may or may not be important, but I want Craig to know.”
* * *
“I can’t begin to tell you the factors involved in discovering a time of death for this woman,” Dr. Hodges told Craig and Bracken.
They were the only ones down in the hole with him at the moment, other than his assistant. The medical examiner was always supposed to have access to a corpse first—even before police or other law enforcement rifled through the pockets, searching for ID.
“You didn’t touch her, right?” he asked Craig and Bracken.
“Nope. Didn’t even fall into her. I just stared and took pictures,” Craig said.
“And the young lady with you?”
Craig paused a moment. The last thing he could imagine was Kieran searching through the clothing of a corpse.
Especially this corpse.
“No one touched the body,” he said.
Hodges, down on his knees, studying the remains of the woman, shook his head. “This is a hard one. Some of the skin has been dried and basically mummified. Soft tissue...eyes, lips...not sure what else...has been eaten. Bugs, small animals, and we’re not looking at a new body, so the rate of consumption...never mind. I’m going to get her out of here—which will be no easy task either—and start tests at the morgue tomorrow.” He was quiet a minute. “I will say this... I actually recognize the remnants of her jeans. They were extremely popular about a decade ago—I know that because they were by a designer who died a few years back. My daughter wanted a pair in the worst way. I wasn’t about to invest hundreds of dollars in a pair of jeans. That’s not scientific, but...”
“We thought she might have been with the bank robbers,” Craig said.
Bracken walked over and looked up the shaft to the tunnel above. “How’s the hoist going?” he asked.
“Done to your specifications, sir!” someone called from up top. “Ready to pull her up!”
A lightweight metal stretcher with a basket came down. Dr. Hodges watched as it lowered, and then turned to Craig and Bracken.
“Gentlemen, if you would give me a hand. I want to get this tarp beneath her first, and then we lift carefully and get her on the litter.” He hesitated, trying to be careful with his words, and then shrugged. “She’s probably very brittle, in part, at least, and I’d like to get X-rays before...well, before the corpse is injured.”
They managed to get the corpse onto the gurney, and watched as it was carefully and slowly pulled on up. Craig was still helping to steady the pulley when he felt his phone buzz, but he had to wait.
When he pulled out his phone, he found that Kieran had sent him a message. Amazingly he’d had enough reception for it to come through.
“Finn is out walking somewhere on the island. He seemed distressed—told us he wanted to be alone. You might want to see if you can find him.”
He glanced over at Bracken. “You still okay to hang in while the forensic crew comes down?”
“As long as you need,” Bracken assured him.
A rope slid down to help hoist out Dr. Hodges. Craig stepped before him. “May I? Sorry, sir, I need to move here I think.”
“Far be it from me to slow down a fed,” Hodges said, stepping back. “She’s been down here a fair amount of time, as we all can tell, but we’ll still be getting her in tonight, and your boss seems to think we may be finding...something, so autopsy bright and early.”
“Thank you. We’ll be there,” Craig said.
He headed on out to the main level of the tunnel within the caves. The forensic crew—five members—were seated on their own packs or the ground, waiting for their turn below. The tunnel was well lit—they had brought a high-powered work light along with individual headlamps on the helmets they were wearing.
Once outside, even though he moved quickly, he could find no sign of Finn. If he’d left the house and taken the “beach” path, he would have come in Craig’s direction.
But he might have gone up the cliff path.
Almost running, Craig went past the house, heading toward the east side of the island. It was no longer a full moon that illuminated the sky, but it was still generous enough to light the way. Making his way uphill through scruff, rocks and brush, he finally came to the top of the cliff. The area where the cliff jutted high—and out over the rocky eastern shore beneath.
His cousin was standing dangerously close to the edge. Staring out at the darkness of the Atlantic beyond, like a forlorn hero out of a Gothic romance.
Craig jogged toward him.
A bird shrieked high overhead; something large, a hawk or a kite. It was most probably hunting some small creature on the cliff—a mouse perhaps. But it was careening straight toward Finn.
Finn looked up and staggered several steps, avoiding the dive of the bird.
He was almost on the dead edge of the cliff.
“Finn!”
Craig shouted his name and sprinted the last few steps. Leaping, he tackled Finn—and thrust them far from the edge of the cliff, sending them both rolling backward over bracken and rocks.
When they came to a stop, Craig pushed away, staring at Finn with incredulity and fury.
“What the bloody hell were you doing?” he demanded.
Finn looked shaken. “Just...just walking. I swear, Craig—I had no plans on being that close. I wasn’t going to jump over—God help me! I’d never jump. I came... I came to see what might have happened to Frank. Man...”
Craig swore softly, coming to his feet, reaching a hand down to help Finn.
“Don’t do that,” Craig said.
“I’m sorry. I swear. I wasn’t that close. The freaking bird...”
Craig set his hands on his knees, bending over, still catching his breath.
Finn shook his head and repeated softly, “I’m sorry. Um, are you okay?”
“Yeah—fine. Except for the ten years you scared off my life.”
He was surprised to see his words almost brought a smile to his cousin’s lips. “I have a feeling you deal with much worse.”
“Can’t be a hell of a lot worse than it being you,” Craig told him.
Finn suddenly embraced him in a fierce hug. For a moment, Craig stood still, surprised.
Then he returned the hug, disentangled himself and stepped back.
“I think we should head back down. All the way down.”
“The morgue guy is here?”
“Dr. Hodges is here, yes. He’s taking the corpse...they have it up. Her up,” he amended softly.
“Who was she, Craig? What was she doing?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out tomorrow. Hopefully.”
Finn lowered his head and nodded. “Maybe I should get massive bulldozers in here. Level the cliff over the caves, bury—forever—whatever else lies here.”
Craig groaned. “Finn, come on. Let’s get back to the house, take showers and get some sleep. Tomorrow maybe we’ll get some answers that will help us make some sense of this.”
Finn nodded. “Okay. I freaked out a little. You deal with corpses a lot—I don’t. I lost a friend. But I called you because I want justice. Something is going on here. And, so help me, I’m not going to freak out anymore. I’m going to do whatever the hell you need me to do.”
“First, I need you to stay off the damned cliff.”
“I’ll stay off it. I swear.”
“Then...we may have to host a dinner.”
“We have dinner every day. Evie has dinner for whoever needs it.”
“No, I want to have some people out for dinner.”
“People?”
“John Smith—who claims to know how the Vikings brought the Ark here. And a guy named Jay Harding—who thinks that the Ark is here, too, only aliens brought it.”
Finn just stared at him.
“Let’s see what they have to say once they’re here,” Craig said.
He waited until she half walked and was half hauled back up the slope. Then he pulled out his camera to take pictures of the corpse.
The rope came back down. Going back up was no easy deal; getting out of the small hole was even more difficult.
“She was...small, I think. Hard to tell now,” Kieran was telling Bracken. “She could have gotten down on her own, but...how? Why?”
Craig crawled through the hole and made it to his feet.
“Man, that wasn’t easy,” he murmured.
“Hey, you weigh a hell of lot more than she does!” Bracken said.
“Yeah, yeah. We’re going to have to dig this out somehow, though. We’ll never get a team down there if we don’t.”
“I’ll talk to Egan as soon as we’re out of the caves. The team will bring pickaxes. And I assume you’d appreciate the same medical examiner on this.”
Craig nodded.
“What did you see?” Bracken asked him.
Craig shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. The environment of the cave half preserved her—and yet...creatures down there were not kind to her at all.”
“Five to ten years,” Kieran said.
He looked at her. She shrugged. “When your cousin was here, involved with the case at the new Egyptian museum... I spent some time with her. She told me about natural mummification. That poor woman...she’s partially mummified and I’m not an expert, but I think she’s been down there five to ten years.”
Craig looked at Bracken. “Egan is on the way?”
“He has people heading to a boat as we speak.”
Craig nodded, looking at Kieran. “Exploration is over for the day,” he said softly.
She nodded. She looked okay. Just a little pale. He was probably a little pale himself.
“We need to tell Danny and Mike,” she said.
She started walking toward the opening to the caves. He glanced at Bracken.
“I won’t move,” Bracken promised.
“I’ll send the pictures to you and Mike and Egan at the same time,” Craig told him.
Bracken just nodded grimly.
When they reached the entrance, both Mike and Danny were down on the ground. They were covered in dirt, and working away with their trowels.
“Hey, you’re back pretty quickly,” Mike said, rising and trying to dust the dirt from himself. All he managed to do was just smudge it in.
“You found something?” he asked. “More of those brac—those medallion things?”
“Scratches on the wall—and a corpse,” Kieran said.
“What?”
Danny leaped to his feet as well, staring at his sister.
“Bones?” Mike asked.
“No, a corpse. Not...” Kieran’s voice trailed as she looked for the right word. “Fresh?” she said.
“Egan has people on the way,” Craig said. “They’ll be here within the hour, I imagine. You know Egan. When he says jump...”
“I thought we were just getting somewhere,” Danny said. “Can we keep working until they get here?”
“Danny! We just found a woman’s body!” Kieran said.
“Yes, you just found her. But it sounds as if she’s been here a while. Kieran, there’s something here, just below. I tapped the way that Bracken said to—when Mike and I started. And there’s something...we heard it,” Danny said.
“We have some time,” Craig said.
Danny was already back on the ground. Craig didn’t want to forget that they had found someone who had once been a living human being, and who had—one way or another—died alone and in misery.
But he took up a trowel himself.
And began to dig.
Before he knew it, Kieran was down beside him, and then Mike, as well.
“Careful, careful... I can feel it!” Craig said. “No more trowels. Brushes... I’m sure we brought brushes, hell, fingers! But don’t...”
He didn’t need to be giving any instructions. They were all being as careful as possible. Minutes passed.
And more minutes.
“There’s something. There’s definitely something. Maybe... Damn! Maybe a treasure chest,” Mike said. “Or...”
His voice trailed.
Kieran had found a brush. She was working slowly. Painstakingly slowly.
The others sat back.
And something began to appear.
It wasn’t a treasure chest.
It was a stone, buried under less than a foot of packed dirt. Mike shone the light on it.
They all stared.
It was covered in symbols that meant nothing to any of them.
“‘Park horse here,’” Craig murmured softly. “Or...”
He stopped speaking, surprised to hear noises coming from beyond the cave. The forensic crew and perhaps the medical examiner had arrived. They had all become so engrossed in carefully completing their task that none of them had realized the passing of time. They had been at it longer than the half hour or so it took to reach the island from the mainland.
He made an instant decision. “Let’s get it out and covered up,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else knowing what we found.”
Tuesday night
While the forensic team was still down in the cave, Kieran, Danny and Mike sat with the household at the dinner table.
Craig and Bracken had remained behind, overseeing the work.
It was a late dinner. Finn had taken one look at them—all covered in dirt and grime—and put the meal on hold until they’d had a chance to clean up.
This time, Kieran had locked the door when she’d gone in to shower. And, as an added safeguard, she had taken her clothing with her. She wasn’t sure why—there was nothing to be found in her pockets. And she didn’t even really know if someone had been in her room the last time.
At the dinner table, only Mike really seemed to be eating.
Finn was glum, deeply disturbed about yet another death on the island. He’d been shocked to see the boat arriving filled with crime scene technicians.
Margie was quiet, withdrawn as usual.
Only Elayne tried to make conversation. “Here’s the thing, Finn. You mustn’t let this stop you. Your idea is a good one. Turn this island around. The body found today...well, one way or another, it’s been there awhile. Whether a year or twenty years. We had nothing to do with it. Someone was using the island for bad things, and you’re going to make it into something good. It was an old body, right, Kieran?”
“It had definitely been there awhile,” Kieran said. “And, Finn, she’s right—I don’t know how long. I do know that it has been there quite some time. Elayne is right—none of this is your fault.”
“Frank is my fault,” Finn said. “He wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t been for this ridiculous plan of my mine. A body a day,” he said glumly. “So it seems. Maybe I should just give it all up.”
“Finn, no,” Elayne said.
“It is cursed—the island is cursed,” Margie said. She looked around the table and said, “Oh, I am so sorry. I’m like a broken record, a voice of doom.” She took a deep breath. “Finn, I don’t know—I just don’t know. On the one hand, I had felt that you shouldn’t give up. Frank wouldn’t have wanted you to give up. But now, and with my whole heart, I think you should stop. I’m wondering if there is really a curse—and if Frank’s death wasn’t a sign to stop what we’re doing.”
“Thank you, Margie,” Finn said. “I appreciate that sentiment. And I know... I know that none of us are really thinking straight right now. Still...we haven’t managed to accept the fact that Frank is gone, and all this...”
Mike cleared his throat. “Craig and I spoke briefly before Danny, Kieran and I walked back here. He believes we might discover that the dead woman was out here at the same time as the bank robbers. This young woman might have been with them.”
Finn stood suddenly. “Forgive me. Please, enjoy dinner. I’m just not very social this evening.”
Elayne started to rise as well. Finn set a hand on her shoulder. “No, sweetheart, stay here. Finish eating.”
“I’m not very hungry, really,” Elayne said.
“Forgive me, I need to be alone,” he told her. He smiled tightly. “Please don’t worry. I do appreciate you and how hard you’re trying to help me—come up to the room in a bit.”
Finn left the dining room. Kieran could have sworn that he didn’t go upstairs; she was certain that she heard the front door open and close.
A moment later, Evie came into the room. “Where is Finn?”
“He, uh, needed a walk, I guess,” Mike offered.
“Evie,” Danny said. “You have done an outstanding job, as usual. But you’ll have to excuse us, too. Kieran, I’ve got to put a call into Declan about the event at the pub. He’s going to want to talk to you, as well.”
“Of course,” Kieran said, rising. “We’ll call from my room. We have great reception there.”
Mike arched a brow. He must have known they’d fill him in later.
On what, Kieran didn’t know.
But Danny wanted her.
They fled the dining room and hurried up the stairs. Kieran followed Danny into his room, and he closed the door. “Someone was in my room,” he said quietly. “While I was in the shower. I’m not being paranoid.”
“And I thought someone was in mine...and I know Evie was up here earlier. Danny, I know you handed your maps over to Craig and Bracken, but is there anything else in here that someone would want?”
“My computer, but it’s well protected,” he said.
She pulled out her phone. “I’m texting Craig.”
“Craig can’t do anything right now. He’s knee deep in...a half-mummified corpse!”
“I want him to know that Finn went out.”
“Finn might just be in his room.”
“I’m pretty sure that Finn went outside. That he’s walking around the island. It may or may not be important, but I want Craig to know.”
* * *
“I can’t begin to tell you the factors involved in discovering a time of death for this woman,” Dr. Hodges told Craig and Bracken.
They were the only ones down in the hole with him at the moment, other than his assistant. The medical examiner was always supposed to have access to a corpse first—even before police or other law enforcement rifled through the pockets, searching for ID.
“You didn’t touch her, right?” he asked Craig and Bracken.
“Nope. Didn’t even fall into her. I just stared and took pictures,” Craig said.
“And the young lady with you?”
Craig paused a moment. The last thing he could imagine was Kieran searching through the clothing of a corpse.
Especially this corpse.
“No one touched the body,” he said.
Hodges, down on his knees, studying the remains of the woman, shook his head. “This is a hard one. Some of the skin has been dried and basically mummified. Soft tissue...eyes, lips...not sure what else...has been eaten. Bugs, small animals, and we’re not looking at a new body, so the rate of consumption...never mind. I’m going to get her out of here—which will be no easy task either—and start tests at the morgue tomorrow.” He was quiet a minute. “I will say this... I actually recognize the remnants of her jeans. They were extremely popular about a decade ago—I know that because they were by a designer who died a few years back. My daughter wanted a pair in the worst way. I wasn’t about to invest hundreds of dollars in a pair of jeans. That’s not scientific, but...”
“We thought she might have been with the bank robbers,” Craig said.
Bracken walked over and looked up the shaft to the tunnel above. “How’s the hoist going?” he asked.
“Done to your specifications, sir!” someone called from up top. “Ready to pull her up!”
A lightweight metal stretcher with a basket came down. Dr. Hodges watched as it lowered, and then turned to Craig and Bracken.
“Gentlemen, if you would give me a hand. I want to get this tarp beneath her first, and then we lift carefully and get her on the litter.” He hesitated, trying to be careful with his words, and then shrugged. “She’s probably very brittle, in part, at least, and I’d like to get X-rays before...well, before the corpse is injured.”
They managed to get the corpse onto the gurney, and watched as it was carefully and slowly pulled on up. Craig was still helping to steady the pulley when he felt his phone buzz, but he had to wait.
When he pulled out his phone, he found that Kieran had sent him a message. Amazingly he’d had enough reception for it to come through.
“Finn is out walking somewhere on the island. He seemed distressed—told us he wanted to be alone. You might want to see if you can find him.”
He glanced over at Bracken. “You still okay to hang in while the forensic crew comes down?”
“As long as you need,” Bracken assured him.
A rope slid down to help hoist out Dr. Hodges. Craig stepped before him. “May I? Sorry, sir, I need to move here I think.”
“Far be it from me to slow down a fed,” Hodges said, stepping back. “She’s been down here a fair amount of time, as we all can tell, but we’ll still be getting her in tonight, and your boss seems to think we may be finding...something, so autopsy bright and early.”
“Thank you. We’ll be there,” Craig said.
He headed on out to the main level of the tunnel within the caves. The forensic crew—five members—were seated on their own packs or the ground, waiting for their turn below. The tunnel was well lit—they had brought a high-powered work light along with individual headlamps on the helmets they were wearing.
Once outside, even though he moved quickly, he could find no sign of Finn. If he’d left the house and taken the “beach” path, he would have come in Craig’s direction.
But he might have gone up the cliff path.
Almost running, Craig went past the house, heading toward the east side of the island. It was no longer a full moon that illuminated the sky, but it was still generous enough to light the way. Making his way uphill through scruff, rocks and brush, he finally came to the top of the cliff. The area where the cliff jutted high—and out over the rocky eastern shore beneath.
His cousin was standing dangerously close to the edge. Staring out at the darkness of the Atlantic beyond, like a forlorn hero out of a Gothic romance.
Craig jogged toward him.
A bird shrieked high overhead; something large, a hawk or a kite. It was most probably hunting some small creature on the cliff—a mouse perhaps. But it was careening straight toward Finn.
Finn looked up and staggered several steps, avoiding the dive of the bird.
He was almost on the dead edge of the cliff.
“Finn!”
Craig shouted his name and sprinted the last few steps. Leaping, he tackled Finn—and thrust them far from the edge of the cliff, sending them both rolling backward over bracken and rocks.
When they came to a stop, Craig pushed away, staring at Finn with incredulity and fury.
“What the bloody hell were you doing?” he demanded.
Finn looked shaken. “Just...just walking. I swear, Craig—I had no plans on being that close. I wasn’t going to jump over—God help me! I’d never jump. I came... I came to see what might have happened to Frank. Man...”
Craig swore softly, coming to his feet, reaching a hand down to help Finn.
“Don’t do that,” Craig said.
“I’m sorry. I swear. I wasn’t that close. The freaking bird...”
Craig set his hands on his knees, bending over, still catching his breath.
Finn shook his head and repeated softly, “I’m sorry. Um, are you okay?”
“Yeah—fine. Except for the ten years you scared off my life.”
He was surprised to see his words almost brought a smile to his cousin’s lips. “I have a feeling you deal with much worse.”
“Can’t be a hell of a lot worse than it being you,” Craig told him.
Finn suddenly embraced him in a fierce hug. For a moment, Craig stood still, surprised.
Then he returned the hug, disentangled himself and stepped back.
“I think we should head back down. All the way down.”
“The morgue guy is here?”
“Dr. Hodges is here, yes. He’s taking the corpse...they have it up. Her up,” he amended softly.
“Who was she, Craig? What was she doing?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out tomorrow. Hopefully.”
Finn lowered his head and nodded. “Maybe I should get massive bulldozers in here. Level the cliff over the caves, bury—forever—whatever else lies here.”
Craig groaned. “Finn, come on. Let’s get back to the house, take showers and get some sleep. Tomorrow maybe we’ll get some answers that will help us make some sense of this.”
Finn nodded. “Okay. I freaked out a little. You deal with corpses a lot—I don’t. I lost a friend. But I called you because I want justice. Something is going on here. And, so help me, I’m not going to freak out anymore. I’m going to do whatever the hell you need me to do.”
“First, I need you to stay off the damned cliff.”
“I’ll stay off it. I swear.”
“Then...we may have to host a dinner.”
“We have dinner every day. Evie has dinner for whoever needs it.”
“No, I want to have some people out for dinner.”
“People?”
“John Smith—who claims to know how the Vikings brought the Ark here. And a guy named Jay Harding—who thinks that the Ark is here, too, only aliens brought it.”
Finn just stared at him.
“Let’s see what they have to say once they’re here,” Craig said.
