Skye Cree 02: The Bones Will Tell (27 page)

“That’s a scary thought,” Leo tossed out. “How many bodies are we looking for anyway?”

“Let’s hope none. But we at least need to check this place off the list first, and see if we can find out what happened to Elena and Frank Senior? Right now, that’s what we think. The couple is here—somewhere.” Josh pushed up the glass, and went through the frame first. A dank, musty smell hit him almost immediately. “Stay here while I go unlock the back door.”

“Not me,” Skye said. “Where you go, I go,” she reiterated as she leveraged herself up and Josh pulled her the rest of the way through the window.

Leo reluctantly followed by crawling through the opening.

After dusting off her jeans, Skye looked around the room at the lime green and gold décor that looked like it hadn’t been upgraded since the 1970s. “Wow, talk about retro.”

Josh went over and opened the closet door. “Women’s clothing, men’s suits, still on hangers.”

Skye pulled open a couple of dresser drawers.
“Same with the underwear and socks. Wherever they went, they traveled mighty light.”

“They never packed. A seven-piece set of matching Samsonite is still stored here in a layer of dust covering the leather,” Josh said before picking up a man’s Rolex still on the nightstand. “This watch must be twenty years old, ran out of battery life a long time ago.”

“That’s a brand-new mattress on this bed,” Skye pointed out. “It looks as though it’s right off the showroom. Come on. We need to check out the rest of this crypt because I’m beginning to think your hunch is right on the money.”

With that, Skye left the bedroom and progressed down a long hallway, checking out each room as she went.

But while the three of them took the tour around the rambling single-story home, a foul odor kept nagging in the air as strong as solid waste. As soon as they reached the back part of the house, the smell grew worse.

The stench was so overpowering, Skye looked around to see Leo’s face turn green right before he looked like he wanted to puke.

“Look guys, I hate to bail on you but I can’t take this smell. I’ve always had a weak stomach. I’ve gotta have some fresh air,” Leo mumbled.

“Head outside then,” Josh told the kid. “You might as well use the front door. We’ll take it from here.” Josh turned to make sure Skye was okay with that.
“Right?”

She nodded as she watched Leo take off for the front of the house and all but scurry outside. “I might want to gag but I’m not leaving you in here alone. You getting anything?” she wanted to know.

“Oh yeah. That disgusting odor is the same as in my vision, the one I had that night after the sweat lodge. I’ve never gotten past the way Kiya made sure I could recognize the scent.”

“There’s something evil here,” Skye determined after taking in another shallow inhale of the fetid air. “Let’s get this show on the road. Kiya, where are you? Take us to what it is you want us to see.”

About that time the wolf began to take shape and then shifted into a physical animal. Kiya sniffed the air and trotted toward the area just off the kitchen, stopped when she reached a door. The wolf pawed at the wood first, and then sat, waiting.

“Please tell me that doesn’t lead down to the basement,” Skye uttered with a certain amount of dread gathering in her throat making it difficult to speak.

“You mean the bunker,” Josh corrected as he turned the handle. The door creaked back to bump the wall. The odor of decomposition hit him in such measures that it devastated the sinuses. Josh eyed the look on Skye’s face, the sick green color that matched Leo’s. “You want to stay up here? It’s fine by me.”

“At the risk of being labeled a wuss, I believe I do. But like I said before, I’m not letting you do this alone. Kiya, you take point. We’ll follow.” Skye hefted the flashlight and said, “Let’s go.”

Josh sucked in a breath as Kiya took off down the stairs. “Any presence down there has more than likely had the life drained out of it a long time ago.”

“That’s certainly making me feel better, Josh. Not.”

“Sorry. Let’s just get this over with.”

Josh followed Kiya,
then Skye trailed behind both of them, shining the light as she went. But about halfway down, something made her stop. It wasn’t that the stairs were scary or that the smell made her gag. That ship had already sailed. But the farther down she went into the darkness, the image from her vision flashed into her brain. She knew then, with one hundred percent certainty what lay within the walls, somewhere in that basement. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to be a part of it.

Ahead of her, Josh got the same sense and held up his hand. He waved her away. “I get you. Now go back, Skye. This is totally unnecessary for you to do this.
This
is what Kiya wants
me
to see. For a reason.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Now head back upstairs.”

“Okay.
But Josh?”

“What?”

“Be careful.”

“You know I will. I’ve got Kiya.”

Grudgingly she dashed back up the steps. As soon as she reached the top, she yelled back down, “Just because I’m not down there with you though doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel free to give me the play-by-play.”

But Josh had already disappeared into the cavern of the basement and whatever loomed in its dark belly.

Josh followed Kiya
into an open area that could only be described as opulent survivalist style. Oak flooring was the first clue. The computer station complete with desk was the second. An eating area consisted of a table with six chairs accessorized in leather seats. Something one didn’t always expect to see in a shelter built for the end of the world.

A generously-sized kitchen had been outfitted with all the home appliances needed during an apocalypse. Storage bins held every variety of canned goods along with a supply of military MREs enough to last a year and maybe beyond through any major natural disaster.

After checking out two bathrooms with working toilets, one on each end of the length of the house, Josh veered off the main room to where three separate sleeping areas had been partitioned off by thin walls for privacy. Each contained comfy queen-sized beds.

Circling back to the living area, Josh noticed a TV set covered with cobwebs. It had once been designated for double duty—one to get news of the impending doom to come—and two to act as a security monitor.

Outfitting the entire bunker had to cost a cool million, Josh decided as he turned to Kiya. “Where do we look? Show me where you want me to start.”

The wolf trotted over to another supply room off the kitchen. In the back beside a crapload of medical supplies, Josh spotted a wire rack. An assortment of animal heads lined the shelves. Some were stored in jars. “No doubt Frank’s personal trophy room as a child. Okay, now we’re getting warmer.”

Kiya suddenly reversed her course though to head over to an area Josh had missed. She pawed at a newly plastered section of sheetrock next to a generator and a washer and dryer. This time, Josh could tell it was fresher than the rest of the wall because no one had bothered slapping paint here.

He looked around for anything he could use to bash in the drywall. A sledgehammer would’ve come in handy right about now, he thought. When he found nothing but a broom, he simply kicked through the gypsum with his foot. It didn’t take long for him to realize it was a phony wall. It took him a few minutes longer to completely knock away all the plasterboard.

Behind the jagged panels were three sets of mummified remains, complete with grotesque-looking skulls similar to those one might see in a horror movie.

The skulls stared back at him just like in his dream.

At one time, the bodies had been propped up inside their tomb in a space no larger than five feet across and back. What clothes Josh could make out were in tatters. One body with longer auburn hair still attached, a female by the look of the hair, appeared to be wearing a flowing, blue night gown. A white shirt and blue jeans hung loosely on the bones from the second set of skeletal remains in the middle. The third skull had graying black hair still visible, a pair of pale blue pajamas draped over the bones.

There was enough difference in the decomposition of the man placed in the middle so that Josh could tell he’d been added well after the other two.

On closer inspection, when Josh leaned his head into the opening, he spotted the bullet holes in each skull. Cocking his head, he noticed a crumpled piece of paper, wadded up next to the feet of the woman. Gingerly, he stuck his hand in and snatched up what was now as brittle as parchment.

Carefully Josh unfolded what looked like a legal document. Reading over the words, paragraph by paragraph, it explained a lot.

Fifteen long minutes
went by and had Skye pacing at the top with her shirt covering her nose and mouth. All this time, she’d heard nothing except the house settling. Nerves edged up, starting at her fingertips and ran along her arms. Finally she inched toward the dimly lit landing again. Still met with an eerie, hollow silence, she finally shouted down into the vast darkness, “Josh, come on, answer me.”

Skye held her breath, her hand over her nose, trying to deal with the stench that seemed to get worse all of a sudden. As she continued to peer into the basement, she saw no movement, not even a shadow. “Come on, Josh. Don’t make me come down there.”

“You sound like my mother,” Josh finally returned as he climbed the stairs with Kiya in the lead. “Stop right where you are. You don’t want to come down here, Skye.”

“What’s wrong? What is it?”

“Frank’s own personal hellhole.”

Josh guided Skye
out of the house and onto the front porch, describing what he’d seen as he went. “Someone walled up Elena and Frank Senior. Looks like they didn’t offer much in the way of resistance. By the looks of their clothes, I’d say they were shot in their sleep. Who the other guy is though, is anyone’s guess?”

“
The bones will tell
,” Skye muttered. “Something definitive, something tangible, that links directly back to Frank. That’s what Kiya wanted us to know.”

Josh nodded. “Those bones tell us exactly what we needed. Frank’s a sick bastard and has been for a very long time.”

“How do we explain being here, Josh?”