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Authors: Jill Churchill

Tags: #Mystery, #Historical

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BOOK: Who's Sorry Now?
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“Yes," Harry said. "They were dying of drought.”

“But the bushes look ancient. How did they suddenly die of drought?"

“Miss Brewster," Harry said very politely, "haven't you noticed how little rain we've had the last couple years?"

“We never knew. We haven't been here for decades like some people in Voorburg," Robert said. Thinking this might have sounded surly, he amended, "I wish we had."

“Why did you cut off all the branches and leave the trunks?" Lily asked.

“Because we're going to take the trunks out by themselves," Harry said. "Hook them up to the truck with ropes and pull them out. We'll bring some gravel in for drainage when it starts to rain again. If you want new shrubs here, plant them farther away from the foundation so they get more water."

“Good advice," Lily said.

“What's that smell?" Jim said, looking at Lily as he stood beside her.

“Me," Lily said. "Or rather my dog. She rolled in some dead creature and I just bathed her, but I haven't washed the stench off myself yet.”

Harry said, "Jim, quit embarrassing Miss Brewster and help me with digging out around these stumps, tying a chain around them so we can haul them to the dump.”

Lily and Robert stood back to watch as the first stump was jerked out of the ground.

“Oh, how horrible!" she exclaimed as the big root ball was dragged a few feet away. "That's the skeleton of someone's hand sticking out of the roots." She sat down on the ground, breathing hard to keep from fainting.

Chief Walker was there in fifteen minutes. He'd looked at the hand and told the Harbinger boys to find a tarp to cover the hole. "Nobody touch anything. I'm going to call for some experts.”

Chief Walker was lucky. He found two experts that were attending a professional meeting in Fishkill. There was a pathologist from Alb
an
y and an anthropologist from New York City with a bag of tools he'd been using to demonstrate techniques of detailed, careful investigation.

On Tuesday they were both at Grace and Favor. The pathologist, a Dr. Meredith, was all for simply digging up the rest of the bones as quickly as possible so he could examine them. The anthropologist disagreed. "Haste in such a case is wrong. He or she has been here a long time. There is no hurry and valuable hints might be lost.”

He introduced himself as Dr. Sam Toller and set about getting out his equipment from a bag he'd brought along. He was a long-limbed, sandy-haired man in his late thirties. He had a perpetual smile.

The hole wasn't terribly deep and he and the Harbinger boys got flat on their stomachs with tiny trowels and small brushes he'd brought in the bag. "It's a good thing this is loose soil. It won't take long. All I need is the skull and pelvis to determine the age and sex of the victim.”

Chief Walker was assigned to sit behind them with an assortment of paper bags in a variety of sizes. Robert went inside, fearing what nasty things might be revealed, but Lily stayed back, fascinated once she'd gotten over the shock. It was tedious work as the expert and the Harbingers kept delicately scooping away soil. Lily was assigned to sift the dirt in a set of sieves. First with large holes, then smaller ones, and then very fine ones. She was the first to notice the beads.

“Get someone to bring a big pot of warm water, would you, miss?" Dr. Toller said with excitement.

Dr. Meredith was impatient, but had found a bench not far away to sit and read a textbook he'd had in his automobile.

Robert was quick to return with a pot. The beads were swished gently and then the water was poured back out through the finest sieve. The beads turned out to be rather pretty balls about the size of a child's fingernail. They were various shades of brown, green, dark red, orange, and yellow, and had holes through them. "Whatever they were strung on at one time has been dissolved. They've been fired to make them this hard and durable," Dr. Toller said. "We'll keep sieving them.”

The next discovery was a bit of leather about the size of a postage stamp. Toller said, "Probably deerskin that's been heavily oiled or beeswaxed. Otherwise it would have rotted.”

Are we talking about an Indian?" Chief Walker asked.

“Most likely. If it had been a white hunter, there probably wouldn't be the beads," Dr. Toller said. "We're progressing well. But I imagine everybody's hungry. At least I am."

“If Mrs. Prinney were here she'd make us lunch," Lily said.

“Let's just pack up and go to town to Mabel's," Chief Walker said.

Everybody went along, Chief Walker with the pathologist and the anthropologist in his police car. Robert, Lily, and the Harbinger boys in the Duesie. They discussed what had already been found with various levels of interest. Lily and Harry were the most enthusiastic about what they might learn about the skeleton. Jim was a bit bored with the chore of sifting and brushing around dirt when there were other things he and his brother needed to do for other customers.

Robert didn't want to see the rest of the bones. "Bones and bagworms all in one day," he said with a shudder. "It's too much to bear.”

Lily said, "You've always been afraid of things in nature. Remember the day we first came here and you admitted that you were afraid of trees?"

“I never said that," Robert claimed.

“Yes, you did," Lily said, laughing and gently poking her elbow into his ribs.

Since Lily was right, he didn't pursue the conversation.

CHAPTER SIX

REFRESHED BY A HEARTY LUNCH,
the anthropologist, Dr. Toller, was eager to unearth the rest of the skeleton. "I can see the front and top of the skull now and it's a young person," he said, addressing his remarks to Lily because she seemed the most interested. After delivering the pathologist and anthropologist, Chief Walker had left to investigate a house that had been broken into.

“How can you tell?" Lily asked Dr. Toller.

“By the way the various parts of skull come together. They don't entirely knit together until a person is close to eighteen or twenty. I'd guess the subject was perhaps early teens. Possibly as young as fifteen or even younger."

“You can't tell anything else from the skull?”

“Yes, the teeth indicate it's an American Indian."

“They have different teeth?"

“Yes, the front ones are 'shoveled.' That means that they—" He thought for a moment how to describe it to a stranger. "The calcium they're made of goes around the sides and they are a bit concave at the back. Sort of like a little shovel."

“That's fascinating. I'd have never guessed front teeth weren't always the same," Lily responded.

He nearly preened. It wasn't often that an attractive young woman found his information interesting. He'd never had a young woman sign up for his classes, and most of the young men who took the class did so because they thought it would be easy to get a good grade. He'd only had two young men, on average, each year, who seemed genuinely interested in the subject that fascinated him.

“What's more," he went on, knowing he was showing off, "the molars, as far as I can
see
before the skull is totally released from the soil where it is resting, aren't worn down at all.”

And what does that mean?"

“Most of the tribes in this part of the country ate a lot of corn, ground to powder between two stones. Some of the stone dust gets into it. It gradually files down the molars. But let's get back to work. I'll try to get the entire skull out. And Harry and Jim, you can get on with pulling the other stump out. But go easy, if you can. We don't want to destroy any evidence.”

The Harbinger brothers soon eased the stump out of its hole with the chain and the truck. Dr. Toller looked over the bottom of the ball of roots and said, "There don't seem to be any bones attached to this one. But just put it aside. I want to look more carefully at it later.”

He stared into the hole, obviously anxious to see what they'd find under the dirt. But he doggedly went back to unearthing the skull.

Harry thought this was interesting, but even he was becoming a bit annoyed at how long it was taking. He'd expected to be finished with this easy job in one morning and then get back to other higher-paying jobs. They had two people right now waiting for Harry and Jim—one with a sagging, dangerous porch, and another customer with a leaking roof.

When Emmaline Prinney arrived, flushed with victory, the bake sale having made a record amount of money, she was slightly alarmed by all the people in front of Grace and Favor, most of them looking at two holes. One of the two people she didn't recognize was on his stomach doing something in the hole.

As she watched, he pulled up a big ball of dirt, washed it off in a bucket, and brought out a dirty skull.

She joined the group and touched Lily's arm. "What in the world is going on here?"

“The Harbinger boys pulled up a stump of a bush yesterday, and there was a skeletal hand sticking out of the roots. Didn't anyone tell you?"

“No. I guess I was in the kitchen baking all day. Why didn't anyone mention it over dinner?"

“I don't know," Lily apologized. "I guess we were all just too hungry to mention it."

“I'll need to go back to town to get things to make late-afternoon sandwiches for this crowd," Mrs. Prinney said, not sounding the least put out. She always loved to feed a crowd.

Dr. Toller was happily examining the skull. "No damage. He or she wasn't struck on the head." Then he started carefully removing the rib cage and the upper part of the spine. Washing them off, setting them down in order on a paper bag. He said to Lily, "They have to dry before I can number them for bagging.”

Lily was once again struck by how very cheerful he was about this. But the day was turning dark and a cold breeze had sprung up so she went inside for a while. Watching a rib cage dry wasn't really all that interesting.

Mrs. Prinney wasn't the only resident of Grace and Favor who had an obsession. Hers was cooking, but Mimi's great love was cleaning. Even as a child of seven, her late mother had cleaned for Mr. Horatio's aunt Flora and sometimes let Mimi come along. When Flora Brewster died, and left the house to Mr. Horatio, he kept Mimi and her mother on. After Horatio died, Mimi's mother had passed on, and the new Brewster brother and sister moved in. By then, she'd loved cleaning. She'd cover most of her curly platinum blond hair in a bright kerchief and she always wore an apron when she worked.

When Mrs. Prinney asked Mimi to tidy up the big room at the far end of the second floor for the pathologist and the
an
thropologist, she added, "Then take away their clothes and brush them out. They're both muddy and may not have brought along a change of attire.”

Naturally Mimi didn't need to clean the rooms. She dusted and shook out the rugs almost every day anyway. And she couldn't clean their clothes until they changed what they were wearing.

Mrs. Prinney naturally provided the late-afternoon snack and invited the two strangers to join them for dinner and stay the night.

“Harry
an
d
Jim," she added, "you two are welcome to stay for dinner as well."

“Thank you, Mrs. Prinney, but Mom has planned a roast for dinner," Harry said.

“Thank you, too," his brother Jim whispered when they were alone for a few minutes. "I'm sick of this job
an
d
these scientifIc fellows."

“I think it's interesting. But I don't want to be roped into more work today. Nor tomorrow for that matter. We have other jobs we promised to do and they expect us to show up when we said we would.”

After dinner, Robert quietly alerted Mr. Prinney
an
d
Lily that he wanted a private meeting with them. Mr. Prinney didn't ask why, but his curiosity was clear.

Mrs. Prinney and Mimi were tending to the two guests, both of whom had a change of clothes so Mimi could just brush up and press the things they'd worn all day; Chief Walker had gone to his office in town to clear up some paperwork; Mrs. Tarkington had retired early to read a book; and Phoebe was in her own room turning up a hem for one of her best customers. Mrs. Prinney was already preparing a dessert for the next day.

Lily and Robert could count on getting Mr. Prinneyto themselves, where in the library the threesome would not be disturbed.

But just in case, Robert suggested that Mr. Prinney lock the door from the inside for a short time.

“Why is that?" the attorney asked.

“You'll see in a moment," Robert said.

Robert had gone in earlier in the day, again picking the lock where the books he'd discovered yesterday filled with money—were. He'd shut the glass door, but had done so carefully so that the lock didn't engage. He signaled to Mr. Prinney to come close
an
d
opened the door.

“You found a key?" Mr. Prinney exclaimed.

“Not exactly. I found another way to open it. I want you to look at two of these books. He selected the two that he and Lily had examined and put them on the big table in the middle of the room. "Open them, please."

“Good heavens! I--I hardly know what to say. I always believed these were all real books," Mr. Prinney said.

“Maybe the rest of them are," Lily said.

Mr. Prinney closed both books. "Did you count the money in these?"

“We didn't have time," Robe
rt
said.

Mr. Prinney moved to one of the comfortable chairs by the French doors to the balcony outside. He sat silently for a long time, and both siblings kept a good eye on him, wondering what he was thinking.

Finally Mr. Prinney tented his fingers and said, "I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed."

“What is there to be disappointed about?"

“Your great-uncle didn't live here very long between his Aunt Flora's death and his own, but as soon as he moved to Voorburg, he put all his financial matters in my hands. Then later, he had me write his will. I thought I knew about all his assets, but he never mentioned the money in the fake books. I knew he'd sold all his stock early in 1929. That was when he bought the then-fertile farms in the Midwest, and the extensive properties near Los Angeles. Later he mentioned that he should have waited until later because the stock market hit its all-time high a month or two before the Crash. I suspect now that he did hold on to some of it until then and took the money in cash.”

BOOK: Who's Sorry Now?
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