Buried Bones (Widow's Island Novella) Read online

  ALSO BY MELINDA LEIGH

  Bree Taggert Novels

  Cross Her Heart

  See Her Die

  Drown Her Sorrows

  Right Behind Her

  Morgan Dane Novels

  Say You’re Sorry

  Her Last Goodbye

  Bones Don’t Lie

  What I’ve Done

  Secrets Never Die

  Save Your Breath

  Scarlet Falls Novels

  Hour of Need

  Minutes to Kill

  Seconds to Live

  She Can Series

  She Can Run

  She Can Tell

  She Can Scream

  She Can Hide

  “He Can Fall” (short story)

  She Can Kill

  Midnight Novels

  Midnight Exposure

  Midnight Sacrifice

  Midnight Betrayal

  Midnight Obsession

  The Rogue Series Novellas

  Gone to Her Grave (Rogue River)

  Walking on Her Grave (Rogue River)

  Tracks of Her Tears (Rogue Winter)

  Burned by Her Devotion (Rogue Vows)

  Twisted Truth (Rogue Justice)

  The Widow’s Island Novella Series

  A Bone to Pick

  Whisper of Bones

  A Broken Bone

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2021 by Melinda Leigh

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  e-ISBN-13: 9781542029636

  Cover design by Caroline Teagle Johnson

  CONTENTS

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  1

  Deputy Tessa Black rounded a bend in the trail and recoiled at a whiff of decomposition.

  Hiking at her side, her teenage sister, Patience, held her nose. “Smells like something died.”

  Tessa scanned the woods on either side of the path but saw nothing. “Probably an animal.”

  Patience shrugged and kept walking. She was a Pacific Northwest girl and loved hiking, camping, kayaking, and almost any other outdoor activity. She’d spent enough time in the woods to have seen dead animals before.

  The trail widened to a plateau, giving them a view of Widow’s Bay. They were near the top of Crone Mountain. In the rough center of Bishop State Park, the mountain’s peak was the highest point on Widow’s Island. In the open, the wind swept away the foul odor, leaving behind the smell of the sea, earth, and pine.

  “This never gets old.” Tessa sighed, taking in the view. The bay was flat as a mirror, and a sailboat bobbed just off the rocky shore.

  Widow’s Island sat off the coast of Washington State. Winters were temperate. Summers were bliss. The temperature rarely rose above a pleasant seventy-five degrees. At ten o’clock in the morning in mid-July, the shade of the forest was cool.

  Tessa glanced at her sister. Patience was nearly two decades younger than Tessa. Technically, they were half sisters, but Tessa didn’t care for the distinction. Patience was her only sibling—and someday would be her only family.

  At the rate their mother’s illness was progressing, that someday would be here sooner rather than later. Tessa swallowed the grief clogging her throat. Their mom rarely recognized her younger daughter. Early-onset dementia had already robbed Patience of her mother.

  “Thanks for coming with me today,” Tessa said.

  “This is fun.” Patience pulled her water bottle from the slot on the side of her pack. She took a long drink, not meeting Tessa’s gaze. Normally, her little sister was much chattier. Was something wrong?

  Worry bubbled up inside Tessa. “Do you mind that Logan is living with us?”

  Until recently, both of their lives had revolved around managing their mother and doing their best to keep her safe. Tessa’s fiancé, Logan Wilde, had moved in with them in May, pitching in with Mom’s care and allowing Patience more time to be a teenager instead of a caregiver. He regularly volunteered to hang out with Mom so Tessa could exercise and she and Patience could have some sister-bonding time. This morning, Tessa was pleased not to be winded after several hours on a fairly steep trail. Two months ago, she would have been out of breath.

  “What’s not to like?” Patience shifted the day pack on her back. “He fixes everything. He’s great with Mom. Even Killer Hen likes him.”

  Tessa laughed. “Why does that chicken hate me?”

  “No idea, but it’s hilarious.” Patience turned away from the view, still avoiding eye contact.

  “How’s school?” Tessa followed her sister back into the forest.

  “Fine.”

  “Is there anything you need to talk about?”

  “No.” Patience walked faster.

  The path narrowed, forcing them to walk single file, and Tessa let it go. All she could do was be available. She couldn’t force her sister to talk.

  They were hiking little-used, rougher trails, hoping to avoid tourists. The wind shifted, and the smell of rotting flesh wafted over them again.

  “Wow.” Patience coughed.

  “Yeah.” Tessa stopped.

  “What’re you doing?” Patience asked.

  “Just curious. Wait here.”

  Patience shoved her hands into the kangaroo pocket of her sweatshirt. “It’s probably a deer or something.”

  With no remaining land predators, black-tailed deer had overrun Widow’s Island.

  “Probably.” Tessa followed her nose off the trail. The space between Tessa’s shoulder blades itched, and the hairs on the back of her neck lifted. She knew humans were naturally repelled by the scent of death, but her experience with homicides drew her in. She stepped into the underbrush and spotted a small clearing a few yards deeper into the woods. She trudged toward it, then halted at the perimeter. The area was approximately ten feet across. Pine needles and dead leaves carpeted the ground. Weeds bloomed around a tree stump in the center. A ray of sunshine streamed through the break in the canopy and highlighted the stump.

  The smell intensified as she moved closer.

  Underbrush snagged her hiking pants as she moved toward the open space. The toe of her boot caught on a tree root. Tessa pitched forward, landing on her hands and knees and expelling air in an audible “Oof!”

  “You okay?” Patience called out from the trail.

  “Fine.” Tessa looked down at her boot and froze. She hadn’t tripped over a tree root.

  A hand seemed to reach out from under a pile of dead leaves. Tessa followed the outstretched arm with her gaze. The rest of the body lay in a shallow depression. Enough time had passed that she couldn’t tell if the depression had been carved out naturally or by hand.

  Not a deer.

  The remains were partially buried and mostly skeletal, but enough was visible that Tessa could plainly see they were human.

  Animals had been at the body, and the earth around it had been disturbed. One lower leg was missing. The remaining foot had lost some of
its small bones, as had the hands. The wind shifted, intensifying the smell, though it wasn’t as overwhelming as that of a body at the peak of putrefaction.

  Tessa had seen—and smelled—worse. Bloated bodies, floaters, and fire victims were the hardest to endure. This body was mainly decomposed. Animals, insects, and bacteria had consumed most of the flesh. Blackened skin stretched over some of the bones.

  “What is it?” Foliage rustled as Patience moved into the trees.

  “Stay on the trail!” Tessa’s voice was sharper than she’d intended.

  But it was too late. Patience had already followed her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Oh, my god.”

  “Don’t look.” Tessa clambered to her feet, making sure she didn’t trample evidence but simultaneously trying to put her body between her little sister and the corpse.

  “Was that a person?” Patience’s voice sounded distressed but solid. She was made of tougher stuff than Tessa had realized, which was how Patience had survived the last couple of years.

  “Yes,” Tessa answered without taking her eyes off the remains. She checked her phone for reception. No bars. She retreated over her own path to minimize contamination of the scene. She steered her sister away from the remains. “It’s awful. No need for you to get a better look.”

  “I’m okay,” Patience protested.

  “I know, but trust me. There are things you can’t unsee, even if you want to.” Tessa linked their arms and guided her sister back to the trail. “Besides, I need to go back to the plateau for cell service. Do you have something we can use to mark this turnoff?”

  Patience swung her backpack in front of her and opened the zipper. She held out a red T-shirt. Tessa took it and knotted it around a branch. Then they walked back to the plateau. Tessa called Logan and told him about the body. “Can you get someone to babysit Mom?”

  As the forest ranger in charge of Bishop State Park, Logan needed to be on site. “I’ll call my grandmother.”

  Jane Sutton ran the Widow’s Island Knitting and Activist group. The organization kept Widow’s Island functioning like a slightly rusty machine. The members took turns sitting with Tessa’s mother while Tessa worked. It was as if the entire island was working hard to keep Mom at home as long as possible.

  “I’ll call Henry. Could you bring him up here?” Tessa gave Logan directions to the body. “I’ll also need an evidence-collection kit.”

  “I’m on it.” Logan ended the call.

  Tessa opened her contacts and called Henry Powers, the only doctor on Widow’s Island. When he’d purchased his practice, he’d unknowingly also taken on the job of coroner.

  “I’ll be ready when Logan gets here,” Henry said. “I’m packing my kit now.”

  Tessa ended the call and turned her attention to her sister. “Are you okay?”

  Patience was a little pale, but she seemed to be handling the situation okay. “Did someone get lost or hurt?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s my job to find out what happened.” Tessa sat on a rock to wait. Only three deputies were stationed on the small island, and Tessa was the only one with prior experience in a big-city department.

  Patience perched next to her and rested her head on Tessa’s shoulder.

  Tessa put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry our hike was ruined.”

  “It’s not your fault. It’s your job.”

  Once again, Tessa was reminded that the past few years had matured her little sister well beyond her years. But mature or not, she was still a teenager. So Tessa waited with her sister instead of returning to examine the body.

  An hour later, Logan’s voice boomed through the trees. “Tessa?”

  “Here.” Tessa stood.

  Logan appeared on the same trail Tessa and Patience had used. Though he was no longer in the military, he had maintained his fitness, and his black hair was still shorn close to his head. He wore his forest ranger uniform, consisting of a short-sleeve shirt, cargo pants, and a sidearm. He emerged from the woods onto the plateau, with Henry right behind him. Henry carried his coroner kit, and Logan carried a bagful of evidence-collection supplies in addition to his normal day pack.

  Since they were both on duty and serving in their official capacities, Logan’s greeting was a nod instead of a kiss, but his blue eyes warmed as they made contact with hers, searching to make sure she was all right.

  Her heart thumped, and she marveled once again they were getting married in September—that he actually wanted to marry her—and that he’d already moved in with her and was willingly subjecting himself to the complete chaos that was her life.

  How could she have gotten so lucky?

  Tessa led them down the secondary trail to the spot she’d marked with the T-shirt. She turned to her sister. “Wait here, okay?”

  “Why?” Patience protested. “I’m not going to throw up or anything.”

  “I know.” Tessa quelled the urge to say Because I said so. Her sister was not a child and deserved an appropriate response. “We want to minimize impact to the scene and preserve evidence.”

  “Oh.” Patience nodded, as if satisfied with the explanation. “Okay.”

  Tessa started into the woods. Logan and Henry followed in her footsteps.

  Tessa raised a hand and pointed to the ground. “Watch your step.”

  Both men froze. Their gazes dropped.

  “Oh.” Henry squatted to get a closer look at the body. He pointed to the torso. “So, was the victim buried in this gully and dug up by animals?”

  Logan scanned the ground. “The grave wasn’t very deep. Maybe a few inches of dirt tossed on top.”

  “Yes,” Tessa agreed. Maybe a rushed disposal?

  Don’t get ahead of yourself.

  “Are those yoga pants?” Logan asked.

  “Looks like,” Tessa said.

  “So potentially a female,” Henry said.

  Tessa scanned the body. She couldn’t discern the original color of the long-sleeve shirt. The clothing was torn and stained with dirt, decomposition fluids, and mold. “Do you see shoes?”

  Logan’s eyes roamed the small clearing. “No. How long do you think she’s been here?”

  “I don’t know.” Tessa considered the condition of the remains. When she’d moved back to her island hometown a couple of years before, she hadn’t expected to investigate multiple homicides. But her experience with the Seattle PD was proving to be more useful than she’d anticipated. “My very broad guess would be a PMI of a month or so.”

  The postmortem interval, or PMI, referred to the time since death.

  “So she died in May or June?”

  “Maybe. We’ll have to wait for the medical examiner for confirmation.” Tessa studied the surrounding area. “If the victim was a transient, we’d probably see some personal possessions. A sleeping bag or rough camp of some sort.”

  “If it was a lost hiker, she’d be wearing shoes or boots. I don’t see a backpack either.” Logan squinted up at the treetops. “Also, this area has no steep grades or great heights where she could have fallen.”

  Tessa sighed. “I’d been hoping for an accidental death, but that isn’t looking very likely.”

  “Illness or injury is still possible. Maybe her personal possessions were stolen?” Logan asked. “Or she took her jacket and shoes off. When people get hypothermia, they sometimes feel hot and remove their clothes. We get cold nights in May and June.”

  “It’s possible.” But uncertainty nagged at Tessa. “Do you think she became partially buried naturally?”

  “It’s possible.” Doubt laced Logan’s voice. “But this ground is pretty flat. I don’t see any sign of runoff here.”

  “So it’s unlikely?”

  “Yes.”

  “Damn.” Tessa chewed on her lip. If the body hadn’t been buried by nature, then there was only one alternative. “It’s too early to draw conclusions, but we’ll treat the death as suspicious. Let’s process the scene. I’ll start with photos.”r />
  Logan propped a hand on his hip. “I’ll go back down the trail for the stretcher.”

  “We’ll need another person to man the stretcher.”

  Logan squinted at the body. “She can’t weigh much. Not now. Henry and I can probably manage it.”

  “I don’t want her jostled,” Tessa said. “Most of the connective tissue appears to be broken down. It’ll be hard enough to keep the corpse from coming apart.”

  “I’ll try not to think about that too much.” Logan turned away.

  “Logan?”

  He glanced over his shoulder.

  “Could you take Patience with you?” Tessa didn’t want her sister any more exposed to the horror than she already had been. She’d held up admirably, but why inflict any additional trauma?

  “Will do. I’ll get someone to pick her up at the base of the mountain and take her home.” He nodded and returned to the trail. He called for Patience, and their voices faded as they walked away.

  Tessa retrieved her camera and spent the next half hour documenting the scene. With every photograph, she became more convinced the body had been dumped. No camping gear. No trash. No personal effects. No outerwear. She found nothing in the clearing except for the body. Absorbed in the process, she lost track of time as she worked.

  Henry stood. “Honestly, I’m not going to be able to tell you much. It would almost be easier to look at bare bones.” He gestured to the remains. “There’s just enough skin and tissue remaining to conceal injuries. Without x-rays, it’s hard to discern damage that occurred before or after death.” The doctor studied the head. Except for random pieces of dark, dried tissue, the face was gone. But clumps of long strands of blonde hair were still attached to the skull. “I don’t see an obvious head injury.” He scanned the rest of the body. “I can’t even confirm the sex of the victim. Going by the general size, the hair, and clothing, it appears female, but I can’t be certain.”

  Prior to his arrival on Widow’s, he’d had no experience as a coroner, but he’d made efforts to learn since his surprise appointment.

  Henry continued. “Disturbing the clothing could damage the body. I believe the best course of action is to remove the body as is and transport it to the medical examiner on the mainland.”

  “Makes sense to me.” Tessa spotted maggots on the corpse. “I already photographed the body and scene. After the remains are removed, we’ll take soil and insect samples from under and around the body.”