Lovely In Her Bones

CHAPTER SEVEN

ALEX TAPPED his fingers against the steering wheel and stared up at the church. It looked cool and peaceful in the late-afternoon sunlight. Strange that he should be so reluctant to go in. It was six o’clock; they would all be in the Sunday school room having dinner-a flavorless concoction prepared on a hot plate. Alex wondered at his own distaste for the project. For the first time in his career, he resented having to leave his comfortable home, well-cooked meals, and especially his Posture-Perfect mattress. Roughing it had lost some of its glamour, perhaps in proportion to his own loss of youth. Or perhaps the real reason for his reluctance lay in the fact that he would have to face Mary Clare. He was going to feel like a fool, and he dreaded it. Even that stupid act of vandalism bothered him, although he didn’t know why it should. If the Neanderthals had still been around, mightn’t they have risen up in the caves of Lascaux and said, “Leave our dead alone!” If the protest over his work always existed in theory, why should he mind the expression of it?

The side door to the church opened, and he saw a figure in jeans standing on the porch. By the time he noticed the blond hair, which identified the person as Mary Clare, she had seen the van and was running toward it. Alex, who had planned to rehearse everything in his mind, had no idea what he was going to say.

Mary Clare rested her elbows on the van’s open window and peered in happily at Alex. “I’m real glad you’re back,” she beamed. “I’ve been looking out for you since five or so. How was your trip?”

“Fine. Is everything all right here?”

“Yep. Milo spent most of yesterday and today either at the sheriff’s office or guarding that motel room with Comfrey Stecoah, though what they meant to accomplish by that, I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Probably a symbolic gesture,” said Alex.

“Well, the work is coming along fine. Do you want to go up to the site and take a look?”

He nodded. “After supper.” He wasn’t hungry, but eating the tasteless food in the common room would postpone his having to be alone with Mary Clare. He followed her up the hill to the church, still wondering what to say.

Inside the Sunday school room, Victor Bassington was holding forth to a captive audience of diggers, who were bolting their food as quickly as possible in order to escape.

“Archaeology! The mysteries of the ages! That’s why I’m studying it. Why was Machu Picchu abandoned? Why did the Neanderthals die out?”

“You’ll never know,” muttered Jake between mouthfuls of bread.

“Ah! Can we be sure? Science opens new doors every day. Take this Cullowhee mystery. Who are they? I think they came from the Orient-”

“I thought all Indians originally came from the Orient,” Elizabeth put in.

“Ah, but these Indians seem more Oriental than most,” said Victor without missing a beat. “Those skulls you’re working with remind me very much of the skull of the Peking man I saw in England. Something about the shape-”

“That’s very interesting,” said Elizabeth politely. She hoped that her comment had distracted Victor from the sound of Jake’s snickering.

“Yes, very interesting indeed,” said Alex, who had been standing in the doorway listening. “I should like to hear more.”

Victor turned slowly, a blush creeping upward toward his ears. “Why, welcome back, Dr. Lerche. I was just talking about how interesting all this is.”

“Yes, I heard you,” said Alex evenly. “You mentioned seeing the skull of the Peking man. That must have been quite an experience for you. When was this?”

“While I was in England,” Victor said in a much more subdued voice. “Two or three years ago.”

“I see,” said Lerche. “Was this in a museum, perhaps?”

Victor hesitated. “The… ah… British Museum. But I don’t think they’re there all the time. I believe it was a traveling exhibit. I guess I was just lucky to be visiting at the right time.”

“Lucky,” Lerche repeated sarcastically. “Oh, you were phenomenally lucky, Mr. Bassington. You saw the actual bones, not a plaster copy?”

“The actual bones,” Victor agreed cautiously. “In a glass case, of course.”

“Here it comes,” whispered Jake to Elizabeth.

“I find it very interesting that you saw the skull fragments of Sinanthropus pekinensis two or three years ago in the British Museum. Do you know why I find that so interesting, Mr. Bassington?”

“Uh… did you see them then too?” asked Victor hopefully.

“No-and neither did you. The remains of Peking man were found in China in 1929 and they disappeared in China in 1939! When the Japanese invaded Manchuria, the museum people entrusted them to soldiers who were supposed to get them to a safe place. The soldiers were captured and the bones were never found.”

“Oh,” said Victor in a small voice.

“I don’t know why you have a compulsion to be an expert on things you know nothing about, but you’re wasting your time, because no one will ever believe a word you say.” He turned to the rest of the group. “All of you could stand to do a lot more studying and a lot less posturing. You’re not scientists yet!” He left the Sunday school room, slamming the door behind him.

Mary Clare hurried to keep up with him. “He’s had that coming,” she said softly. “But it’s not like you to do it in public thataway.”

Alex grunted. “Where’s Milo?”

“Well, he figured you’d be sending the new monitor up by bus, so he found out when the bus gets in and went down to wait for it. He’ll be back soon. Are you going to the site? Because if you are, Elizabeth MacPherson has a whole boxful of skulls already measured. She’d like you to check her work.”

“All right.”

Mary Clare hoped that if she could get Alex to talk, he would slow down and stop crashing through the woods like a wounded razorback. “Did you get the disks?” she called.

Alex turned to look at her. “My wife is bringing them,” he said.

She looked at him saucer-eyed, then began to smile. “I guess you haven’t told her yet, have you? But I don’t think there’ll be any problem if you just tell her what you’re planning to do from now on.”

“And what is that?” asked Alex quietly.

Mary Clare blushed. “Oh, I didn’t mean about us. Though I reckon it might be kinder to tell her straight out. I meant what you were talking about the other night: about quitting the university and going off to be an independent archaeologist. Living in camps under the stars, doing whatever job takes your fancy…” She smiled, thinking how wonderful it was going to be.

“You want me to be a shovel bum?” Alex demanded. He sat down on a fallen log and began to laugh.

Mary Clare, who wasn’t sure what the joke was-or on whom-watched him nervously.

“I can’t believe it. A shovel bum.”

“What’s that, Alex?” she asked timidly.

“That, my dear, is a contract archaeologist who digs up any site for a price. Antiquities bounty hunters. Most of them lack advanced degrees, and they aren’t backed by those universities you scorn so much. Who do you think pays for projects? Universities, that’s who! And without their backing, you have no professional standing in the field, and no one will pay very much attention to your findings.”

“But… Schliemann found Troy on his own.”

“We’re not talking about a hundred years ago, Mary Clare. I’m telling you that today the shovel bums dig up a site with no research concept and probably destroy evidence that a real scholar could use. They simply take the money and run to the next job. University backing is the only symbol of integrity we’ve got. And you want me to throw it away!” He shook his head. “You are just as bad as Victor. You make childish plans based on something you know nothing about.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Alex sighed. “I’m sorry, too. I’m afraid I haven’t been very realistic these past few weeks either, and you misunderstood me. I didn’t want to be a shovel bum, Mary Clare. I wanted to be twenty-three again.” He tried not to look at her. “Do you understand?” he asked gently.

She nodded. “I guess so.”

“Well, I have an interesting assignment for you. It has to do with this project, and I think it would be best for all of us if you took it.”

“What is it?”

“You remember that research check I put in at the library before we left? They’ve come up with something. It seems that MacDowell College has a diary and some letters written by a woman from this area. There may be something on the Cullowhees in her writings. It dates back a hundred years or so.”

“And you want me to read through it? When will it get here?”

“It won’t. It’s in MacDowell’s rare-manuscript collection, and they won’t lend it out. You’ll have to go to their library to examine the documents.”

“You mean I have to leave?” wailed Mary Clare.

“It could be very important to the project,” said Alex gently. “And I think it might be the best thing for all of us.”

Mary Clare glared at him through tears. “I wish you were dead!” she screamed.

“Where is Milo?” muttered Elizabeth for the third time in as many minutes.

Jake sighed. “Do you think it would help any if he were here?”

“I feel as if I’ve wandered onto the set of a soap opera,” she grumbled. “Victor just sits there glowering, and God knows what’s wrong with Mary Clare. She keeps slamming things into a suitcase, and she’s trying to pretend she’s not crying.”

“And we’re trying to pretend we don’t notice,” Jake agreed.

“I wonder if she’d think I was being nosy if I went over there?” Elizabeth wondered.

“I think we ought to leave her alone,” Jake replied. “We don’t know her very well.”

Victor glared at them from his worktable. “Will you two stop whispering? It is very distracting-and ill-mannered as well.”

“We weren’t talking about you, Victor,” said Jake wearily.

“I didn’t say you were, but I am trying to work. It’s hard enough as it is, without your twittering in the background. That ugly scene tonight has given me a paralyzing migraine.”

“It wasn’t an ugly scene. Lerche caught you out, that’s all. Just admit you had it coming and forget about it.”

“It was quite juvenile of him to pounce on me like that!” Victor insisted. “Cruel, in fact. It should have been obvious to him that I had made a slip of the tongue. Of course what I saw on exhibit was Homo habilis. That is what I thought I had said until he made such a scene about it.”

“I expect he was upset over something else,” said Elizabeth soothingly.

“No doubt. But he had no right to speak to me like that. None!” He stood up and shook his fist at a blank wall. “I think I shall go out for a while. Perhaps the fresh air will ease the pain in my head. Or perhaps I shall be bitten by a rattlesnake!”

“Have fun, Victor!” said Jake, stifling a grin.

Elizabeth watched him march to the door. “This dig is more of an adventure than I bargained for,” she remarked. “Computer pirates, lovers’ quarrels, violent arguments. Exhuming bodies is getting to be the dullest part of the project.”

“I hope that changes,” said Jake gloomily. “I’m a peace-loving man, myself.”

“At least you’re behaving normally, Jake. Milo is really edgy.” Elizabeth saw the door open. “Shhh! I think he’s coming in now.”

A moment later she saw that it was not Milo, but Dr. Lerche who had come in. He stood at the door looking uncomfortable for a few moments. Mary Clare looked up from her packing, saw him, and walked out, nose in the air. He moved away from the door to let her pass, and walked over to Jake and Elizabeth.

“Where is Milo?”

“At the bus station. He said he’d be back at eight,” Elizabeth offered.

Alex consulted his watch. “It’s five after,” he announced.

“Well, he isn’t here,” said Elizabeth. “Shall I send him up to the site when he arrives?”

“Yes, please do.” Lerche seemed to be thinking of something else. He was looking at the old photographs on the walls. “I examined those skulls you did. I’m going back to the site. Send Milo as soon as he comes.”

Before Elizabeth could ask him anything else about her work, he had hurried out again. “I wonder what that was about,” she remarked.

“There’s no telling,” answered Jake. “It could be anything from untagged soil layers to a misplaced trowel. Don’t worry. If you had done anything wrong, he would have told you.”

“I guess so,” said Elizabeth doubtfully. She thought it much more likely that Lerche would delegate problems of that sort to Milo, since she was his protégée on the dig. There seemed to be no point in worrying, though. She was a beginner, and she had done her best.

Since there seemed to be a lull in the theatrics of the Sunday school room, Jake returned to his book on Cherokee archaeology, and Elizabeth wrote up an account of her meeting with Amelanchier so that she would not forget what she had been told.

It was nearly nine o’clock when Mary Clare eased open the door to the Sunday school room. Her face was flushed and her hair disheveled, but she was no longer crying.

“I saw headlights on the road,” she told Elizabeth. “I reckon that’ll be Milo headed back.”

“Oh, good!” cried Elizabeth, hurrying to the window.

“I’m glad you think so,” snorted Mary Clare. “But you’d better watch out for those anthropologists. All they know how to work with is dead people, and dead people don’t have feelings.” She lifted her chin as if to prepare herself for cries of protest, but none were forthcoming. Jake had retreated into his book, and Elizabeth, still peering out the window, wasn’t listening.

In a calmer voice, Mary Clare said, “Y’all may as well know I’m leaving to do some literary research on this project. I guess Alex will site-manage himself.”

“Here’s the car!” cried Elizabeth.

“You didn’t see Victor outside, did you?” Jake asked. “He went off a while ago announcing his intention of getting snakebit.”

Mary Clare was relieved that they had not questioned her about her sudden plans for departure. She managed a grim smile. “No. I was out walking around. Victor can’t have gone as far as I did; that would be exercise.”

“Excuse me. I’m looking for my husband.”

Tessa Lerche stood in the doorway smiling politely. She wore beige canvas pants, an open-throated khaki shirt, and a red silk neckerchief-her concept of expedition chic. Her newly shingled hair would be easy to care for without the aid of the beauty parlor.

Mary Clare, who was wearing faded jeans and a blue T-shirt, looked appraisingly at Tessa and remarked, “You forgot your pith helmet.”

“Dr. Lerche is up at the site,” Jake put in quickly. “Would you like me to take you there? It isn’t far.”

“Sorry we can’t call you a cab.” Mary Clare smirked.

How very un-Southern! Elizabeth thought wildly. We’re usually more polite to our enemies than we are to our friends.

Tessa, too, seemed taken aback by Mary Clare’s hostile remarks. She eyed her carefully, as if waiting for an indication that this was all in fun. The other two occupants of the room, obviously students, looked embarrassed, she noted with satisfaction, but Mary Clare continued to stare. Tessa smiled, as winners can afford to, and said gently, “I understand you are leaving us, Mary Clare.”

“I figured you put him up to it.”

Tessa’s smile faded. “No, dear, you did. You pushed.” Dismissing the matter, she turned to Jake, as if being the only male present made him the person in charge. She fished the computer disks out of her canvas purse and held them up. “I have brought these for the computer,” she announced brightly, in tones suggesting that the previous conversation with Mary Clare had not taken place. “My poor husband drove all the way back to campus to get them, and then he got so caught up with his mail and his laundry and whatnot, that he drove off without them.” She laughed fondly, inviting them all to share her amusement in her absentminded professor. She neglected to mention that she had unobtrusively moved the disks out of sight and had not reminded him to take them. “So he called me from a gas station somewhere and asked me to bring them up here. So here I am!”

“Yes, ma’am,” answered Jake warily. “Milo will be real glad to get them. Will you be staying the night? I mean, I’d be glad to bring your things up from the car.”

Tessa’s answer was addressed to Jake, but it was meant for Mary Clare. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. Alex and I will be staying at a motel room in Laurel Cove. We feel it will be safer that way.”

Nice double entendre, thought Elizabeth.

Jake shifted uncomfortably, sensing another outbreak of bickering. “Would you like me to take you up to the site? It’s past dark, so Dr. Lerche should be quitting pretty soon. He doesn’t like to work much by lantern light.”

“I’m quite aware of that,” said Tessa, courteously reinforcing her status as incumbent. “Yes, let’s go and see him.”

Outside a car horn honked.

Jake jumped up as if he had heard the bugle of the Seventh Cavalry. “That’s Milo! He’ll be happy to take you up to the site. Dr. Lerche has been wanting to see him anyway.”

“Who hasn’t?” muttered Elizabeth.

Milo was careful to shine the flashlight on the path in front of Tessa. She had asked nervously about snakes when they started out, and even though he assured her that they had not seen any, she still walked with the tentative steps of one who is expecting to be ambushed. She had not spoken, except to make a few polite inquiries about the project, which Milo had answered in monosyllables. He was glad of the silence, much preferring the crickets’ mindless chirp to Tessa’s. The tedium of a day with the bureaucracy and the wait at the bus station-general store had exhausted him more than digging trenches ever did. He had taken the monitor back to the motel room and made sure it was working before hurrying back to the church to spend the evening with Elizabeth. He had not anticipated the melodrama that awaited him: his boss’s wife and mistress staring each other down like angry cats.

Milo wondered what had transpired while he had been in Laurel Cove. It was embarrassing to see Alex entangled in such a situation. Detached and unemotional Alex! He wished he hadn’t brought Elizabeth along on this dig. It could not have given her a very good impression of anthropologists. The thought that he had not been Prince Charming, either, flickered through his mind, but was dismissed in a flood of justification.

“Are we almost there?” asked Tessa.

“Almost.”

“I don’t want to fall into an open grave.” She shuddered.

“There, see the light in the clearing? That’s the lantern in the tent.” Rather awkwardly, he took her wrist. “I’ll show you how to get there, so you won’t fall.”

Tessa hung back. “Milo, I know this is silly…”

The entire day had been a farce, Milo thought bitterly, but he waited for her to continue.

“Could you just ask Alex to put the skulls away before I go in? I know I sound terribly squeamish for an anthropologist’s wife, but it’s so dark and quiet out here.” Her voice shook. “I don’t think I could take much more.”

“Sure,” said Milo, relieved at being asked to do something that was merely stupid instead of embarrassing. “You wait here. I’ll come back for you.”

He walked the last fifteen feet across the cemetery to the tent. Whatever Alex had wanted to see him about would have to be postponed, he supposed. He wondered what it was, tempted to ask before he announced Tessa’s presence to her husband. Milo pulled back the tent flap. “Hey, Alex…”

Milo’s years of studying forensic anthropology compared to this as a grainy out-of-date war movie might resemble actual combat. The outlines were similar, but the emotions were so lacking as to render the actual event unrecognizable. Part of Milo’s mind noted the curious difference between the clinical reality of a deceased stranger on a stainless-steel table, and the newly murdered body of one’s friend and colleague.

Alex Lerche lay slumped over his worktable with outstretched arms. Milo looked at the back of his head, and thought, “A broken bowl of Jell-O,” wondering if the image made him less likely to throw up or more so. Beside Alex on the table lay a bloody stone tomahawk, the souvenir kind sold in Cherokee and made in Taiwan. It consisted of a real stone tied to a pine stick with red plastic threads, adorned with chicken feathers dyed lime green and orange. The sight would have been ridiculous but for the blood on the tomahawk and the line of Indian skulls jeering in the lantern light.