Unhallowed Ground

He saw a small smile start to brighten Sarah’s features. Then she said, “Oh!” suddenly, and stood up as if she’d just remembered something. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I have plans I almost forgot all about.” She stared at Caleb again, as if carefully debating something, then apparently made a rather grudging decision to include him. “I’m meeting a few friends, and my cousin Will for drinks and dinner. You’re welcome to join us.”

“I’ll be happy to, if you’re sure you don’t mind,” Caleb told her.

“I just asked you,” Sarah said.

Which didn’t mean she didn’t mind, he thought. Too bad. She had asked, and he was going to take advantage of that to spend some time with a beautiful woman.

“Sure. I haven’t eaten yet. Sounds great,” Caleb said, and stood, too. “I can even protect you from the curiosity seekers on the way,” he said.

“I’m not really the type who needs protection,” she said.

Everyone needs protection, he told her silently. If you had seen half of what I’ve seen in this life…

“You two have a good time,” Roberta said. “I’ll see you both at breakfast.”

They thanked her for the tea and headed for the door. Outside, Caleb asked Sarah if she wanted him to drive.

“We’re only going about four blocks,” she told him. “Unless you can’t walk that far,” she added just a shade too sweetly.

“I should be fine,” he told her. “Where are we going?”

“Hunky Harry’s.”

“There’s really place called Hunky Harry’s?” Caleb asked incredulously. “Is there really a Harry? And is he hunky?” he teased.

“There is a Harry, and he’s been old as long as I can remember, so he’s got to be…really old. And he likes to think he’s hunky. It’s a popular place with locals and tourists alike. So popular that he changes the name periodically, when he gets sick of the crowds.”

“So Harry is a real character.”

She shrugged, walking toward Avenida Menendez. “Maybe you’ll get to see for yourself. He may or may not be around tonight. He comes in when he feels like it. When he does, he cleans tables, washes glasses, even cooks up a few appetizers. Yes, he’s a real character.”

She was keeping a definite distance between them, he noticed. She still didn’t trust him; he wouldn’t be here at all, walking with her, planning to spend time with her friends, if it weren’t for Adam.

“So exactly why are you here in town?” she asked.

“Jennie Lawson,” he said.

She looked at him. “The woman who disappeared last year?”

“Yes. You heard about it, I take it?”

“I wasn’t living back down here then, but Caroline showed me the newspaper this afternoon. Jennie Lawson was mentioned because of Winona Hart, the local girl who just disappeared. The article said they don’t know that she ever got to St. Augustine.”

“I know, but according to her mother, she was heading here.”

“And you think you can find her—here—after all this time?”

“Her mother doesn’t think she’s still alive, but she does think I’ll find out what happened to her, whether she got this far or not.”

“You know, there’s a possibility that…that she wanted to disappear.”

“There’s always that possibility. But…” He left off speaking and shrugged. “What I was saying to Roberta before? I’ve found that to be true. Whether it’s instinct, extrasensory perception or what, I don’t know. But when a mother feels her child is dead, she’s almost always right.”

She stared at him, obviously bothered by his words. “That’s horrible.”

“Of course it is,” he agreed. “Any death is sad.”

“No, I mean your attitude. How are you going to find her if you don’t believe it’s possible that she’s alive? You need to…believe,” she told him.

“I need to do everything in my power—whether she’s alive or dead—that’s what matters,” he said.

She shook her head in disgust.

“All right,” he said, “you tell me. What about the local girl? What’s your feeling about her? Did she just run away? Is she trying to punish her parents? What do you believe?”

She kept shaking her head, pulling ahead of him a little. “No. But things…happen. Maybe she’s hurt somewhere. And that’s why it matters that people move quickly.”

“Jennie disappeared a year ago,” he reminded her.

“Maybe she has amnesia. Stranger things have happened,” she assured him.

“I will find her. Alive or dead, I will find out what happened to her,” he said flatly.

She fell silent for a few seconds, then, changing the subject, said, “You met Will Perkins this morning.”

“Yes. Why?”

“He’s my cousin.”

“Cool.”

She was walking very quickly now, as if she were uncomfortable with him. “There’s the restaurant,” she said.

Avenida Menendez fronted the water. From where they stood, he could see the massive fortification of Ft. Marion, gleaming in the moonlight in all its historic glory. Horse-drawn carriages lined the opposite side of the street. Groups of tourists were walking around, some couples holding hands or arm in arm. There were several hotels nearby, and numerous restaurants. The downtown historic area was small, the streets busy with car traffic along with all the pedestrians. He saw tables in front of a café and bar. The neon sign, adorned with palm fronds and plastic alligators, advertised Hunky Harry’s.

She preceded him, winding her way through the outside tables and walking straight to a table at the rear. He eyed the single empty chair as he recognized Will, Caroline and the other two docents from the museum, Renee Otten and Barry Travis.

“Hey!” Will saw him and stood, grinning. “Nice that you came along.” He set an arm around Sarah’s shoulders, drawing her against him to give her a rub on the head. They were obviously close. They resembled one another, too, with the same shade of hair and eyes, so much alike, yet Will was as completely masculine as Sarah was feminine.

“Sarah invited me along. I hope that’s all right,” Caleb said, after greeting everyone.

“It’s great!” Renee said enthusiastically.

“I’m impressed you got Sarah here. I thought for sure she’d blow us off tonight,” Caroline said.

“Here we go, another chair,” Barry offered, pulling one over from another table.

“Thanks,” Caleb said, taking the seat.

Everyone started talking at once, stepping on each other’s words, and he tried to keep up the chatter until a waitress came and took their orders. He opted for the fish of the day and wondered why the others all gave him funny looks.

As soon as the waitress left, the conversation turned to the skeletons in Sarah’s house.

“How long do you think it will take them to remove them all?” Renee asked.

“It can take months—years, even—at some sites,” Barry said glumly.

Sarah glared at him.

“Sorry,” Barry said.

“You don’t have to let it take months,” Caleb said to Sarah.

They all stared at him. “You have training in the field, too, so you can call the shots. So far, you’ve done all the right things, brought in the authorities and the experts. Now you can take control. You know the right people, so keep the process moving. Whatever crime took place, it was over a hundred years ago. You can see to it that everything is done right, that people are respectful of both the bodies and the historical record. And then you can let the forensic anthropologists have their day once the bodies are out of your house.”

Sarah stared at him and nodded slowly. “I…guess so.”

Caroline tossed her hair back. “Don’t just guess. Caleb is right. Take control.”

“It’s true. This is the kind of work I was doing in Virginia, but I certainly wasn’t in charge. In a lot of ways, historians are really just record keepers, secretaries for the past. Once the bodies are removed and the remains dated…come to think of it, it will be intriguing to research the situation. And it is my house, damn it!” She slammed a fist on the table and grinned. “If there’s investigating to be done, there’s no reason why I can’t do it.”

“And Caleb there can help you, I bet,” Barry said.

His words were followed by a moment of silence as everyone stared at Caleb.

“Well, you’re an investigator, right?” Barry asked.

“Yes, I’m an investigator,” Caleb agreed.

“Yes, but I’m a historian,” Sarah said. “And the bodies in my house are over a hundred years old. It’s not a police matter, because there’s no one left alive to arrest. It’s all a matter for the historians now,” Sarah said, then stood, as if agitated. “Excuse me, I’m just going to say hello to a friend at the bar.”

Caleb noted that no one standing at the bar seemed the least bit interested in their little group.

He stayed at the table with the others. It never hurt to know as many locals as he could. It wasn’t likely that this foursome could help him find Jennie Lawson, but they might know someone or something about the area that could be pertinent at some point.

And Sarah’s house…well, he had to admit it fascinated him. Historian or not, he was drawn to it, and when he got a feeling like that, it almost always meant something.

“She’s touchy tonight,” Will said, apologizing for Sarah.

“I would be, too,” Caroline said defensively.

“It will better once those bodies are out of her house,” Renee said.

“Seriously,” Barry said. “She just found out she’s been sleeping with a bunch of bodies. You talk about a haunted house…Their spirits are probably all running around screaming, ‘Let me out, let me out!’”

“Oh, Barry,” Renee protested, giggling.

“So tell us about yourself,” Caroline said, inching her chair closer to Caleb’s. “You met Will today, right? Diving? And you found a body in a submerged car. Did he drive off the road?”

“I found the body, and it’s in very bad condition. The medical examiner is on it now. As to how he ended up in the water, I’ll leave it to the police to figure that out,” Caleb said.

“There were no bullet holes in the car or anything like that?” Renee asked, intrigued.

“Not that I saw, but then again, I wasn’t looking for any. The police have custody of the car now, as well, and they’ll find out what happened,” Caleb said.

“So Will says you’re here to find a girl—but not our missing girl?” Barry asked, perplexed.

“Right,” Caleb agreed. “You probably read about the case at the time. Her name wa—Her name is Jennie Lawson, and she disappeared a year ago on her way here. But of course I’ll share whatever information I discover with the local police, because it could help with the search for Winona Hart. They might have been abducted by the same person.”

“Maybe they both ran off to join a cult,” Renee said. “That kind of thing happens, you know.”

“It does, but usually someone who knows the person is aware that they’re dissatisfied with their lives, or that they’ve fallen under the influence of some sect,” Caleb explained.

“But the cases might not be related at all,” Barry speculated.

“That’s true, too.”

“So where do you start?” Caroline asked him.

“Well, theoretically, you start with the person’s last known whereabouts,” Caleb said.

“But this girl you’re looking for…the paper said no one even knows what she did after her plane landed in Jacksonville. She just disappeared,” Barry said.

“She picked up a rental car,” Caleb said.

“But after all this time…that car couldn’t possibly yield any clues,” Will said.

“You’d be surprised,” Caleb said. “Trace evidence can survive an awful lot. But it’s a moot point—unless we find the car. It disappeared, too.”

Just then the waitress arrived with their meals, and Caleb thought his fish—which no one else had ordered, he noticed—was delicious. Despite the arrival of their food, Sarah remained at the bar, chatting with the bartender.

The others asked him more questions as they ate; he answered some and deftly sidestepped others.

Finally he managed to turn the conversation away from himself and learned that Will had grown up in St. Augustine, as had Caroline. Renee had been there about seven years, having fallen in love with the city while attending college over in Gainesville. Barry was the latecomer. He’d done historical tours in Chicago, his hometown, and Charleston, before seeing an ad for docents for the museum.

“I love it here,” he told Caleb. “It gets chilly enough in winter for me to feel like there’s been a change of season, but we pretty much never get snow, and even then, it’s just a few flakes that melt on contact. It’s a big deal when it happens, though, it’s so rare. And because we’re on the water, even summer is usually cool enough, better than a lot of other places. So I’m staying here for sure.”

“Seems like a pretty laid-back town,” Caleb said.

“Hey,” Caroline protested. “We have plenty of nightlife. And if it’s not exciting enough for you here, pop back onto the highway. In twenty minutes you’re on the outskirts of Jacksonville. A few hours in the other direction and you’re in Orlando, surrounded by theme parks.”

“So where is home to you, Caleb?” Renee asked, breaking in before Caroline’s lecture really got going.

“Virginia,” Caleb said.

“So is this your first trip to St. Augustine?” Caroline asked, and he thought she seemed a little bit suspicious, even slightly troubled.

“Yes,” he assured her.

“Hmm.”

“Why?” he asked her.

“I don’t know. I could just swear I’d met you, or at least seen you, somewhere before, that’s all.”

“Who knows? Maybe in another life,” Will said, and yawned. “I’ve got work tomorrow, gang. I’ve got to get going.”

They all rose in unison just as Sarah returned to the table. “Sorry, guys. Al and I just started talking and I lost track. Looks like I missed dinner,” she added, staring at the lasagne congealing on her plate.

“Looks like,” Caroline said. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She started for the door.

“Hey, wait, I’m walking you home,” Will called after her. He gave the others an apologetic look. “She’s a blonde…. I don’t want her out there alone at night.”

“Good call, stick with her,” Sarah told him.

“Don’t go thinking that just because you’re a brunette, that makes you safe,” Will said quietly to Sarah, then gave Caleb a speaking look before racing after Caroline.

“I’ll see Renee home safe and sound,” Barry said cheerfully, and something in the way he looked at her told Caleb that the two had been an item for a long time.

“We might as well head out, too,” Sarah told Caleb when the others were gone.

“What about the check?”

“It’s covered,” she assured him.

“That’s nice, but I pay my own way,” he told her. “Besides, I can expense it.”

“I’m so happy to hear we’re a business expense,” Sarah said.

He let out a sigh of aggravation, staring at her. “What the hell is it with you? You’re the one who invited me here.”

She was quiet for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Anyway, don’t worry about paying. Al—the bartender—told me that Harry was here earlier, saw us and told our waitress not to give us a check. So we were all Harry’s guests tonight. And I have to show up to work tomorrow morning, too, so I need to get going.”

“Let’s go, then.”

She waved to several people as they left, and a few called out to her in return, but at least no one was asking her about the grisly find in her house.

Even so, he was certain that the whispering would start as soon as they were gone.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. “So what will you be doing tomorrow?” she eventually asked him.

“Heading to Jacksonville,” he said.

She looked over at him. “You think your missing girl is in Jacksonville?”

“No. I think she’s here. And I think Winona Hart is going to be found here, too—eventually. But I want to go to the agency where Jennie rented her car. I would have done that today, but I had the opportunity to go on the dive, and I didn’t want to miss it.”

“There is the possibility that she just drove off into the sunset,” Sarah said.

“No. She didn’t get insurance on the car because her parents had insurance that already covered her. If she’d been planning on just taking off with the car, she’d have bought insurance so that her parents wouldn’t be liable,” he said.

“You overestimate people,” Sarah said. “If she was depressed or upset about something, she wouldn’t have been thinking about insurance.”

“But she wasn’t depressed, and she wasn’t upset.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I talked to her parents.”

“The parents are often the last to know,” she reminded him.

“Not these parents.”

She was still skeptical, he could see, but he didn’t argue with her.

“Do you really think you can read people that well?” she asked at last.

“Not always, but sometimes? Yes.”

“Some people wear very convincing masks,” Sarah pointed out.

“Very true.”

“So how do you deal with that?” she asked.

“All masks crack with time, or under the right heat,” he said. “So what about you? What will you be doing tomorrow?”

“Oh, I’ll be going to work. I need the money more than ever now,” she said, her tone slightly resentful.

“You’re not going to hang at home, hovering over your property?”

“I’ll let them tramp around a while on their own. Then I’ll get involved,” she said.

They had reached the B&B. Caleb used his key to open the front door instead of going around the side to his private entrance. “Thanks for inviting me tonight,” he said.

“I’m glad you could come,” she answered, but there wasn’t a lot of warmth in her words. They were courteous, spoken by rote.

“Well, have a good day at work tomorrow. And…hey.”

“Hey what?”

“Be careful. Something does seem to be going on around here,” he said.

She smiled. “I’m not a blonde. And I’m sure not about to run out and buy a big bottle of bleach right now.”

“Two blondes have gone missing, true. But that fact might be coincidence. If the two disappearances are connected, the real link might be something else entirely,” Caleb said. “Everyone needs to be careful right now. No one knows yet what links the missing girls.”

She smiled. “I’ll be careful. And I’ll see you at breakfast, anyway.”

“Right.”

She hadn’t headed toward her room yet. The light coming from the parlor was dim, but he could see that she was staring at him closely. “Caroline is convinced that she’s seen you before.”

“Yeah, I know. But I don’t see how. But anything is possible, I guess. Maybe we crossed paths in an airport somewhere.”

She was still staring at him.

“Yes?” he said at last.

“I was just curious,” she said.

“About?”

“When does your mask crack? When do we get to know the real you?”

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