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“She couldn’t,” Sheldon said.
“Sheldon, just tell me what happened.” I rubbed at the headache brewing at the base of my neck.
“Well, we’d already installed the burial vault because of the rain, and the casket was sitting on top of the lowering device like usual, so no one could have fallen in Bruce’s grave. But we didn’t put the burial vault in Merilee Walling’s grave yet because we had to get the equipment out because of the rain, and her funeral isn’t until tomorrow anyway.”
“Yes,” I said, plugging my phone into the car so Sheldon’s voice came out through the speakers. I reclined my seat back and closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of tacos from the bag.
“So Mrs. Lichner got upset during the service and started crying real loud, and then she got up during the eulogy and pushed the preacher out the way and started saying how she wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to go on without Bruce, and how he’d taken care of her for the last forty years. It was very touching.”
I hmmed and dug in the bag for a taco. Two minutes was too long to wait until we got to the sheriff’s office and I just needed something to tide me over.
“And then she just kind of stumbled off, and everyone just sat there because there wasn’t much left to say after that and the preacher was still on the ground where she’d pushed him. Then she wandered over to the area where we’d dug Merilee Walling’s grave, but she ignored the barriers we had set up. It was like slow motion. She took a drink from her flask and slipped in the mud, and she kind of slid feetfirst. We had a couple of boards over the hole, but her momentum dislodged one of them and she slid right in.”
“You’re kidding me,” I said. And then I coughed profusely as I swallowed the wrong way. “Sheldon…this is not funny.”
“So we called 911,” he continued. “But she was already dead by the time they arrived.”
“Oh, God,” I said, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“But I don’t think you’ll get sued or anything,” Sheldon said. “There were a whole lot of witnesses, including a preacher, so everyone will believe his story. And we had all the protections and everything up like protocol demands.”
There was an awkward silence and Sheldon said, “Just thought you should know.” And then he disconnected.
I started on my second taco.
“You okay?” Jack asked after several minutes of silence. He parked in his spot and turned off the car.
“Yep,” I said. “Some things are out of our control. The same thing could have happened if I’d been there instead of Sheldon. Though I like to think that it wouldn’t have because she was just an old lady, and I would have stepped in as soon as she pushed the preacher down, but whatever. I’ve got tacos. And I won’t have to do her autopsy because it’s a conflict of interest, so there’s that too.”
“Always look to the positive,” Jack said, taking the bag of food from me and getting out of the truck.
I looked down the front of my shirt, and there was shredded cheese and lettuce that had fallen from the taco. I reached down and ate some of the cheese before shaking the rest to the ground.
“Always look to the positive,” I repeated.
Chapter Thirteen
Jack used the back entrance and coded himself in through the door, holding it open for me. There was nothing I could do about the issue with the Lichners. It’s why we had insurance out the wazoo, though technically the city owned the cemetery, so this was probably going to become their issue to deal with.
Cole was waiting in the office for us when we arrived and he said, “I hope you’ve got extra in there. I’m starving.”
Jack took two tacos out of the bag and then tossed the bag to Cole. “Help yourself. Thanks for overseeing the team for the Downey case.”
“You can’t be two places at one time,” he said, falling back on the couch and digging into the food. “We’ve had teams out since first light this morning going up both sides of Gambo Creek.”
“Find anything?” Jack asked.
“Not until we got to Hangman’s Bridge,” he said.
Hangman’s Bridge was a wooden pontoon bridge over Gambo Creek in Bloody Mary.
“As you know, that bridge is in pretty rough condition,” Cole said.
“Yeah, they’re supposed to shut it down next month and repair and modernize it,” Jack said.
“But right now a lot of the wood is splintered,” Cole said. “Including the handrail. We found this.” He dug a plastic evidence bag out of his coat pocket and handed it to Jack. And then Jack passed it to me.
“A piece of her lingerie,” I said, holding up the lacy fabric to the light. “Cheney can confirm but it looks like the same pattern.”
