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“Why are you calling so early?” I demand. “If everything’s okay, I don’t understand—”
“I didn’t want to wait,” Dale says. “Remember the guy Aunt Ruby referred me to? The one who was going to check out those bones we found?”
“Yeah.” I stifle a yawn.
“He got back to me. Just now. He didn’t want to wait, and I don’t want to wait either.”
A feeling of impending doom settles in my stomach. With everything that’s been making my stomach and bowels react lately, I’ve been keeping Pepto-Bismol in business.
Damn.
This can’t be good news.
“What is it?” Donny asks.
“He was able to do some analysis on the bones. We were right. They’re old. Really old.”
“Okay,” I say. An odd wave of relief settles over me. If they’re old, they can’t belong to anyone we know.
“His analysis shows that the bones are around sixty years old. And they belonged to a female.”
“How can he tell it was a female?” From Donny.
“From extracting the DNA from the bones. It’s a female. And there’s no way to tell exactly how old the female was when she died, but he’s estimating around twenty years old.”
I gulp. “A twenty-year-old female? Sixty years ago? With her bones on our property?”
As disgusted as I am, another wave of relief consumes me. At least it wasn’t a child, though a twenty-year-old woman is still a child in some ways. But at least she got to grow up.
God. Has it truly come to this? Where something that isn’t as horrific as it could be isgoodnews? I need to get a grip.
“That’s right,” Dale replies.
“That’s horrible,” Donny says, “but why was it so necessary to call this early?”
“Because…” Dale pauses slightly. “The guy did some other research. And what he found is truly frightening.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RORY
It’s a damned good thing I’m an actress. I should get an Oscar for what I’m about to do.
I’m driving Cage’s van, the one he uses for the band. Jordan convinced him to let us borrow it. I’m not sure what excuse she gave him, but it sure wasn’t the truth.
I drive by the school, where I know Pat Lamone and his buddies are hanging out. I roll down the window on the driver’s side. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, hot stuff,” Pat says.
Hot stuff. I totally want to hurl.
“Get in,” I force myself to say.
“You talking to me?”
“Yeah, I’m talking to you. Get in.”
He raises his eyebrows at his friends. “Now that’s an invitation I’m not going to turn down.”
