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“Yes,” he drawls, “there’s more I’d like to know. Like why The Honorable Justice Mistleforth has called me twice in the last twenty minutes. It appears your Detectives Malone and Fletcher have requested permission to exhume Mrs. Wade’s body.”
“They have?” I shoot up tall and startle Aubree with my fast move. “They petitioned the courts?”Already?I think in my mind. “I thought Detective Malone was heading to speak to Henry Wade first, to get permission from the family.”
“So you knew he would seek to exhume?” Lawrence counters. “This was planned?”
“Exhumation was always an option when dealing with a thirty-six-year-old case, Mayor. There aren’t enough people alive today who were there for Holly’s death. The police have limited parties available, and each of them have reason to skew their answers or outright lie. So to get to the bottom of this situation, the only course of action might be to ask the bones.”
“And you would be the lead medical examiner on that dig?”
My brows come closer in question. “I would, if Detectives Malone and Fletcher formally request me. Why do you ask?”
“I’d like to be there for it.” He turns up his commanding tone. “Chief Mayet, as mayor of Copeland City, and the man currently holding the court order Detective Malone requests, I’m telling you I’d like to be at the dig.”
Surprise makes me speechless for a moment. Stunned.
I look to Aubree and meet her prodding eyes, but I can’t tell her why I stare the way I do. I can’t explain until Lawrence is off the phone. “Um…”
“Chief Mayet?” He tries again to use his hard voice. Somewhere far away in my psyche, I realize it might actually be hisdadvoice. “Did you hear me?”
“Do you have a personal motive to see this case unfold, Mayor?”
“What?”
“Do you know the deceased? The husband? Do you know, or are you related to, any of the involved parties?”
“I am not.” His chair squeaks, and in my mind, I see him sitting back at his desk. Sharp black suit, and cute little black and white checkered socks poking out the bottom. “I’m interested only on a professional level. I don’t intend to interfere with the case. I merely want to observe.”
“Morbid curiosity?” I guess. “You just want to see a human skull in real life?”
He sniggers, soft and silly, considering how serious he typically is. “That’s about the gist of it,” he parrots my earlier words. “Do we have a deal?”
“Hardly. I don’t get anything out of this deal.”
“I heard your lab requires an entire new suite of centrifuges.” He pauses for a beat, as though to add dramatic effect. “I’ll fund ten of them without taking from your overall budget.”
“Twenty,” I cut in quickly. “Plus, the lab needs new chairs with good wheels on the bottom. Doctor Raquel is developing a humpback because she sits on crap furniture all day staring down at faulty equipment.”
“Fine,” he huffs. “I’ll take it from my own office’s budget and allocate it to the George Stanley. Make sure you contact my assistant with a day and time of exhumation. I’ll need a few hours’ notice.”
“Good doing business with you, Mayor.”
“And you,” he rumbles. “Also, before you go…”
“Mmm?” I’ve already exited this conversation and started fixating on the fact that, for whatever reason, Archer and Fletch have already contacted a judge about Holly’s body.
Does that mean Henry said no?
“My daughters are in town this Friday night,” Lawrence continues. “And my granddaughter, too.”
“Hm.”Did Henry refuse exhumation? Is he hiding something?“Time with your kids. That sounds lovely.”
“We were thinking of doing this dinner thing over at the house. Janine likes to bake, and since you’ve already met Jen, I thought—”
My cell trills, flashing Archer’s name on the screen. “Uh, sorry, Mayor.” I snatch up the device and study the screen. “I might be getting more information on the Holly Wade case, so I have to hang up.”
“Oh. Well…”
“I’ll contact you when I have details for the dig.”
