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  “And,” Kris added with a swat at a mosquito, “these voracious buggers are the monsters of this bog, though we fog for mosquitoes a lot. Sorry, I forgot to spray you before we came out. That funny smell out here comes from several camphor pots we have way back in the trees. It helps keep the mosquitoes away, but the smell is pretty acrid.”

  They stepped out on a pair of planks which shuddered slightly under their weight, but held firm, supported by two-by-fours Claire could see were pounded into the base of the bog.

  Kris pointed outward as two men and one woman, all on their knees on a wooden platform, peered into a five-foot-square hole about fifteen feet away. Near them rested the tools of their trade. Shovels, trowels, brushes, cameras, clipboards and plastic sheeting were things Claire could recognize from here. Standing behind her team, hand propped on her knees, Andrea leaned over, looking down too, blocking Kris and Claire’s view. Around the digging trio lay slivers of peat they had been slicing and scooping away to get to the corpse.

  “We shall call this one ‘Hunter.’” Andrea’s words floated to Claire as she and the team still stared down in apparent awe. “He looks to be quite muscular and still holds his knife. He’s dressed in some kind of pelt. And—look—another body must be close, because there’s a hand as if reaching out toward him. Be especially careful if there are other bodies nearby. I’ve never seen one that close. I’ve got to tell Bradley. He should be here for this!”

  She pulled her two-way radio out of her shirt pocket, then turned and looked at Claire through the gray, shifting shadows. She nodded as if to say, By tomorrow you could be here with us.

  But suddenly this scene seemed so staged, so perfect a lure, for who would not want to get a better look into that grave with the ancient hunter and someone else’s outstretched hand?

  Even as Andrea put her transceiver to her ear and began to talk, Claire thought about the words from the Robert Louis Stevenson poem, ones she could not quite recall, but went something like, “Home is the hunter, home from the hill.” Above all, she realized she had to talk to Nick about this significant but strange place the moment they were both home.

  * * *

  Nick was exhausted and hungry, so he’d asked his secretary to send out for a sandwich, and it awaited him on his desk. He hadn’t even thought about food for a while. Dale had been in a waiting room here until the police techs were finished with his office, and they had just handed it back.

  On his desk phone console, he hit the number of the secretary who worked with two of the junior partners, including Dale. “Tracey, Nick here. Be sure Dale gets another laptop, because I’ll bet they took his.”

  “Will do. Has he—well, has he been indicted or what? He just stormed into his office and shut the door.”

  “Not yet and we hope never. Keep an eye on him, since he’s upset.”

  “I guess so. He looks like he’s been through the wringer. We’ll take care of him.”

  Though Nick had an open-door policy with the firm’s partners and employees, he was going to close his door to call Claire. Surely, she was out of bog land by now, though he wasn’t sure if there were cell towers out that deep in the wilds. He checked his voice mail and texts. Nothing yet, except one from Jace saying he had picked up Lexi from school as he and Claire had arranged. Nick decided she’d call when she could and he shouldn’t seem to be checking up on her if she was with the staff there.

  Though his mouth was full of his sandwich, at a knock on his office door, he called out “Enter!” He was expecting his secretary, even Dale again.

  It was Bronco, looking jumpy and pale.

  “Sorry to bother you again, Boss, but Nita called to say a couple of reporters knocked on our apartment door for a statement. She said no but one filmed her at the door. So they got us staked out both at our new house and old apartment. Nita—she’s real upset.”

  “As soon as I can talk to Claire, it might be good for you both to pack a bag and stay a couple days with us. It would be good to have Nita right there at the house for the kids anyway, especially if Claire takes that part-time consulting job.”

  “Oh, yeah. What’s that all about?”

  “Consulting for some people who need help at a job site. Bronco, calm Nita down and tell her everything will be fine.”

  “She don’t think so, boss. Doesn’t want to live there anymore. I—I think she believes the place might be—kind of haunted.”

  “But we know better than that, right? I’ll work on it as soon as I hear from Claire. If you need to go home early, go.”

  Cuddling little Trey in her arms, Claire paced at home. Jace had let Lexi call her to say they were at the zoo with Brit but he’d have her home in plenty of time for bed. “We’re hunting for the funniest monkey and the tallest giraffe,” he had told her, “now that we’ve seen Brit and the big cats.”

  Now Claire’s thoughts quickly returned to her own day. She wanted to convince Nick she should take the job. It was only the secrecy that bothered her, but she understood that too. After all, Nick had to keep a lot at work private. Jace was flying on classified government missions, not only to spray for bugs, but to pinpoint the locations of criminals through an undercover Stingray program that hunted down and traced cell phones—another sort of bug. Many things in life had to be top secret. As long as she could share some of what was going on at Black Bog with Nick, surely nothing could go wrong, even though she’d have to lie to some people about what she was doing.

  Little Trey went beautifully, innocently to sleep on her shoulder, so she went to put him in his crib. How eerie it was to think that those long-dead human beings lying in the bog had also once had people they loved and needed and had children to protect. No doubt they had people they hated too, problems they tried to solve. And she had picked up on the fact that Kris had said the people in Black Bog were not only being exhumed but might have been executed. Since Claire had worked with murder and suicide cases before, was that why they really wanted her?

  She began to pace again, in and out of Trey’s nursery, back toward the front door. Nick might be late because of the mess with Dale Braun, so she hated to bother him at work. But she needed his coolheaded advice, not that she’d seen anything really amiss at Black Bog. It was just that one look Andrea had given her. Claire had psyched out that the woman was used to getting what she wanted. And herself? Yes, she wanted to jump in—graves and all—with both feet.

  6

  “I don’t think we should put off setting a date and planning our wedding any longer,” Jace told Brit when he picked her up after taking Lexi home. “We’ve weathered some bad times, but let’s forge ahead.”

  As he pulled out into traffic, she turned toward him in the passenger seat, bending her left leg to face him despite her seat belt. “You do bring up the most important things at the craziest, least romantic times, flyboy. But actually, that would make me happy too—not to mention our little flower girl.”

  “Yeah, she’s psyched. But I want it for us, not Lexi. I know it’s pretty soon after losing your father, but—”

  “But he would have been very happy for us. And if we can somehow get my dear brother in the wedding party rather than playing his violin, that will suit me.”

  “I’d ask Mitch to be best man.”

  “I can hardly ask Claire to stand up with me, however close we’ve become. Just wouldn’t do to have your ex up there with you again while you say your vows. But what triggered this all of a sudden, if it wasn’t Lexi?”

  “I don’t want to let you down or lose you,” he said, hitting the steering wheel with his left fist. “I can see how the other big cat keeper looks at you. Don’t want him or some other guy swooping in.”

  “Swooping in? Says a guy whose nickname is Hawk! Don’t be silly. I’m wearing your engagement ring, and everyone knows we’re a couple—a couple in love, sharing everything, right?”

  �
�Absolutely. Affirmative that,” he insisted, though guilt bit at him again that he hadn’t told her about his new, dangerous job opportunity. “Now I’m gonna pull in to this grocery store, because I need to seal this with a looong kiss. I admit this wasn’t the most romantic place to bring it up, and neither is this parking lot, but we’ll make up for that, I promise.”

  Before he could pull over, they got stopped not only at a red light but by a long funeral procession. Life could be short, he told himself, gripping the steering wheel and wondering if she was thinking the same thing.

  The truth was, part of the reason he’d decided they should get married soon was that who knew how long either of them had. Not only was he hesitant to tell her about the dangers of hurricane flying, but what he was doing now was getting even more lethal.

  Once the funeral procession passed, he pulled into the grocery store parking lot and drove into the back row under a tree to get some shade. He killed the motor and undid his seat belt while she unsnapped hers. They hugged hard over the console between them and kissed deep and long until a couple of teenage boys walked by and hooted.

  As they broke their embrace and he honked the horn to make the boys move on, he felt like both a rat and a coward. He had dodged her question about why he wanted to speed things up. He’d almost worked up the nerve to tell her he was considering a dangerous assignment, one that would serve the public good. Surely, she’d understand—but would she? She’d lost so much recently, he could picture her going ballistic over this.

  Mitch had talked to him about signing on with him to become a hurricane hunter, flying into the eye of deadly storms for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Mitch had even kidded about changing his nickname from Hawk to Hunter.

  Jace almost blurted it out, but he didn’t want to argue either about the hazards of that career or have her insist he turn it down because he could be instantly on call if the weather was bad. And he’d need special training again. But he wanted more excitement in his life, he needed more than what he was doing, more than loving her, and she wouldn’t understand that.

  * * *

  “So because of his weapon, clothing and muscular build, they named their newest find Hunter,” Claire told Nick in another gush of words after he got home and sat on the couch to read through the Black Bog contract. She’d put out wine, crackers and cheese on the coffee table for him while she put Lexi in bed. The child had been tired and full of a chicken nugget dinner when Jace brought her home, so she had conked out already, and Trey had not awakened for a feeding yet.

  After being filled in on the latest about Dale’s questioning at the sheriff’s office, Claire had tried to keep calm as she told Nick about the day she’d had at Black Bog. She realized how excited she was to share what she’d seen—and convince him she should take the job.

  “Very professional, very complete,” Nick told her, tossing the contract on the coffee table while she sat beside him on the couch. “Of course, like all legal documents, it benefits the creator more than the signer, but it looks solid enough, and the pay per hour is excellent. I just hope the secrecy clauses will be passé soon, and they can release some of this to the public.”

  “But you do see why? In a way, they’re sitting on a powder keg if some of this information were to get out.”

  “True, and we’ve had enough of getting things blown up in front of us. But I think, since this is really part-time, it will work out.”

  “Especially if we have Nita on-site here to help with Trey and Lexi. I’m all for your idea of letting them live here for a while until things calm down after finding that poor woman’s body.”

  “Which I’d like more information on, so I told my secretary and assistant to call me here if the ME releases cause of death tonight. Meanwhile, Mrs. Markwood, what’s your strategy to keep your new endeavor secret from our inquisitive daughter, let alone everyone else?”

  “The cover story will be that a fairly new business is hiring me part-time to interview prospective employees. They are developing a new product they don’t wish to discuss right now. Not a lie, not quite the truth, but, after all, I’ve advised other companies on hiring tactics, so—”

  Nick’s phone on the coffee table sounded with the music from a lawyer TV show, then a clickety-click she’d always thought of as his brain working. Oh, darn, after seeing those shrunken brains today, maybe she had brains on the brain.

  He snatched it up. “Nick here.” She was sitting so close to him she could hear what the voice on the other end was saying. She recognized the woman’s voice as his secretary, Cheryl.

  “Nick, I was about ready to go home when the ME’s office called about information on the death of Cynthia Lindley. She had some bad bruising on her arms and legs, especially her neck, though those were hardly cause of death. She was fully clothed. Of course, she was frozen solid, but cause of death was strangulation. Her hyoid bone was fractured. We’ll have a fax of the entire report tomorrow a.m.”

  “Thanks, Cheryl,” Nick said, and punched off. “Did you hear that?”

  “I admit I did.”

  “So, conclusions, my fave forensic psych?”

  “Whoever killed her and lifted her into that freezer was strong—not some old woman.”

  “Good point. Unless the murderer had help. I’m thinking that supposedly one third of female deaths where the hyoid bone at the front base of the neck is broken is from rough sex—temporarily cutting off the oxygen for a higher high, and then it all goes wrong.”

  “Really? So there’s another piece of evidence that could point to Dale.”

  “I wouldn’t figure the guy’s that type, very controlled, but then still waters run deep. Anything else that comes to mind?”

  “The person hated or feared her enough to kill her, yet had feelings for her—didn’t just dump her body somewhere, even kind of arranged her clothing and body for the freezer. But then, he or she perhaps opened the victim’s eyes and her mouth in that silent scream—but why?”

  “Feared her. Never thought of that. She might have known something secret and she said she’d tell. Blackmail?”

  “Unfortunately, until we somehow look into her life, the possibilities are endless,” she admitted.

  “We? If you sign that contract and don’t intend to put Lexi and Trey up for adoption, no way you’re on this case. Yes, I know we decided to have Nita here for a while to help. You will be busy enough, even though I would love your help. And the one thing I don’t like about your lucrative Black Bog contract is that your cell phone won’t work there if I need you—or if the kids do.”

  “I will only be part-time there and won’t stay for entire days. Meanwhile, I predict, leader of all you command, Mr. Brilliant Mind, Senior Partner of Markwood, Benton and Chase, that you will need my skills—at least my opinions—before this is all said and done. I intend to sign this Black Bog contract now, but I also signed on to help you through thick and thin, through hell and high water, or whatever we vowed, and we’ve managed to survive all that.”

  He hugged her hard, pulled her down onto the couch and then lay beside her. “I don’t know what I’d do without you in all kinds of ways. I love you, sweetheart, and always will. As obsessed as I—you too—get with our projects and endeavors, it’s our family and our marriage that matter most. I run that law firm that seems like a little town and try to help people on the sly through South Shores, but you’re at the heart of everything. I know we don’t want to upstage Jace and Brit, whenever they finally set a wedding date, but I think it’s about time for us to plan that long-delayed wedding reception we’ve talked about. We can have it at the country club I never use. What do you think?”

  “I think it’s a great idea—perfect. With a shotgun wedding in another country where we only had Lexi at the ceremony, we owe that much to our friends and family—and ourselves. Life goes by fast, things happen. That’s one truth
that hit me at Black Bog today. Let’s do it!”

  Tears stung her eyes. She tried to blink them back, but they clung to her lashes. “I never thought things could be so perfect—that I could be so happy,” she got out before he crushed her to him in a commanding and possessive hug.

  “There’s another contract we are going to celebrate tonight,” he said, sitting up and pulling her into his arms as he stood. “No better place to plan a celebration than in bed.”

  “But you said you were hungry.”

  “Mostly for you. Lexi’s out like a light, Trey’s quiet. This way, my love.”

  He actually carried her out of the Florida room and down the hall to their bedroom. He lay her on the bed and, standing over her, began to strip off his shirt and pants.

  “I feel like we’re newlyweds again,” she said, pulling off her top and wiggling out of her shorts. “And we’ll soon have Nita and Bronco around, and they really are just married. Then there’s Jace and Brit, thinking of—”

  “Enough,” he told her as he pushed her back on the bed and lay naked beside her. “Too much thinking. Let’s just go with feeling for now.”

  And they did.

  7

  Despite how tired Claire was after last night, adrenaline poured through her. Taking her signed contract, she drove to Black Bog and was welcomed by Kris and Andrea. Kris gave her a two-way radio transmitter and a quick lesson in using it.

  “Obviously, only for on-site communications,” Kris explained while Andrea nodded. “Numbers for each staff member are pasted here on the back. Your cell phone will work when you get about four miles back toward town.”