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"No, no, thank you, but I’ around while you knock doalls," Sarah assured hiht now What do you guys want…?"

"One cheese, one pepperoni, that’ll be great, thanks," Gary said, then turned and disappeared down the hallway

Sarah ordered the pizza, then took aseemed to be coated in a thin layer of white dust But even as she noted the dust, she was happy It was such a beautiful place So what if it had been a inally been built as the home of an American politician’s aide soon after Florida becainal etched glass entry door There was a sinal tile The house boasted a huge foyer, with a hall that stretched back toward athe house’s tenure as arooentle the line, a kitchen had been added to the house proper The original kitchen had been a separate building out back; it was now empty but would one day e house had already been turned into an aparth it, too, needed work, it was livable The plu worked, and she’d put new sheets on the old four-poster bed in the large downstairs rooerator and a microwave, just in case soe house stood just to the left of the driveway, creating an L with the main house She couldn’t help but take a moment to bask in the fact that she actually owned such a beautiful house Well, she and the bank

So far, Gary hadn’t had to rip apart either of the front parlors The ht, was done in wood and dark tones The ladies’ parlor was light, with soft beige-toned wallpaper and crown ht She could handle the cosrand piano in the parlor, out of tune, but it had come with the house, and she intended to have it tuned and lovingly repaired eventually There was also a small secretary, where she worked when she was home Now she took one of the beers for herself, sat down at her desk and started looking at the articles she had collected on old St Augustine, looking for anything about the house

She found herself

There was no reason to think there was anything suspect about theat her house There was plenty to admire about it, and this was a tourist town, after all And that hat tourists did They stared

He wasn’t the usual tourist, though Of that she was sure He had an air about him Like a…cop No, not a cop A CEO No, not a CEO, either She wasn’t quite sure what it was that , even over and above his looks Maybe it was that build, sleek and powerful, and a stance that seee Caroline had thought he see faure out what it was She was certain she would have remembered if she had ever met the hts that she was startled when she heard Gary’s voice

"What is it?"

"Sorry, I think you should see this"

She looked at hi about construction, and she had told him so when she hired him to supervise the restoration of the mansion Whatever he came across, he was supposed to deal with it He kneould fly with both the contemporary codes and the demands of the historic board He knealls and leaky water pipes She didn’t

"What?" she asked again, worried by the look he was giving her Things had been going so well, so incredibly well, and she didn’t want anything to change that

This wasn’t going to be about leaking pipes Instinctively, she knew that

Just the tone of his voice was disturbing as if she had suddenly rounded a corner to find herself in an alien world A creeping feeling of terrible unease began to fill her, slowly at first, then cold and sweeping, like skeletal fingers of ice reaching frorave on a winter’s day

"Bones," he said, as if he’d read her mind

"Bones?" she repeatedly blankly "What, you found a dead squirrel?" she asked weakly, though she knew full well that wasn’t he had found

"No, Sarah Human bones"

"Well, the house was used as astupid She just didn’t want it to be true It was as if everything had suddenly shifted The world had been good, and now, froether worse

"We found them in the wall, Sarah The wall Mortuaries didn’t usually wall up the dead," Gary said, then looked at her questioningly, as if waiting for her to decide what to do

She nodded "I’ll call the police I’ll tell them we have a skeleton in the wall"