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"Right I’ll keep in contact Though I assu information from the police faster than I as"
"Thanks And likewise"
Caleb hung up
He stood and stretched, then wandered to the door
He had chosen a bed-and-breakfast on Avila Street not for its charet a rooround floor with a private entrance His dooras on the side of the building, and a bougainvillea-shaded walk led straight out to the street at the rear of the raustine was pretty le On the coast, the massive Fort Marion, the old Spanish Castillo de San Marcos, served as the city’s rown around it in the re three directions Now the bay was lined with restaurants, hotels, shops and B&Bs Beyond thattourist attractions: the oldest house, the oldest schoolhouse, the oldest phar old, and it was a historical treasure trove Interspersed with the tourist attractions were more B&Bs, one-of-a-kind shops and even a nuht, the backstreets were quiet, except when the sightseeing carriages and ghost tours went by
With St Augustine’s notoriety as the oldest continually inhabited European city in the United States--with sixty years on Jahosts
As he stood on the sidewalk, feeling the Atlantic breeze that cooled the city year-round, he was startled as one police car went by, and then another, quickly followed by a third
They were turning down St George Street
Caleb followed
"Oh, hastly," Caroline breathed
"Caroline, please," Sarah said
"Horrifying," Caroline went on
"Caroline!" Will protested "Please, they’re bones"
"Human bones," Caroline reminded him "Hureen eyes at Sarah as he ran a hand through his dark chestnut-colored hair
St Augustine could be a very small town One officer had talked to another after Sarah had called the police, and the story about the bones in her walls had traveled like lightning, with a cop friend of Will’s reaching hi for a table The police had barely arrived before her cousin and her friends showed up, as well
"This is history in thefar more contemporary in jeans and a short-sleeved shirt
"History?" Renee Otten protested "As if we need ustine"
"I’ll bet the undertaker was selling coffins to the fa the bodies in the walls, then selling the coffins again," Sarah said She felt tired And despite the logic of her words, she was still unnerved She loved this house, and she was pretty certain that she was right In a few cases, soh to hold theether And there were stained scraps of fabric left, as well, which seehteen-hundreds
She felt terrible, of course, that hus had been treated with no respect and no reverence whatsoever But she found it crihastly And she are, above all, that this discovery ists, on top of the forensic specialists She would be like a visitor in her own house She had learned enough about dig sites when she worked as a historian in Arlington, charting relics and remains, to know that for a fact
"How can you be so sure? Maybe souy in Chicago who did ahole fahteen-hundreds He orse than Jack the Ripper--but they caught hilared at her cousin "Will!"
"Sorry," he told her
They were standing just inside the doorway Behind them stood Tim Jamison, the police lieutenant who’d been handed the case He was convinced that these weren’t modern-day homicides, but there were still plenty of questions to be answered He was supervising the arrival of ists Gary was sitting in the kitchen, drinking beer He had already given Tim his statement but didn’t want to leave yet
There were already a few reporters hanging around, and Gary didn’t want to deal with them He just wanted to eat his pizza, drink his beer and stop the leak
"Look at it this way," Caroline said, brightening "They’re obviously very old bones They’ll get the theet back to work on the house, and when you do open for business, it will be fabulous People love to stay at haunted houses There’s some castle in Ireland that’s supposed to be haunted and you can’t even get a reservation there for years"