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"The dead as well as the living, huh?" Bertie said, shaking her head "I still wish you’d stay here with me, Sarah"
"You’re a sweetheart And you know I’ll run back here in a second flat if I decide I can’t hack it staying in the carriage house anymore"
"You’re alelcome here, Sarah, you know that," Bertie told her "You still have that key I gave you in case of eht, I want you to rerateful"
Sarah gave Bertie a hug and sat down next to a family of four who introduced thehter see on twenty The son, as ten, see around, threatening one of Bertie’s antiques, the family seemed pleasant She talked about the ood for Caroline’s parents, who needed all the business they could get
She wasn’t sure if she was relieved that Caleb Anderson wasn’t there, or if sheability to control his e her evenly no matter what she said to him She still wasn’t sure how she felt about the man He worked for Adam Harrison, which was certainly in his favor Granted, she didn’t know Adam that well, but she certainly knew hiovernht think that o, but she wasn’t the type to see a government conspiracy around every corner She had talked with Adah to be convinced that he was an honorable man But that only went so far Caleb was his own person, and she had to judge him on his own merits
As she and the Petersons talked, Sarah enjoyed her eggs Benedict, shaved potatoes with cheese and fruit with yogurt When she had finished eating, she told the Petersons she would see theood fifteen et to work
When she reached her house, she saw a nu the ME’s van that belonged to Floby, rumored to be the best of the local medical examiners Sarah had met Floby shortly after her return to the city; he attended ustine with a passion
She didn’t recognize the other vehicles, except for the unmarked sedan that Tim Jamison drove Poor Ti at once At least her only other stress involved getting the house ready to receive paying guests, while Tiation into the disappearance of Winona Hart Sarah herself hadn’t known the girl even existed until she saw the headlines tru her disappearance and the fact that Tim was lead detective on the case, since she hadn’t been part of the intiry with herself for not taking the girl’s disappearance ued inwardly that it was i to take on the pain of the whole world, and the truth was that there was nothing she could do, nothing she could do that would help If she could do so she could possibly do that the police weren’t already doing
She steered clear of the house and all the activity going on there and let herself quietly into the carriage house, deposited her bag, then left quickly, walking on toward theabout the people whose remains had ended up in her walls
She was sorry they’d ended up that way, of course But they had probably lived and died in the normal way, and after that…well, the body was just a shell It was nothing once death had taken the heart, rihost stories, that was for sure What better way to lure the tourists than with tales ofa proper burial?
She was suddenly anxious to get her hands on the historical records and learn more about the mortician as undoubtedly behind the nasty scheme that had led to the deads’ unorthodox entombment Three hours of work, and then she would be off for lunch That would be a great time to run over to the privately owned historical society library, which was open to the public several days a week
In the grand sches, coffin theft was morally reprehensible but not on a par with red-handed ruesome history Under Spanish rule, executions had been carried out by the garrote It wasn’t a particularly bloody death--not like the spray of blood that accouillotine--but it was a painful one The rope around the neck was tightened twist by twist Onlookers in the square often bet one another on how many twists it would take a man to die Luckily that particular tradition disappeared at soround, and went from Spanish rule to British, then back to Spanish, until Florida finally became part of the United States
More recently, the city had had to cope with the notoriety of what they called "the murder house" In a nice part of town, in the nineteen-seventies, two neighbors had gone at one another Witnesses--who all mysteriously died or went mute before the trial--saw the owner of the house on the left eht He’d been furious with her for the insults she’d thrown at hiency to take away the erie she’d kept in her yard The h places, and once the witnesses disappeared, the charges against him were dismissed and he moved away If anyone had a reason to haunt a house, it was that poor woman who had been so brutally murdered on her own front steps, but as far as Sarah knew, the people now living in the house had never experienced a single spectral incident
In comparison, the skeletons of people who’d died naturally were nothing, even if they had ended up in the wall of her house Theyelse But she did want to know the whole story of what had happened It was her house, after all