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She trembled "Sloan!" she said, and sed

"Valerie, what is it? What’s wrong?"

She lifted a shaky finger and pointed at the row of old carved wooden wig heads

They were creepy, Sloan agreed Each had been painted with a face Soh A few of the newer heads were made of plastic or Styrofoam

And at the end of the row

There was one that bore a dark curly wig tied with a red ribbon Dark curls fell over the forehead

But the head wasn’t carved from wood Nor was it plastic or Styrofoam

It was a human skull, a skull stuck on a wooden spike The jawbone had fallen and lay on the ledge

That

As if evil was indeed alive in the world and had come to Lily, Arizona

1

Jane Everett was entranced

She’d been to a ghost town or two in her day, but never a functioning ghost town

But then, of course, Lily, Arizona, had never really been a ghost town because it had never been completely deserted It had just fallen by the wayside It had seen good times--when the old, as well, and the saloons and merchants had flourished--and it had seen bad times when the host town or the set of a Western movie The main street had raised wooden sidewalks and an unpaved dirt street Muddy when it rained, she was certain, but that was seldoan Raintree, had hired to bring her to town let her out in front of the Gilded Lily, where she’d be staying The driver had set her bag on the wooden sidewalk, but she waited aview of the street

There were a nuhter froroup of children had co away at ice crea several riders out of the stables; she could hear his voice as he began to tell them the history of the town

But the theater itself here she was heading so she turned and studied it for a moment Someone had taken pains to preserve rather than renovate, and the place appeared grand--if grand was the right word Well, rand in a rustic way The carved wooden fence that wound around the roof was painted with an array of lilies and the na over the fence and held in place with old chain were signs advertising the current production, The Perils of Poor Little Paulina Actors’ names were listed in smaller print beneath the title She knew the shoas a parody of the serialized Perils of Pauline that had been popular in the early part of the twentieth century

No neon here, she thought, s They were far from Broadway

She’d read that the Gilded Lily had hosted many fine performers over the years The theater had been established at a ti a little eastern "class" to the rugged West; naturally, the results had been so up at the edifice, aout the latticed doors Tall and square as a wrestler, clean-shaven and bald with dark eyes and white-winged brows, he bustled with energy "Jane? Jane Everett? From the FBI?"

"Yes, I am Hello"

"Welcome to Lily, Arizona," he said enthusiastically "I’m Henri Coque, artistic director of the theater for about a year now and, I ht add, director of the current production, The Perils of Poor Little Paulina We’re delighted to have you here"

"I’hted to be here," she responded "It’s a beautiful place Who wouldn’t want to cohed at that "I’lad to hear that, especially since I’m the mayor here, as well as the artistic director Lily itself is s, and I’ll show you around the theater and take you to your rooested one of the chain hotels up the highway, but everyone else thought you’d enjoy the Gilded Lily more"

"I’m happy to be here," Jane assured him "I can stay at a chain hotel anywhere"

She was happy They’d been between cases when Logan had heard from an old friend of his--a Texas cop, now an Arizona sheriff--that a skull had appeared e cellar of a historic theater It had sounded fascinating to her and she’d agreed to come out here The local coroner’s office had deemed the skull to be over a hundred years old and had deter it over to the FBI was justified, so that perhaps the deceased could be identified and given a proper burial Like encies, the police here were busy with current cases that de

The skull, she kneas no longer at the theater She would work at the new sheriff’s office on the highway, but she was intrigued by the opportunity to spend time at the historic theater, learn the history of it and, of course, see where the skull was found

That was the confusion--and thebefore Granted, the theater had been holding shows forever; it had never closed down And people had been using the various wigs down there forever, too Fro at the theater and involved with it had denied ever seeing the skull, with or without a wig It see a prank, but Jane wasn’t sure how identifying the person behind the skull--given that he or she had been dead over a hundred years--would help discover who’d put it on the rack

The sheriff, Sloan Trent, had wanted to send the skull off to the Smithsonian or the FBI lab, but the mayor had insisted it should stay in Lily until an identification had been an Raintree, head of Jane’s Texas Krewe unit of the FBI teaators known as the Krewe of Hunters And that had led to Logan’s asking Jane, whose specialty was forensic art, to come here The medical examiner who’d seen the skull believed it was the skull of a woman and he had estimated that she’d been dead for a hundred to a hundred and fifty years