Page 49 of Immortal By Morning
“Why else dig in it?” Lucian said dryly.
Bricker grunted with a nod, and then pointed out, “They could have found what they were looking for already.”
“I do not think so,” Lucian said thoughtfully as he walked over to join Decker by the indoor garden. “I suspect between Lilith and Abril interrupting them they did not have the time.”
“The holes in her memory,” Cassius said with understanding. “She left the kitchen, then was abruptly in the kitchen and leaving again.”
Lucian nodded, and then announced, “You will not go to the shed to get shovels. Dustpans and other items from inside the house will have to do.”
“There’s a snow shovel in the garage still,” Abril announced, running her hand down Lilith’s smooth fur again. “I was going to move it to the garden shed, andthen we had snow again just a couple weeks ago, so it never got moved. It’s leaning against the far wall in the garage.”
“Is there a way to get into the garage without having to go out and be seen returning with the shovel?” Lucian asked.
“Yes. Down that hallway,” she said, pointing to the hall to the laundry room. “There’s a door that opens into the back of the garage.”
“I’ll get it,” Bricker offered, hurrying from the room.
“What do you think is in the garden?” Crispin asked with curiosity.
“Probably another body,” Cassius suggested when Lucian did not respond.
“Well, why would they try to get that out? I mean it was a big risk to break into the house and try to dig out the garden. If that was what they were doing,” he pointed out. “And we’ve already discovered the bodies outside. What would it matter if there’s one more here?”
Lucian shook his head slowly. “Who can say? But there is obviously something there they want badly enough that they would take the risk of entering the house when it was not empty. Abril must have interrupted them repeatedly and prevented them getting very far,” he said. “They must have wiped her mind and sent her back to the kitchen the first time, or perhaps several times for all we know, then took her outside the last time.”
Bricker returned then with the shovel. It was large, at least two feet wide. It was made for shoveling lots of snow and would be awkward to use in the garden. But it was the best they had at the moment. It wasbetter than using a dustpan, or a spatula, Abril supposed.
“Gently,” Lucian ordered when Bricker stepped into the garden. When he tried to move the fronds of the umbrella plant aside with one foot, Decker joined him and simply pulled it out. He then pulled out a couple more before getting out of his way.
“Thanks,” Bricker said and then set to work.
“Perhaps we should take Lilith into the kitchen and let her rest where we can watch her,” Crispin said suddenly.
“No,” Abril said at once. She knew he was just trying to get her out of the living room and shook her head in refusal. “I want to see what’s in the garden too.”
In the end, they did have to resort to dustpans and anything else in the house they could find that would be useful as a tool to help. It was mostly due to impatience on the part of the other men. They couldn’t stand the wait when Bricker was working alone, so joined him. They dug and dug, deeper and deeper with no results.
“How deep is this damn garden?” Bricker asked with irritation.
Abril shrugged and stood. Leaving Lilith where she was, she moved closer to the garden. “I have no idea. This house is slab on grade. No basement. For all I know there is no bottom and they just left an open hole in this part of the house for the garden to be a real garden.”
“Unlikely,” Lucian announced. “It is more likely it goes down as far as the foundation.”
“I think we are already past the foundation point,” Decker said dryly, shifting some of the dirt away fromthe edge so it would not fall back into the hole. They had to be at least four feet down already.
Lucian shook his head solemnly. “Even for slab on grade, they dig a foundation until they reach firm ground. If there is peat moss or something else in the area—”
“There is,” Abril interrupted to say. “The contractor said they would have to dig ten feet down to get past the peat, then backfill with gravel before pouring the concrete for the slab on top of that.” She smiled crookedly at the memory and said what she’d thought at the time. “It just seems silly really. According to him that’s how the original contractor poured the foundation for the main house too. It means there is a basement under here that’s full of gravel. I always figured it would be easier just to have an actual basement.”
“Found something!” Bricker said suddenly.
Twenty-Two
Abril joined Lucian at the edge of the hole and Crispin followed, stepping up on her other side as they watched Cassius, Decker, and Bricker all now begin to work with smaller tools on their find.
“It looks like it is just another skeleton,” Decker said with confusion, his movements slowing.
“Well, dig it out,” Lucian growled impatiently. “We cannot leave that skeleton here any more than we could the ones outside. Besides, I suspect it isnotlike the other skeletons at all.”
