Page 13 of Wolfish
“Okay, I’m going to bag it and take it over there.”
“I'll give them a heads up.”
She glanced in the direction where she had heard something or someone, but whatever or whoever it was hadn’t moved once she had become aware that something was there. She hurried with the bag of bones to her car and drove off, watching her rearview mirror to see if someone was watching or following her, but she didn’t see anyone. Maybe she had been mistaken.
When she arrived at the morgue in the hospital's basement, Dr. Featherston introduced himself.
“So what do we have here?”
“Someone who had died and had been buried at an unmarked grave at Southside Cemetery near the silver mines.” She carefully washed off the bones and laid them out on the table. “Rainwater had left them exposed so I wanted to examine them.”
“Selena Rivers, the forensic anthropologist in our midst. The whole pack is talking about it. I can always use your expertise in cases like this,” the doctor said.
“I’m happy to help. He had suffered from a broken ankle and wrist, both of which had healed. But death came from a bullet wound to the head that exited out the back of the skull.”
“He might have been accused of cheating at cards or stealing someone’s gold or silver claim. Or just fought with someone who was trigger-happy,” the doctor said.
Suddenly, a man joined them, camera in hand. “This is Brett Silver, who works for our newspaper, cousin to Darien. His mate is Ellie MacTire. She can sometimes commune with the dead.”
Selena’s jaw dropped. Wow, what a way to put Selena out of business. Forget studies in forensic anthropology when a ghost could reveal the truth to a ghost whisperer. She was so surprised that Ellie could also commune with spirits.
Ellie bounced down the stairs and gave Brett a big kiss.
“You don’t mind if we document this in the newspaper for the town, do you?” Brett asked.
“Not at all.” Though Selena wanted to reveal it in her book, she couldn’t say no to him when he was the pack leader’s cousin, and as lovely as Ellie had been to her.
She took pictures for her book while Brett snapped shots for his newspaper. Then Selena revealed to Ellie what she had determined about the skeleton.
“That’s Wolf McKennick,” Ellie said. “He remembered his brother shooting him. After that, he was dead. He broke his wrist in a mining accident, but it healed. And he broke his ankle when he was drunk and tripped over some rocks.”
“So he was a miner.”
“Yeah. Practically everyone in that cemetery was.”
“Why did his brother shoot him?”
“Barney McKennick shot him over one of the tavern women. Lucy Jones. He suspects his brother would have gotten the woman after he shot him, unless he had been hanged for murder.”
“Fascinating.”
“He asked if you could rebury his bones somewhere that’s not in a gully during rainstorms. He doesn’t want to suffer the indignity of being exposed to the elements when his brother probably isn’t.”
“Of course.”
“We’ll hold a memorial for him. You don’t need to rebury him. The townspeople will,” Brett said.
“I’ll be there. Is there anything else you can tell me about him?”
“He had a simple life. Work in the mines, leave to eat, visit Lucy at the tavern, play poker, sleep, start all over again. He doesn’t blame his brother for shooting him. If he had been quicker on the draw, but he had a bum wrist, he would have shot his brother and been the one swinging from a tree instead. He wondered what happened to Lucy but figured she took up with some other fellow once he was dead,” Ellie said.
That was sad, Selena thought.
“If you find any more skeletons, let me know and I’ll try to help you out. Sometimes the spirits have moved on, but sometimes, like in Wolf’s case, they are still hanging on.”
Brett and Ellie left, and Selena said, “Wow.”
“I know. The first case I had like that was when Ellie came and told me the whole history of the dead body, I figured I was out of a job,” the doctor said.
