Maximum Security (A Dog Park Mystery) (4 page)

Peter didn't know what to think. On
the one hand, he was not upset to have an excuse to dump the bottle
bomb interviews off onto Brent for the time being. But hang it all,
if that dog wasn’t a royal pain in the ass, and becoming more of
one with every passing minute. He was ready to suggest giving up.
Yet, the thought of searching the entire forest with cadaver dogs
kept him hoping Max would return to her find. Just a few more
minutes–

The leash tugged like an impatient
child. Max was straining, whining. There was nothing he could see
that would draw Max’s attention, except a pile of downed trees in
the bottom of their current gully, the remains of a storm back in
’93.

Max jerked on the leash, pulling
Lia off balance. She fell to her knees and would have tumbled down
the slope if Peter hadn’t grabbed her arm. Max was a shrinking blur
torpedoing downhill, her leash whipping behind her.

Lia got her feet back under her.
She swiped her palms on her jeans. “Go after her. I’ll follow. I’ll
be okay.”

Peter handed her the machete, then
moved quickly down the slope, momentum carrying him into a hard run
on the uneven ground. He stumbled to a halt several yards after he
made the bottom.

Panting, he leaned over with his
hands braced on his thighs and wished he’d thought to bring water.
Peter inhaled deeply and caught the scent of putrefaction, sweetish
and sickening, heavy in the air. Underlying was the odor of urine.
He steeled himself for a mess and wished he had his Vick’s with
him.

He rounded the end of the pile of
logs and spotted Max pawing in a pile of decaying vegetation. Years
of dead leaves had been disturbed, exposing the earth and the
insects that liked to grub in the dark.

He took care now, examining each
piece of ground before he stepped, moving quietly behind Max and
planting his foot firmly on her leash. He bent over and picked up
the tether. Max, intently focused on
something
, didn’t
notice him.

He moved closer, then pulled Max’s
head away from the ground. Max had been nosing at a hip
bone.

“Lia! Don’t come any closer!” He
scanned the ground at the bottom of the gully, spotting random
splashes of white. His eyes began to differentiate shapes in the
crazy quilt of leaves and dead wood, picking out bits of blue and
red. A skull materialized, perching on top of a rock. Bits of flesh
and fine, white hair clung to the scalp. Peter was surrounded by a
grisly expanse of bones and clothing.

He’d never seen anything like
it.

Peter carefully made his way back
to Lia, who was now sitting on a downed tree. She took Max’s lead,
wrapped it around a young tree, and clipped it to itself with her
carabiner.

Her face was stoic. “What did you
find?”

“More bones. Not sure what else is
here.” He pulled out his phone, called up an app and took a GPS
reading. This he called in to the station. He tapped “end” and
shoved the phone back in his pocket.

“They’re going to bring out the
crime scene folks and a cadaver dog. I’ve got to stay here to
secure the scene. Can you find your way back?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“If I give you my key, can you
walk Viola and take her home with you today?”

She nodded. She looked exhausted.
He knew the hike wasn’t responsible. He tipped up her chin and
kissed her lightly on the lips.

“I’ll call later. If I get out of
here in time for dinner, I’ll bring pizza.” He gathered her into
his arms and hugged her tightly. “You done good, Babe.”

“Babe,” she muttered into his
armpit, “is still a pig.”

Lia had a hard time concentrating.
She rescheduled her appointment with Renee and spent the day
puttering around her apartment, catching up on neglected chores
while she worried about the bones they’d found in the park. Her
artist’s imagination had her conjuring gruesome scenarios. Cannibal
bar-b-que. Satanic sacrifice. The newest installment of
Twilight
. The bone Max found seemed, for want of a better
word, ‘fresh.’ Thinking about it made her shudder
violently.

The phone rang with increasing
frequency as the news spread. Lia briefly considered changing her
outgoing message: “Yes, Max found bones at Mount Airy. No, I don’t
know anything else. Don’t bother to leave a message. If you’re my
friend, I’ll see you soon enough. If you aren’t, I don’t want to
talk to you.” The thought made her smile as she dutifully answered
each call.

She removed calcium deposits from
her bathroom plumbing, scrubbed the grout and washed windows. She
repotted root-bound plants. She was eyeing Chewy’s overgrown coat
and reaching for her scissors when the phone rang again.

“Lia, it’s me.”

“Thank God, Peter. What’s
happening?”

“We’re wrapping up here. Do you
still want me to come over? I figure I can stop by Dewey’s and be
there in an hour. I’ll tell you about it then.”

Viola started barking shortly
before 9:30. The others joined in, howling. A minute later, Lia
heard a car door slam. She opened the door as a freshly showered
and shaved Peter came up the walk carrying a pizza box from Dewey’s
with a bag on top. Frantic, Viola jumped on him and whimpered. He
handed dinner to Lia, then stooped to pet Viola.

“What’s in the bag?” Lia
asked.

“Salad.”

“Good man.”

“I’m learning.”

“Yes, you are.” She leaned in,
lingered over her ‘hello’ kiss. “Let’s get you fed. Then I’ll pry
information out of you.”

Peter leaned back on the sofa,
propped his stocking feet up on the coffee table and tipped back a
bottle of Beck’s. Having stuffed themselves on pizza crust, the
dogs were spread out on the floor, napping.

“That was excellent,” Peter
said.

“I do agree. So, out with it. What
happened after I left?”

“You can’t share. Just the stuff
that’s public.”

“Cross my heart,” Lia said
solemnly while she made the required swipes with her index
finger.

“It looks like one skeleton,
scattered around in pieces. Chris brought Boo to scent the area for
other remains, but they didn’t come up with anything.”

“How do you think he
died?”

“Brent found a crossbow bolt, so
it’s possible it was a deer hunting accident. I found a hunter’s
deer blind in one of the trees, something someone built out of
scrap lumber. Permanent tree stands are illegal on public hunting
grounds, so fat chance finding out who it belongs to. We think the
shot came from there.

“Whoever he was, he died there.
Boo found the spot where he bled out. It was recent. Not all the
bones were clean.”

Lia grimaced at the
thought.

“What’s really strange,” Peter
continued, “the area stank to high Heaven, like a corpse that has
been kept in an oil drum for six months. We didn’t find anything
that would account for that. Then there’s the question of why bones
were scattered all over the place.”

“How can you accidentally shoot
someone and then not help them or call the police?”

“That’s what we’ve got to figure
out. We found the remains of clothing and something thick and
plush, like a blanket. Could be he was asleep on the ground and the
hunter didn’t see him.”

“Sounds unlikely, and it doesn’t
explain why there was nothing left but scattered bones.”

“Yeah, that’s what Brent and I
think.”

“So what’s your next
step?”

“The coroner’s office should have
a description and a time of death for the deceased by tomorrow.
We’ll check that against any local missing persons cases and see if
we have a match. If we do, we get dental records and make a
comparison. If not, we’ll have to do a facial reconstruction and
send it to the media. Meanwhile, we’re pulling the names of all the
bow hunters licensed for the current session of the deer cull at
Mount Airy. Shouldn’t be more than about thirty. If we don’t get
any joy there, we’ll look at all licensed bow hunters in
Cincinnati.”

“Do you think there’s a chance it
wasn’t a bow hunter?”

“There always is, but until we get
evidence that suggests otherwise, we’re looking for horses, not
zebras.”

“What do I get to tell everyone at
the park? They know we found a human bone.”

“We found a body and we’re trying
to identify it. The trails are closed to everyone, including
hunters, until further notice.”

“The hunters won’t like being kept
out of the woods.”

“Nope, they sure
won’t.”

Lia steeled herself for grilling as
she strode up the park drive the next morning. She had all four
dogs in tow, having agreed to keep Viola for a few days. Peter
would be working long hours until headway was made on the case and
would have little time for his dog.

The service road ended at a brick
picnic shelter separating two fenced enclosures, one for large dogs
and one for small. Lia noticed a middle-aged woman sitting at one
of the tables, a polite expression on her face. She was of medium
height and plump, dressed nicer than the usual dog park patron in
tan knit pants and a green tunic topped with a heavy gold necklace
that couldn’t possibly be real. The conservative, chin-length bob
of graying hair had clearly been styled at a salon. Lia thought she
looked familiar, but couldn’t place her.

Viola, who approached very few
people, walked up to the woman, tugging on her leash. She sniffed
at her, then lifted her head for a pet. The woman held her hand out
for approval. Viola gave it a quick flick of her tongue. The woman
stroked the top of Viola’s head. Satisfied, Viola returned to her
pack.

“Good morning,” Lia said. “We
don’t normally get people without dogs.”

The woman looked flustered. “I’m
just waiting for someone.”

“Who is it? I know most people who
come here.”

“I doubt you know him, but thank
you.” The woman angled away, signaling the end of their
conversation.

Whatever
, Lia
thought.

She passed through the picnic
shelter to the corral, released all the dogs except Max and headed
for her favorite picnic table. Jim sat there, playing Draw
Something on his Kindle. Fleece and Chester lolled beside him on
the table top.

Lia seated herself on the table.
Max settled on the ground. Viola jumped up, curling behind Lia.
Honey and Chewy had abandoned her, hoping to find slow squirrels
and evidence of deer incursions.

Lia peered over Jim’s shoulder.
“You ought to draw bigger. What are you trying to make?”

“It’s a teapot. Think she’ll get
it?”

“That’s a coffee pot.”

“What’s the
difference?”

“Teapots are short, round, and
have a long spout. Coffee pots are tall and have a short,
triangular spout.”

He held out the tablet. “Here, you
draw it.”

“You really want me
to?”

“Sure, why not.”

Lia handed Jim Max’s leash,
swapping it for the tablet and erasing the drawing. She started
over, first laying down a background color of light tan, then a
pale blue table cloth overlaid with thin, lavender stripes. Next,
she selected the eraser and drew the belly of the pot, a sinuous
spout and a curved handle in white. She drew a small knob on top.
Then she selected a rose hue and decorated the pot with little
flowers. Last, she switched back to the eraser and pulled wisps of
steam coming out of the spout. She passed it to Jim.

“There you go.”

He shook his head. “You’re a
terrific artist. Bonnie won’t know what to think.” He hit the send
button.

“When do we get to meet this
mysterious Bonnie?”

“One of these days.”

Chester waddled across the table
top and sat up on his hind legs by Lia. She turned to him and bent
her face down so he could kiss her. Chester obliged, then tried to
sneak his tongue up her nose. Jealous, Viola snapped at
Chester.

“Eeeew. Stop it, Chester! Viola,
Be nice!” She straightened up and looked back at the picnic
shelter.

“That woman is still just sitting
there. How long has she been here?”

“She was here when I arrived. I
think that Nissan Altima in the parking lot is hers. I saw an Avis
folder in the front seat. Guess she’s from out of town.”

“Or else her car is wrecked.
Insurance will pay for a rental.”

“True,” Jim considered.

“She looks familiar.”

“She’s been hiking in the woods. I
saw her head back there with someone last week. I can’t remember
who.”

“In those clothes?” Lia raised her
eyebrows.

“Takes all kinds.”

“Hail, good people.” Terry walked
up with Bailey. Jackson, Nappa and Kita chased circles around the
picnic table, barely dodging their owners while Chester barked from
his perch. “What’s the story? Enquiring minds want to know. The
news said your man found bones in the woods. Do we have a killing
ground?”