Coming, dear? Josey called from the open front doorway.
He looked at his beautiful wife and was more than grateful shed agreed to this. He wasnt sure he could have done it alone. Josey, so far, was a godsend. His grandmother was a lot more on the ball than hed thought she would be at this age.
Grandma had disappeared into the musty maze of the lodge, leaving them in the entryway. Jack was surprised that he still felt awe, just as he had the first time hed seen it. This place had been built back in the nineteen forties and had the feel of another era in Western history.
He stared at the varnished log stairway that climbed to the upper floors, remembering all the times hed seen his mother coming down those stairs.
Mrs. Winchester said you are to wait down here. Jack swung around, surprised to see the gnarled, petite elderly woman who had managed to sneak up on them. To his shock, he recognized her. Enid? She was still alive?
If she recognized him, she gave no indication as she pointed down the hallway then left, saying she had to get their room ready. She left grumbling to herself.
Behind them, the front door opened, and an elderly man came in carrying Jacks two pieces of luggage from the trunk of the Cadillac. Alfred, Enids husband. Amazing.
He noticed that Josey still had her backpack slung over one shoulder.
Alfred noticed, as well. Ill take that, the old man said, pointing to it.
She shook her head, her hand tightening around the strap. Ill keep it with me, thank you.
Alfred scowled at her before heading up the stairs, his footsteps labored under the weight of the bags and his disapproval.
I cant believe those two are still alive, Jack whispered to Josey, as he led her down the hallway. I remember them both being old when I was a kid. I guess they werent that old, but they sure seemed it. He wondered if his grandmother would be joining them and was relieved to find the parlor empty.
Josey took a seat, setting her backpack on the floor next to her, always within reach. Jack didnt even want to speculate on what might be in it. He had a bad feeling it was something hed be better off not knowing.
Chapter Three
This fisherman had been on his way up to Nelson Reservoir, where hed heard the
walleye were biting, but hed stopped to make a few casts in the Missouri as a break in the long drive, thinking he might hook into a catfish.
Instead hed snagged a piece of clothingattached to a body.
Its a woman, hed said, clearly shaken. And shes got a rope around her neck. Im telling you, its a damned noose. Someone hung her!
Now, as McCall squatted next to the body lying on a tarp at the edge of the water, she saw that the victim looked to be in her mid-twenties. She wore a thin cotton top, no bra and a pair of cutoff jeans over a bright red thong that showed above the waist of the cutoffs. Her hair was dyed blond, her eyes were brown and as empty as the sky overhead, and around her neck was a crude noose of sisal rope. A dozen yards of the rope were coiled next to her.
McCall studied the ligature marks around the dead womans neck as the coroner loosened the noose. Can you tell if she was dead before she went into the water?
Coroner George Murphy shook his head. But I can tell you that someone abused the hell out of her for some time before she went into the water. He pointed to what appeared to be cigarette burns on her thin arms and legs.
Before he hung her.
What kind of monster does stuff like that? George, a big, florid-faced man in his early thirties, single and shy, was new to this. As an EMT, hed gotten the coroner job because Frank Brown had retired and no one else wanted it.
Sheriff?
McCall didnt respond at first. She hadnt gotten used to being acting sheriff. Probably because she hadnt wanted the job and suspected there was only one reason she had itPepper Winchester.
But when the position opened, no one wanted to fill in until a sheriff could be elected. The other deputies all had families and young children and didnt want the added responsibility.
McCall could appreciate that.
Sheriff, we found something I think youd better see.
Dont tell me you found another body, the coroner said.
McCall turned to see what the deputy was holding. Another noose. Only this one was wrapped around a large tree trunk that the deputies had pulled up onto the riverbank.
As McCall walked over to it, she saw two distinct grooves in the limb where two ropes had been tied. Two ropes. Two nooses. The thick end of the dead branch had recently broken off.
She looked upriver. If the limb had snapped off under the weight of two people hanging from it, then there was a good chance it had fallen into the river and floated down to where the deputy had found it dragging the second noose behind it.
Better go upriver and see if you can find the spot where our victim was hung, McCall said. And we better start looking for a second body in the river.
PEPPER WINCHESTER RUBBED her temples as she paced the worn carpet of her bedroom, her cane punctuating her frustration.