Skeleton Key (12 page)

After very little discussion and a unanimous decision, the man with the flashlights helped pull the other two men out of the grave, and they practically ran to their truck and drove away vowing to never tell anyone what they had just done and seen.

At 7:30, Luke Hopper drove a police cruiser near the burial location and then walked to the horse gravesite, shining his flashlight to lead his way. First, he saw the mound of dirt. He quickened his pace and approached the hole. What he saw next he found quite disturbing. His powerful flashlight beam shone directly on the skull of a horse. To his left of the horse was the skull and upper body of a human. “
Clay Thomas, what have you done
?” he thought. He headed back to his car and made the call announcing he’d found a dead body. He requested a call be placed to the Genesee County Medical Examiner and he ordered a couple of backup units to be sent to the scene.

Dan Duncan received a call from Chief Hopper personally. “You need to get over here, Dan. I think I’ve discovered Adrian Payne’s body at the monument along the tracks. I’m gonna have to call Morty and Erika too. It’s probably best if her friends are here when she shows up.” Dan felt sick. He rushed around and left his house almost immediately.

Hopper called Marshall Mortonson next. “Yeah, I know you said no, Morty. I had a bad feeling and took a look, and someone dug up the grave. I think we’ve found Adrian’s body. I’m calling Erika next, but I think you should be here when she arrives.” Anxiously, a disturbed Mortonson threw on a coat. He too left almost immediately.

When Hopper called Erika, it was a little before 8:00. “I think your friend dug up the grave, Erika. But there’s a body. I think you need to get over here. I’m sorry, Erika; I really am.”

“
It looks like he was right about the grave, Luke, but he didn’t dig it up. He and Tanner have been with me ever since we left your office. There’s no way it was Clay. We’ll be there in a minute.” Erika called to Logan and then told Clay that his theory was right. A body had been discovered.

“
I’ll drive,” Clay said.

When they arrived at the gravesite, Tanner saw a man in a white lab coat kneeling over what he was sure was the skeleton of Adrian Payne. A short, stocky police officer was setting up crime scene tape. The policeman, Dan Duncan, looked anxiously at Erika as she arrived. Erika walked right up to a pot-bellied, balding man wearing a blue dress coat over a white dress shirt and loose necktie. The man, Marshall Mortonson, gave Erika a hug. It was so strange to Tanner to see his final vision coming true before his eyes. Condensation was coming from the noses and mouths of everyone present, but Adrian Payne’s partner was sweating. Luke Hopper walked up and glared at Clay with obvious distrust. “We don’t know for sure yet, but if Clay here was right, we’ve found Adrian’s body.” As the words escaped his mouth and entered Logan’s ears, the teenager began crying. Erika put her arms around him and held him tightly as he wept. It was going to have to be confirmed, but Tanner, Clay, and Erika were certain that Adrian Payne’s body had been discovered after seven years. And since it had been secretly buried, Adrian might have been murdered.

The next morning, as Clay was eating a late breakfast, his phone rang. It was a call from Chief Hopper, asking Clay to come back to Durand for a meeting. The previous evening Tanner had driven back with his father to the house in Flint and then had continued on to his apartment in Ann Arbor, so during a mostly sleepless night and restless morning, Clay had been alone, thinking about the events of the past day. He found that he was very attracted to Erika, and realized that for the first time since Jessie’s death, he was interested in another woman. Yet, he knew that his purpose in Durand was going to have to be to solve the mystery. It worried him that discovering the unknown might not have the desired romantic outcome, but he felt confident that he needed to do whatever he could to help Erika and Logan. He would worry about the rest later.

As Clay’s mind wandered, he began to realize that he needed to find answers to a lot of questions. He needed to know what actually happened on the night of the train wreck. How did Adrian’s body disappear? Was he actually murdered? Who would have the motive to kill him, and how could it have been done? If the coroner’s report confirmed the identity of Adrian Payne, would the coroner be able to discover the cause of death after seven years? And who could have buried the body? And why? Those questions and more flooded Clay’s mind. Why did Logan hate his father? And if he hated him, why was he so upset when the body was found? He also wondered, now that the body was discovered, if the ghost at the Depot had found some sort of peace and would stop communicating with him. Is a ghost some sort of entity trapped in a type of spiritual state until his or her purpose is achieved? After Clay cleaned up the kitchen, he brushed his teeth, grabbed his keys, phone, and jacket, and headed out the door, feeling a wave of anxiety. Was he getting into something that was over his head?

***

During breakfast at the Payne household, there was nearly complete silence, except for the continuous opening and snapping shut of Logan’s jackknife. Logan looked like a wreck. He was slouched in a seat at the kitchen table, a plate of uneaten waffles before him. His unwashed hair was hanging over his puffy eyes, and a look of misery clouded his face. Erika wanted to cry. She had no idea what to say. She was personally hopeful that the coroner would be able to identify the body and that she might be able to know for certain that Adrian would not someday surprisingly show up in their lives again. She knew she was happier without him, and she found that she was already looking forward to seeing Clay again. Once the investigation was concluded, maybe Adrian’s funeral would mark a new beginning. Her thoughts then switched to her parents in Florida. She wondered if they would remember the crush she had had on Clay. Additional questions began to swirl in her mind. How could she help Logan? He was going to have to get some additional counseling if he continued to feel so upset over the loss of his father. What if she and Clay dug into the mystery and found out things that she didn’t really want to know? Would it be better to let things go as they are, or could finding answers finally help Logan to move on with his life?

There was a knock at the back door. It was 10:30 in the morning. Erika had no desire to fight Logan about going to school, so she hadn’t even tried. When she opened the door, it was Stacy with little Anna. Stacy had brought a vegetable pizza that “you can eat anytime.” She explained that she kept Anna from school and brought her in hopes that she would cheer up Logan. Logan smiled, grabbed Anna’s hand and led her to the living room where they started hitting a soft volleyball back and forth to each other. Erika gave Stacy a hug and thanked her for her kindness.

“
Robbie seemed really upset when he heard the news from last night. He said he was worried about you and Logan, so I volunteered to come to see you. So, how’re you doing?”

“
I’m okay. At the beginning, I figured he’d disappeared on purpose. It didn’t make sense that there was no body after the wreck, but as time passed, I believed he was gone for good and maybe he
was
actually dead. Stacy, life has been hard, but it’s been better without him. I worry so much about Logan, though. He was sad and withdrawn
before
the wreck, but he’s been getting worse since his father disappeared. He doesn’t talk about it—even to a counselor—so I don’t know how I can help him.”

“
Well, kids love and need their dads. I’m sure it’s been tough on him to not have one.”

“
If you ask me, Logan didn’t love
or
need his dad. I don’t believe Adrian loved
him
. Logan had to see that. And Adrian never took an interest in him either. He was mostly only interested in himself. Logan could see that too. So I’m just simply confused about his reaction to losing him
and
his emotional reaction to finding him last night.”

“
Well, we’ll do whatever we can to help you, Erika. It’s obvious to us that he has a good heart. He treats our girls like princesses…especially Anna. We love him.”

***

Clay showed up at the Durand Police Station by 11:00. He was told to head into Chief Hopper’s office. Dan Duncan stuffed a fist full of sunflowers seeds in his mouth as he glared at Clay. Clay walked past and heard, “
Who do you think you are
?” as he glanced at the police officer. Clay saw “Duncan” on the cop’s desk. He remembered the policeman stretching out crime scene tape at the gravesite the night before and remembered his name as the cop who was Erika and Logan’s “protector.” Clay figured he was probably a good guy who was just a bit jealous. As he made his way through the station, Dan grabbed his jacket and headed home to do some yard work and relax.

Clay entered Hopper’s office. “Mornin’, Clay. Can I get you some coffee?”

“
Mornin’, Chief. No thanks. I don’t drink it.”

“
Call me Luke…and have a seat, Clay. We have some things to talk about.”

“
Okay.”

“
All right, listen. We checked out your alibi. Obviously Erika and her son vouched for you, but we also talked with neighbors who confirmed it was you and Tanner that had raked up those piles of leaves in the Payne’s yard, and Roberto Gomez and his wife confirmed you were at the house during the time we figure the grave was dug up, so you’re not a suspect. But I’m still trying to figure out if you had something to do with it anyway. So, did you?”

“
No.”

“
Don’t you think it’s kind of a coincidence that we’ve never had a clue about the location of Adrian’s body and then you show up and claim it was in the horses’ grave, and that very day the body is dug up and discovered?”

“
Yeah, it’s quite a coincidence, but I didn’t have anything to do with it.” No sense telling about Tanner. “You mentioned that it was Adrian’s body.”

Hopper ignored Clay’s comment. “I don’t understand your interest, Clay. We all know that Erika’s about as hot as a woman can be, but there has to be more to it than that.”

“
I’m just trying to help her, Luke. And maybe help her son. My friends, Zander and Lydia Frauss, asked me to help her.”

“
He’s the doctor I spoke to yesterday?”

“
Yes.”

“
He told me that he set you up with Erika so she could help
you. W
hat’s that about?”

“
I went caving with Erika. Zander is my friend. He felt that I wasn’t doing myself any good sitting around mourning my wife’s murder. I suppose you’ve checked me out and know about that by now? I feel quite a bit responsible for her death, Luke. It was my powers that caused the whole chain of events to transpire. Erika helped me to see that I might be able to use my gifts for something good. I can’t help but feel that I can help Erika discover some peace and maybe help that troubled son of hers.”

“
I know about the murder. I’m sorry, Clay. I have to admit, you seem like a straight up guy, and I admit to taking a liking to Tanner too. So I’m going to include you in this investigation. I’m hoping it’s the wisest course of action. This being my first homicide investigation, I don’t exactly have a plan of action. Durand’s not exactly a hotbed of violent crime. There hasn’t been a murder since I’ve lived here.”

“
You mentioned it was Adrian’s body.” Clay’s question still hadn’t been answered.

“
Okay. Here goes. Fortunately we didn’t need to do any DNA tests. After seven years the body was completely skeletonized and all cloth remains or other evidence was completely decomposed. However, we were able to match up dental records and X-rays from his past. We’re certain that the body is Adrian Payne’s. The forensic pathologist from Genesee County, however, has determined that the cause of death is almost certainly trauma caused by the train wreck. Many, many bones were broken, including his skull. His best guess as to why so many bones were broken would be that he jumped from the train and one of the overturned train cars landed on top of him.”

“
So if he died in the train wreck,” Clay asked, “how did the body end up in the horse grave?”

“
That’s a question we need to attempt to answer because the graves weren’t dug until the second day after the wreck, and certainly Adrian’s body wasn’t buried along with the horses until later. Someone would have had to hide the body for at least two days and then dig up the grave after the fact.”

“
Any suspects?”

“
Let me tell you something about Adrian Payne, Clay. I don’t think anyone really liked him. And I can tell you that there wasn’t much mourning over his disappearance. People’s lives simply moved on—except many people have gone out of their way to help Erika. Logan is the only one who seemed affected by the loss of Adrian. It could have been anyone.”

“
Did
you
like him?”

“
Nope. And you wouldn’t have either. I never met another person who cared less about others and more about himself. We all pretty much felt a shortened life was pretty much what he deserved. So, you have any ideas of what to do next?”