Skeleton Key (28 page)

The following Monday at 4:00 in the afternoon, Clay finally got the call he was waiting for. Hopper confirmed that Clay’s theory was correct. “I’ve got a meeting planned for 7:00 at the station. I assume you will be here,” he said.

Clay had given this inevitable meeting an enormous amount of thought over the last two days. There were two important people that Clay wanted to attend, so he made a couple of phone calls. Tanner was his first, but he wasn’t able to attend. Clay found himself disappointed that he wouldn’t have Tanner’s moral support. If things didn’t go well with Erika, he would have liked for him to be there. He then called Andi Nickel, and she agreed to attend as a legal representative of the Paynes.

He pulled into the police station lot at 6:45. Clay made his way to the chief’s office where Luke Hopper and Eric Haynes, a forensic anthropologist whom Hopper brought for the meeting, greeted him. Soon, Andi Nickel arrived. Finally Erika and Logan Payne entered the room. Erika looked at Clay a bit suspiciously, hurt in her eyes. Clay wanted to go to her and hug her, but he knew it wasn’t the right time. He turned to Chief Hopper and nodded. It was time.

“
I’d like to thank all of you for agreeing to this meeting. Then he turned to Eric Haynes. “This is Dr. Eric Haynes. He’s here at my invitation. Dr. Haynes is a forensic anthropologist and he’s graciously agreed to tell you about his recent findings.

“
As you know, Erika,” Hopper continued, “we’ve been investigating your husband’s death. After seven years, his body was finally discovered eleven days ago. I began, with the help of Clay here, investigating first the burial and, eventually, the cause of his death.

“
We all know that a truck was parked across the railroad tracks on South Oak Street. Even so, the initial investigation in 2003 placed the blame for the train accident on Joseph Carrollton, the engineer who died in the wreck. He was intoxicated, and it was determined that he didn’t respond properly to the emergency he faced. However, once Adrian’s body was uncovered, it opened up a mystery. W
hy
was his body hidden? And since it was hidden, it led us to wonder if there was foul play involved. Without question, it was evident that Mr. Carrollton was killed as a result of the crash. And when the forensic pathologist examined Adrian’s body, he was convinced that Adrian died in the crash as well. The pathologist was unable to diagnose any foul play, but that wasn’t adding up with the information that we were discovering during the investigation.

“
We eventually uncovered that Marshall Mortonson hid the body away and eventually buried Adrian at the gravesite where the horses that were killed in the train wreck were buried. As we continued the investigation, we discovered that the brakes of the train were purposely damaged, making it difficult for the train to stop. Also, we discovered that Officer Dan Duncan was responsible for stealing the truck and intentionally leaving it on the tracks in an attempt to cause the wreck.

“
All of these disturbing findings still left the question unsettled as to exactly how Adrian actually died. The reason for this meeting is to uncover the mystery of his death. I’ve invited Dr. Haynes here so he can explain his findings.”

“
Thanks, Chief Hopper. I’m sorry to be here under these circumstances, but I’m here to present my findings, hopefully in a way that is understandable to each of you.” The mood in the room was extremely tense. Clay felt heartache, and it hurt him to see that Erika was afraid of what she was about to hear. “First of all, let me explain that a forensic anthropologist is different than a pathologist. I’ve been trained specifically to study bones, like the anthropologists on the TV show,
Bones
. During his examination, the forensic pathologist would have naturally overlooked some bone trauma since the train wreck broke so many of Mr. Payne’s bones. He reached the obvious conclusion, once the body was identified, that Adrian Payne died as a result of the train wreck. The body was completely skeletonized when it was discovered, so all he could base his judgment upon was the broken bones. There was no way to conclude that the deceased died in any other manner because there was no other forensic evidence.

“
However, because of the information that Chief Hopper shared with me, I knew exactly what I was looking for.” Haynes pulled out some pictures. “I was able to use my expertise to reach some conclusions that the pathologist was unable to determine.”

Erika had her arm around Logan’s shoulders in hopes of reassuring him, but her own confusion and uncertainty were obvious. Haynes showed an anatomical picture of the human chest. “This bone here, the sternum or breastbone, is protecting the heart. I found a wound just to the left of this bone,” he pointed. He showed another picture of a human heart. “There is a pericardial sac that encloses the heart.” Again, he pointed. “A knife wound passed through this bone—yes, it
is
possible for a knife to cut through bone. It would cut into the muscles as well. A wound like this, especially with a small knife and a small puncture, would cause blood to seep out of the heart, but it would get trapped in the sac that protects the heart. The end result is the heart would be constricted and, in a sense, suffocate itself. It would stop beating, much like with a heart attack.”

Erika gave a confused and questioning look toward the anthropologist. “With a possible weapon in my possession, I could run tests to see if that
specific
blade cut through the sternum. We believe we have a match to that specific blade—the one that caused the death of Mr. Payne.”

***

Clay found that his hands were sweating. He looked over at Erika, who had a lost look on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was concerned about the findings or simply hurt about the manner she was finding out. Clay cleared his throat and began to speak. “I’ve spent the last two days trying to figure out what I might say at this moment. I’ve spent the majority of my life hiding secrets from people I care about. A little less than a year ago, as a couple of you know, my wife was murdered. I learned a lot of things from that tragic event and from several events leading up to it. But one of the things I learned was to be honest and quit keeping secrets.

“
Why I’m telling you this is because there is no way that Chief Hopper and I could have figured this mystery out without clues from Adrian’s ghost. As hard as it is to fully comprehend, somehow I can hear him speak when I’m in the train depot. He actually hasn’t been fully cooperative. The obscure clues that he gave me have often been
really
difficult to interpret. But his clues
did
lead us to his body, and they also led us directly to the arrest of Marshall Mortonson.

“
However, the ghost would continue to repeat the same clues. W
e
would think we had the mystery solved, yet Adrian’s ghost didn’t seem to agree. Until two days ago, I believe I was either flat out
not
understanding him or I was
mis
understanding him or I was misinterpreting his clues. He kept saying he died of a heart attack, for instance. That was confusing, but it led us to ask questions about the day of the wreck. Evidence about the train brakes and the stolen truck resulted. Because of those discoveries, we began to wonder if Adrian was murdered, but if Adrian was murdered, why did he think he died from a heart attack? The heart attack clue was one that I believe I was, flat out,
not
understanding. He also kept saying “skeleton key.” Because of Marshall Mortonson’s set of skeleton keys, we were able to find evidence against Morty, but that particular clue, I believe, was one that I was simply
mis
understanding. Also, the ghost kept saying, “ease the pain.” Because he was a ghost, and because he was a man who understandably would have many regrets in his life, I completely misinterpreted that clue. We kept thinking he wanted us to solve the case and somehow “ease [his] pain” before he could cross over into the next life, or some such thing.

“
A few days ago,” Clay said directly to Erika, “Logan took the jackknife that his father gave him and threw it in the wastebasket in your office. Adrian said ‘waste not want not’ and when I finally figured out that he wanted me to retrieve the knife, he said it would help me figure out ‘the point of all of this.’ Saturday, he asked me again, ‘What’s the point?’ I asked him if that was a clue, and his response was ‘Yes, it is.’ Adrian restated all his previous clues—‘heart attack, skeleton key, and ease the pain.’ Erika, sometimes when I was talking to Adrian’s ghost, I’d look at the family picture on your wall. While I was looking at the picture on Saturday, I realized for the first time that he wasn’t saying ‘ease the pain.’ All along, he’d been saying, “
He’s
the Payne.’ Not P-A-I-N. P
-A-Y-N-E
. That’s when I figured it out. All of a sudden, the other three clues made sense too. I’m so sorry that I abandoned you so suddenly, but I stopped by to see Chief Hopper to tell him what I’d figured out, and he contacted the morgue where Adrian’s skeleton was still being stored. Adrian’s
skeleton
was the key to the solution of the mystery.”

Chief Hopper stepped in at that point. “On the day of the train accident, Adrian had taken Logan with him to East Lansing. Morty went along to watch over Logan while his father was otherwise unavailable. When we asked Logan what he remembered from seven years ago, he explained to us that about a half-hour into the trip home, he went to see his father. He wanted to ride with him in the train engine. A few minutes later, according to Morty, he returned, very upset, and hiding his face against the train seat-cushion. We now know that his father struck him in the face. Minutes later, Morty went to talk to Adrian about Logan. When he reached the train car just behind the engine, he found Adrian apparently passed out on the floor of the train.

“
We obviously wondered if he’d had a heart attack. The ghost kept saying ‘heart attack’ and Morty never mentioned an injury or blood or anything of the sort. When the train was about to crash, Morty picked up Adrian and jumped from the train, but one of the overturned cars after the crash fell on Adrian and crushed him. Morty realized that Adrian was dead and proceeded to hide and later bury the body—a body that was
not
killed in the wreck. Because of what Clay figured out on Saturday, I contacted the pathologist who originally examined Adrian’s body. We needed him to take a closer look at the bones. He expressed that I would need a forensic
anthropologist
, an expert in trauma to the bones. Dr. Haynes, then, is the man who re-examined Adrian’s body. Clay had given me the jackknife that he had retrieved from the wastebasket. Dr. Haynes was able to identify that it was that knife that sliced Adrian Payne’s sternum and entered his heart—the knife ‘point’ and the ‘heart attack’ from Adrian’s clues. We believe that
Logan
is the ‘Payne’ that Adrian was talking about. Adrian’s skeleton was the key. Logan is responsible for killing his father.”

Andi Nickel transitioned immediately from curious bystander to attorney. “Chief Hopper, I’m here to represent Logan Payne on behalf of my client.”

“
And your client is?” Hopper asked.

“
Confidential,” she responded, but Hopper looked immediately to Clay and Clay simply smiled a sheepish smile. Erika looked up, tears in her sad, hurting eyes, and looked at Clay.

“
You’re not leaving this time, are you? You’re gonna be here for us, right?” The words were more of a statement than a question. They came from a woman who knew her heart and was determined to have faith in a man she cared about deeply.

Clay replied, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Andi Nickel started in on Hopper again. “He was ten years old.”

“
The case will be referred to the county prosecutor, Ms. Nickel. It’s my guess that the prosecutor won’t even bring the case to court. It’s not even conceivable that he’d be tried as an adult, so the case would go to a magistrate, who would rule first in a preliminary hearing. Because of the probability that Logan acted in self-defense, the case would almost certainly be dismissed anyway, but if for some reason it wasn’t, and Logan was tried for manslaughter or second degree murder, a conviction by a juvenile court judge would put him into the juvenile system. In five days, Logan is going to be eighteen years old, and at that point, he’ll have
already
aged out of the system. He hasn’t had any trouble in the past seven years either—he’s been a good, clean kid. A prosecutor will almost certainly see any court action as a complete waste of the county’s money.”

“
So I’m free to escort my client from the premises?”

“
We’ve done our job here. We found the answers that we were looking for, Andi. Get him home to be with his mother. He’s been through enough already today. The prosecutor will be in touch, but it’s my feeling that there’s nothing to worry about. It’s time for the healing to begin.”