Better Than Gold by Mary Brady Read Free Book Online

be looking for facts, not wishful thinking.”
    “And?”
    The one word was a snippy demand and she wanted to grab it and toss it back. Instead she took a deep breath. “Most people from outside the town are not aware of the fixation the folks around here have with the story of our town founder Liam Bailey.”
    Daniel drew his brows together before he spoke.
    “Bailey? I thought the town’s founder was Archibald Fletcher.”
    “And the people around here are more than happy to let the world believe that.”
    “Bailey must have been quite the figure for them to have kept him alive, so to speak, for all this time.”
    “You really don’t know the legend?”
    He shook his head slowly as if replaying the information he had on the town and its occupants past and present.
    “Well...” Mia hedged. “I know a little about the town, but I don’t want to—”
    “—skew the data with hearsay.”
    “That’d be about it. If the chief didn’t tell you, maybe I shouldn’t say anything.” She wondered how long her nose had grown with that one. Though it wasn’t an out-and-out lie. She worried that telling him about Liam Bailey now might delay things. But not telling Dr. MacCarey was sure to make things take longer, because if or when he found out the guy in the wall could have been a pirate, he might have to redo some of his work based on new information.
    And it would be dishonest to deliberately leave out what might be a significant detail.
    “I’ll find out eventually.” He seemed to be able to see the war going on inside her head. “I can probably ask a few of the townsfolk. Someone is bound to know in a place this small.”
    “If they haven’t made the leap yet because the chief hasn’t spilled the beans, they might now that you’re here. So unless you can prove conclusively it’s not, the town is going to think these old bones belong to one of the town’s earliest settlers.”
    “Why would they think that?”
    “Because that’s what they so desperately want to believe...but they would never have told you. You’re an outsider and he’s our most, I’m going to say treasured, missing person, the person any one of them would give a month’s lobster take to find.”
    “Wouldn’t they want the mystery solved as to who this is?”
    “It’s not really about the mystery. It’s about the man and his legend. His life and his fate are the fodder for lively conversation after two or three beers.”
    She could almost see the gears turning. He was thinking this might not just be your average citizen who got boxed up in the wall. His face lost more of its tightness and took on the look of anticipation. Grumpy was much better for her time line. Chief Montcalm said forensic anthropologists liked to be thorough. This one had switched from mostly disinterested to almost eager. Thorough was sure to follow.
    “So do you think this could be a historical figure?”
    She looked up at him for a long moment and almost reached out a hand toward him. This time she wanted to snatch back every word she’d said since he had frightened the flashlight out of her hand
    She pressed her lips together for a moment before she replied, “I hope not.”
    He turned away and surveyed the area, the partially torn-down dividing wall, large open space, doors on either end of the room, one to the stairway and one to the kitchen, a hallway leading past the kitchen to the restrooms, a back door leading to an alley.
    “I had planned to take pictures, inventory everything, box it up and be gone.” He seemed to speak to himself, as if thinking all this would have to change.
    Her chest squeezed harder and she breathed to try to make the feelings of dread go away. The pressure did not ease.
    “You could still do that,” she said, trying to feel some hope.
    His dark brows came together. “Why don’t we start with you telling me about the man you suspect this might be?”
    “I—um—don’t suspect anything.” Which was mostly true.