The Body in the Basement by Katherine Hall Page Read Free Book Online

Seth. Where’s this body of yours now? Lucky I decided to fix Nan’s washer today instead of going fishing with Charlie Porter.”
    â€œIt’s over here, in the foundation. And it’s not mine,” Seth added snappishly.
    The two men went over to the edge of the excavation. Pix decided she’d seen enough of the hand to last her a lifetime and returned to her perch on the rock, making room for Samantha and holding her near. Her daughter still looked very pale and seemed to be shivering in her jeans and T-shirt despite the warmth of the sun.
    â€œGorry,” they heard Freeman exclaim. “Think someone cut him up in pieces?”
    Seth’s speculation and Freeman’s further reaction were cut short by Sgt. Earl Dickinson’s arrival. Uniformed, tall, and ramrod-straight, he looked very official. And with his closely cropped light brown hair and deep blue eyes, he looked very handsome. He addressed Pix and Samantha first. “Show me where you found it and how you got down and up.”
    Earl Dickinson was a man who always went straight to the point. When it became apparent that the earth had been disturbed by both of them, as well as Artie, the sergeant jumped in the hole himself, inspected the evidence, and climbed back out. “No one else been in there?”
    Pix answered for them: “No.”
    â€œAll right, then, stay out of it. I’ve got to call in to report, then we can talk. The state police are sending a unit.”
    He was back in a few minutes with his notebook out and pen clicked. They sat on and around Pix’s boulder, at his feet like so many schoolchildren. First he wanted to know exactly when the Millers had arrived and how the body had been partially
unearthed, then he asked all the questions Pix had. Did Seth have anyone new working for him? When had Seth been at the site last?
    After he was finished, he closed his notebook with a sharp snap and buttoned it into his pocket, along with the pen. “Not a whole lot you folks can do here, so I suggest you go home and keep your mouths shut as much as is humanly possible when everyone on this island will be asking you what’s going on. Until we dig him out, we don’t have anything to go on, except that somebody appears to have used a perfectly good quilt as a shroud.”
    The sergeant’s vocabulary was taking on a new richness, Pix noted. Maybe it was Jill’s influence. But he had hit upon the thing bothering her, too. Yankee thrift being what it was, why not wrap the body in an old tarp or burlap? She wanted to tell him about the mark she’d found on the quilt, yet heeding his caution, she decided to wait until they were alone. Not that she didn’t trust Freeman and Seth, especially Freeman.
    â€œThen Samantha and I will be going. I’d like to get her home.” And into her nice secure little bed with a cup of chamomile tea, she thought.
    â€œI’ll take you,” Freeman offered. Seth looked a bit lost and said he’d stick around to keep Earl company until the staties showed up.
    â€œNo, you go along, too. We know how to get a hold of you if we need you,” Earl said. Effectively dismissed, Seth mumbled what could have been a good-bye and roared off in the pickup.
    â€œNeeds a new muffler,” Freeman commented.
    Earl nodded and Pix half-expected him to take out his notebook and make an entry, but most of the pickups on the island needed new mufflers. It wasn’t considered a citable offense, unless you were caught drag racing on the old cemetery road in Granville, a road so blackened by burned rubber that locally it was called “the speedway.”
    So they went their separate paths to spend the afternoon
trying not to think about what was uppermost in their thoughts: Who was the body in the Fairchilds’ basement—and who had put it there?
    Â 
    The dead man turned out to be Mitchell Pierce. While not exactly an island resident, he was