Tres Leches Cupcakes by Josi S. Kilpack Read Free Book Online Page B

callback from D&E, or had they just not called her?
    “Oh, well, Bill said it would be a light crew called in to finish it up. You probably didn’t get called back ’cause you’re so new.”
    “It probably didn’t help that I told Bill to leave the graves alone.” Sadie knew that hadn’t been one of her best career moves.
    Margo shrugged in agreement. “That whole thing was a disaster,” she said, her voice somber. “He should have listened to you. We all should have. If the graves weren’t all opened up, I think we could have convinced the police to bring the bodies up more delicately—maybe even keep some of us on to help.” She leaned forward and picked up a package of cigarettes lying on the coffee table, tapping one out of the cellophane package before seeming to remember she wasn’t alone.
    “Do you mind?” she asked, lifting the cigarette slightly in one hand and fingering her lighter in the other.
    Sadie did mind, sort of, but it was Margo’s house and Sadie wanted to get to know her better so she shook her head. “But you’re okay?” she asked, reflecting back on Margo’s reaction at the dig. “You seemed pretty upset at the site.”
    Margo put the cigarette between her lips and waved away Sadie’s question. “I’m a purist,” she said, the cigarette bobbing up and down as she talked. “To me, the fact that these bodies are a thousand years old makes no difference. Anyone would be horrified if someone took a crowbar to their grandma’s casket in hopes of finding a wedding ring on her corpse, but somehow these people are just bones.” She shook her head and flicked her lighter, going almost cross-eyed as she lined up the flame and the cigarette. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly, and Sadie watched her shoulders relax.
    “I’ve never met anyone who takes it as seriously as you do,” Sadie said, wondering why that was so. Though she didn’t think Margo was hiding anything, her attitude still seemed extreme.
    “Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one,” Margo said after exhaling and leaning back against the couch. “Me against the world of ‘archeology for profit.’ At what point do the people not matter anymore? How long do they have to be in the ground before no one cares?”
    All kinds of religious answers came to Sadie’s mind, about what happens when people die and what the purpose of life was, but she’d no sooner considered taking the conversation in that direction when Margo sighed and looked up with a change-the-subject smile. “It sure is weird, though, isn’t it? Fresh bodies buried in an ancient site.”
    Sadie nodded. “Really weird.” She had to keep her hands together in her lap so as not to start straightening the cluttered coffee table. Margo leaned forward to tap off her ash in a coffee mug. Sadie had to repress a shudder; every time she saw someone do that, she imagined accidentally drinking cigarette ash.
    “Did you ever see the other body?” Margo asked.
    “Just what you and I saw together at the very start. The paper speculated that they were illegals,” Sadie said. “If that’s the case, the families couldn’t report their deaths for fear of deportment, right?”
    Margo frowned. “Yeah, maybe.”
    The smoke in the room was getting thick, and Sadie felt the urge to cough but cleared her throat instead.
    “It’s too bad you’re not going back on Thursday.”
    Sadie was embarrassed all over again. “Yeah. Do you know anyone else who was called back to the crew?”
    Margo shook her head. “I’m not tight with anyone on the crew,” she said, then straightened. “Although I have Langley’s number. I guess I could ask him.” She riffled through a bunch of junk on the coffee table before excusing herself to her bedroom—which was also a mess from what Sadie could see through the doorway—and returning a minute later with her phone.
    “Isn’t Langley the guy who dug into that grave? The one you almost beat with a shovel?” She knew