Free Picked to Die (An Orchard Mystery) by Sheila Connolly Page A

Well, well, Elijah,” she said, turning to the ME, “where’ve you been keeping yourself?”
    The medical examiner responded, “Down among the dead men, of course, Miranda. I’m glad you’re here. We should have fun looking at this one.”
    “Then let’s get started,” Miranda said quickly. “Okay, what’ve we got? Most of one skull, in pieces, check. I see a few teeth, too, but no major bones—yet. Sucked out from under that building over there? What is this, a vacuum excavation system? I haven’t seen one in action before. Of course, it would wreak havoc on any scientific dig, but you weren’t expecting to find anything here, now, were you, Gail?”
    Gail shook her head. “Nope. Just dirt. This was a complete surprise.”
    “Surprises are what make life fun. So, young Jeffrey, did you see any other bits of bone?”
    “I don’t think so, but we shut things down quick, and we found a few bits and pieces since. But we haven’t gone near the building.” That last statement was accompanied by a look at Detective Marcus.
    “Is it safe to crawl under there? Is the building stabilized?” Miranda asked no one in particular.
    “We’d barely started,” Seth told her. “But if you want to check with the excavation crew, they’re all right over there.” He pointed.
    “Mind if I join you?” Detective Marcus drawled.
    Miranda swatted his arm. “Now, Bill, you know this is your show. I’m just here to make sure you don’t break anything. You other good people mind staying back here for a bit? Because it looks pretty crowded already. Thanks!” Without waiting for a response, Miranda set off at a brisk clip toward the Historical Society building, and Marcus and the ME had to hurry to keep up.
    “She’s a bundle of energy, isn’t she?” Meg said to Gail. “How did you happen to meet her?”
    “She teaches at the university, and I attended a lecture she gave on Indian burial grounds a couple of years ago. Not too many of those in Granford, but you never know. Anyway, we got talking, and now we’re friends, more or less. She’s pretty well known in her field, I gather. We’re lucky that she was in the country at all—she’s just back from a sabbatical—but I guess she had classes starting up.”
    Seth wasn’t about to leave, since he had a responsibility to the construction crew. Meg didn’t have that excuse, but she was certainly curious. She looked at her watch and felt a pang of guilt, and decided to call Bree.
    “Where are you?” Bree demanded, and she didn’t sound happy.
    “I came over to the center of town to watch a little of the excavation under the Historical Society, but we ran into a bit of a snag.”
    “What excavation? Oh, right, that thing Seth got dragged into. What kind of snag are you talking about?”
    Meg sighed. “There was a body buried under the building.”
    Bree greeted that with a long moment of silence—and then she burst out laughing. “Well, of course there is! What was I thinking? If you and Seth are there, there must be a body. Anybody we know?”
    “No, thank goodness. It appears to be a few centuries old, and we’re pretty sure it’s been there since before the building went up. All we’ve seen is parts of the skull so far, but the experts are on the scene. Did you know the Historical Society building used to be a church?”
    Bree was still laughing. “Aw, heck, digging up bodies is a lot more interesting than picking apples any day. We’ll manage without you okay, so long as you can make up for it tomorrow.”
    “Will do. Thanks. Are we all good with the pickers for dinner tonight?”
    “Yeah, they’re coming. I guess I’ll do the food shopping for everyone.”
    “Thank you. I’ll pay you back. I told you we can keep it simple. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Would it be wrong to offer beer? I want them to relax.”
    “They’d probably appreciate it, I guess. Well, you go back to your bones and I’ll head over to the supermarket. See you in