Free Skeleton's Key (Delta Crossroads Trilogy, Book 2) by Stacy Green Page B

is out of our league. We’re just liftin’ and shiftin’. The body is going straight to Erin at the state medical examiner’s office.”
    Gina and Landers hovered over the bag, taking pictures and trying to stay out of the coroner’s light. “We need to get the body out of here as soon as possible,” Gina said. “Whatever’s left is going to decompose pretty damned quickly.”
    With all the dirt removed, the plastic clung tight to the body’s face, revealing the head was at least partially intact.
    Billy broke the sickened silence. “I think the plastic still has enough integrity that we might find the body fairly intact. Wish I could work with the medical examiner on this one.”
    “Jesus, kid.” Cage coughed and tried not to gag. The smell grew worse by the minute. “What’s wrong with you?”
    Billy hung his head. “I’m sorry. It’s awful, don’t get me wrong. But cases like this are the ones you learn from. They can really give you a leg up in the field.”
    Landers raked his forearm across his mask-covered mouth and then started to dry heave. “I need air.” He thundered up the steps.
    Gina closed her eyes, weaving back and forth on her heels. She shook her head. “Ready to move?”
    Jeb jerked a nod and retrieved the body bag. He and Billy positioned themselves at either end, with Cage and Gina standing by in case they needed reinforcements. As Jeb and Billy lifted the body, Cage noticed duct tape around the ankles, torso, and neck. The killer had been smart enough to reinforce the plastic. And the corpse had been buried deep enough for the earth to hide the smell until the raccoon tore into the plastic.
    “Christ,” Gina stepped back as the men deposited the body into the bag. Movement had sent a fresh wave of vomit-inducing odor into the humid air. The captain leaned against the wall, her green face dripping with sweat. “Zip it up.”
    The contents of Cage’s stomach shot into his throat. He gritted his teeth and leaned forward. He rubbed his eyes, shook his head. Surely the heat and the smell were making him hallucinate.
    Gina’s next words shattered that hope. “My God. Is that another one?”
    Two bodies were buried beneath Ironwood. And skeletal remains. After the first had been loaded into the van, Jeb and Billy started the process all over again. The muggy night wore on into the pre-dawn hours, and the smell burned itself into Cage’s brain. Just before five a.m., with the dig site widened to encompass the entire earthen section of the basement, the second body was fully exposed. It lay mere feet away from the winter kitchen. Beside it was a third bag of what looked like personal effects. With any luck, closer inspection would result in identifying at least one of the victims.
    “Thank God for the winter kitchen,” Gina said. “Otherwise we might be looking at more bodies.”
    The second victim was wrapped exactly like the first, and to the naked eye, in a similar condition, leading Gina to estimate the murders happened around the same time.
    “So where were they killed?” Gina stood aside as Jeb and Billy maneuvered the second bagged body up the narrow basement stairs. She glanced around the room. “I suppose they could have been killed in the basement and the evidence disposed of. But I don’t get that feeling.”
    “Me either,” Cage said. “When I started working here last spring, everything looked pretty much like it did before I found the skull. There was plenty of junk over this area.” He cocked his head toward the winter kitchen. “We piled it all over there to start digging. I didn’t see anything that made me think it was a potential crime scene.”
    Landers had returned looking pale and smelling faintly of vomit. “Convenient.”
    “Excuse me?” Cage said.
    “Let’s just address the elephant right now,” Landers said. “You’re the caretaker. Been living out here alone for more than a year. Church comes out what, once a month? And they don’t