Free A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery by Beverly Connor Page B

had the
urge to turn and run. Then she realized it was Derrick.

    "You out for a walk, too?" she asked, trying not to
sound relieved.
    "Yeah. Nice night for it."
    Derrick looked good in the moonlight. Of course,
thought Lindsay, Derrick looked good all the time.
    Unexpectedly, he reached out and gently pulled her
to him. For a moment, as if waiting for her to say
something, he simply looked into her eyes. When she
said nothing, he kissed her. Lindsay slipped her arms
around his neck, returning his kiss.
    Kissing Derrick was sweet, tender, and exciting,
everything Lindsay thought it probably would be.
When they finally stopped, she stepped back. She had
known Derrick for a long time; he was a good friend.
He had kissed her cheek many times and had even
kissed her lips to ring in a new year, but he had never
kissed her like that.
    "Come with me " He held out his hand.
    "No."
    "Why?"
    "Can't afford to"
    "But you want to"
    "Of course I want to. That's beside the point."
    "It will be really good." He kissed her ear.

    "I don't doubt that, Derrick." She smiled up at him.
"You are one of the most gorgeous... sexiest men I have
ever known. And you genuinely like women, really like
them. But that's part of the problem."
    "How come? I practice safe sex"
    Lindsay laughed. "I've never had casual sex, and
I don't intend to start, not even with such a terrific
partner."
    Derrick's eyes were soft and dreamy. He was an
expert lover, all gentle and coaxing with the promise
of giving the greatest of pleasure, which she had no
doubt he could deliver.
    "My reputation far surpasses the reality. I'm not
casual either."
    Lindsay laughed again. "I would fall in love with
you, and you would break my heart."
    "I would never."
    "I'll take one more kiss, if you've a mind, then I'll
go to my tent and sleep alone."
    Derrick pulled her into his arms and gave her his
best.
    In the morning the sheriff sent word that the Pruitts
had identified some of the clothes Derrick had found
at the crime scene. With that and Lindsay's report, he
released the bones for burial. Lindsay was glad it was
over.
    The scouts had arrived at the site and had set up
camp in an adjoining field. Lindsay tried to give each
a little time working on a burial, because among the
site crew burials were considered a treat. But she
found to her amazement that some of the scouts were
afraid to touch the bones. She watched one boy's hand shake as he tried to use a wooden tongue depressor to scrape dirt away from a long bone. She was
astonished that he was afraid of the remains of a
people she thought of as friends.

    Most of the scouts' time, however, was seized by
Ned to remove the overburden in the new section he
was so impatient to uncover. Lindsay thought he
would be happy now, or at least less combative, but
Frank's refusal to give him the number of professional crew he wanted and Frank's insistence that he
supervise Ned's work made Ned furious. Lindsay
overheard them argue on a number of occasions.
    "Dammit, you act like I can't lead an excavation!"
Ned yelled.
    "Ned, we need to have consistent methodology
throughout the site. I don't question your abilities,
only your stubbornness"
    "Great, that's just great..."
    All the arguments usually ended with Ned stomping off to his corner of the site.
    Lindsay had looked forward all day to her work that
evening on the skull of Burial 23. She smoothed and
refined the formerly roughed-out features, willing
her fingers to bring an expression of life into the
clay. Late into the night, she stopped and looked at
the face that stared back at her with blank eyes.
Whoever she had been, she was a handsome woman
with a very proud face and a well-shaped head.
Lindsay wondered what her story was, wondered if
anyone she once knew was here in this town or if she
were now an anonymous person who could only talk
to archaeologists. Even to them her ability to com municate was reduced by lack of context.