Bones
by K. J. Dahlen
Excerpt
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BLURB:
When
human bones are discovered in a cave just outside of town, it’s up to Sheriff
Max Reardon to find out who the bones belonged to. But someone in town doesn’t
want the bones identified and they go to great lengths to try and stop Max’s
investigation.
They break into Max’s house and try to destroy the evidence and
when that doesn’t work, they frame Max for murder. Can Max clear his name and
bring the murderer or murderers to justice?
EXCERPT:
Max
squatted near the opening in the rocky outcrop and took off his sunglasses. He
was hot and tired and had just about given up finding this place. He wasn’t
eager to go inside since the inside of the opening was dark and uninviting. But
Max knew he had to go in there. The small hole in the side of the cliff was barely
big enough for a child to scramble into let alone a full size man, but he knew
he didn’t have a choice. God, I hate
small places, he thought as he crawled inside. The hole was small and
cramped and Max had to bend over to get through. I really hate small places, he emphasized as he struggled to get
through the cramped opening. The hole in the cliff had been harder to find than
he expected. The directions given to him by two young boys hadn’t been all that
clear.
The
boys said the opening was straight up from the dam below and a little left of
the big oak tree. What they failed to tell him was which big oak tree. The
whole hill was littered with oak trees right up to the base of the cliff.
It
had taken him the better part of an hour to find the opening. There had been a
lot of hillside to search. The boys had told him they left an old t-shirt to
mark the opening, but Max hadn’t found the t-shirt. Some small animal or the
wind must have carried it away. He hoped he had the right entrance this time.
He’d
found a couple of other openings in the rock face that had led him nowhere.
This opening appeared to be the one the boys had described. According to the
boys, this small cave led to a cavern with the treasure. Max hoped it led
somewhere.
His
hands and face were scratched up from pushing brambles and brush out of his
way. The thought had also occurred to him that the seldom visited, rocky part
of the side of a cliff just a little ways north of the town Max was sheriff of,
might be just the spot to run into a snoozing wolf or worse yet a rattlesnake.
He heard something scramble out of his way a couple of times, but he hadn’t
heard the symbolic rattle of the snake so whatever remained hidden from his
sight wasn’t a snake. He’d tried to make enough noise to ward off unexpected
company and hoped he hadn’t sounded like a complete idiot in the process. If
anyone had spotted him, they would have thought he was drunk in the middle of
the morning and that would never do for a sheriff.
The
flashlight he held in his hand did little to penetrate the utter darkness that
surrounded him. The cave walls and floor were slimy with what Max didn’t even
want to hazard a guess and it smelled even worse. It smelled like something
crawled in this narrow opening and died. The boys who found the cave might
think this little venture was "neat", but Max didn’t. He’d lost his
sense of adventure for little games like this a long time ago. He couldn’t
believe he was here now.
The
boys had been in this cave a couple of days before and had found what they
thought was an Indian burial place. They had been reluctant at first to tell
anyone of their find but eventually told their dads. As a result, Richard
Crabtree had brought his son, Timmy, to see him. Max could tell that Timmy
hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about his secret place and Max hadn’t been all
that interested in the boy’s tale. Most of it was just the imagination of a ten
year old. It wasn’t until Timmy mentioned the skeletons that Max became
interested.
Max
knew enough about the local tribes in Wisconsin to know they didn’t bury their
dead above ground in forgotten caves. The boys told him that they hadn’t seen
or found any other Indian artifacts and Timmy was positive someone else had
robbed the cave of all its treasure. As sheriff, Max felt bound to check out
their story. If there were skeletons in there, he had to find out why.
All-in-all, this is an enjoyable mystery that kept my interest
from beginning to end.
Laurie
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
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