Legacy of Lies

Melancholy pressed Nicole onto a chair on the deck. When she was growing up and her parents brought her to visit Grandma Jan and Grandpa Frank in this west-central Minnesota town, the lawn was a living carpet of thick grass, thriving plants and lush flowerbeds. Since Grandpa’s death a decade ago, when Nicole was twenty-two—a young woman barely wed!—the plants had disappeared one by one, and the flowerbeds had shrunk to a few clumps of petunias here and there. Grandma was not the green thumb in the family, though she’d done her best to maintain Grandpa’s beloved rose garden that lined the property along Tenth Street.

At least until this year.

Now the garden looked like some razor-toothed monster had chomped a bite out of it and gouged a trench in the earth up to the house. The gaping hole was part of the city infrastructure project to install new water and sewer lines. Out on the road, the early-evening breeze puffed dust clouds into the air. Across the street, a neighbor emerged from his house, lifted a lazy hand in greeting and ambled toward his garage.

Nicole rose and trod down the three steps onto the grass, then wandered along the edge of the trench until she reached the pitiful remains of Grandpa’s beloved roses. A magnificent grandiflora and a prolific white floribunda survived on one side of the gouge in the earth. On the other, several bushes of miniature roses held their blossoms up toward the waning sun. But the trellis with its pink Bourbon climbing roses and most of the hybrid teas, including her grandfather’s favorite yellow roses, were gone. This plot of ground had meant so much to him. It was a shame to see it ruined. Maybe when the city project was finished, she could try her hand at restoring the garden. Surely her grandmother wouldn’t object to that!

Birdsong teased her ears from a spreading maple tree a few yards behind her. Dappled sunlight reached the trench through the leafy fringes of the tree. As the warm breeze rippled the branches, a pale gleam winked at her from the dirt wall near the bottom of the hole. Nicole bent, hands on knees, and looked closer. Crinkles of dirty white plastic poked out one side wall of the trench. The plastic was at least as wide as her grandmother’s antiquated microwave oven, but only about as high as a loaf of bread.

Was this the final resting place of Grandpa’s boyhood dog, Lad? Grandpa had, after all, grown up in this house. If so, it was funny he’d never mentioned the beloved mutt was buried here. But it did help explain his obsession with keeping up the rose garden. Then again, that theory could be completely off, and the plastic could contain anything from junk to treasure.

Curiosity nibbled at Nicole. She didn’t really care to uncover some old dog bones, but what if it were something more interesting, maybe even valuable. Should she wait until the workers came back tomorrow and ask them to unearth the item? She shook her head. Nah! She wouldn’t sleep a wink tonight for wondering, so she might as well solve the mystery right now.

Nicole went to the garage and returned with one of her grandfather’s gardening trowels. The trench was only a few feet deep, so she hopped in and went to work. A little grunting, sweaty work later she pulled out what turned out to be a package wrapped in a plastic sack—probably a garbage bag. Whatever was inside had some bulk, but was almost as light as air. Probably not a bag of gold then. She smiled at her own absurdity.

The digging machine had caught an edge of the sack and made a rip in the plastic. Standing in the trench, Nicole hooked her finger in the hole and tore the opening wide to expose a bundle of deep blue fabric. A small, faded tag caught her eye. Gingerly, she touched the fragile bit of paper and leaned over the markings. A faint musky smell brushed her nostrils, and her eyes widened. Enough of the letters remained legible to make out the words Jan’s Sewing Room. Whatever was in here had been wrapped in yard goods from her grandmother’s store.

A chill feathered across Nicole’s skin. Suddenly, she wasn’t so eager to see what was inside. But she was in this too far; she had to look now. Gently, Nicole rolled the package over and over, releasing layers of fabric. Finally, the contents lay plain to see.

Oxygen fled her lungs. She blinked and stared.

Not a dog. No, not at all.

Someone had buried a baby in her grandparents’ backyard!

Nicole’s head swam, and she gripped the side of the trench, whimpering. Her fingers clawed into the cool earth. Could Grandma Jan have had a miscarriage or a stillbirth? But wouldn’t those remains be placed in a cemetery with an official headstone? No whisper of such a family tragedy had reached her ears as she grew up. How about an abortion? Nicole shook her head. These remains were too large for some furtive termination of a rejected pregnancy. This child had probably been at least several months old. And he or she must have been buried here for a long time. Had Grandpa known what precious treasure lay beneath his roses?

What kind of question was that? She shook herself. Of course, Grandpa couldn’t have known. He would never have—

“Nicole, I’ve been calling you to come in for supper. I—” Her grandmother’s voice behind her ended in a sharp gasp.

Time suspended like a clock’s pendulum gone still.

Nicole finally sucked in a breath, as Grandma Jan let out a shrill cry.

“Oh, no!” The elderly woman’s cracked wail held every second of her seventy-five years of existence. “I can’t believe it! I never thought… It can’t be.”

Nicole turned to find her grandmother scuttling away in a half crouch, as if someone had struck her in the stomach, but she must ignore the pain and flee. Grandma was clearly surprised the remains were in her yard, yet she knew something about them. What?

Nicole heaved herself out of the trench and followed, calling for her grandmother to stop. The woman didn’t acknowledge that she’d heard. Nicole trailed her through the kitchen and up the hallway. The older woman could move surprisingly fast. Grandma darted into her bedroom, and slammed the door in Nicole’s face, barely missing her nose.

Nicole gaped at the closed portal. “What’s going on? Whose remains are those?”

“I’m not sure, dear.” The thin response carried faintly.

The sound of drawers slamming and the rustling of papers reached Nicole’s ears. What was her grandmother looking for?

“I have to call the police.” Nicole leaned her forehead against the door panel.

“Do what you need to do, honey. Let me be, now.”

On reluctant feet, Nicole went to the kitchen and lifted the telephone receiver. Why was her grandmother lying to her? And what was she rummaging for in the bedroom? Something to do with the child in the rose garden?

Nicole had come to the quiet community of Ellington—to this home she’d known as a haven since childhood—in order to rebuild her life after a devastating loss. More than that, she’d come to look after her only close living relative in the waning years of the woman’s life. What might happen to both of them the minute she placed this phone call to the police station?

Police Chief Rich Hendricks caught the coded call-out from the dispatcher on his police scanner at home. He immediately phoned the station for details not given over the radio, and then abandoned his half-eaten, fast-food cheese-burger. Small loss. No fun scarfing down meals alone all the time anyway. With his wife, Karen, having passed away three years ago and his daughter, Katrina, newly graduated and off to summer Bible camp as a counselor, life had turned pretty blah. A case like this broke up the routine big-time, but it wasn’t the kind of excitement he welcomed.

A baby’s bones found in a trench? When he took the chief job here in Ellington, he researched the town, particularly the criminal history. This little burg hadn’t had a mystery this big since Simon Elling’s infant son was kidnapped in 1957 and never recovered. Had the child just been found? And in the Kellers’ backyard, no less!

Bouncing over the rough terrain on the dug-up streets, Rich’s SUV turned onto Tenth Street. The Keller colonial lay up ahead. Looked as if he was the first unit on the scene, but then, he only lived a few blocks away.

A slender, dark-haired woman stood slump-shouldered beside a bundle on the ground. Nicole Mattson, Jan’s granddaughter. She moved to town only a couple of weeks ago, presumably to start a new life a few months after her Minneapolis police-officer husband was killed in a shoot-out with a team of serial bank robbers. The guy was a bonafide hero, decorated and everything, but that didn’t make Nicole any less a widow. He sympathized.

Welcome to Ellington.

Rich snorted. This was not the way he’d hoped to be introduced to this woman. He’d been eyeing her from afar, giving her space to settle in and time for the sharpest pangs of loss to subside. Since Karen’s passing, Nicole was the first female to spark his interest in dating again…and now he had to approach her in cop mode.

He cruised the SUV to the nonexistent curb, grabbed his interview notebook and got out. She gazed at him, brow furrowed above deep brown eyes. He glanced down at his jeans and Minnesota Vikings T-shirt.

“Sorry.” He sent her a muted smile. “This caught me off duty at home. You must be Nicole, Jan’s granddaughter. I’m Police Chief Rich Hendricks.” He held out his hand.

She took it with a surprisingly firm grip for such a delicate hand and petite frame. Her brown eyes held equal parts sorrow and strength. Nothing squeamish about her, but then she’d been a cop’s wife, and her dad, Jan and Frank’s son, had been a cop, as well. At least, he wouldn’t have to deal with feminine hysterics. He liked her already, though she hadn’t said a word.

“This is what I found.” She pointed toward the bundle at her feet. “I dug it out of there.” She motioned toward a gap in the soil near the bottom of the trench.

Rich narrowed his gaze. The remains hadn’t been buried very deep—only about three feet. He made a note in his book, and then squatted beside the dirt-crusted bundle. A plastic object lay on the fabric. He nudged it with the end of his pen, and it rattled. A baby’s toy. It looked like the rattle had once been blue and white. The bits of clothing that survived might possibly have been red.

“The remains were wound tightly in the yard goods,” Nicole volunteered. “I unwrapped it having no idea I’d find something like this!”

Rich nodded her direction. “You did fine. How could you guess?”

Nicole squatted beside him. “What’s that?” She pointed to another object in the bundle, partially covered by cloth.

Rich nudged the item into view—a small metal cross. That and the careful shroudlike wrapping sent a message: whoever buried the child either felt remorse or actually cared for the infant.

A tag on the fabric caught his eye. He leaned close and made out the store label. His gaze met Nicole’s, but she looked away quickly. Not fast enough to hide the confusion and fear playing across her face. She was afraid her grandmother had something to do with this. A logical conclusion, given the circumstances. He needed to talk to Jan Keller right away.

He rose, Nicole beside him, and swiveled toward the sound of approaching vehicles. A police sedan, followed by the VW Jetta driven by one of their local doctors, pulled up behind his SUV. Rich’s lanky deputy, Terry Bender, climbed out of the sedan, cowboy boots first, beneath uniform slacks.

“Bring the yellow tape,” Rich called to him. “We’ll have to cordon off the area.”

The deputy shot him a thumbs-up and ducked back inside his car. Dr. Sharla Mead approached, carrying her kit. The pear-shaped woman around Rich’s own age of thirty-nine was the county medical examiner, as well as chief of staff at the small Ellington hospital.

The doctor gazed down at the bundle and shook her head. “I’ll do my best with COD, but you’ll need a forensics specialist out here to examine the whole package.”

Rich nodded. “Do what you can. Terry will give you a hand. I’ll call someone in from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. This kind of case ought to be right up their alley.” Sharla nodded, and Rich turned toward Nicole. “Is your grandmother around? We need to visit.”

White-faced, Nicole nodded. “She’s in the house. Come with me.”