Bare Bones Read Free Page A

He’s been skinned. The only way I know it’s a ‘he’ and not a ‘she’ is the lack of boobs and the lap sausage.”
    Which also had no skin on it. The body was like an anatomy class dummy, only oozing blood. “I think he was killed fairly recently. Maybe he’s one of the museum attendees? Or employees?”
    Tremelay turned to the Man-In-A-Suit, who I presumed was in charge of the museum. “Well?”
    The guy knotted his hands together, carefully avoiding any position where he might actually catch a glimpse of the dead body. “All the employees working today are accounted for. We’re going through the sign-in and checking it against the people still in the museum, but we don’t keep track of when people leave. Out of one hundred sixty some visitors today, there are probably only forty left in the museum.”
    I looked again at the body. We might have to wait for a missing person’s report and the M.E.’s findings before we could discover the identity of this man. There were no clothes, no wallet, nothing but a naked guy without the slightest bit of skin on him. Not even any fingerprints to check. Hopefully the guy had something about him that allowed us to get a positive ID sometime this century.
    Us. I doubted that normally I’d be included in this investigation, and there was still a chance I wouldn’t be, even though I’d been the one who found the body. A murderer who skinned their victim could be a psycho with a thing for taxidermy, or it could be something else. I’d only be involved if it were “something else.”
    Two guys wheeled in a stretcher. Another with them began to snap pictures. Tremelay took out his little notepad and began to write. I got the feeling that my presence was no longer needed, and I was sure that Zac was itching to get out of here.
    “We good?”
    Tremelay looked over. “Yep. I’ll call you if I need you, Ainsworth.”
    I knew he would. And as much as I wished my life would return to normal, part of me wished I would get that phone call.

Chapter 3
     
    I T WAS THE sort of gorgeous fall day where everyone, residents and tourists alike, were flooding the Inner Harbor. After the excitement at the museum, my coffee shop shift and solo night watching television seemed mind-numbingly dull. Dario had cancelled our scheduled meeting due to some vampire business, and I was restless and bored. By ten at night I’d called Janice to let her know I wanted to join her for the demon exorcism.
    Which might not be a demon exorcism, but was better than sitting in my apartment all day.
    I’d arrived at our meeting spot early just so I could soak up the sun, relax in the hard metal chair and enjoy a cold beer and some oysters. Two teenagers were eating ice cream as they sat on the brick sidewalk just outside the roped off area for outside dining. A couple with three rambunctious children in tow consulted a map and looked around, pointing at various landmarks. The guy at the table next to me hammered his crab claws violently, digging in the shattered shells for meat with the point of a steak knife.
    I loved people watching almost as much as I loved the oysters, topped with a spray of lemon juice and a heaping teaspoon of fresh horseradish. The guy next to me gave up hammering and I heard the teenage girl on the other side of the rope say something that grabbed my attention.
    “I want a vampire.”
    So did I, but I didn’t think the girl with her jean shorts and sky-blue T-shirt wanted an actual, real life vampire. Maybe she meant like in the movies. I hadn’t hung out with teenagers since I’d been one myself, but I remember mooning over romantic leads and wishing my very human boyfriends were more like the perfect guys on the silver screen.
    “Get over it, Becca,” the boy responded. “Like, you’re seriously going to hunt down a vampire and jump her? You’re such a baby sometimes. Grow the fuck up.”
    Brother and sister and not boyfriend and girlfriend? I remembered similar