The Bone Garden: A Novel Read Free

sloping down to the tree-shaded stream, with grazing sheep meandering through the grass. A place where only animals would wander. A place where a grave would quickly be forgotten.
    Vicky stared down at the bones with a look of distaste. “Is this—one body?”
    “A complete skeleton,” Petrie said. “She was buried deep enough to be protected from scavenger damage. On this slope, the soil’s quite well drained. Plus, judging by the fragments of leather, it looks like she was wrapped in some kind of animal hide, and the leaching tannins are something of a preservative.”
    “She?”
    “Yes.” Petrie looked up, sharp blue eyes narrowed against the sun. “This is a female. Based on dentition and the condition of her vertebrae, she was fairly young, certainly under the age of thirty-five. All in all, she’s in remarkably good shape.” Petrie looked at Julia. “Except for the crack you made with your trowel.”
    Julia flushed. “I thought the skull was a rock.”
    “It’s not a problem distinguishing between old and new fractures. Look.” Petrie dropped to a squat again and picked up the skull. “The crack you made is right here, and it doesn’t show any staining. But see this crack here, on the parietal bone? And there’s another one here, on the zygomatic bone, under the cheek. These surfaces are stained brown from long exposure to dirt. That tells us these are premor-bid fractures, not from excavation damage.”
    “Pre-morbid?” Julia looked at her. “Are you saying…”
    “These blows almost certainly caused her death. I would call this a murder.”
             
    In the night, Julia lay awake, listening to the creak of old floors, the rustle of mice in the walls. As old as this house was, the grave was even older. While men were hammering together these beams, laying down the pine floors, only a few dozen paces away the corpse of an unknown woman was already moldering in the earth. Had they known she was here when they built on this spot? Had there been a stone marking the site?
    Or did no one know she was here? Did no one remember her?
    She kicked aside the sheets and lay sweating atop the mattress. Even with both windows open, the bedroom felt airless, not even a whisper of a breeze to dissipate the heat. A firefly flashed on and off in the darkness above her, its light winking forlornly as it circled the room, seeking escape.
    She sat up in bed and turned on the lamp. The magical sparks overhead transformed to an ordinary brown bug flitting about near the ceiling. She wondered how to catch it without killing it. Wondered whether the fate of one lone bug was worth the effort.
    The phone rang. At eleven thirty, only one person would be calling.
    “I hope I didn’t wake you,” said Vicky. “I just got home from one of those endless dinners.”
    “It’s too hot to sleep anyway.”
    “Julia, there was something I wanted to tell you earlier, when I was there. But I couldn’t, not with all those people around.”
    “No more advice about this house, okay?”
    “This isn’t about the house. It’s about Richard. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if I were you, I’d want to know. You shouldn’t have to hear this through the grapevine.”
    “Hear what?”
    “Richard is getting married.”
    Julia clutched the receiver, gripping so tight her fingers went numb. In the long silence, she heard her own heartbeat pounding in her ear.
    “So you didn’t know.”
    Julia whispered: “No.”
    “What a little shit he is,” Vicky muttered with enough bitterness for them both. “It’s been planned for over a month, that’s what I heard. Someone named Tiffani with an
i.
I mean, how cutesy can you get? I have no respect for any man who marries a Tiffani.”
    “I don’t understand how this happened so quickly.”
    “Oh, honey, it’s obvious, isn’t it? He had to be running around with her while you were still married. Did he suddenly start coming home late? And there were all the