Maybe she shouldn’t have been so eager to ride off alone.
“You have to tell them. They have to know,” the pirate said. “Lass, there’s a body here. Bones, but once a living and breathing human being. Lass, come now. You know you’re all right, that you see me because you have the power, because I choose to be seen. Please. You mustn’t be weak and afraid—”
“I am not weak!” she said. Yes, she was. “Or afraid!” She was terrified.
But then she wasn’t. As she kept staring at him, it slowly became okay. She wasn’t at all sure she was happy about this, but after everything else...
Why the hell not see the ghost of a long-dead pirate, roaming the Everglades, praying that one day he might atone for his sins?
“What is going on out here?” she asked him.
Her ghost was truly distressed.
“I don’t know. These bones, this death, it was long ago and time has taken its toll. But this was someone’s beloved son or daughter, father or mother. Justice, as well we’ve learned, can be slow and hard. And yet it’s never out of order. You must bring them out here.”
“Raina!”
She heard her name and she realized that Axel was calling to her.
Wild Thing grew skittish, fighting her hold.
“It’s all right,” she said, soothing the horse. She stood again. Titan ran back along the trail, ready to greet Axel, to bring him to her.
She waited. The pirate waited. And to Raina’s surprise, she was calm.
Titan came running back, Axel, on old Jacob, right behind him. He stopped a few feet away, dismounting, and raising a hand gently as Wild Thing pranced and pawed the ground.
“Raina—” he began.
“Hey, glad you’re here. Your pirate friend and I have found the remains of someone. I’m thinking that we’re going to need to call this in.”
He frowned and turned to look at the pirate. The pirate shrugged.
He looked back at Raina.
“Raina, I see you’ve met Peg-legged Pete. Pete, Miss Raina Hamish.”
Raina smiled at the pirate. “Peg-legged Pete? For real?”
“Aye, lass. Peter MacIver in full dress, but as you might note, I managed to get my leg mangled taking a galleon in the gulf. Therefore, Peg-legged Pete.”
“Nice to meet you, Pete,” Raina said, looking at Axel, glad he hadn’t been there to see her when she’d been frozen with fear. “Axel, I’m glad you’re here. I think maybe Pete was worried I couldn’t get this information to you, or that I might forget exactly where I’d been.” She hesitated. “There are bones here, Axel. Or, at least, a skull.”
“A skull?” he said, frowning.
“Yes, a human skull. I haven’t touched it, though I imagine it’s been here a long time.”
“Rain might have hidden it years ago. Rain might have dredged it up now,” Pete said.
There was something odd in Axel’s expression. He wasn’t worried about Jacob taking off on him; he let the horse’s reins dangle as he stepped forward, past her and Pete, hunching down to look at the object.
He still looked a little off as he rose.
“All right. Let’s get back. We’ll have to get a coroner out here. And maybe some experts from the university.”
“Axel?” Raina said softly.
“Pete, keep an eye out, huh?”
“Sure,” Pete said. “But no one is coming back on this one. This happened long ago. A decade or more, I’d say. Maybe longer.”
Axel was already heading back to Jacob and leaping up on his back.
“Raina?” he said softly. “Please. Let’s get someone out here. Quickly.”
She nodded, turned to smile at Pete and was grateful that Wild Thing stood like a lamb for her to swing up on his back.
They rode back in silence.
* * *
Raina seemed to be fine. Absolutely fine.
Maybe having seen the body of a woman so recently killed had inured her.
Maybe it had been the trip to the morgue.
She had discovered a skull, and taken it in stride.
When they returned to Andrew’s, they unbridled the horses and left them in their stalls. Raina promised to return with apples or carrots. Titan was quiet but trotted along close beside Raina.
Striding into Andrew’s, he told them what Raina had discovered, letting Nigel get busy bringing out the proper authorities and experts to unearth the skull and hopefully discover the bones that went with it.
He excused himself, then went to make a phone call.
“Andrew, do you have any apples or carrots?” Raina asked. She shrugged a little awkwardly. “I promised the horses. I mean, I