us all stark raving nuts,” Andrew told him.
“What the hell? I’m not doing anything,” Axel protested.
“Breathing,” Nigel said.
“Gritting your teeth,” Andrew told him.
“There’s an annoying sigh now and then,” Jon said.
Raina smiled. “I’m happy to go for a ride.”
They headed out to the stables again. The blue dress was still there, thrown on a shelf in the tack room.
Raina ignored it.
“Saddles or bareback?” she asked Axel.
“Bareback. I need to do something!” he said.
They headed out, following the trail they had followed before.
The crew from the forensics team were gone, but some of their tape remained, trampled to the ground.
“I guess they found all they could of Fran Castle?” Raina asked Axel.
He nodded. “Some bones. Not a complete set. At least we know where she wound up and her family has something to bury. Closed coffin,” he added dryly.
Raina nodded. “I wonder if...”
“What?”
“It’s really horrible.”
“What is it?”
“Well, I didn’t try to get anything off what we found.” She hesitated. “What I thought was some kind of leftover steak in the yard. The poisoned...meat.”
Axel was quiet. “Raina...”
“I know it’s a strange idea, but anything that would help. I mean, horrible, yes, but I’m more than willing. Though I foresee a problem—trying to tell a medical examiner or someone else you want to hold someone’s sliced-off flesh...”
He looked at her. “It can be arranged,” he assured her.
For a moment, he remained reined in on the trail where the leftover crime tape littered the scene, where the bones of Fran Castle had finally been found.
“Anything here?” he asked her.
Raina closed her eyes. She heard birds, something sliding in the mud, the chirp of some kind of insect.
A mosquito landed on her arm, giving her a good bite.
She slapped at it and looked at Axel. “I’m sorry,” she told him.
As she spoke, someone stepped around one of the trees. Peg-legged Pete with another of the ghostly pirates.
“Axel, Miss Hamish!” Peg-legged Pete said, sweeping off his feathered pirate’s hat and bowing low before her.
“Hi, Pete!” Raina said.
“What a sweet lass, and a beauty,” Pete told Axel.
Axel grinned. “I do agree,” he said. “Joshua!” he added, addressing the other pirate. “Has Joshua met Raina yet?”
“Miss,” the other pirate said, stepping forward. He was wearing a knit cap, blousy shirt, vest, breeches and high boots. Puffs of long sandy hair escaped in long tendrils from his knit cap. He was very thin, and as he greeted her, he swept off his cap, bowing low.
“I was hoping to see you...thought I’d take a walk on to Andrew’s place, but you never know who might be there, and you know me, I don’t like to be causing trouble,” Pete said.
“You have something for us?” Axel asked.
“Joshua, tell them,” Pete said.
Joshua, his cap between his hands, nodded anxiously. “Strange, it were, in my estimation, that be. People out here. Several of them. They came in an automobile, parked on the trail where it ends to our west there. They were shouting, angry. Someone was saying the situation had to be stopped. I couldn’t see anyone clear, but I’d say there were three of them at least, running around. And the dress...so strange. Looked like they were in trousers and handsome coats of some kind...not what you often see out here. But I could see no faces. I hid, and then, sometime later, I saw people, lots of people, crawling around. Not here, deeper in. Then I heard a man screaming and then airboats, and then, well, you were there, and you know the rest.”
“Wait—men in suits were out here right before we arrived in the airboat?”
“No, they were gone. Only one remained.”
“Was he tied up, then? Did you see him running?” Raina asked anxiously.
Joshua shook his head sadly. “I don’t know. I just heard when he started screaming. When the snake took him.”
“Thank you,” Axel said.
“It’s not much,” Joshua told him.
“Well, I’m truly grateful,” Axel said.
Raina echoed her thanks. Peg-legged Pete and Joshua nodded grimly and Pete told Axel, “We’re headed deeper in. Watching the airboats. Lots of them moving around. The usual tourist trade, and it seems like more. Python hunters.”
“That’s a great idea,” Axel said. “You have been incredibly helpful, Pete. Joshua.”
The pirates looked pleased. They started off, moving like fog through the foliage.
Pete stopped and turned back. He lifted his hand in the air and gave them a hearty “Arrrr!” which seemed to provide Joshua with a great deal of amusement.
“They were really brutal once upon a time?” Raina asked when they were gone.
“Some men find a time