as though she'd never moved. I saw from the corner of my eye that Martin had blinked in surprise, and Shelby turned to one side to hide a grin. Lynn, Lanier, and Jack Burns all looked surprised, too.
I didn't want my house invaded.
"Well, it is a right nice day out here," Lanier said smoothly.
"How did you come to go up on the roof, Roe?" Lynn asked.
"Angel and I were playing Frisbee."
Lanier looked from Angel to me, comparing our sizes, and put his hand over his mouth to shield his smile.
"Angel threw the Frisbee, there was a gust of wind, and it ended up going up on the roof. I got the ladder, climbed up, got the Frisbee, and found - them." "You were there, Mrs. Youngblood?" Lynn asked politely.
"I was holding the ladder. I'm scared of heights." "What happened to your face, young lady?" Jack Burns asked, in tones of tender solicitousness.
"I fell on the gravel driveway, and I couldn't catch myself in time," Angel said. Her hands, resting on the arms of the chair, were perfectly relaxed. "And you, Mr. Bartell?" Lynn asked suddenly, swinging around in her seat to look at Martin. "Where were you when your wife went up on the roof? And Mr. Young-blood?"
"I was driving in from the airport. I got here while my wife was up on the roof," Martin responded. "I've been away on a business trip." "I was asleep," Shelby said.
"You're not working today?"
"I felt sick this morning, and didn't go in. As a matter of fact, I started feeling real bad yesterday afternoon, all of a sudden. I came home from work then and haven't been back since."
Shelby had neatly covered his sudden departure from work yesterday afternoon after Angel had called him. A "just in case" move, I thought. That was really all Lynn could ask us, given the circumstances. Perhaps it was even one or two questions more than she should have asked us, come to think about it.
"I'm taking my wife inside now, she's had a shock," Martin said. The police cars were vanishing one by one, but local people were beginning to drive by; someone had been listening to a scanner. A hearse from Morrilton Funeral Home pulled into our driveway, and abruptly I could hardly wait to be inside the house. There was no reason for me to stay, so Lynn nodded. Shelby and Angel came in with us. Martin pulled the drape cord in the living room and blocked out the cruising cars and the police and the funeral-home men. But nothing could block out the sounds from the roof.
Chapter Fourteen
I WANTED THE YOUNGBLOODS to go to their apartment. I wanted to forget about the mad ax-man and the bones on the roof. I wanted to watch an old movie on the TV, curled up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and maybe a beer. I wanted Martin upstairs after the movie was over. Or even earlier. But his agenda was different, I realized with a sigh.
He gathered us around the table in the kitchen.
"Now, what happened yesterday?" he asked.
I told him again, and then Angel began her part, her battered face more testimony than her words.
I slumped back in my chair sullenly. A night short on sleep and two days of violent emotions were taking their toll, I was very tired and very sick of crises. I wanted this all to go away, just for a little while, so I could make one of my slow adjustments. But of course I was thinking again of the man who had run at me, and now that I was too tired to be scared, I thought more of his face. While Martin was saying something about security to the Youngbloods, something about the bushes, I realized that there had been something faintly familiar about the man. I associated him with construction, building... . The phone rang. I went to the counter to answer it. Sally Allison wanted to know all about the skeletons on the roof; she was not in her "friend" mode, but in her "reporter" mode. I told her.
"You know," she said, "the police will call in the forensic anthropologist on this one. Did you know Georgia is the only state with a forensic anthropologist on the payroll? He's never been called to a case in Spalding County before! He'll be here tomorrow."
"Wouldn't it be funny," I said, "if it wasn't the Juliuses?" Dead silence. Then Sally laughed uncertainly. "Who