in this small grave… Well, then he’d have to accept that Dr. Carl Vandermullen was telling the truth and that Liz had been killed by some stranger she’d picked up in the personals column.
As Jack neared the spot where Denny had said he’d find Joanna Kay Vandermullen’s grave, he saw something even more unnerving. A shovel. It lay next to a gravestone ahead of them. It looked as if there were fresh dirt on the shovel.
As he and Karen stepped closer, Jack saw that someone had been digging up one of the graves. He knew before the moon cast its eerie light on the stone that it was Joanna Kay’s grave.
The headstone was small and simple. Just the baby’s name and date of birth and death. Jack felt a sliver of ice wedge itself in his chest. Someone else wanted to see what was buried here.
He glanced around, seeing no one, hearing nothing but silence. Not even a breeze whispered through the cemetery. Not even the rustle of a squirrel or a dried leaf. Nothing moved.
Jack looked over at Karen. She seemed paler in the moonlight, her freckles in stark contrast, her eyes wide and fearful. But her look was determined, even more convinced that they were on to something. It certainly seemed she was right.
He put down the bag of tools and pulled out a shovel. Slowly he began to dig where the last grave robber had left off.
THE TIME PASSED in a blur of moonlight and darkness. Earth spilled from Karen’s shovel in hypnotic repetition. They hadn’t spoken, just worked, neither wanting to talk about what they were doing or why. She suspected, he feared, like her, they would find a small body in the grave. She didn’t want to think what that would do to Denny. He wanted so desperately to believe his daughter was alive.
She’d tried to lose herself in the labor, avoiding thoughts of what they were digging up. Jack had argued she shouldn’t shovel, but she’d won him over by assuring him she needed something to do.
She tried not to think at all, but thoughts scudded by like the clouds overhead. Mostly she thought of Jack, her heart welling with her love for him. Funny, but while she couldn’t remember falling in love, she knew she had, and obviously at first sight. Why else would she have agreed to marry him the way she had?
How odd to fall so desperately in love when so much was going on in her life. For so long, she’d lived a rather uneventful life. Now, according to Jack, not only had she fallen in love and gotten married, she’d become a witness in a murder case, been almost killed in a hit-and-run and was now helping solve a sixteen-year-old mystery.
This was so unlike her. She hardly recognized herself. But, she had to admit, she was happier than she’d ever been. And Jack Adams was the reason. Being with him was definitely exciting in more ways than one.
Jack struck something with his shovel. He froze, his gaze coming to her.
She held her breath as he began to clear the dirt from around the small coffin so he could get the crowbar under the lid. She closed her eyes in a silent prayer, then opened them as she heard the sharp crack of the seal breaking.
“Hand me the flashlight,” Jack whispered.
She did and watched the sphere of gold light fall across the tiny coffin. Jack seemed to brace himself, his gaze touching hers gently, then he lifted the lid slowly and shone the light inside.
He let out a curse.
She gasped, her hand going to her mouth. At first all she saw was a baby dressed in white. Then the light fell on the baby’s face and she realized it was nothing more than a doll.
She felt tears rush to her eyes, unable to hold them back. No baby. Joanna Kay Vandermullen wasn’t here. She bit her lip to hold back the avalanche of emotion as she looked down at Jack. Her heart surged with hope that the girl was alive.
He stood for a long moment, the flashlight hanging from his fingertips, his arm at his side, the circle of light glowing on the bottom of the grave. He didn’t seem ready to climb from the hole. She wondered if he felt as sick inside as she did. He looked weak with relief and disgust. Someone had buried a doll in a baby’s coffin. Someone had pretended that Joanna Kay had