to make certain she was all right. She’d been quiet on the ride home—but then, none of them had felt like talking much. The discovery of the bones in the rattlesnake den had sobered them all. The flashlight had been too weak for a clear look. But Sky had known what he was seeing.
Maybe he should have kept quiet about the bones. They appeared to have been there a long time. And there could be no question of retrieving them from that deep, narrow space, especially with the snakes denned up for the winter. Leave the dead to lie—that would be sound advice. But there was something Sky had kept to himself—something that would compel him to go back to the cave with a stronger light for another look.
The sight of those fragile bones had touched him deeply. He wouldn’t rest easy, Sky knew, until he’d learned more about how they’d come to be there. Light and distance may have fooled his eyes, but every instinct told him he’d been right.
He had looked down into that awful darkness and seen the remains of a child.
“Yum! I smell cinnamon rolls!” Erin’s piping voice broke into his thoughts as they neared the house. “Bernice told me this morning she was going to make a big batch. Come on in and have some!”
“That sounds wonderful! I’m famished!” Lauren tugged Sky toward the kitchen, where Bernice had just finished icing a big pan of spicy, fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. Jasper sat at the table, waiting for his share.
Bernice greeted the three of them with a smile. “Something told me you’d come back hungry. You’re just in time. Wash up and have a seat.”
After a quick cleanup, they joined Jasper at the table. Armed with saucers and forks, they dug into the pan of warm, delicious rolls. Bernice poured glasses of cold milk, then sat down to eat with them. “So, did you find the Spanish gold?” she asked.
Lauren shook her head.
“Told ya, ya wouldn’t,” Jasper said. “See, it’s just a story.”
“We didn’t find gold.” Erin spoke between bites. “But we found a cave with a snake den at the bottom of a hole. Sky looked down there and saw some bones, didn’t you, Sky?”
Jasper’s fork dropped from his hand and clattered to his plate. “ ’Scuse me,” he muttered, picking it up again. “Gettin’ butterfingers in my old age.”
“Do you know anything about a cave in that canyon, Jasper?” Lauren asked.
Jasper frowned, looking down at the table. “Seems like I recollect something about a cave. But I never went up that little canyon. Had no call to, ’specially after Bull sold it to Old Ferg.”
“So you never heard anything about the bones?” Lauren persisted.
“Nope. Most likely just some old-time Injun that fell down there and died, rest his heathen soul.”
Sky thought that Jasper looked distinctly uncomfortable. He’d bet his best saddle that the old man knew a lot more than he was saying. Maybe later, when they were alone, Jasper would tell him the truth. But before asking, Sky wanted to go back to the cave with a strong light and take another look at those bones.
* * *
“You goin’ out again tonight, Ralphie?” Vonda looked up from dabbing black polish on her toenails, which she could barely reach over her bulging belly. Her voice, lately, had taken on a whine that grated on Ralph’s nerves like the sound of a mewling cat. He could hardly wait to get out the door.
“Gotta go to work, baby,” he said. “Stella don’t pay much, but with a kid on the way, we can’t make it without me workin’ two jobs.”
“But we don’t have any fun since you started that job—not even in bed.”
“That kind of stuff could be bad for the baby.” Lord, he’d tried. But sex with Vonda these days was like pumping a beach ball. Some men claimed pregnancy made their wives sexier, but Ralph didn’t buy it—especially now that he was getting some on the side.
“You’re tired all the time. And I’m cooped up here in the house, just gettin’ bigger and doin’ nothin’! You haven’t even took me to a movie since you started workin’ for that woman,” Vonda whined. “I thought bein’ married would be fun, like a date that doesn’t end. But it sucks! And bein’ pregnant sucks worse! You got me this way, and you owe me better’n this!”
“Hell, I bought you those damn fake fingernails and gave you money for lunch with your friends. I even bought you a