Bats and Bones (The Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

you?”
    “Yes, our
friends, four of them. I asked them to wait and turn anyone else back.”
    The ranger
wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “You wait here. I’ll send them back.
The county sheriff should be here in just a few minutes. If it’s okay with him,
you can go back to the campground but don’t talk to anyone else. I will need to
talk to Maeve’s husband before he hears from someone else, you understand?”
It’s hard to look stern when you also look twelve.
    He noticed
a well-used blue Honda and peered inside. Frannie said, “That’s Mrs. Schlumm’s
car, isn’t it? I remember seeing it by their camper.”
    The ranger
did not answer as he checked the doors. He was not going to share much with
them. The car was not locked. A purse sat open in the front seat, contents
spilled.
    He left the
car and hurried down the boardwalk that led to the trail.

 
    The rest of
the group had just arrived at the parking lot when a sheriff’s car rolled in. A
large man emerged with a trim woman, both in uniform.
    Larry
stepped forward. “I’m Larry Shoemaker, Sheriff. I made the 911 call.”
    “Sheriff
Buzz Ingrham, and this is Deputy Linda Smith,” the sheriff said. “In which cave
did you find this woman?”
    “Bogg’s
Retreat—one of the last ones on the left trail.” Larry pointed in the
general direction. “The ranger is down there.’
      “I’m familiar with it. Linda, will you
please get everyone’s names and information? Then you can all return to the
campground. Soon as the county doc gets here, we’ll be up to talk to you
further.”
    He also
cautioned them against speaking to anyone else and headed down the trail.
Deputy Smith pulled out a notebook and very quickly noted their names, home
addresses, and camping sites. She was fortyish with thin lips and pinched
features, but when she was done, she thanked them and smiled, transforming her
face into a much warmer one.
    “Please go
back to your campsites and we’ll be up to get your statements shortly.” As she
turned to leave, Donna touched her elbow. “Are we all suspects ?” she demanded.
    “Everyone
will be interviewed, ma’am.”
     
    They
trudged back to the campground, the dogs seeming as relieved to be back to the
relative familiarity as the humans.
    “I wonder
why Dave hadn’t reported his wife missing earlier this morning,” Frannie said.
    “Maybe he
knew she was leaving and didn’t expect her back yet. Or their home is near here
and she goes home occasionally,” Jane Ann said.
    “Maybe he
killed her!” Donna said. “He wasn’t very happy with her last night.”
    “Based on
that, we’d all be dead,” Jane Ann said.
      They fell into lawn chairs, all in some
phase of shock.
    “I’m going
to have a smoke,” Mickey announced, launching himself out of his chair and
heading for his camper.
    “Mickey!”
Jane Ann said, turning to watch him rummage in one of the storage compartments.
He produced a smashed pack and a lighter.
    “I know, I
know, this is my emergency stash. Just one. It isn’t every day we find a body.”
    She sighed
while Larry admonished him. “Mick, keep your voice down.”
    “Sorry.” He
sank down in his chair again.
    Jane Ann picked
up a magazine and leafed through with quick, unfocused glances at each page.
When her husband laid the battered pack of cigarettes on the arm of his chair,
she snatched them and stuck them in her pocket. “I’ll take care of these.”
Mickey grimaced like a teenager losing his car keys.
    Donna paced
from the fire pit to the road peering in both directions and not seeing much.
Rob fiddled with a radio, trying to tune in a local news station and Frannie
just sat in a daze.
    Larry ran
his hand across his short gray stubble of hair, one hand on his hip. “Let’s
think about something else. What’s on the menu for tonight? Are we cooking?”
    Frannie
perked up a little. “We have chicken marinating. Donna was going to make potato
salad.”
    Donna
turned around.