Hallowed Bones Read Online Free PDF

asked.
    "Hardly. Folks never considered that a mother could kill her own child back then. SIDS was a reality, of course, though we didn't call it that. Some babies just stopped breathing. It was a risk everyone knew about."
    "The infant girl was left at a Catholic convent," I continued. "What happened to the first boy?"
    Penny shrugged. "That, I couldn't tell you. Public health has no jurisdiction. Back then, not even the welfare department really jumped on that kind of case. I do remember that someone asked Lillith about the children, and she said they'd been given to good homes."
    " 'She said'?" Tinkie didn't hide her incredulity. "Like, my dog had a litter of puppies and I found good homes for them."
    Penny actually smiled. "Exactly like that. I don't know if you recall Lillith, but she was crazy. Today she'd be locked up. She wandered around town like an escapee from Bedlam, her hair in rattails, yelling and shaking a Bible at anyone who passed by her. Any home away from her had to be an improvement for a child. Folks like her should be sterilized by the state."
    I stood up. We'd gotten everything she was going to give us. "Thanks for your time, Nurse McAdams."
    "Tell Doc next time he needs my help, he should call me himself," she said.
    "I'll be sure to deliver the message," I promised. With quick steps, Tinkie and I walked out into the October sunshine.
    "That's incredible," Tinkie said with mounting indignation. "Those children could have been sold. Any kind of predator could have gotten hold of them."
    "The past is over and done. There's nothing we can do. If the boy is still alive, he's older than either of us."
    She leaned down to pick up a handful of pecans. Cracking them in her hand, she fished out the succulent meat and offered me a half. "Do you ever wonder why we ended up with the parents we got?" she asked.
    I hadn't. Not until that moment. But it was a question that wasn't easily dismissed. Why had I gotten loving parents and Doreen was born to Lillith Lucas?
    On the drive to Dahlia House, I slipped into a pensive mood. After Tinkie drove away with Chablis riding with her little paws on the steering wheel like she was driving, I walked across the sweep of front lawn.
    When I was fifty yards away, I turned and looked at the old plantation house with fresh eyes. She was a beauty. Time had been kind to her--there was nothing wrong that a little paint wouldn't fix right up. My forefathers had built a house that endured. What role did I play in the Delaney line? It was a question I'd expect more from Jitty than myself.
    I couldn't help but contrast Doreen with my memory of her mother. There was a sense of peace and serenity about Doreen that even I had to acknowledge. Lillith had been frightening. Integral to my case for Doreen would be the father of infant Rebekah. But I couldn't help but wonder who Doreen's father was and how he happened to get involved with Lillith, a woman whose sole religious ministry seemed to focus on the sins of sexual pleasure. What combination of genes had created a woman as physically lovely as Doreen from the raw material of Lillith?
    Doreen Mallory had opened the door on a lot of questions that, in all likelihood, I would never know the answers to. But they were questions that also impacted me. How did it happen that I'd been born into the Delaney family? Was it just a random combination of chromosomes and molecular chemistry or was there something else at work?
    Where Tinkie had found Doreen believable, I found her troubling. She'd accepted her baby's death with the serenity of the insane. And if she was crazy, she may have killed her own child and not even be aware of it.
    Sweetie Pie, my wonderful red tic hound, greeted me from the porch, her tail beating a fast rhythm against the balustrade. We entered the house together, both of us thinking about food.
    "Is she a baby killer?" Jitty asked from a corner of the parlor. She stood up, her hair tucked under a cloche hat and her body