Lowcountry Boneyard Read Online Free PDF Page A

My father-in-law has a similar interest.”
    Astounded that he could dismiss such beautiful work as a hobby, I gaped at him. “I’ll show myself out.”
    Colleen waited for me in the car. I climbed in, closed my door, and started the engine. She stared at the house thoughtfully.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Did you find anything in the rest of the house?”
    “Kent’s mamma was upstairs in her peignoir set sipping coffee.”
    “That’s odd. Did she seem distraught?”
    “Only over her nails. She called to make a manicure appointment.”
    “You have got to be kidding me.” My mamma would’ve been downstairs giving marching orders. “Downright strange that she didn’t meet with me along with her husband. Maybe she agrees with the police and thinks Kent simply moved out. Anyone else?”
    “A cook, a maid, and a butler—calls himself a ‘household manager’—who are still breathing. And a debutante named Sue Ellen in a hoop skirt carrying on about carpetbaggers. She invited me to tea.”
    “Does she know anything about Kent?”
    Colleen winced.
    “She’s worried about her. Seems anxious that she hasn’t been home. But Sue Ellen suffers from time confusion.”
    “Care to explain that?”
    “She hasn’t left the house since eighteen sixty-seven. That’s when she died. Some kind of fever. She’s waiting for her beau to come home from sea. Him and the carpetbaggers are pretty much all she wants to talk about.”
    “Are you going to tell her she’ll need to pass on over to the Other Side to find her true love?”
    “Not until I’m sure she can’t help us find Kent. If anything was going on in that house that’s connected to her disappearance, Sue Ellen might have seen or overheard something that can help.”
    “Are you going to tell me why you were in such an all-fired hurry to get here this morning?”
    “I needed to make sure you got across the Cooper River Bridge before nine-thirty-five. That’s earlier than you strictly needed to be on the peninsula in order to be on time.”
    “Why?”
    “Turn on the radio. Or check the news alerts on that phone of yours.”
    I picked up my iPhone and scrolled through the notifications. All inbound lanes on the Cooper River Bridge were closed due to debris in the road. I tapped in my password and pulled up the article. A flatbed truck hauling lumber had lost its load that morning at nine-thirty-five. Miraculously, no one was injured, though a few vehicles suffered damage.
    Something thickened in my throat. “I could have been stuck on that bridge for hours.”
    “You could have been.” Colleen’s tone was gentle. Her eyes told me the truth.
    I could have been killed.

Two

      
    Colleen went to wherever Colleen goes when she’s not saving my hide or working my nerves. As I rolled through the gate and turned left on Legare, I voice-dialed Mamma and scored Nell Johnson’s cell number. Nell required way more by way of explanation than I cared to give as to why I needed to reach her daughter. I pulled to the curb on Meeting near the Calhoun Mansion. Twenty minutes later I had Ansley’s number. I called and arranged to talk with her when I got back to the island.
    My next call was to Sonny Ravenel, a family friend and Charleston homicide detective. Happily, he was free for lunch and agreed to meet me at the Blind Tiger Pub at noon. It was early, but I figured I could take my laptop out to the courtyard and type up my notes from my meeting with Colton Heyward while I waited.
    I lucked out and scored a parking place on Broad a few blocks down from the Blind Tiger. My mouth was already watering in anticipation of white corn fritters with secret sauce and crab cakes. I slipped in my earbuds. I’d taken to wearing them most of the time in public. That way, when Colleen popped in, folks assumed I was on the phone instead of Not Quite Right.
    I pulled out my black Kate Spade computer bag and headed back up the street. I was the first person through the door