Sammy looked at her, arching a brow. “Doesn’t your family go back to this area for hundreds of years?” she asked politely.
“Well, yes, but I’m not related to Ezekiel Johnson through either wife,” she assured them.
“I should see those bones now,” Jon said quietly.
The bones, however, gave him nothing. They had been laid out reverently, but if anything had been etched into the woman when she died, it had decomposed along with her flesh and organs.
“She was young,” Dr. Morrison said. “Very young. Easy to tell by the development of certain bones.”
“And stabbed, like Mary,” Jon said.
They talked a little longer, and then Jon thanked Sammy, Dr. Morrison, and Ben for being there. For meeting him, and allowing him into all aspects of the case.
“I’m counting on you to get it solved,” Ben told him as the two of them headed toward the reception area. “Tell me about last night. You think the murderer was staring at the house?”
“I do.”
“Maybe some random creep, though.”
He couldn’t explain to Ben that Kylie had seen what happened through the watcher’s eyes. Nor could he tell him that their killer was a master of disguise—Obadiah had seen him as a werewolf.
But he could suggest that costumes might easily be discarded, and new costumes worn.
“Gut-feeling, Ben. You know how that works. I know it was him. So, he knows that the police are on to him and that I’m here. I never planned to keep it a secret. Even so, we need to be vigilant tomorrow. I think he might plan to make Halloween his personal religious holiday. And we can’t just look for a clown. I believe this guy will change and then perhaps change again, knowing that if he’s a chameleon, we’ll have a harder time getting a grip on him.”
“So damned bizarre,” Ben muttered. “That’s one hell of a long time to be holding a grudge.”
Jon hesitated. “I’m not sure what I think, Ben. All I know is this man is organized and, I believe, very bright. I don’t know if he’s really so determined to get revenge for a murder, no matter who committed it. But it is a way to force him to plot and plan—and pat himself on the back when we fall into his giant puzzle and try to figure it all out.”
“But we must figure it out,” Ben said.
“Yes,” Jon agreed. “We must.”
* * * *
Kylie exchanged information with Angela via computer as she waited.
Angela had been hard at work, trying to trace Ezekiel Johnson’s children with his first wife. She’d finally found records regarding Hamish Johnson, but none that related to Rebecca. Hamish had left Salem at the age of nineteen, taking up residence in Boston and working as a laborer. He married a woman named Alice Berry, and became the father of twelve children.
Twelve children, their children’s children, and so on. And so on. It’s like the impossible journey, Angela said in her message.
But I have young, brilliant people in tech with keywords, so I’m hoping to come up with something else. As for Rebecca, the girl seems to have just disappeared from all records. There is a letter in the archives at the museum from a Pearl Cutter to her daughter Agnes that mentions the fact that she believed Rebecca was with her brother in Boston, but I haven’t found anything to prove that yet. Then again, we have plenty of descendants of Hamish to try and find, she wrote.
When she died, Mary was a mother to three children: Anne, Samuel, and Brendan, Kylie wrote back.
If this is revenge—say the children believed that Mary killed their mother to marry their father—then the murderers would have been Hamish and Rebecca. If it is revenge, wouldn’t it be Mary’s children who would want to punish the descendants of her murderers? Which, by our theory, might have been Rebecca or Hamish—or both? Kylie questioned.
She got back a simple answer.
Yes.
Then Angela quickly typed: Still, if we knew anything about Teresa’s descendants, we’d know who might be in danger. The murdered women were her descendants, and it had to be through Hamish—at least I believe so—because Rebecca disappeared. So…okay, say that Mary Johnson had something to do with Teresa Johnson’s death. Someone knew it and killed her. Therefore, I’m thinking that, logically, Mary’s descendants are using the past history to kill Teresa’s descendants.
Crazy. Kylie couldn’t help but chime in.
Angela added: Or convenient. Or fun for a sick mind.
As Kylie sat there, she suddenly wondered about Rebecca’s disappearance. She jumped up, causing the officer at her side to startle with alarm, as well.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ve got to run in for a minute!” she said.
She opened the door to the offices and autopsy rooms. As she did, she thought she was an idiot—she’d never find the right room.
But she plowed into Jon, who was just coming out of a room with Ben Miller.
“The skeleton,” she said. “Was the woman young? Around sixteen?”
“I don’t know her age, but Dr. Morrison did say that she had been young.”
“Jon, I think that the skeleton is Rebecca Johnson. I think she murdered Mary Johnson because Mary helped to cause her mother’s death in some way. But then I believe that one of Mary’s children came back and killed the person they believed really killed their mother—not Ezekiel, but his daughter with Teresa. Rebecca.”
Dr. Morrison walked behind the two men.
“Yes!” she said. “Yes, that would make perfect sense. I believe the timing would be just right.”
“Well, there you go,” Ben said dryly. “We’ve solved a murder from a couple of hundred years ago. How the hell does that help us today?”
“Someone is playing on it all,” Kylie told him firmly.
“Right,” Ben said wearily. “A clown. Fitting, huh?”
Jon walked on past him, taking Kylie’s hand. “Thank you all again. And, officer, thanks for keeping watch. I may be paranoid but—”
“Erring on the side of caution never hurts,” Ben said. “And we had the overtime in our budget, so all is well.”
“Thank you. And thank you again,” Kylie said to Officer Linton, grateful that she and Jon were walking out.
“You did it,” Jon told her. “I imagine there will be more tests, and I’m not sure how they’ll figure it all out, but…you solved the mystery of the skeleton.”
“Angela really figured it out,” Kylie said.
“Ah. Well, if I were to ask Angela, she’d likely say that you did.”
“Once we knew that Rebecca kind of just disappeared into history and that the remains were that of a young woman, it all made sense,” Kylie said. “But Ben is right. We aren’t any closer to figuring out what happened to our contemporary victims. I mean, there are probably hundreds—maybe thousands—of descendants of both women.”
“True.”
Jon looked at her.
“But there are only a few descendants of Mary Johnson who might know all about the house. And, of course, it’s possible, the story of what happened to Rebecca came down orally through the family via lore. Rebecca’s family would feel that she was justified in killing the woman who had possibly killed her mother to marry her father. Mary’s children most likely killed Rebecca, possibly with some help from someone older since they would have been young at the time. Teresa’s descendants were killed—and the killer is Mary’s descendant.”