A Skeleton in the Family (A Family Skeleton Mystery) by Perry Leigh

Author:Perry, Leigh [Perry, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

24

I was so caught up in remembering my previous trip to the carnival that I didn’t notice the man speaking to me until he repeated himself.

“It’s really not that scary,” he said again.

“What?” I responded brilliantly.

“I’m just saying that the ride isn’t that bad. Or were you admiring the artwork?”

Standing beside me was a man with reddish brown hair, deep blue eyes, and just the hint of a cleft in his chin. He was wearing jeans and a purple polo shirt with Fenton’s Family Festival embroidered on it. He looked a few years older than I was, and was much less taken aback.

“I was wondering how often you changed the theme on a haunted house,” I said. “It looks like some of the zombies on this one snuck in from The Walking Dead.”

“We try to stay current,” he said. “This particular ride has had incarnations ranging from atomic horrors to witch’s dungeon to werewolf’s lair. I think there was a wax-museum thing when I was younger.”

“Interesting.” So it probably was the same ride I remembered, and this guy had been with the carnival for a long time, which might be helpful.

“It was a vampire’s castle most recently, but then vampires got sexy, so we switched to zombies. Nobody has tried to make movie zombies sexy yet.”

“Thank goodness for that. How about skeletons? Have they ever made an appearance?”

“Usually in more of a supporting role. There are none inside, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Just zombies, rats, and some mild dismemberment.”

“I’m not scared of going in,” I said indignantly.

He was grinning at me mockingly, or perhaps mocking me with a grin. In either case, I was pretty sure I’d lost control of the conversation.

“Let me start over,” I said. “My name is Dr. Georgia Thackery, and I’m from McQuaid University.” Okay, I was hardly there in an official capacity, but it sounded impressive. “I’m trying to establish the provenance of a human skeleton that was recently donated to our collection.”

“Huh. I’ve been on the show since I was born, and I would have bet that there was no townie story I hadn’t heard before, but you have indeed come up with a new one.”

“Here’s the situation,” I said, starting my lie. “A man in Pennycross recently passed away, and in cleaning his house, his family found a human skeleton. They said he used it to decorate for Halloween, and they’d assumed it was fake, but one of the man’s grandchildren realized that it was real. Since nobody in the family wanted an actual skeleton around, they donated it to the university.”

“How does that get you here?”

“When the skeleton was examined, they found identifying marks on him . . . on it. The kind of markings that would have been on a skeleton in a museum or university collection, but they aren’t from McQuaid.”

“So? Finders keepers, right? Just put your own marks on it and nobody will know the difference.”

Had the scenario I was describing actually taken place, that’s probably what

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