Page 7

"You didn't mention you owned the Mayburn Hotel." Lance stared at the ghost sitting in front of his desk.

"I don't. I sold it a while ago." Scott shrugged.

"You know what I mean. You're a lot bigger deal in this area than you let on. People will want to come to your graveside. Say their last goodbyes. You were well known in the area. Hell, I bet you're well known around the country."

"Which is why I didn't want a big deal made of my death. Let them remember me as I was. Besides, I don't want this horrible stuff about my mother's murder getting out." Scott ducked his head. "Can you imagine what they'll say about me if they hear I hid her murder for so many years?"

"I think more people would have compassion for you than see it as something you did wrong. They'll understand your fear of coming forward." Lance leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk. "You have to know that this is probably going to get out. News will pick up on it. I'm sure the police will try to keep things quiet, but you know how people are. It only takes one person to talk about the case to the wrong person and the next thing you know the media is all over it."

"I don't want Jared to have to deal with all that." Sam grimaced.

"I get that, and we'll do all we can to keep him out of it, but the fact is, you were a very rich, very prominent man in Fairway. Keeping your death a secret isn't going to be easy." It was none of his business, but Lance was curious. "How much money did you leave Jared?"

Scott smiled. "Enough he can have a good life. I'm not sure exactly how much is there, but I'm guessing it will be around ten million once everything is added up."

Lance nearly choked on his coffee. "Seriously?"

"Well, I sold the Mayburn for eight million and never touched it. Plus, I had the money I'd saved over the years. I have never traveled. Lived in a small home. I didn't have much to waste my money on. When I was younger, I'd go on a fishing excursion once a year, play in a few golf tournaments, but for the most part, I was home or at work. I was lucky the Mayburn was the success it was. When I bought the place, it was a dump. I'd come into some money from my grandfather when he died, and I decided I needed to do something with my life. I wanted to stay close to home because of Mom, but away from Dad as much as I could. I bought the Mayburn with my inheritance and lived there for a few years while I fixed it up. I did a lot of the initial work myself. Once I started bringing in a profit, I hired others to make the place even grander."

"I've never stayed there, but it looks like it was an amazing place. I remember staring at it as a kid and imagining all the rich people inside." Lance grinned at the memories.

Scott laughed. "We did get a few famous people staying there, but as you can imagine, Fairway isn't on the vacation list for too many people. Mostly it was well-off family and friends of Fairway residents or people in town for business. Oliva Bolton ran the place for me. She was amazing. I'd have married that woman if not for all my family secrets. She died several years ago. I always felt guilty for not asking her to marry me. She never pushed or asked why I didn't. We dated for years."

Lance felt sorry for the missed opportunity. Had Scott married, maybe he'd have a bunch of kids now to mourn him and leave his riches. Instead, he'd lived alone, hiding a murder that should never have happened. Talk about sins of the father affecting the son. Everything about this case was messed up. "I'm glad you had her. I'd hate that you were alone all those years because of what your father had done."

Scott smiled. "I have no regrets. Looking back, I don't think I would have changed a thing. I didn't want to live being known as the poor man who saw his mother murdered. Or worse, the boy who kept the secret far too long. "

"That's good. I've seen too many die wishing they'd done things differently. You can move on in peace once you see your mother reburied. She might even be waiting for you in the light."

Scott laughed. "Jeremy was telling me about that and I was worried my father might be there too, but he said men like my father don't always go into the light. I was glad to hear that. I wouldn't want him to be able to hurt my mother there the way he did here."

"Well, as far as I've heard, Angus was meeting the company who does the ground radar stuff later this morning. They'll see if they can find your mother's body after all these years. If they do, they should be able to start digging for her this afternoon," Lance told him.

"Will you do that?" Scott asked.

"No, there is a team from the college who will come in and do the dig. Once they find the remains, then we'll come in and claim the body. We'll see if we can tell anything from what bones are left, but I'm guessing there won't be enough to prove she was murdered. We'll have to go off your letters for that. I took a sample of your DNA this morning and we'll compare yours to her DNA to prove you're related. None of it really matters now. You know the truth. It's just for us to have records of everything. Once we release her body, it will be buried beside you in the cemetery." Lance met Scott's ghostly stare. "It's possible, if your mother was as far along in her pregnancy as you thought, that there might be a child's bones in there with hers. If there are, do you want us to put anything special on the headstone or acknowledge the child at all? Of course, the child will be buried with your mother. It only makes sense to keep them together after all this time."

Scott leaned back. "I hadn't thought of that. I guess the baby's skull or bones might be there." He shook his head. "Wow, why didn't I think of that?"

"He or she wasn't real to you yet. You were ten. You didn't see the baby as more than a lump in your mother's stomach at that age."

"Could you make sure they put something on the headstone? Like maybe, 'here lies mother and child'. I don't know, maybe the people who engrave headstones know a good way to write it." Scott stood. "I always did wonder if I would have had a brother or a sister."

"We probably won't be able to tell you if it was a boy or girl, but if she was far enough along, there could be a skull left after all this time. I'll make sure that the cemetery knows to add something to the headstone when the time comes. First, we need to verify that there is really a body there." Lance stood. "Now I need to get back to work."

"Do you know where Jeremy is?" Scott asked.

"He should be in autopsy one with Sam and Kyle. It was one of his old high school teachers. He wanted to watch the autopsy." Lance set his phone in his desk.

"It must be strange seeing people you knew come through here," Scott said.

"Sometimes. It really doesn't happen too often. Most die in the hospital or under a doctor's care, so we don't see them. I've only had one come through. It was an old youth soccer coach from when I played. I had Sam do that one since I knew the guy, but honestly, I wasn't close enough to him to make it a conflict of interest. But it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to stuff like that. He was only forty and had a heart attack." Lance opened the door, stepping out in the hallway.

"I think I'm going to head over to my old house and see what is going on. I want to be there if they find something." Scott waved.

Lance smiled but didn't react more because Carrie was coming down the hall toward him with Brayden behind her. "Ready to get started?"

"What do we have today?" Brayden asked.

Carrie laughed. "First up is Ruth Baxter. Only twenty-six years old. Found at home by her husband when he got off work."

"Murder?" Brayden's eyes widened.

Carrie laughed. "If only all cases had a big story behind them. Nope, I'm guessing since she was found at the bottom of the stairs with the laundry basket spilled around her, it's a fall. But you never know, someone could have pushed her."

Lance let the two talk as he washed and put on his gown and gloves. Once he was ready, he headed into the autopsy room and pulled up the chart for the woman. He read over the findings of how she'd been found, and looked for any history of abuse, but didn't see anything other than a record of her giving birth two years before.

"So what's new in your world, Lance?" Carrie asked as she pulled the body from the drawer and started to prep.

"Not much. My brother's ex-girlfriend dropped by last night to say hello. I think she'll go back to being his girlfriend once Jackson gets home. It was nice to visit with her. I'm going to dinner with her family on Friday. Other than that, my life's been quiet for a change."

"When's your brother home?" Brayden asked.

"Not really sure. He mentioned maybe June. He just said he's done and when it's time he'll be home. I know better than to push him for answers. He'll do his thing and know he's got a place to stay when he gets here. What's new with you two?"

"Christine and I are going to a birthday party for one of her work associates this weekend. I guess it's a big deal. He's a pretty well-known doctor in the area. I'm a bit nervous."

"Why? You've gone through medical school. Just because he has more years working than you do doesn't make you any less." Lance started to take pictures of the body before Carrie washed it.

"I know, but I keep worrying I won't be enough for Christine, and she'll move on to someone with a more interesting career. She's always reading up on these great medical breakthroughs and how this doctor or that doctor pulled off a miracle save. Here I am working with the dead all day." Brayden shrugged. "I'm not questioning what I do. I love my job, but sometimes I worry she's going to…" He shrugged. "I can't explain it."

Carrie smiled. "Worried she's going to think you're a freak for cutting up dead people for a living?"

Lance grinned.

"Yeah, that." Brayden nodded. "It does sound horrible when you say it that way."

Lance glanced over at him. "There's always going to be a preconceived notion by some people that we're weird for working with the dead all day. I haven't found a way to avoid the stereotype. All I can say is every doctor out there knows what we do and is glad we do it, so they don't have to. Not everyone is able to do what we do. Some doctors are great at surgery on the living, but if they had to do it on a dead person, they'd never be able to make the cut. Think back to your first autopsy when you were in medical school. Most students hesitate to make that first cut. For me, I'd rather cut into the dead. I'm not causing them pain. I'm bringing peace to a family with questions or helping solve a murder. I get the old image of the strange, creepy coroner working in a dark, smelly basement, but that's not us. I think there are some great medical examiners who have done shows on TV to bring us out of that era. While those shows make the job look more interesting than it is since they only highlight certain cases, it does show us as everyday people with normal lives." He shrugged. "Remember when you said you enjoyed dating Christine because you could talk about the dead and not have her freak out? Trust me, that's a big deal. I couldn't talk about work with anyone I dated before Angus. They didn't even want to think about what I did for a living. It grossed them out. So, my advice is to stop worrying. Christine wouldn't be dating you if she didn't like you and the fact you can talk shop over dinner with her is an added bonus."

Carrie wrinkled her brow. "Please tell me you don't talk about work over dinner."

Lance laughed but had to admit that more than once the conversation had been on work while they ate. "I plead the fifth."

"So do I." Brayden smiled. "But usually we're talking about her work, not mine."

"I imagine she sees a lot being a pediatrician." Carrie rolled the body so Lance and Brayden could inspect the back side.

"Some good, some horrifying. I'm continually stunned by what children can manage to stick up their noses or in their ears." Brayden laughed.

As they continued to talk, Lance wondered how Angus's day was going and if they'd found a body in the yard of Scott's home.