Riptide

had his arms
    folded over his chest and was leaning against Jacob Marley's
    screened front porch. Sheriff Gaffney looked tired, he thought, a
    bit pasty in the face. He wanted to tell the sheriff to lose fifty
    pounds and start walking the treadmill.
    "No, sir, not odd at all. Folk don't like to get involved. They'd
    rather tattle in secret than come smartly forward and tell you what
    they know. Sometimes, truth be told, folk are just shits, Mr. Carruthers."
    That was true enough, Adam thought. "You said the girl's name
    is Melissa Katzen?"
    "That's right. It was a woman with a real whispery voice who
    said it was Melissa. She didn't want to tell who she was. She said
    everyone believed at the time that Melissa was going to elope right
    after high school graduation. So when she up and was just gone,
    everyone figured she'd done it. But she thinks now, what with the
    skeleton, that Melissa didn't go anywhere."
    "Who was the boyfriend?"Adam asked.
    "No one knew, since Melissa wouldn't tell anyone. Her folks didn't
    know what to think after she was gone. They didn't know about
    any elopement talk, came as a shock to them. I'm thinking that
    maybe one of Melissa's family called in this tip, or a friend and that

friend is afraid she's in danger if she tells us who she is. Now, if that
    skeleton is Melissa Katzen, then she didn't elope. She stayed right
    here and got herself murdered."
    "Maybe," Becca said, "she decided she didn't want to elope after
    all and the boy killed her."
    "Could be," said Sheriff Gaffney, shaking his head. "A bad way
    to end up."
    He got no argument.
    The sheriff adjusted his thick leather belt that was digging into
    his belly and said on a sigh, "As the years passed, most folk just forgot
    about her, figured she was in another state with six kids now.
    And maybe she is. We'll find out. We're talking to all the people
    who remember her, went to school with her, things like that."
    "You don't have any idea who called this in, Sheriff?"
    "Nope. Mrs. Ella took the call, said it sounded like someone
    with a doughnut in her mouth. Mrs. Ella believes it's a relative, or
    a chicken-shit friend."
    "You'll do DNA tests now?"
    "As soon as we can locate Melissa's parents and see if they have
    anything of hers we could use to get her DNA to match against
    what they have in the bones. It's going to take a while. Science--
    all this newfangled stuff--it's all iffy as far as I'm concerned. Just
    look at how poor OJ. was nearly sent away because of all that flaky
    so-called DNA evidence. But the jury was smart. They didn't believe
    any of that stuff for a minute. Well, it's something to do. We'll
    know in a couple of weeks."
    "Sheriff," Becca said mildly,"DNA is the most scientifically solid
    tool that law enforcement has going for it today. It's not flaky at all.
    It will clear innocent people and, hopefully, in most cases, put
    monsters in jail."
    "So you think, Ms. Powell, but you force me to tell you that

yours is an Uninformed Opinion. Mrs. Ella doesn't like all this
    fancy stuff, either. But she thinks it's real possible that the skeleton
    is poor little Melissa, even though she remembers Melissa as being
    all sorts of shy and sweet and so quiet you'd have thought her a little
    ghost. Who'd want to kill a sweet kid like that? Even old Jacob
    Marley, who didn't like anybody."
    Adam shook his head. "I don't know, Sheriff. I go for the
    boyfriend. Hey, at least there's something to go on now. Won't you
    come in?"
    "Nah. I just wanted to fill in you and Ms. Powell. I gotta go talk
    to the power company, hear they accidentally cut a sewage pipe.
    That'd be no good. You pray the wind doesn't blow in this direction.
    Now, Mr. Carruthers, you going to hang around with Ms.
    Powell much longer?"
    "Oh yeah," Adam said easily, looking over at Becca, who hadn't
    said a single word since Sheriff Gaffney, button sewn back on, bemoaned
    poor O.J.'s treatment. "She's still real jittery, Sheriff, jumps
    whenever there's a sound in this old house. You know how women
    are--so sensitive it makes a man want to coddle them until the
    sun's shining again."
    "That was well said, Mr. Carruthers. We got us one of our perfect
    summer days. Just smell the air. All salty ocean and wildflowers,
    and that sun smell. Nothing like it.
    "Ah, here's Tyler and little Sam. Good morning. Just running
    down possibilities on Ms. Powell's skeleton. Could have been
    Melissa Katzen. Don't suppose you disguised your voice like a
    woman's and called