The Bone Harvest Read online

  Stacy M. Jones

  The Bone Harvest

  A Riley Sullivan Mystery

  First published by Stacy M. Jones 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Stacy M. Jones

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Stacy M. Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Stacy M. Jones has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  First edition

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

  Find out more at reedsy.com

  For Sonja – you make a great Liv

  Contents

  Acknowledgement

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 53

  CHAPTER 54

  CHAPTER 55

  CHAPTER 56

  CHAPTER 57

  CHAPTER 58

  CHAPTER 59

  CHAPTER 60

  CHAPTER 61

  CHAPTER 62

  CHAPTER 63

  CHAPTER 64

  CHAPTER 65

  CHAPTER 66

  CHAPTER 67

  CHAPTER 68

  CHAPTER 69

  CHAPTER 70

  CHAPTER 71

  CHAPTER 72

  CHAPTER 73

  CHAPTER 74

  CHAPTER 75

  CHAPTER 76

  CHAPTER 77

  CHAPTER 78

  CHAPTER 79

  CHAPTER 80

  CHAPTER 81

  EPILOGUE

  About the Author

  Also by Stacy M. Jones

  Acknowledgement

  Special thanks to my family and friends who are always a source of support and encouragement. I’m sure you must be tired of listening to me talk about the characters in my head. Thank you to my early readers whose feedback was invaluable. Sharon Aponte, a wonderfully-skilled graphic designer, a huge thank you. Thank you to Dj Hendrickson for your insightful editing. I am always grateful for the city of Little Rock and my hometown of Troy, New York for allowing me to borrow your landscapes, businesses, and city streets and adding my own twist – sometimes moving streets and locations to fit my scene but always still reflective of the area. To the residents of both – I hope you enjoy this one.

  CHAPTER 1

  It has been nearly a year since I was drugged, taken to a cabin near Lake Catherine, shot, and nearly strangled to death. My investigator partner, Cooper Deagnan, and I had taken what we thought would be a fairly routine missing person’s case that turned out to be significantly more. In reality, it was a case I shouldn’t have ever touched. My ex-boyfriend’s wife was missing – a woman that had caused me serious drama in the past. I should have stayed away completely. The case quickly took a dark and sinister turn. Several women ended up dead in the Arkansas River, and I put my life on the line. Something I plan on never doing again.

  The only positive was it brought me back to Little Rock from New York, and right back to Lucas “Luke” Morgan, the lead homicide detective who had been working the case. We had a tricky relationship in the past, caused by my own fear. I got over it, mostly. Luke was there for me on that case and had been there for me every day since.

  Today was the one-hundredth day free of the nightmares and terror that filled my every waking night after my almost death. Months back, Luke finally convinced me to seek some therapy to deal with what I was feeling. He was sure I had post-traumatic stress, and I did. I can’t say I enjoyed the therapy, but I was pleased the process brought me to the other side and feeling like myself again. If I was going to be honest, I still have mild anxiety, but that’s from worrying that when I close my eyes at night the nightmares will return. So far, they haven’t. I’m going to celebrate the small victory.

  It’s fall, but the weather still hasn’t turned. A week left in October, and I’m ready for the heat to break and the leaves to start changing color. I’m more than ready for Luke to stop looking at me like I’m going to break at any second.

  “What?” I grouched, looking up from my newspaper and coffee.

  “You look tired. Did you sleep last night?” Luke leaned back against the kitchen counter with a coffee cup in hand and peered down at me with a concerned expression on his face.

  “You sleep next to me every night. You know I slept.” I knew Luke meant well. He just worried too much. I stood and crossed the distance between us. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. At six foot, Luke was taller than I was by five inches. I could lay my head on his chest, which was comforting.

  Luke set his cup down, traced a finger along my cheek and kissed me. When we parted, he pulled back. “I had fun at the lake last weekend. You should put more aloe on your shoulders. They’re still pink from your sunburn.”

  I sighed sweetly, smiling up at him. The previous weekend we had borrowed Cooper’s cabin on Lake Forrest up near Eureka Springs. We didn’t swim, but rather hiked, took the canoe out on the lake and just relaxed. Apparently, my fair Irish skin still sunburns even in the fall.

  Luke was overprotective. I never knew I needed to be tended to so much. I had been a journalist for many years before opening my own private investigation firm in my hometown of Troy, New York. Last year, when I moved back to Little Rock, I partnered with Cooper in his firm. I hunted cheaters, insurance fraudsters, missing people, and those who couldn’t properly watc
h their kids on child custody visits. I wasn’t used to being babied.

  “What’s your plan with your remaining few days of vacation?” Now that I was in his life full-time, Luke actually used his vacation days. He had taken a full two weeks off but had purposefully waited until October so other detectives could take the summer with their kids. It was Tuesday of his final week.

  “I’m not going to do a thing except lie around and be lazy.” Luke laughed, showing off his perfect white teeth. He was handsome. Tall, dark coffee-colored skin, always freshly shaven and bald by choice. I was on the receiving end of many jealous glances when we were out. Luke never noticed the advances of other women, or at least, he was very good at pretending he didn’t.

  “Really, though,” Luke added, running a hand across his bald head, “the unit secretary dropped off my mail. She said it had been building up. I think I’ll start going through it so it’s taken care of before I’m back at the station.”

  “Sounds like a plan, but don’t work too hard today.” I returned to the sink and sunk my hands into soapy water. I didn’t make much progress as Luke pulled me back into his arms and turned me around.

  He dropped a kiss against my lips and whispered, “How about we go back upstairs first?”

  “I have a meeting with Cooper. But the minute I get home, you’re on.”

  Luke swatted playfully at my backside. “Fine, but you’re missing out,” he groused.

  Luke picked up the pile of mail on the counter. He flashed me a grin before heading up the stairs to his office. Luke officially moved into my house on N. Tyler Street soon after I decided to stay in Little Rock. He took one of the spare bedrooms for his office while I took the other. The other bedrooms served as the master and spare for the rare guest we had.

  I grabbed my cellphone from the table and texted Cooper that I’d be at his downtown loft in about thirty minutes. As I put my hands back into the soapy water, Luke yelled for me, his voice filled with terror. With my hands still soapy wet, I moved quickly to the stairs.

  Luke bounded down the steps, taking two at a time. The sheer look of panic on his face set my nerves on edge.

  “What? What is it?”

  He thrust a piece of paper in front of me. I wiped my wet hands on my pants and took it from him. Turning it so I could read, it took a few seconds to digest. It was a plain piece of white paper with block letters in big red bold ink. It simply read:

  “Lily wasn’t the first. She won’t be the last. Like the fall leaves that turn orange and red, 23 pretty little girls harvested dead.”

  Luke’s sister Lily was murdered at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville when she was a freshman and Luke was a senior. Her body, just bones scattered among leaves, was found in the woods near the campus nine months after she went missing. To this day there were no suspects and hardly any evidence or clues as to what happened. Luke had never forgiven himself.

  Now it looked like the killer was back or some cruel person was taunting him. Luke stared at me, his mouth open and eyes wide. I wasn’t sure what to say. We looked at each other in confusion and panic.

  CHAPTER 2

  Luke paced the third floor of the Little Rock Police Department. His head down and his thoughts spinning as he waited for a lab tech to go over every inch of the letter. His partner, Det. Bill Tyler, watched Luke intently. Tyler hadn’t said a word after Luke showed him the letter, just stared in disbelief. It was the same response everyone gave. Luke had no idea what to make of it, but he knew that it was real. The gnawing feeling that wouldn’t let go, deep down in that place detectives just know, ate at him.

  After reading the letter, all Luke cared about was getting to the police station to have it processed. He forced Riley out of the house, making her keep her meeting with Cooper. There was nothing she could do other than worry with him. Luke couldn’t worry about Riley right now. While Luke was trying desperately not to overreact, the letter brought it all back to him.

  After handing the letter over and pacing for nearly thirty minutes, Luke finally gave up the wait. It wasn’t making the tech work any faster, and he needed to be productive. Luke went to his desk. He took a small silver key hidden under the mat on his desk and unlocked the very bottom drawer. Inside was a small framed photo of his sister and him on her first day of university. They both looked so young. Looking at Lily’s face brought it all right back to him. Luke recalled it all - the sights, sounds and even smell - like it was yesterday.

  Back in 2002, Luke had gone from being a fun-loving, university senior, whose only concern was how much alcohol he consumed and which co-ed was going to be his date on Saturday night, to life never being the same again. The photo had been taken a couple of weeks before Lily turned eighteen on September second. Other than the height difference, they looked like siblings. Her smile, especially, matched his.

  Luke and Lily hadn’t seen much of each other during the first few weeks of the fall semester. Lily had made friends and focused hard on her studies. Luke tried not to hover. She had seemed to be adjusting well. They had checked in with each other, from time to time, that first couple of months. They had grabbed pizza occasionally on a Saturday afternoon, but mostly they had stuck with their own friends. Life had been fairly smooth sailing.

  It had been just two weeks past Luke’s twenty-second birthday, which he celebrated on October eleventh, and the only thing that had been on his mind was the upcoming winter break. Luke, with Cooper and some other friends, had been headed to Key West for a week. Knowing he was joining the police academy right after graduation, all Luke had wanted was to blow off some steam before he started his final semester of university. But that wasn’t what fate had in store for him.

  Instead, Luke had woken up on that fateful Sunday morning on October twenty-seventh to a phone call from his mother, Lucia, asking if he’d seen or spoken to his sister. Luke had recalled seeing Lily briefly heading to a party on that Friday night, but hadn’t really thought much about her since. As his mother talked, Luke had thought about covering for his sister, who he assumed had done what most freshmen did – drank too much and maybe made some bad choices.

  His mother had been in a panic because it wasn’t like Lily to worry her. Luke had been calm. This was Fayetteville, after all. Sure, there were some 20,000 plus students at the school, but the campus was tucked into a small town near the Ozark Mountains. It wasn’t the kind of place, or at least Luke naively thought then, where bad things happened.

  Luke had assured his mother he’d track Lily down and have her call home. He hadn’t even rushed. Luke had grabbed a shower and woken up Cooper. Once the two were ready, they had headed to campus from their off-campus apartment in search of Lily.

  Lily hadn’t been in her dorm. She hadn’t been at the sorority house where she had some friends. Every friend they had spoken to had told them the same. Lily had gone to a fraternity party on Friday night. No one could quite pin down how much Lily had to drink, if at all, or if she had walked home with anyone. They hadn’t heard from her for the rest of the weekend.

  The only bit of new information Luke had learned was that Lily had just started dating a junior. Most of her friends assumed she had gone off with him. Luke had found Chris, but he hadn’t seen Lily since an early dinner on Friday. Chris had informed Luke he had gone home to Jonesboro for the weekend for his father’s birthday and was just getting back. Chris’ roommate had confirmed it.

  Chris had offered to help. Luke had waited while Chris called everyone who might have known Lily’s whereabouts. The people who had answered his call had no idea. Chris had promised he’d call Luke the moment he heard anything and had asked if there was more he could do. At the time, Luke wasn’t sure. Luke hadn’t known what to do.

  It had been when light turned to dark, and Lily still hadn’t been found, that panic started to set in for both Luke and Cooper. Luke had called his parents, who had already been en route to the school from Little Rock. Late that evening, Luke had gone with his parents to
make a missing person’s report at the Fayetteville Police Department, but they hadn’t taken it seriously. The cops had speculated Lily had run away or was with friends. They had said they saw it all the time with university freshmen – the pressure got too much. Luke had known in his heart that wasn’t true. He had vowed right then and there that he’d find his sister on his own.

  By the next morning, Luke had set up a tip line and started a volunteer search of the community. The university had helped tremendously. They had put up reward money, provided volunteers, and offered the full support of campus security. Sadly, nothing had been found that day or in the months that followed. Luke hadn’t gone away for winter break as he had planned. He hadn’t even gone back home to Little Rock. He had stayed on campus and searched. He had followed up on tips and tried to keep the story alive, but help had faded fast. The volunteers dwindled. The trail had gone cold.

  What should have been an exciting final semester for Luke, had dragged on. He had trouble concentrating. Sitting in class had felt pointless. Not even a month after graduation, Luke had joined the Little Rock police academy with vigor. He had a promise to keep.

  In late July, as Luke had studied in the police academy, Lily’s remains had been found in the woods near campus by groundskeepers preparing the campus for the upcoming school year. Lily’s skeletal remains had been among leaves that had fallen from the trees. No cause of death had ever been determined, and the manner had been ruled undetermined. Finally, though, the cops had started an investigation.

  The crime went unsolved with few clues for the next seventeen years. Over the years, Luke had tried and failed several times to solve the case. There just wasn’t much to go on until now.

  The letter was the first real clue Luke had ever come across.

  CHAPTER 3

  Cooper’s cellphone buzzed on the nightstand, waking him from his slumber. He cracked open his eyes, blinked a few times and remembered he wasn’t alone. He reached over and felt the soft shape of a woman next to him. In response, she curled against him seductively and purred like a cat.