Throw in the Trowel Read Online Free Page A

from over there.” I pointed to a small pile of dirt in the middle of the floor as both men got to their feet. Marco walked across the excavated area and crouched down a good twelve inches from Seedy’s hole. He brushed away more soil and plucked something out of the dirt.
    â€œAnother finger bone,” he said, holding it up. “Abby, hand me that broom behind you.”
    I glanced around and saw an old straw broom propped in one corner. I handed it to him from the sideline, and both Stan and I watched as Marco swept away a thick layer of dirt, uncovering a skeletal hand and then an arm bone. After watching him follow the bone up to the shoulder, I said, “We’d better call the police.”
    â€œI don’t believe it,” Marco muttered. “A hole in the earth.” He pulled out his cell phone and tried to hand it to me. “Phone Reilly and let him know we found human remains.”
    â€œRight, and give him more reason to call me a trouble magnet? You’d better do it.”
    Sergeant Sean Reilly was Marco’s buddy from the one year he’d spent on the New Chapel police force. After graduating from college and serving with the Army Rangers for two years, Marco had joined the force and trained under Reilly, who, as a rookie, had trained under my dad. But a bad sergeant and too many rules had soured Marco’s taste for police work, so he quit, bought Down the Hatch, got his private investigator’s license, and, in a stroke of pure serendipity, met the short, feisty, but ultimately irresistible redhead who’d just gone into hock to buy Bloomers.
    While Marco talked to Reilly, I picked up Seedy and carried her upstairs to wash her paws. I didn’t want to take the dog into the kitchen, so Gert brought me a handful of damp paper towels. I ducked into Marco’s office to clean Seedy up and met Rafe coming out.
    â€œHey, hot stuff,” he said with a big smile. “Looking good! Married life agrees with you.”
    â€œSave it, Rafe. I know I look tired.”
    â€œI didn’t want to say anything. Hey, puppy!”
    Seedy buried her head under my arm. Clearly, Marco’s charm hadn’t rubbed off on Rafe.
    Raphael (Rafe) Salvare was ten years younger than Marco and looked like Marco must have looked at twenty-two. He was broad shouldered and lean hipped, with dark, wavy hair, dark eyes, olive skin, and a faint shadow of a beard that women found sexy. After dropping out of college one semester short of graduating, Rafe had moved back to New Chapel on orders of his mother, who sent him to Marco to be straightened out. But Rafe had decided to settle permanently in his former hometown, so Mama Francesca put her Ohio home up for sale and followed. She was still in the process of selling her house, but now resided with Marco’s youngest sister, Gina, so she could be close to her two grandchildren.
    â€œHow did Seedy get dirty?” Rafe asked, as I finished wiping her paws.
    â€œYou know that big hole in the basement? Seedy started digging in it and uncovered what looks like a human finger bone.”
    â€œNo kidding?” He seemed delighted.
    â€œNo kidding. There may be a whole skeleton buried under the floor. Marco’s on the phone with Reilly right now.”
    â€œSo it’s a good thing I didn’t have it fixed,” he said, nodding as though he was quite pleased with himself.
    â€œStick with that story, Rafe,” I said, giving his arm a pat.
    Marco came upstairs with Stan to wait for the police, but Seedy was getting antsy, so I got a sandwich to go and took her back to Bloomers. Motioning for my assistants to gather close so the customers in the shop wouldn’t overhear, we huddled behind the cash counter where I shared the startling discovery.
    â€œWas there any identification with the remains?” Grace asked quietly.
    â€œNot that I saw,” I said in a whisper, “but we stopped looking after we