Finally the rubble stopped falling, and some brave soul ran out onto the ice to pick up a piece that had fallen. Hannah watched as Doc Knight, who’d been watching the taping from the side of the rink, grabbed the piece from the man who’d fetched it from the ice.

“What is it, Doc?” Lynne asked, skating back to Lake Eden’s local physician after having delivered the girls into the capable hands of Sophie, Honey, and Andrea.

Doc Knight shrugged. “Looks like a fibula.”

“You mean a leg bone?”

“That’s right.”

“From some animal?”

Doc Knight took his time about answering, and the crowd waited. They were so quiet Hannah thought she could hear them breathe.

“No,” Doc finally said. “It sure looks human to me.”

Chapter

Chapter

Thirty

“Winnie? Are you here?” Hannah knocked on the door of the farmhouse. When there was no answer, she turned around to face Mike and Norman. “I think she’s here, but she’s afraid to answer.”

“You’re probably right,” Mike said.

“Try again,” Norman suggested. “And tell her who you are this time.”

“Winnie? It’s Hannah.” Hannah knocked on the door again. “Open up. You know we need to talk to you.”

“I’m coming,” came a faint voice from within, followed by a shuffling of feet. “All right, all right. Hold on while I get this lock off.”

It seemed to take awhile, but at last Winnie unlocked the door. She stood there in the fading light of the day, looking very small and very alone. “So did you come to arrest me?”

“No,” Mike answered for all three of them. “Should I?”

“Maybe. Come in and have some coffee. I’ve got a pot going in the kitchen.”

She always was a good hostess, Hannah thought as she followed Winnie into the large farmhouse kitchen and took a chair at the round oak table that dominated the room. “Why did you run off like that, Winnie?”

“You know why. Doc must’ve figured out those bones are human by now.”

“That’s right, he did,” Mike confirmed it. And then he turned to give Hannah a warning glance. His message was loud and clear. She should let him handle this. It was his job.

“Well, let’s have coffee before you haul me off to jail,” Winnie said, pouring four cups from the blue-and-white speckled pot that sat on the old wood stove. “Anybody take cream and sugar?”

“Just black, thanks Winnie,” Hannah responded.

“Me, too,” Norman added.

“Black’s fine with me,” Mike said, watching as Hannah and Norman picked up their cups and sipped.