He adjusted his hold on the tool. “Carrying a hammer makes getting into places considerably easier when the need arises.” He tapped the hammer at a nonexistent target. “One tap, the glass breaks.”
“And you were warning me about breaking and entering?”
“Never without reasonable cause,” he clarified.
“Whatever.” She bracketed her hands on her hips. “So what’re you going to do, beat the doors in?” That could prove time consuming.
“The doors are wood,” he said, “the lock is attached to the doors with screws. Nails and screws can be pried out of wood if one is persistent.”
She hadn’t thought of that. “Good to know.” She stepped back and let him have at it.
He passed the flashlight to her and set to the task. Ten minutes later she admitted that he’d been right about one thing, persistence was essential.
A little more splintering and groaning and the brackets holding the lock on the doors burst free. He pulled them open. “And there we go.”
“I’m impressed, Wyatt.”
He shoved the hammer between his belt and the waist of his trousers. “I’ll go first.”
Fine with her. She passed the flashlight back to him. It was dark as all get-out down there.
The basement smelled like dirt. Wyatt roved the flashlight’s beam around the room until he located a light switch. A bare bulb in the overhead fixture glowed, filling the fairly large area with dim light.
Adeline blinked to focus. Shelves lined the walls. Lots of stuff and dust. Her attention settled on the pile of rocks at the far end of the basement floor. A hole, about six feet in length, maybe two feet wide, had been dug where the rocks had once rested. She walked over to the makeshift grave and squatted for a closer inspection.
The shovel he’d used had likely been tagged into evidence. The smaller piles of dirt inside the hole were probably from the shovelfuls he’d tossed in atop his unconscious wife.
What kind of piece of shit did this?
34
Wyatt surveyed the last of the shelves lining the wall. Nothing that shouted psycho. Just the usual tools and boxes of last year’s holiday decorations. He turned to see what Addy was up to. What he saw took him aback.
“Addy, I’m sorry.” He shook his head as he walked over to the grave Jamison had dug for his wife. “That’s just too weird.”
From her reclining position in the grave, she shot him an I-couldn’t-care-less-what-you-think look. “Imagine, Wyatt. If she roused at all while he was covering her, she would look up into the face of the man she’d married—the father of her children. When she’d first started to suspect things weren’t right, imagine going to sleep next to him every night.”
Adeline reached up. Wyatt took her hand and assisted her climb out of the grave. Brushing the dirt off her backside, he considered giving her cute ass a swipe but she took care of it before he could put thought into action.
She moved over to the stairs. Walked slowly up, then backed down. She examined each tread with her fingers on the second trip up. “Henley said she fell down the basement stairs.” Adeline stopped about a third of the way from the top. “Here we go.” She patted the tread. “This one’s been replaced. It’s a lot newer than the others.”
“Doesn’t mean he did it,” Wyatt reminded. “This is an old house. Could have just had a bad board that he replaced after her fall.”
She studied the rest of the treads, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. The treads aren’t that old.” She descended once more and ducked around behind the staircase. “Bring your flashlight under here.”
Wyatt joined her beneath the primitive stairs.
“Check the bottom of each tread, from one stringer to the other.”
Starting at the top, Wyatt moved the flashlight’s beam from left to right over each tread.
“Right there.” Addy pointed to the bottom side of the one that had been replaced.
The tread was just over his head, but not so far that he couldn’t reach up and touch the bottom of it.
“Check that out.” Addy pointed to where the tread sat atop the stringer on the right.
Wyatt focused the light’s beam there. He stood on tiptoes, reached up, and touched the markings on the stringer. The wood was marred as if something had rubbed against it repeatedly. Addy was right.