Read Online Disembodied Bones by C.L. Bevill - Free Book Online

Most of them hadn’t
held it against her that she wasn’t developing her gift in a timely
manner. Some of the younger ones, closer to her age were more prone
to say mean things about it, but when she needed them they would be
here. She needed someone who would defend herself and Douglas. Once
she’d gotten a glimpse of what Whitechapel had in mind, then it was
obvious to her that if ever someone needed protection, it was
Douglas. The policeman hadn’t believed her although she had tried
everything she could think of saying. The little bit about the gold
pen he’d been missing popped into her head like an unwanted mantra.
Like Douglas, she had suddenly been afflicted with all things
missing.
    In addition to the policeman’s gold pen,
there had been Louis’s belt buckle. It was the size of a dessert
plate and hardly something someone could lose so readily. But he’d
been thinking about it, wondering where it was, certain that
someone had swiped it from him. He was going to miss it something
fierce and he had been wishing that he knew where it was.
    The location had come to her, like a blinding
sign with great letters upon it. It was behind Louis’s bed, and
purely an accident at that.
    The day before, it had been her maman’s watch. A simple gold Bulova that her grandmaman had given her when she had graduated from high
school, Leonie’s mother had missed it terribly. When it had gone
astray, Babette had searched the house relentlessly. Leonie had
come into the house knowing instantly that her mother was missing
it, and she even knew where the watch was to be located. That
morning her cousin Althea had taken it from the kitchen table.
Babette had left it lying there the night before and four year old
Althea had thought it pretty. Apparently, it had been pretty enough
to take outside and, for some unfathomable reason, bury it in the
dirt. Babette hadn’t missed it until the end of the day because
they had been too busy canning strawberries.
    When Leonie presented the dirty watch to
Babette, her mother had been irate and a thinly veiled accusation
had ensued. Babette had accused her daughter of the disappearance,
charging it to a young woman borrowing jewelry from her mother and
not wanting to fess up to the misdeed. Even to the point where a
young woman would make up a story.
    Leonie had been shocked silent. She wouldn’t
have thought that her own mother would not believe her and in a fit
of childish anger she didn’t attempt to explain.
    When she saw the newspaper on the counter
inside the general store, there was something else that had come to
Leonie. His name was Douglas and his mother was missing him
something fierce as well. She was fraught with anxiety. Her mind
was torturing her with questions of what-if and what-about. She was
determined to blame herself. If something happened to her only son,
then it would be her fault. She hadn’t protected him enough. She
had spent too much time in The Gap shopping for jeans that fit just
right, and they had these adorable angora sweaters that she loved,
even though they made her sneeze. The time had slipped away, but
Douglas had already been taken.
    Someone had walked her baby boy out the doors
of the mall while she was shopping. Oh, God, what will I do? was Douglas’s mother’s anxiety-filled thought and the one that
washed out all other thoughts in Leonie’s head.
    “Oh, Dieu, ” muttered Leonie. “Please
let me help her.” The utter despair that was filtered to the girl
from the distraught mother was a hundred times worse than the
nagging worry that was pestering Roosevelt Hemstreet over the loss
of a treasured memento from a dead aunt. It was a thousand times
worse than the irksome fretfulness that had concerned Babette about
her watch. It was as if Leonie was suddenly directly connected to
Douglas’s mother and Leonie couldn’t let go. Her mind was linked
like two subway stops by a solitary tunnel and everything was
one-way to Leonie. She couldn’t let it