Murder in the Mist by Loretta C. Rogers

a pile of bones…by Godfrey!” Phyllis joined her niece in the boat.
    Thirty long minutes later, Laura and her aunt heard the siren. They stepped out of the boat and waded until knee deep to wave their arms. Two loud blasts signaled the driver of the police boat had seen them.
    Mitch stood on the bow. As soon as the skipper slowed the boat in the shallows, Mitch jumped in and waded ashore. “You ladies all right?”
    He took a look at the zigzag welts across Laura’s cheeks, forehead, and nose, and his voice revealed his concern. “Were you attacked?”
    She reached up, touched her face, and tried to sound jovial. “Yeah, by tree limbs.”
    Laura and Phyllis both nodded. He met their eyes. “What’s this about a body?”
    Laura focused on Harmon Taylor as he swung his small craft alongside the police vessel. He steadied the boat while Dr. Musuyo climbed down the ladder into his craft. Two large black suitcases were handed down to the doctor. The skipper tossed out the anchor, then descended down the ladder into Harmon’s skiff.
    Phyllis wrung her hands as she began, “Poor Laura. One minute we were rushing back to the boat to avoid the storm—”
    Harmon had joined them. He removed his signature cap, the one with a large fishhook adorning the bill, to scratch the top of his head. “Storm? What storm? Hasn’t been a cloud in the sky all day. Water’s smooth as a skatin’ rink.”
    Laura gave her aunt a “let’s keep this to ourselves” look. Phyllis nodded. “Well, never mind about the weather. What I meant to say is we were trying to avoid getting too much sun. A tree fell, and when we went around it, the earth opened up and Laura disappeared.” She clasped her hands over her heart. “By Godfrey, I didn’t know what had happened to her. Ayuh, scared the pee-waddy out of me.”
    Mitch touched Laura on the shoulder. He held her eyes for a moment longer. “You look a little green around the gills. Are you up to going back to the grave?”
    She shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Aunt Philly knows the way. We’ll follow her.”
    Ken Musuyo opened his medical bag and removed a tube, which he uncapped. “Laura, this is an antibiotic cream. Let me put some on those scratches.”
    He wiped her face with a moist sterile pad and then administered the salve to the abrasions.
    Mitch’s eyebrows fired to life. “Ready? I’ll scout the area for evidence while Dr. Musuyo sets up a crime scene, and while he does, Laura, I need you to photograph everything. I’ve already put a call in to the state police. They’ll no doubt want to send a forensics team. In the meantime, we’re in charge.” He glanced at Phyllis, and extended his hand. “Lead the way. We’re right behind you.”
    “Wait. Hold on a sec, Mitch.” Laura’s voice fell silent for a moment. “You need to know that it’s a skeleton. Not a body. What we found inside the grave is a skeleton.”
    His expression switched to a mixture of skepticism and downright irritation. “Tell me you don’t mean like ancient bones inside an Indian mound, that type of bones. The state police will have a hay day laughing themselves silly, and at my expense.”
    Laura’s cheeks flamed red. “Lying in a shallow grave on an uninhibited island is the remains of a woman, who was probably scared witless at the time of her death. So excuse me if I don’t give a damn about your precious ego getting squashed. Come on, Aunt Philly, let’s get this over with.”
    Mitch’s lips pressed into a thin line. His scowl deepened. “I deserved that. My apologies. To all of you.”
    Without another word, Phyllis took the lead, followed by Laura, with Mitch, the doctor, and crusty old Harmon Taylor all following in single file. After ten minutes of stomping through the brush, Phyllis stopped at the freshly uprooted tree and pointed at a hole no more than four feet wide and four feet deep. “Here it is.”
    Mitch immediately enlisted Harmon’s help in setting up the crime scene perimeter