Read Bats and Bones (The Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries) for Free Online

imagine what she was doing out there,”
Donna said.
    “There was
a flashlight on the floor of the cave,” Jane Ann said, “So maybe she was out
there in the middle of the night.”
    “Even if
she went on an early morning hike, she may have had a flashlight along to see
in the caves,” Rob said.
    Frannie shook
her head. “I’ve been thinking about that. I sat out here with my coffee from
just after sunup. I never saw her car or her go by. I took Cuba for a walk
early but I didn’t go by their camper. Donna, did you see her car when you took
Bugger out?”
    Donna sat
forward. “No! But I wasn’t really looking,” she said. She looked disappointed
to have missed an exclusive piece of information—and probably the
attention that would bring.
    Mickey
said, “Here comes the fuzz, here comes the fuzz…”. Larry gave him a look.
    Sheriff
Ingrham and Deputy Smith had parked their patrol car in the road and were
getting out. They looked around at the immediate campsites and spotted the
Shoemakers and their friends at the picnic table.
    “Handy to
find you all in one spot,” the sheriff smiled rather grimly as they approached.
    Frannie
jumped up to pull up some lawn chairs. “Do you want to talk to us all
together?”
    “That’ll be
fine for now.”
    “Coffee?”
Jane Ann asked. The sheriff shook his head and held up his bottled water but
Linda Smith nodded.
    “That would
be great.”
    The sheriff
leaned back in the lawn chair at a dangerous tilt and Deputy Smith pulled out a
notebook and pen.
    “Tell me
how you happened to come upon Mrs. Schlumm’s body,” he said, nodding at Larry.
    “We were
just hiking the trail. The caves, as you know, are closed, but we wanted to get
a hike in before it got too hot. We were trying to look inside from that area
below the entrance when one of our dogs, Bugger, suddenly picked up the scent
and ran up to the entrance. Before we could get him pulled back, he knocked
over a couple of rocks that were covering the foot.”
    “Was the
dog on a leash?”
    “Yes.”
    “Who all
actually went into the cave?”
    “I did at
first,” Larry said. “I had a small flashlight and could see that her condition
didn’t look very hopeful. I asked my sister, Jane Ann—she’s a
nurse—to come up and check for vital signs. There was nothing. No one
else came in. We tried to not touch anything more than necessary.”
    “How did
you know Mrs. Schlumm?”
    “We didn’t
really,” Donna jumped in. “We just saw her around the campground last night.
She had a couple of run-ins with other campers—she was kind of
crabby—oof!” Rob had kicked his wife under the table.
    “He asked
Larry,” he said quietly.
    “Sorry,”
Donna said. Ingrham nodded, and if he was perturbed, hid it well.
    “Ms….Ferraro?”
The sheriff said looking at the notes Linda had taken earlier. “What is your
medical training and experience?”
    “I have a
BS from the University of Iowa and was an ER and a surgical nurse for 27 years.
I also worked as a school nurse for a couple of years.”
    “And what
checks did you make on Mrs. Schlumm?”
    “Well, I
have to say after seeing the injury to her head, I wasn't hopeful. I called her
name but got no response and I didn’t find a pulse or sign of breathing.”
    “Did either
of you see anything in the cave besides Mrs. Schlumm’s body?”
    Larry and
Jane Ann both shook their heads and then Larry said, “Wait! There was a small
flashlight on the floor of the cave. I didn’t pick it up and look at it.”
    The sheriff
nodded. “So that wasn’t yours?”
    Larry
pulled his out of his pocket. “No, this is mine.”
    “Well, a
deputy is checking for fingerprints now. Our equipment isn’t sufficient to get
anything off the rocks, but he will fingerprint that light.”
    Donna
interrupted again. “Was it an accident, Sheriff? Or did someone. . .” She
trailed off, unable to voice their worst fears.
    “We don’t
know yet. It appears the injury to her head was