Santa Fe Bones: Volume Two of the New Mexico Trilogy

By Gloria H. Giroux

The tumultuous 1960s have passed and given way to the turbulent 1970s where chaos is the word for world politics, war, protest, and vast changes in social reforms, music, art, and virtually all aspects of global civilization. Santa Fe, New Mexico is no exception to these experiences.

The family and friends comprising the Warrior Spirit Investigations firm and its alliances have found rich lives with new opportunities, children, and personal and professional growth and challenges. The group and their city have moved past the terror of the infamous “Vampire Killer” that stalked young women in Santa Fe and across the country over decades. But a new killer has emerged from the shadows and his presence is becoming clearer as innocent men and women vanish and fall prey to a misguided search for personal justice and a cleansing of old grievances.

During this growing threat, a young woman has appeared on the scene and presents the Grayhawks with a surprising request—find her true identity. An amnesiac with no history past the last five years has come to them as a last resort to reclaim her past and determine her future.

Using their talents and undaunted fortitude Memphis, Tucson, Sand, Swan, Percy, Nick, and their devoted and determined associates forge ahead to uncover the ruthless killer and the elusive past. But will their pursuits achieve the desired results or will the unknown pull them into a psychological quagmire that will change their futures?

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663212764

Gloria H. Giroux

Gloria H. Giroux was born in North Adams, MA. Raised in Hartford, CT, she graduated from Bulkeley High School, the University of Connecticut and the Computer Processing Institute subsequently embarking on a double career of IT and writing. The author of nineteen fiction novels, Keene Retribution is homage to a special place in her life in New England. She currently lives in Arizona where she is working on her next book.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Map of the United States

Map of Europe

Map of New Mexico

Map of Santa Fe

Author’s Foreword

Cast of Returning Characters

Cast of New Characters

Cast of Additional Characters

Prologue

Book One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Book Two

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Book Three

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Epilogue

Author’s Foreword

By the author

Fireheart, Volume One of the Chay Trilogy

Whitefire, Volume Two of the Chay Trilogy

Firesoul, Volume Three of the Chay Trilogy

Bloodfire, Prequel to the Chay Trilogy

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Copper Snake, Volume One of the San Francisco Trilogy

Voices of Angels, Volume Two of the San Francisco Trilogy

Out of the Ash, Volume Three of the San Francisco Trilogy

Bloodline in Chiaroscuro, Prequel to the San Francisco Trilogy

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Saguaro, Volume One of the Arizona Trilogy

Crucifixion Thorn, Volume Two of the Arizona Trilogy

Devil Cholla, Volume Three of the Arizona Trilogy

Ironwood, Sequel to the Arizona Trilogy

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Santa Fe Blood, Volume One of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Bones, Volume Two of the New Mexico Trilogy

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MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

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MAP OF EUROPE

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MAP OF NEW MEXICO

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MAP OF SANTA FE

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All photographs including cover shot

courtesy of author Gloria H. Giroux

Maps and Special Images by Shutterstock

Author’s Foreword

206.

That is the number of bones in an adult human body. Babies are born with around 300 bones, many of which knit together in the process called ossification from cartilage to a single bone as the infant grows. For example, a baby’s skull originates as five soft, cartilaginous plates that eventually fuse into a single hard bone. Babies do not have knee bones, which are formed as the infant grows. The ossification process ceases after the body has stopped growing, generally around the age of twenty.

The human skeleton has specific sections of bones:

➢ Skull—28 bones, including the jawbone

➢ Spine—26 bones, including cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, sacrum and tailbone (coccyx)

➢ Chest—26 bones, including ribs and breastbone (sternum)

➢ Arms—64 bones, including shoulder blade (scapula), collar bone (clavicle), humerus, radius and ulna, wrist bones (carpals), metacarpals and phalanges

➢ Pelvis—2 bones (three regions, the ilium, ischium, and pubis form 2 coxal bones)

➢ Legs—60 bones, including thigh bone (femur), kneecap (patella), shin bone (tibia) and fibula, tarsals, metatarsals and phalanges.

Within the 206 matured bones there are four different types in the human body:

➢ Long bone—has a long, thin shape. Examples include the bones of the arms and legs (excluding the wrists, ankles and kneecaps). With the help of muscles, long bones work as levers to permit movement.

➢ Short bone—has a squat, cubed shape. Examples include the bones that make up the wrists and the ankles.

➢ Flat bone—has a flattened, broad surface. Examples include ribs, shoulder blades, breastbone and skull bones.

➢ Irregular bone—has a shape that does not conform to the above three types. Examples include the bones of the spine (vertebrae).

The noun bone came into existence in the eleventh century AD. The etymology of the word comes from Middle English through a quite circuitous route according to Merriam-Webster: the Middle English bon, going back to Old English bān, going back to Germanic baina- (whence also Old Frisian and Old Saxon bēn bone, Old High German bein bone, leg, Old Norse bein bone and probably beinn straight), perhaps going back to Indo-European bhoi̯H-n-o-, a derivative of a verbal base bhei̯H- strike, hew, whence, with varying suffixation, Old Irish benaid (s/he) hews, cuts, robíth (it) has been struck, Middle Breton benaff (I) cut, Latin perfinēs (glossed by the Roman grammarian Festus as perfringās you should break) and probably Old Church Slavic bijǫ, biti to hit.

Whew!

Bones have played an integral part of true history as well as cultural mythology. Earliest man had no concept of the components of their bodies, perhaps only believing that some kind of hard thing rested beneath their flesh and could cause terrible pain when damaged. Only by trial and error could he have realized that bones could be repaired or not, and that like the flesh grew in volume, weight, and length as a young human grew into an adult. He realized, of course, that animals also had these hard things, certainly clear when one was gnawing on roasted flesh.

Gradually as man progressed into intellectual and emotional thought, he used bones to express a variety of instances, from triumph over a dangerous animal or human foe, to superstitious charms or magical amulets that protected man or were honors to the gods. Gradually as oral and written mythology emerged from the depths of early ignorance, bones were incorporated into tales and beliefs, and often served as the basis for religions.

In Greek mythology the poet Hesiod articulated the Trick at Mekone. Zeus and the gods descended to a meeting with mortals at Mekone, which is believed to be situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. The god Prometheus slew a large ox, deboning it and placing the disguised meat in one pile and the bones in another. Zeus was asked to choose a pile, and because of the subterfuge that made the bone pile look like the more desired meat pile Zeus chose the pile of bones. Angered at the trick Zeus hid fire from the mortals. Prometheus then stole the hidden fire and gave it to humanity, thus incurring Zeus’s wrath and a dire punishment. It could not have been enjoyable to be chained to a rock and have your regenerating liver ripped out each day by a merciless eagle.

The story explains mythologically the practice of sacrificing only the bones to the gods, while humans keep the edible meat and fat. It is also widely considered the first sacrifice to the gods and set the precedent for humans establishing or renewing a covenant with sacrifice.

Catholicism also employs the concept of bones as a special tribute to God and his minions. In religion a bone is considered a relic, a piece of a saint or another venerated person preserved as a tangible memorial. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning remains, and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to leave behind, or abandon. A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In some cases, the relics or bones are thought to contain magical properties. In the Bible, 2 Kings, 13:20-21, this is explicitly stated:

Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so, they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

In Hinduism, relics are less common than in other religions since the physical remains of most saints are cremated. The veneration of corporeal relics may have originated with the Sramana movement or the appearance of Buddhism, and burial practices became more common after the Muslim invasions. One prominent example is the preserved body of Swami Ramanuja in a separate shrine inside Sri Rangam Temple.

In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After the Buddha’s death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread.

While various relics are preserved by different Muslim communities, the most important are those known as the Sacred Trusts, more than six hundred pieces treasured in the Privy Chamber of the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. One of these is the forearm and hand of Yahya, otherwise known as John the Baptist.

On the other end of the spectrum bones are often used as revenge or dire warnings. The Ottoman empire was known to use the skulls of defeated rebel fighters to build towers of skulls as a declaration of victory as well as a tangible eliciting of terror from its enemies. For example, the Skull Tower is a stone structure embedded with human skulls located in Niš, Serbia. During the first Serbian uprising against the Ottoman empire in May 1809 the Ottomans surrounded the rebels at Čegar Hill. Stevan Sinđelić, the revolutionary leader, knew that defeat would result in his troops being impaled, so he detonated a powder magazine killing himself, his soldiers, and the approaching Ottomans. The governor of the Rumelia Eyalet, Hurshid Pasha, ordered that a tower be made from the skulls of the fallen rebels. The tower is fifteen feet high, and originally contained 952 skulls embedded on four sides in fourteen rows. Over the centuries most of the skulls were removed by family members or ghouls seeking a craven trophy of history. Currently, the tower houses fifty-eight skulls and has been designated a Cultural Monument of Exceptional Importance.

The concepts and words bone and skeleton appear throughout history in writings, poetry, quotes, and verbalization. They appear as matter-of-facts, vitriol, honors, prayers, curses, and every method of expression that can be imagined.

"As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the

contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly

understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to

accurately state all the other ones, both before and after."

Arthur Conan Doyle

"A family spirit is not always synonymous with family life. Bone

of our bone and flesh of our flesh makes for brothers, sisters and

relatives, who may be as distant as strangers in a foreign land."

Mother Angelica

"Oh literature, oh the glorious Art, how it preys

upon the marrow in our bones. It scoops the stuffing

out of us, and chucks us aside. Alas!"

D. H. Lawrence

"Whoever had designed the skeletons of creatures had even

less imagination than whoever had done the outsides. At

least the outside-designer had tried a few novelties in the

spots, wool and stripes department, but the bone-builder had

generally just put a skull on a ribcage, shoved a pelvis in

further along, stuck on some arms and legs and had the rest

of the day off. Some ribcages were longer, some legs were

shorter, some hands became wings, but they all seemed to be

based on one design, one size stretched or shrunk to fit all."

Terry Pratchett

"Once we get to know where and why the skeletons of the

past are buried, we can start wading across our muddled

memories into the open plains of a new horizon."

Erik Pevernagie

"There is something about a closet that

makes a skeleton terribly restless."

Wilson Mizner

"A belief in hell and the knowledge that every ambition is

doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never

prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as

though death were no more than an unfounded rumor."

Aldous Huxley

"These old bones will tell your story

These old bones will never lie

These old bones will tell you surely

What you can’t see with your eye

These old bones I shake and rattle

These old bones I toss and roll

And it’s all in where they scatter

Tells you what the future holds"

Dolly Parton

Bones rest in our bodies.

Bones rest under the earth.

Bones rest in coffins housed in mausoleums.

Bones rest in museums.

Bones rest in their ash form in urns.

Bones rest in many places and many things.

Sometimes, however, bones don’t rest at all …

Sometimes, bones rumble and whisper and cry out for vengeance …

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Cast of Returning Characters

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Cast of New Characters

CAST OF ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS¹

PROLOGUE

1780s, Paris, France

Paris, the heart and soul of France, is also known as the City of Lights. Although some people believe that the city’s name is derived from the Paris of Greek mythology, in reality it is derived from the earliest inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Its nickname derives from two separate historical events; one, its leading role in the Age of Enlightenment; and two, more literally because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments. Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps.

Paris is a vibrant city, full of residents, full of tourists, and full of life. It is one of the most-visited places in the world for awestruck tourists of every country, for honeymooners, for artists, for musicians, for business, for everything. Besides being the heart of France, it can arguably be said that Paris is the heart of Europe, starting back during its origins in the middle of the third century BC. Occupied by its original tribes, the Romans took over as they were wont to do around 52 BC, and the town became prosperous with business, trade routes, forums, theatres, and temples.

Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508 AD. By the twelfth century AD the city had become the capital of France with all that implies. Invasions, battles, peace, and ethnicities varied over the next centuries, bringing with them a huge influx of people from emigration as well as birth. By 1328 Paris had 200,000 residents and was the largest city in Europe. The city expanded and continued growing, and that inevitably brought with it the need not only for living places but for burial places. Limestone quarries provided the material for many Parisian structures before they were played out. When they were played out, they provided a purpose which no one would have thought possible.

Paris’s earliest burial grounds were founded on its Left Bank until the Roman Empire disintegrated in the fifth century AD. With Paris left in ruins after the subsequent Frankish invasions, Parisians moved to the marshier Right Bank. As in all other countries during the time before and during the Middle Ages personal hygiene was miniscule at best. People rarely bathed, and cleanliness was a rarity even in the upper classes. Illnesses abounded, and medicine was in its infancy, and useless procedures such as bloodletting through leeches and covering open wounds with rancid poultices were common. Plague, tuberculosis, famine, warfare, personal violence, sweating sicknesses, and infections produced a very limited life expectancy. Males born into landowning families in England had a life expectancy of a mere thirty-one years. Children born into a peasant culture quite often did not survive childhood; infant mortality was rampant, as was women dying in childbirth. Since Europe had become a mainly Christian civilization, burying the dead was the norm; Jews and Muslims also buried their dead.

Urban expansion saw the evolution of burying the dead in rural cemeteries, and Paris began interring its dead in the confines of the city. By the end of the eighteenth century, Parisian burial grounds were chock full of the remains of the dead over the course of centuries. Matters required change, and the city’s rulers decreed that parish cemeteries within the cities would be condemned and three new suburban cemeteries would be established.

The worst of the urban cemeteries was the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery, the largest in Paris and the resting place of not only individuals but of mass graves. The need to eliminate this cemetery gained urgency from May 31, 1780, when a basement wall in a property adjoining the cemetery collapsed under the weight of the mass grave behind it. The cemetery was closed to the public and all intra muros (Latin: within the [city] walls) burials were forbidden after 1780. The problem of what to do with the remains crowding intra muros cemeteries was still unresolved. A few years later its decomposed inhabitants were removed and re-interred in what would become a fascinating location of history and legend.

A vast expanse of Paris’s Left Bank rested on Lutetian limestone deposits, which provided the quarry material used to build much of the city; some of the limestone was mined from suburban areas. Post-twelfth-century haphazard mining techniques dug wells down to the deposit and extracted the rock horizontally along the vein until it was depleted. Many of these (often illicit) mines were undocumented, and when depleted they were often abandoned and forgotten. Paris had annexed its suburbs many times over the centuries, and by the eighteenth century many of its arrondissements (administrative districts) were or included previously mined territories.

The state of the Left Bank was generally undermined, and known to architects as early as the early seventeenth-century construction of the Val-de-Grâce hospital. A series of mine cave-ins beginning in 1774 with the collapse of a house along the rue d’Enfer (near today’s crossing of the Avenue Denfert-Rochereau and the boulevard Saint-Michel) prompted King Louis XVI to establish a commission to investigate the state of the Parisian underground. This resulted in the creation of the inspection Générale des Carrières (Inspection of Mines) service.

Mine consolidations continued to occur. The underground around the site of the 1777 collapse that had initiated the project had already become a series of stone and masonry inspection passageways that reinforced the streets above. Mine renovations and the closure of cemeteries were issues within the jurisdiction of the Police Prefect Police Lieutenant-General Alexandre Lenoir, who had been directly involved in the creation of a mine inspection service. Lenoir endorsed the idea of relocating the dead of Paris to the subterranean passageways that were renovated during 1782. In 1785 after the decision to further renovate the Tombe-Issoire passageways for their future role as an underground sepulchre, the law was passed formalizing the relocation to what was now known as the Catacombs of Paris.

A well was dug within a walled property above one of the principal subterranean passageways to receive Holy Innocents’ unearthed remains. The property itself was transformed into a sort of museum for all the headstones, sculptures and other artifacts recuperated from the former cemetery. The route between Holy Innocents and the clos de la Tombe-Issoire became a nightly procession of black cloth-covered wagons carrying the millions of Parisian dead. It would take twelve years to empty most Paris’s cemeteries and move the bones to their new resting place, known as an ossuary. An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site that serves as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary.

Cemeteries whose remains were moved to the catacombs include Saints-Innocents (the largest by far with about two million buried over six hundred years of operation), Saint-Étienne-des-Grès (one of the oldest), Madeleine Cemetery, Errancis Cemetery (used for the victims of the French Revolution), and Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux. Not truly a religious burial site—unlike the catacombs of Rome—the Paris catacombs were simply a place to deposit the unexpectedly inevitable remains of humanity as a convenience to those still awaiting their fate.

In their first years the catacombs were a disorganized bone repository. Carts simply dumped bones into haphazard piles and went back for more. However, Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury, the director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service, authorized renovations to transform the caverns into a mausoleum that one could visit. In addition to directing the stacking of skulls and femurs into the patterns seen in the catacombs today, he used the cemetery decorations he could find (formerly stored on the Tombe-Issoire property, many had disappeared after the 1789 Revolution) to complement the walls of bones. Perhaps the most iconic display is known as the Barrel. It consists of a large, circular pillar surrounded by skulls and tibiae which also acts as a support for the roof of the area in which it’s housed, which is referred to as the Crypt of the Passion or the Tibia Rotunda. The Barrel is a little more morbid than a traditional support beam, but it holds firm.

A room was also created and dedicated to the display of the various minerals found under Paris, and another showing various skeletal deformities found during the catacombs’ creation and renovation. De Thury also added monumental tablets and archways bearing ominous warning inscriptions and added stone tablets bearing descriptions or other comments about the nature of the ossuary. He ensured the safety of eventual visitors by walling it off from the rest of the Paris’s Left Bank’s already-extensive tunnel network. The underground tunnels—also nicknamed the Empire of Death and encompassing over two hundred miles—eventually held the bones of over six million people, the oldest reaching back to the Merovingian Era of the sixth century AD.

New internments began during the French Revolution, include Jean-Paul Marat, one of the revolution’s most virulent voices, and Maximilien de Robespierre, influential in both the revolution and the subsequent Reign of Terror. The moving of bones ceased in 1860.

After the establishment of the catacombs in their eventual form, the underground ossuary was used in many non-burial events.

• Bodies of the dead from the riots in the Place de Grève, the Hôtel de Brienne, and Rue Meslée were put in the catacombs on August 28-29, 1788.

• The tomb of the Val-de-Grâce hospital doorkeeper, Philibert Aspairt, lost in the catacombs during 1793 and found eleven years later, is located in the catacombs on the spot where his body was found.

• During 1871, Communards killed a group of monarchists there.

• During World War II, Parisian members of the French Resistance used the tunnel system.

• The Nazis established an underground bunker below Lycée Montaigne, a high school in the 6th arrondissement.

• During 1954, the film Father Brown had pivotal scenes set within the Catacombs of Paris.

• During 1974, the film The Holes was set within the Catacombs of Paris.

• During 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in one of the caverns. It was equipped with a giant cinema screen, seats for the audience, projection equipment, film reels of recent thrillers and film noir classics, a fully stocked bar, and a complete restaurant with tables and chairs. The group les UX took responsibility for the installation.

• The film As Above, So Below, released in 2014, was the first production that secured permission from the French government to film in the catacombs. They aimed to use no alterations to the environment except for a piano and a car which were hauled into the catacombs and set on fire.

• During 2015, Airbnb paid €350,000 as part of a publicity stunt offering customers the chance to stay overnight in the catacombs.

• In August 2017, thieves broke into a cellar from the catacombs and stole more than €250,000 of wine.

• As historically relevant and unique as the Catacombs of Paris are, they are not the only such burial ossuaries in ancient and modern times. As mentioned, Rome also has catacombs although not as voluminous in size or residency. They are sacred burial grounds constructed by the Catholics (although the ancient Etruscans originally began the excavation process). Visitors to these catacombs are expected to dress and act with the reverence due any of God’s late acolytes.

There are fourteen catacombs under the Eternal City, dug into the tofu, or soft volcanic rock beneath the surface just outside of the city.

• Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter

• Catacombs of Domitilla

• Catacombs of Commodilla

• Catacombs of Generosa

• Catacombs of Praetextatus

• Catacombs of Priscilla

• Catacombs of San Callisto

• Catacombs of San Lorenzo

• Catacombs of San Pancrazio

• Catacombs of San Sebastiano

• Catacombs of San Valentino

• Catacombs of Saint Agnes

• Catacombs of via Anapo

• Jewish catacombs

The Catacombs of Rome are divided into five chapels called the Capuchin Crypts. Each Crypt is decorated with remains that correspond to the Crypt’s title designation. The five Crypts are:

• Crypt of the Resurrection

• Crypt of the Skulls

• Crypt of the Pelvises

• Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones

• Crypt of the Three Skeletons

For example, the Crypt of the Pelvises is adorned with mostly pelvises and the Crypt of the Skulls is adorned entirely out of skulls. Although all crypts feature a full skeleton or more, the main display of the Crypts are supposed to match whatever title is specified.

The Catacombs of Rome also include the Domitilla Catacombs, which are an elaborate maze of underground tunnels stretching for miles just fifteen minutes outside of Rome. Like the Paris Catacombs, the Domitilla Catacombs were constructed because there was also a shortage in burial space in Rome. Although, the Domitilla Catacombs only hold about 150,000 remains and bodies.

Galleries and passages abound in the underground tunnels, which are also replete with art and icons. The Crypt of St. Agnes contains a small church. The maintenance of the Catacombs of Rome are under the auspices of the papacy, particularly with the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology.

Rome and Paris may house the largest and most famous of these bone sanctuaries, but there are many cultures across the globe that enjoy a similar notoriety for their own underground ossuaries.

In Lima, Peru, there exists the Monastery of San Francisco Catacombs. Over 25,000 people are buried there in crypts whose bone contents have been used to create intricate designs on the walls and ceilings.

The subterranean Odessa Catacombs in the Ukraine form an immense maze of tunnels almost two hundred feet below sea level. To date the extent of the catacombs is unknown, and although there are the bones of many deceased the maze was mainly used for mining and smuggling.

The Brno Ossuary in the Czech Republic holds the honor of being the second largest ossuary after the Catacombs of Paris. It holds over 50,000 sets of human bones. Once laid neatly and reverently with human skeletons the remnants of bones were disturbed and often buried due to flooding and mud. This catacomb, too, contains art including an obelisk made entirely out of human skulls.

On a much smaller scale there are ossuaries around the world that for one reason or another house human artifacts that mark unusual customs or beliefs.

The Marville Ossuary in France houses the remains of 40,000 skeletons, stacked in a churchyard shed.

The Wamba Ossuary in Spain is home to bones packed floor to ceiling. The cache of bones developed there from the 12th to the 18th centuries. Over 3,000 skulls peek out from the jumble of other bones. Words of warning and philosophy dot the walls, including, As you see, I saw myself as you see me, you see all ends here. Think about it and you will not sin …

In Kudowa-Zdrój, Poland the walls and ceiling of Kaplica Czaszek (the Chapel of Skulls) are decorated with thousands of skulls, and another 21,000 skeletons housed down below.

In Cologne, Germany the Church of Saint Ursula is filled with the bones of hundreds of virgin martyrs.

The crypt under the Saint Peter and Paul’s church in Melník, the Czech Republic, was intended to be a holy burial ground for Bohemia’s royal ladies; however, in the 1520s a plague epidemic swept through the area and necessitated a huge demand for burial ground. The corpses which had been occupying the cemeteries surrounding the church were promptly dug up, and some 15,000 corpses were cleaned and dumped into the vault.

In Austria the Eggenburg Charnel has meticulously arranged bones of 5,800 friars.

In Cambodia the Phnom Penn Memorial Stupa has 5,000 skulls arranged in memorial to those murdered by the Khmer Rouge under the monstrous dictator Pol Pot.

Even the United States has the distinction of having an ossuary. In Wellfleet Harbor on the bay side of Cape Cod lies the Indian Neck Ossuary, a burial site dating back to 1100 AD. The site was discovered in 1979 when a backhoe digging a trench for a home improvement project unearthed human bones. A salvage operation by the National Park Service uncovered a site packed together tightly in an oval approximately one-point-five-meters by three meters. The bones represented around fifty-six individuals, both male and female, young and old.

Other smaller ossuaries dot the country, but in far less volume or content than those found in Europe.

As fascinating as these sites are, and although some definitive facts and intelligent assumptions can be made as to their origin and contents, there are always questions about these remarkable underground bone burial sites.

Who were the people whose bones rest there?

What were their hopes and dreams?

How did they die?

Would their beliefs and faiths have supported the final resting place of their bones?

Were their souls disturbed as their resting places were?

Is this resting place one of peace, or … are the dead just angrier there?

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The Catacombs of Paris

BOOK ONE

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"New Mexico was supposedly a place with magical healing

properties, a place where a hundred years ago tuberculosis

patients traveled in droves, like gold prospectors in covered

wagons, thinking the dry mountain air would cure them."

Willa Strayhorn, The Way We Bared Our Souls

CHAPTER ONE

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August 8, 1974, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Have you considered barbed wire and gun turrets? Sand asked Memphis as they stood inside the door to the first-floor family daycare center. Tanks, maybe?

Those wouldn’t stand a chance against these inmates, Memphis replied, sighing. Finally, after all these years, I’m beginning to realize just how wonderful Luc and Raleigh really were during their formative years.

Don’t tell them that.

The two men watched and couldn’t help smiling at the five kinetic little girls that were making a racket and providing a true challenge to the nannies that were hired to care for them during the working day.

Memphis’s and Swan’s three-year-old twins, Sara and Shea, were clearly the leaders of the pack, the alpha females. Behind them was beta kid Francesca (Chessie), Troy’s four-year-old daughter, then Elspeth McBean, Percy’s and Tansee’s nearly three-year-old daughter. Mariko, Nick’s and Yuki’s eighteen-month-old child brought up the rear as the youngest. Every one of them was a loud, smart scrapper vying for dominance in their little clique of femininity. No one bemoaned the fact that the new generation included no baby boys, and Luc was smugly self-satisfied that he held the title of last male born.

Like their eight-year-old sister, Sage, the twins had inherited their mother’s blonde hair and blue eyes. They were as light as their blonde mother and had no hint of paternal ethnicity in their features. Mariko, half-Japanese, favored her mother in coloring and epicanthic eye shape. Troy’s daughter, Chessie, looked like her mother and had clearly Hispanic coloring and features.

Elspeth, Tansee’s and Percy’s daughter, was a happy surprise to her parents. After two more miscarriages following their wedding, Tansee and Percy were certain that they couldn’t conceive and bring a live child to birth. They were wrong. As the pregnancy progressed past the point of where Tansee had miscarried the previous three times, it became wonderfully obvious that this pregnancy might survive the full gestation period. Whether the baby was a dwarf or not was the question that the parents-to-be agonized over. At least, Percy agonized—Tansee was happy to have any child as she patiently explained to her husband over and over.

On November 8, 1971, Tansee went into labor two weeks early during her medical internship at Sangre de Cristo Hospital. Seventeen hours later, with Percy by her side, she gave birth to their daughter, whom the doctor pronounced as completely normal and damned beautiful. Percy didn’t think he could love any human being more than Tansee until he held his seven-pound-two-ounce baby daughter in his arms. They named her after their respective mothers.

With weddings taking place and babies being born right and left, and mindful of the events that preceded their births, the extended clan’s parents took extra precautions for their care and safety. Since all the parents worked and none were particularly thrilled about staying home as a mom or a dad, they came to a reasonable consensus to provide a mutual location and environment to allow them access to the children.

When Elspeth was born three weeks after Sara and Shea made their entrance into the world, Memphis had the rear section of the first floor of his office building converted to a nursery/daycare center. Swan brutally interviewed women for a nanny position, finally settling on a woman from Connecticut who had a Bachelor’s degree in nursing and a Master’s degree in childhood development. Within two months Whitney Oakwood began taking care of three infants in the same building where their parents worked. Year-old Chessie Grayhawk was quickly added to the mix, with Mariko joining the all-female baby crew not too long thereafter. Swan hired a second part-time English nanny, Ansonia Fairfield, to help with the baby crew. There was a rumor that she had once been part of Britain’s MI5 security organization, but she neither confirmed nor denied that rumor.

No children could be more protected than the offspring of the extended Grayhawk clan. The building itself was a safe haven for all who worked or played there. Over the past six years Memphis and his family had made distinct and subtle changes to their physical surroundings as well as their professional lives. The three-story building that Memphis had inherited from serial killer Joanna Frid housed a complex of private investigators, psychologists, and lawyers, each floor assigned a particular discipline.

Besides housing the daycare center of three rooms and a full kitchen, the first floor held the offices of psychologists Tucson Grayhawk and Percy McBean along with their assistant Candy Grayhawk and the office of Dr. Tansee McBean. Although she was still doing her residency at the hospital Tansee planned on moving forward into genetic practice and research.

Akiro ran the second-floor suite of offices dedicated to his expanding legal practice. Besides being in-house counsel for Warrior Spirit Investigations he had a burgeoning private practice that he addressed with two associates and a secretary that made Carmen Miranda look prim and proper.

The third floor was the bailiwick of the investigators and their support personnel. Skye Summers still reigned with an iron fist over administrative matters. Somewhere around the middle of 1970 she decided to accommodate her professional position and mostly abandoned her hippie garb and was now rarely seen in the office without a pastel polyester pantsuit. She favored peach and pink. Skye was wearing pink when her bosses trudged up the stairs from their visit to the kid factory (as she called it). She waved a piece of paper in front of Memphis and scowled.

You need to have this notarized by tomorrow, big guy, Skye said as she handed the document to Memphis. Tax stuff waits for no man.

Memphis scanned the data and nodded before he led Sand into the Hazelwood Conference Room where nearly the full complement of the crew was waiting. Tansee was missing since she was making her rounds at the hospital. The noise of talking and laughing and chewing and the rustling of fast-food wrappers was deafening. Memphis loved it. He took a minute to study his friends and colleagues as Sand meandered over to the window table where two Mr. Coffee drip machines had full carafes of premium French roast. The new coffeemakers with their vivid yellow and white gingham decal had only been around for two years, but they were gaining in popularity since they made coffee fast and without the bitterness or burn of a percolator. Everyone had his or her own personal Mr. Coffee in their office.

Akiro patted the seat next to him and once Sand had his mug of caffeine, he parked himself next to his boyfriend and whispered something into Akiro’s ear. Memphis thought that of all of them perhaps Akiro had matured in more ways than most. Once a tentative, unsure young lawyer who feared the revelation of his sexuality and lacked full confidence in his abilities, at thirty-two he had blossomed into a crack legal expert. He rarely litigated, but when he did, he never lost. He selected associates with the same life viewpoint as he had, and who were as diverse as he in a world that didn’t yet value diversity.

Rodrigo Cortez came to Santa Fe from Miami, to which he and his family had fled from Cuba and the oppressive Castro regime. His father, a physician, got a job as a janitor and his mother worked in a laundry. They managed to put their son through college, and he worked his way through law school, graduating in the middle of his class in 1972. He worked his way west, sending out job applications until one appeared on Akiro’s desk. On an impulse he called in the young lawyer and an hour later hired him. He never regretted it.

Jenna Collins was a fifty-year-old ex-Vietnam nurse who left the war after a crippling injury in 1969. She put herself through law school, but in the youth culture of the day no one wanted to hire a physically disabled old woman. Akiro did. She was smart and on top of things and would have taken a bullet for her younger boss. She also knew how to bake an exemplary peach cobbler. The fact that she was confined to a wheelchair didn’t hamper her spirit or efforts.

Akiro and Sand still maintained separate residences since their sexuality was still illegal in New Mexico, but they were more out in the open and the winds of change indicated that someday soon their relationship would be as legal as any heterosexual one was. In 1972 Judge Lewis R. Sutin of the New Mexico Supreme Court dissented in the case of the State v, Trejo, stating that the current law was, unconstitutional and void because it is vague, overbroad, uncertain, and is an unreasonable exercise of the police power of the state. Groups were taking up the banner to repeal the oppressive anti-sodomy law.

Sand had moved out of his sister’s house and into a condo he bought in a new development just outside of the city’s northern limits. His studio apartment section of the house became Memphis’s and Swan’s new master bedroom, and Sage moved into their room. Sand acquired his private investigator license in 1970, the same year that Memphis and Swan did. Nick followed suit in 1971 and Percy in 1972.

Nick in 1974 was far from the quintessential angry young man that he had been in 1965. His exoneration of his birth family’s murders and the part he played in finding the real killer changed him. He was calmer and surer of himself and faced the future with hope instead of despair. The love and support of his hitherto unknown brother, Percy, and the Grayhawk family and friends poured the foundation for a future filled with purpose and promise. He grew to love his job as an investigator and finished college four years later than normal with a degree in history, specializing in true crime. In the firm he specialized in missing persons but worked alongside everyone at one time or another, spreading his talents and interests. He kept his hair long but not hippie-long, and wore neat, stylish clothes that could be found in any 1970s fashion magazine. He was a devoted fan of bell-bottomed jeans.

He had sustained a long-term romance with Yuki Okuma, and they married in a traditional Buddhist ceremony in 1971. She had given up her teaching job at Pueblo High School and worked as a researcher in Chemistry at Sangre de Cristo College as well as teaching two courses per semester. Her parents had long since accepted Nick as a member of the family; that relationship was solidified with the birth of their first grandchild. They were lobbying for a second. Yuki made it clear that wasn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future. She was a modern woman with a family and a career.

Nick and Percy became very close as the years passed. After all the dust had settled down from the final flight of the vampire killer they spent quality time getting to know one another. It wasn’t long before they were as close as any brothers who were raised together could be. They met as men, their youth devoid of each other, but they couldn’t change that. They shared common interests and quirks but were also very different men due to their upbringings and Percy’s unique physical configuration.

He was born in 1935 in Rhode Island as an achondroplasiac dwarf. His horrified parents surrendered him to an orphanage right after birth and he spent the first five years of his life there before he was adopted by a loving couple. Despite those parents he suffered through his childhood, youth, and adult years from other people’s stupidity and ignorance. He tracked down his birth family only to find them murdered with the oldest son missing. Nick Griffin was that son. He’d changed his name and drifted aimlessly to the west where he wound up in Santa Fe as a suspect in a young hippie girl’s murder. Percy found him and helped clear him, and they developed a cautious then close relationship. They settled down into brotherhood and found women they wanted to share their lives with and a circle of friends who accepted them, warts and all, as part of an extended family.

Percy couldn’t do anything about his height—four-foot-four—but for the last few years went about clean-shaven, his moustache and goatee abandoned when his daughter cringed at the rough bristle. A devotee of education and intellect, he’d acquired a second PhD, this one in Psychology, and opened a practice in conjunction with Tucson Grayhawk. They both worked on occasional private investigation tasks, but their main drive was the exploration of the mind. That’s not to say that they eschewed more physical pursuits; both were crack shots with a handgun, and Tucson was a black belt in karate.

Swan Hazelwood could kick her brother-in-law’s ass in karate and pretty much any other hand-to-hand combat discipline. The ex-cop, married to the firm’s founder, Memphis, was, as inimitable Detective Bart Smith—AKA, Frick—would say, one tough cookie. One of the first women officers in the Santa Fe police department she had her eye on a detective’s shield, but her career was sandbagged when she kicked two detectives in the balls after they insulted her fired brother, Sand. Sand was gay and forced to quit the force despite being one of their best detectives. They both wound up in Memphis’s firm due to unexpected circumstances. They both made their mark with their first case and went on to be as essential to building the firm as Memphis was.

Both Sand and Swan had a love-hate relationship with the Santa Fe police force because of their past employment and the parts they played in identifying a serial killer that had been murdering young women in the area. They had at least two reasonably solid supporters in detectives Frick (née, Bart Smith) and Frack (née, Jesse Morgan), a pair of cops that had been working together long enough to finish one another’s sentences. Frack had nearly died of a gunshot wound seven years earlier when Joanna Frid had returned to Santa Fe for an act of revenge; he had survived, and she had vanished once more only to be a permanent resident on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

Unfortunately, both Frick and Frack were at retirement age and would be leaving the police force in the next couple of months. That meant that the Warrior Spirit investigators wouldn’t have an in with the police that they had. Sand and Swan still had a few former colleagues that might be helpful, but their own personal comedy team would be lost to them. Sand especially had tried to cultivate a few law enforcement resources over the years. They had a couple of FBI contacts down in Albuquerque although they sorely missed their old friend, Tom Ballard, who had relocated to Philly after the Frid case.

So many changes, Memphis thought as he filled his mug. At thirty-four he was no longer that callow, somewhat naïve young man who had once aspired to be a lawyer along the lines of Clarence Darrow. His law studies had been interrupted by unexpected zigzags in his life, including his surprise fatherhood with Snow Hazelwood of his now eight-year-old daughter, Sage. Snow had dumped him and left town, but he found true love with her twin sister, Swan, who was now Sage’s legal mother. His education was temporarily derailed but in 1969 he finished his courses and passed the bar. He didn’t practice law but understanding its ins and outs gave him a leg up on his daily work. On occasion Akiro would run things by him for an opinion. Memphis liked being a P.I., a surprising niche that appeared under strange circumstances but came to define his life.

He eyed the newbie P.I. that Swan had hired two months earlier. The young woman was a New England transplant with one of those horrible east-coast accents that grated on his nerves. Still, she was smart and driven. In 1972 after J. Edgar Hoover died and F. Patrick Gray took over as Acting Director of the FBI the agency was then opened to women applicants. She applied and was rejected, although two other women were accepted. Joanne Pierce, a former nun and Susan Roley, a Marine, made history as they were admitted to the former boys-only federal club.

Devon Killian didn’t make the cut but was determined to make some sort of law enforcement her career. A plucky half-black, half-Irish woman with café-au-lait skin, freckles, green eyes, and kinky red-brown hair in a large afro, she grew up in the rough north end of Hartford, Connecticut. She put herself through Trinity College and graduated near the top of her class. She graduated with a degree in Philosophy in 1970. She was rejected twice in her application to become a Hartford police officer, but on the third try she succeeded and shone in her academy class. Her tenure as a patrol officer lasted six months. She got past the sexism and racism, but not past the gang member bullet that blasted her left shoulder. She had no choice but to leave the force or be confined to a desk job. Her boyfriend, another cop, said to her, fuck it, let’s book. He quit his job, they piled their essential items into a couple of battered old suitcases from Goodwill, and they headed west in his rusted Camaro. The car gave out in Albuquerque.

They began rooting around for jobs and he found one with the New Mexico State Police. He found himself stationed up near Taos, so she moved with him but set up house in Santa Fe. After a couple of disastrous attempts at being employed in retail she ran into a guy who knew a guy who knew a P.I. named Nick Griffin. They met for coffee and he introduced her to Memphis. While he did a background check on her he hired her part-time as a research assistant. The background check was clean, and she proved enthusiastic in her minor tasks and showed that she was clever and insightful. Memphis hired her as a probationary associate for a month; a month later she became a full-time employee. She dumped her boyfriend (who had been screwing around with an Indian woman in Taos) and decided to start a new life. So far, so good, although sometimes her rapier-like wit bordered on the sarcastic. She got along well with Swan.

As Memphis sat down at the head of the table Nick asked, So, does having a meeting today mean we don’t have to suffer through one next Monday? Memphis had instituted a weekly Monday-morning meeting two years earlier much to the grumbling of his associates, who preferred a more free-form method of administration. They didn’t like the formal structure, but he was insistent and since he owned fifty-one percent of the firm his word was law. At the office—at home Swan’s word was law.

Nice try, Renegade, Memphis replied, using an old nickname from Nick’s hippie days. When they were initially antagonistic Nick would insult him by calling him Geronimo; Memphis was half Polish and half Indian.

Why don’t we take a vote? Sand asked.

Memphis rolled his eyes and sighed theatrically as he ran his fingers through his shoulder-length black hair. Okay, fine. Monday’s meeting is canceled. A roar of approval and clapping burst forth. Nice. I’m only trying to keep us on track.

Lighten up, Nick said. We’ll be celebrating all weekend and most of us will be too hung over to concentrate.

Which reminds me, Sand said. Are we all meeting at six-thirty over at the Sweet Revenge Saloon?

Yeah, definitely, Swan replied. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Charlie Brewster is setting up a couple of TVs and tables out in the parking lot for the spillover crowd, Nick said. I slipped him a twenty to save us a table inside near the bar. I want to be up close and personal when I stare at that ugly face.

No spitting, Swan warned.

Cheering? Nick asked, an eyebrow arched.

Cheering is not only permitted but encouraged, Sand said.

"All right, let’s put this evening’s festivities off to the side while we give brief—let me repeat that—brief updates on our active cases, Memphis said. Nick—you’re up. The Baxter case?"

Done, Nick replied.

That’s it? Memphis said.

You said brief.

Before Memphis could ask for a more detailed explanation Swan broke in. All of the cases are either done, in progress, or not started. Nobody cares, Memphis. This is an historic day, and no one cares.

Memphis allowed himself a pregnant pause before replying. So, what you’re saying is that no one cares.

That’s what I’m saying.

Fine, Memphis snapped. Let’s give the nannies a breather. Everyone has the rest of the day off so grab your kids, go home, go to your offices, go anywhere, and we’ll see you tonight. Memphis had barely finished the last word before Percy slid off his chair and went through the door followed closely by his brother. The remaining crew ambled out leaving only Memphis and Swan.

Swan hugged her husband and brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes. Talked to Tucson today?

Nope, not since Wednesday.

Is he having one of his blue periods?

I think so. Best just to let him work his way out of it. I think tonight may have exacerbated his emotions.

Maybe it’ll help him put some things to rest.

Maybe. Come on—let’s grab the girls and head over to the park. I feel like some outdoor time with my ladies. They linked hands and headed downstairs where two grateful nannies turned each little girl over to her parent. Candy was holding Chessie who was babbling about kittens as her mother carried her out of the office.

It’s nice owning the firm, isn’t it? Swan said to Memphis.

Yup.

The firm’s associates met up at the Sweet Revenge Saloon at six-thirty. The parking lot was crowded with cars and celebrating people that spilled out from the back door of the bar. A large group was assembled outside the front door, hoping to get inside where the proximity to the booze and comfort was at a premium. It was still light out, but it was hot and there was a sultry humidity about the evening; the air seemed to hang heavy and most people had a light sheen of sweat on their expectant faces.

Memphis couldn’t hear himself think as his wife dragged him through the indoor crowd to their reserved table in front of the large TV at the end of the bar. Swan dragged a few extra chairs close by as Sand and Akiro made their appearance, trailed by Nick, Percy, Tansee, and Yuki. The elder Grayhawks were home with all the kids as the younger generation waited for the moment they had all been waiting for. Just before seven Luc and Raleigh shoved their way over to their family and Memphis gave up his seat to his sister. Actually, she pulled him out of his seat and parked her shapely butt as she took a long slug of his beer. He scowled at her; she was only sixteen, not old enough to drink. He was under no illusions that she abstained. He took the beer out of her hand.

Memphis was surprised when Frick and Frack wended their way through the crowd, muttering and flashing their badges to get through the sea of human beings.

I can’t believe you two came, Swan yelled over the crowd even though the two detectives were only three feet away.

Hey, Frick said, frowning, just because we’re dinosaurs compared to you kids doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a well-deserved comeuppance. He yelled towards the bar. Two beers, pronto. He saw the look on Swan’s face and added, Please.

Besides, Frack said as he stood behind Sand, we’ve only got a few months left to enjoy bullying our cop selves through life. After that we’ll be normal human beings.

We’ve never thought of you as normal, Swan said.

Ball kicker, Frack muttered as he took hold of the two frosty beers and handed one to Frick. He glanced over to the right and saw a young guy lighting up a joint. It took all his willpower not to stalk over and pull it out of his mouth. But, perhaps, tonight was a time for letting some things slide.

Shh, shh, shh, Tansee said. He’s coming on.

All eyes in the bar riveted on the two TVs there; the people outdoors in the parking lot and front had their own small TVs at which to stare.

The pasty, familiar hangdog visage of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, filled the screens. You could hear a pin drop in the formerly raucous saloon.

Good evening.

This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.

In all the