Sanctuary In Stone

Tarot readings, ancient stone chambers, a JULY 4th summer fair, and too many secrets in a small town…join Ria Quinn to solve yet another mystery in Book 4!

“It’s the Fourth of July in Shokan Falls, grand cause for a jubilant celebration with bunting and streamers and flags, picnics in the park, a Ferris wheel, and a brass band playing in the gazebo. Yet once more, Ria finds herself in the middle of a deadly puzzle.

Near dawn, before the festive day begins, she goes with the Benedictine monk Brother Jocelin to explore a sacred prehistoric stone chamber, long hidden in the nearby woods. As the rising sun enters the opening to it, they find a body lying under a shroud on a high bier.

Not long after, when the celebration is in full swing, another suspicious death occurs, this time in the park. Searching for answers, Ria discovers quartz gold deposits were once mined in the area, knowledge that sends her into danger. But it is when she is at Deidre’s for an evening of psychic readings that the mysterious power within the ancient stone chamber is suddenly revealed to her. And the identity of a killer.”

Excerpt from Sanctuary In Stone…

“I’d like to see this chamber, very much,” Ria said. “How extraordinary if the symbol carved in the stone there actually does match what’s on this box.”

“I assure you it does, and I can take you there—right now, if you like,” Jocelin said.

Ria couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do more. “I would, only I have this bowl to bring to the house, and I’d rather not take my dog Hailey into the woods.”

“She’d be safe. No lions and tigers and bears out there,” Eona said. “But I can deliver the bowl to you later on and if Aletha frees me from doing inventory now, I can take Hailey over to Sarah’s Café—she’s always welcome there and I’m hungry anyway.”

It seemed settled. Ria reached down and gave Hailey a hug. “Back soon, precious. Thank you both,” she said to Aletha and Eona, as she went out the door with Jocelin.

“Don’t disturb the stones,” Aletha called out as the door closed behind them and muffled the sound of the chimes in the wind.

Ria had assumed they’d be going toward Raven Woods but Jocelin had her turn right off Center Street onto Pargeter Way and then straight past the diner into the forest. They were not far from the mining cave where she had once found a small altar, and she wondered if that was the stone structure Jocelin meant, but he told her to follow the road another mile. It sloped upwards towards the hills.

…

The monk said nothing but instead turned to look out upon a meadow could be seen beyond the trees on the right. In the stillness of the summer afternoon it seemed to Ria time had been suspended. Then cicadas began to sing and she became alert, wondering what kind of trance had overtaken her.

The interior of the stone chamber was over six feet high. Amidst its rounded walls a platform had been set on the dirt floor, and on it, covered by a white shroud, lay a body. Ria had no doubt of this.

Jocelin was standing beside here and reached down to lift up the sheet.

Ria caught his arm. “No. We have no idea who this is but whoever it is lying there is dead and has been left on this bier.”

“It does look like a bier, I agree,” Jocelin said. “As if part of a funeral ceremony, or a ritual of some kind. That Ogham symbol reads ‘Here lies the son.’ It’s almost as if the cave has been marked for this.”

Daylight barely penetrated the space. Despite her warning to Jocelin, it took all Ria’s willpower not to draw back the shroud to see what lay beneath. What if it was just a part of some reverential ceremony the way Jocelin suggested? It would show a lack of respect to remove the cloth. Yet it could also be suspicious. Either way, she had to contact the sheriff and have him see the site and bring his forensics people there.

“I have to call Gareth,” she said, moving out of the chamber. Jocelin joined her, with one last look back.

“Your sheriff? Do you mean to say you think this is a murder? How could that be? Why here?”

“I’m not saying it is, just that it’s possible a crime happened here. I mean, no one would have ever known anything if you hadn’t seen the Ogham lettering here and told me about it and I wanted to come and see it for myself. There’s no path leading to the place. It’s almost unreachable. If it is a form of ceremony honoring the dead, or a suspicious death, either way, whoever made it happen most likely felt secure they wouldn’t be discovered.”

Jocelin gazed around at the natural scenery and shook his head. “It is so peaceful here. How extraordinary it might hold chaos.”

“I’m out of range,” Ria said, realizing her phone had no bars. “I can’t get a connection. We’ll have to go back into town.”

“You go,” the monk said. “I can wait here. It’s better one of us stays.” He sat down in front of the stone chamber as if he were guarding the entrance.

Reluctantly, Ria nodded and started toward her car. It wasn’t hard to follow the path of trampled vegetation and broken branches they’d created coming in. When she reached the road, she looked right and left and decided to leave a marker so she could find the exact spot again quickly. Using a long bungee cord she kept in her trunk for securing Hailey’s food bag so she could lift it into the house, Ria wrapped the bright pink cord several times around the tree closest to the road.

“Can’t miss it,” she said aloud. As she got into the car, her main hope was that the sheriff would not find it was a murder. Halfway back she saw she had phone reception and stopped the car to try and reach him. The man was not a fan of surprises. He answered on the first ring.

“Gareth?” Ria said into her phone.

“Are you still with the priest?”

“What? He’s a monk, and yes, I’m with Brother Jocelin, but how do you know that?”

“I’m sitting across from Eona in the café after spending some time playing football with Hailey out back.”

“All Hailey does is chase the ball once and then sit down and chew it.”

“Works for me. I’ve just gotten an update from Eona about your adventure searching for some archaeological cave in the woods.”

“Stone chamber. Ancient. We found it, but I’m sorry to say we found something else inside it you have to see. And I’m afraid you need to bring the medical examiner if he’s around.”

“Are you calling me to report a crime? Tell me it’s not so.”

Read more of Sanctuary In Stone to follow Ria’s search for both evidence of a Neolithic stone chamber and her own birthright in this fourth volume of the series.

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Book categories: Cozy Mystery