Abigail is doing her best to clear away some of the junk that the previous owners of Sunset Lodge left behind. She and Carl, her handyman, make a trip to Hudson’s Junkyard with an entire van full of stuff. When they get there, Stone Hudson, the owner of the yard, is quick to suggest that Abigail might be interested in taking a look at some of the furniture that came from the Xanzibar Hotel, the luxury property that has been standing empty since the eighties.
There are dozens of buildings full of everything from furniture to household goods scattered across the junkyard. Stone sends them to Building Twenty-Nine. Inside the dimly lit building, Abigail and Carl find themselves surrounded by the oversized and overstuffed furnishings from the Xanzibar’s lobby. A long row of bookcases that almost divides the room in two catches Abigail’s eye, though.
Carl fights his way thought the piles of couches and tables to take a better look at the bookcases. It’s what he finds behind them that is the problem, though. The skeleton has clearly been lying on one of the beds in the back half of the building for a considerable amount of time. The first challenge for the police is to work out whose remains have been found. Then they can worry about whether or not the victim was murdered. Abigail doesn’t have any idea who they’ve found, but she’s pretty sure she’s right at the center of another murder investigation.