LC 04 - Skeleton Crew (17 page)

"Have we met?"

Uh-oh, caught, she thought. But when she looked at Ramirez,
he did not appear to be about to scold her for touching the body.

"We may have. I'm Lindsay Chamberlain. I've given talks at
various law enforcement seminars and conferences about forensic
anthropology."

"Ah, that's it. I saw you speak last year on locating buried
human remains. I learned a lot. So what are you doing here?"

"I'm also an archaeologist. I'm part of the crew at the cofferdam
site."

"Dr. Chamberlain is in charge of all skeletal remains we find,"
put in Lewis, smiling. Lindsay could see that he was delighted that
Lindsay had some rapport with the investigators.

"I've read about this in the papers. It's a big deal. Must have
meant a lot of money lost for poor Mr. Denton here."

Lewis started to speak, but Lindsay answered first. "We don't
really know about his business."

Ramirez's black eyes sparkled as he gave Lindsay a broadtoothed grin and put a hand on her arm.

"Dr. Chamberlain, you are very charming, but I fear you know
our methods too well, being in the business yourself, so to speak.
You let your bosses answer those questions that they would know
about."

Lindsay returned his grin. "Of course."

"By the way, did you know this man?"

"I met him once."

Lindsay could see that surprised Lewis and Trey. Ramirez
noticed it, too.

"We'll be moving the body shortly. You may go back inside and
be comfortable." He turned to Lewis. "I'll need a list of everyone
who works here. We'll have to question everyone. From the looks
of it, it will be a long process."

"I'll get you a list," Lewis said. "But not everyone here works
on the cofferdam project. There are also biologists who work on
the island year-round."

"And is this division of staff the cause of the animosity I just
witnessed?"

"I'm afraid so. The biologists were here first and feel displaced."

"I would appreciate it if you would give me their names, too.
They seemed to think this was a fellow named Keith."

"Yes," said Trey. "Keith lives on a neighboring island, and his
father says he is missing."

"Thank you for your identification. And very nice to meet you,
Dr. Chamberlain. Thanks to you, I'll never dig up a grave with a
shovel again. Please stay close by. I'd like to talk with each of you
later today."

This was a dismissal. Lindsay retreated, wishing he had uncovered more of the body than just the face. She would like to see, for
example, the clothes he was wearing. She wondered if they were
the same ones he wore when she saw him last.

They went back into the lab, followed by Bobbie, Harper, and
the others.

"Denton?" said Steven. "I thought it was Keith."

"That, apparently, was a presumption on the part of Mike.
Which, I might add, was not missed by our good FBI agent. I imagine he'll be looking around here for another body," Lewis declared.

"Do you really think Keith is dead?" asked Carolyn.

"No, I don't. I'm sorry, I was simply being sarcastic."

"What do you think, Lindsay?" Trey asked.

"They will ask around about Keith, see if he and Denton were
connected in some way. These are not people who believe in coincidences. A disappearance, if it is that, and a suspicious death in
the same place at the same time look doubly suspicious."

"Don't you mean murder?" asked Korey.

"No. It could be natural, accidental, or suicide. They'll know
more about the manner of death when they find the cause."

Lindsay was deep in thought, working out different time of
death scenarios, based on the stiffness of Denton's legs when she
noticed them staring at her. Of course, they were all completely
unfamiliar with the terms and culture of death investigations.
Odd, really. Lindsay had always considered archaeology and
crime investigation to be very similar.

"Agent Ramirez will want to talk with all of you," Lewis told
them. "Just answer his questions straightforwardly. I'm sure all
this will be cleared up soon."

"Well, Doc," said Nate, turning to Lindsay, "O1' Jeff's going to
love this."

Lindsay groaned and the others laughed. She was surprised
that even Lewis knew about the Angel of Death thing.

Harper kissed Trey on the cheek and went up to her apartment
to work on the translation. After Lewis sent the others off to the
lab, he led Lindsay and Trey to his office tucked away beyond the
weather room, which was empty of personnel. Presumably, they
were outside watching the drama.

"Have a seat," said Lewis, pointing to a table in the corner. He
took three soft drinks from the refrigerator before sitting across
from Lindsay. Lindsay sat and waited for what she knew was coming. After the sound of three tabs pulled from the soft drinks,
Lewis spoke.

"Lindsay, what's going to happen now? Are we all suspects?"
he asked. "What's this 'stay close' business?"

"If they find murder, yes, we are all suspects. But that's not as serious as it sounds. It's simply logical. He was discovered here.
We are here. He had business with us."

"What do you mean, if they find murder?"

Lewis, Lindsay realized, was a man who, when confronted
with unfamiliar situations, worked to find out all the information
he could. Make the strange familiar-every anthropologist's
credo-at least half of it.

Lindsay folded her hands around her drink in front of her. It
was ice cold and made her shiver. She took a sip before she spoke.

"A crime scene forensic team will come and examine the body
here. They will also examine the place he was found. They'll take
the body to a medical examiner's office, and he'll perform an
autopsy to discover the cause of death. When they find out how he
died, then they'll try to determine if it was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide." She took another sip. "They don't necessarily
suspect murder. In fact, they probably don't right now."

"Why do you say that?" asked Lewis.

"Unless there was some wound I didn't see, I think he
drowned. Most drownings are accidental. It's not a common
method of homicide. Denton was a drunk. Most accidental drownings involve alcohol."

"Why do you think he drowned?" Lewis asked.

"The pink foam around his nose and mouth indicates that he
may have been alive when he went into the water."

Lewis and Trey made a face.

"He looked like he was beat up," said Trey. "Surely that suggests murder."

Lindsay shook her head. "What looked like bruises was lividity. Blood settling in the face is common in drowning. The body is
always facedown in the water."

Trey nodded as if that made sense to him.

Lewis was quiet a moment and appeared to be reading the label
on his drink.

"This is very unpleasant," he said. "You said he was a drunk.
Do you know Denton?"

"No, but I met him once." Lindsay told them about the scene at
the restaurant.

"So he was bearing a grudge. That looks bad for us, and the letters he sent look bad for us. Do you think we should keep them
from Ramirez?"

"No. It's not necessary. The university's decision on the cofferdam bid is very defensible. Don't sweat it."

"Do you know when he died?" asked Lewis.

"I managed to move his legs with my foot, and he appeared to
still be in rigor."

Trey and Lewis both registered surprise.

"I wanted some data." She hadn't meant to sound so defensive.
"Rigor is not a good indicator of time of death. Too many variables. However, because of the lividity and the fact that he appears
to be in full rigor and this is hot weather, I suspect he died sometime early this morning. Between four and five o'clock maybe?"

"What do you think he was doing here?" asked Trey.

"No telling," said Lewis. He turned back to Lindsay. "So you
think it was an accident?"

"That's the most likely scenario. But I didn't see the whole
body. He may have been stabbed, shot, or held under. Murder is
really not that common. It seems like it is, because it makes the
news so often, but how much firsthand experience have either of
you had with it?"

"None. But you seem to have had a lot," noted Lewis.

"Yes, well, I'm also in forensics."

"I didn't realize forensic anthropologists know so much
about"-Trey waved a hand-"... this stuff."

"You pick up stuff when you hang around medical examiners."

But he was right. She had picked up quite a bit of knowledge
that didn't have direct bearing on her speciality. It's the puzzle that
pulls her to it, she thought to herself. The challenge of the puzzle.

"Why did you answer the question about Denton's business?"
asked Lewis.

"Investigators like to engage people around a crime scene in
casual conversation. It's a low-key method of investigation. It can
be disarming to witnesses or suspects who will sometimes reveal
important information without realizing it. I was just trying to separate Denton from us. No use inviting speculation."

"What a life you have, Chamberlain. I had no idea," said Trey.

"Ah, here you are."

They looked up to see Ramirez standing in the doorway.
Lindsay wondered how long he had been there.

"Come to grill us?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes. You first. Can we use this room?"

Trey and Lewis rose and left, looking a trifle peaked.

"Your bosses don't look too good."

"They just I.D.'d a body, a possible drowning victim at that.
That's not a pleasant task."

"No, it isn't. This looks like a big operation. How many people
are on this project?"

"Let's see." Lindsay ticked off the categories on her fingers.
"There are sixteen divers in the survey crew. They look for artifacts
that aren't within the dam site. The day excavation crew has fifteen
members, and ten night crew, and six crew are in charge of handling the ship's timber. We have two on-site conservators-they're
handling the artifacts. One person analyzing skeletal remainsthat's me. One translator of archaic Spanish. Three people doing
flotation from the site, and one person doing chemical flotation.
Two people monitoring the weather. That doesn't count the night
watchmen or John West's crew. I don't know how many people he
has, but they monitor the dam. Nor does it count the custodial staff
that come every other day to take care of the building. There used
to be a nurse, but I understand she went back to Atlanta. Didn't
like the water."

"So that's what? At least fifty-seven people?"

"Fifty-nine, counting Dr. Marcus and Dr. Lewis."

"That's a lot of people."

"This is a big project. Plus, there are all the biology people.
That's another four, I believe."

Ramirez seemed to mull those numbers over in his head a
moment. Lindsay wondered if he was going to interview all of
them. She doubted it.

"Now," he said, "I would like you to tell me what you know
about this Denton fellow."

"I met him once. He was drunk." Lindsay again related the
story about the run-in with Denton at the restaurant.

"He made you angry?"

"Yes. He was interfering with my dinner, and he was
insulting."

"What did you do?"

"I went to Eva Jones and told her to rein him in."

"And you thought that would work? A macho fellow like
Denton who called you a squaw would be reined in by a woman?"

"Yes, I thought it would work and it did."

"And your date. It made him angry?"

"I don't think so. Just annoyed."

"Annoyed. The man is the object of racist remarks, his date is
insulted, and he is only annoyed?"

"That was my take on it. I've seen John angry, and he didn't
look angry."

"At whom was he angry and why?"

"At me, for digging up his ancestors."

Ramirez looked puzzled for a moment. "He doesn't like archaeologists?"

"I didn't say that. He works for archaeologists, and he dates
me."

"If you dig up his ancestors, as you put it, why does he now
have such warm feelings for you?"

"Because I'm not now digging up his ancestors, I'm digging up
yours."

Ramirez was taken completely aback, and a smile played
around Lindsay's lips as she watched his surprised expression.

"Mine?"

"You're Cuban-American, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Well, the guys out there in the ocean settled Havana."

Ramirez, of course, knew how Cuba was settled, Lindsay
guessed, but he had not connected it with what they were doing in
the ocean.

"They were Spaniards heading for Havana before they somehow wound up here off the coast of Georgia." She had caught him
off guard, and she had interested him in their work. Lindsay was
pleased with herself.

"Do you know anything else about Denton?"

"No, but I suspect Evangeline Jones knows him well."

"Tell me about this Evangeline Jones. Who is she?"

"Depending on who you talk to, she is either an international
collector or a looter of antiquities."

"Is that what she's doing here?"

"You'll have to ask her. We spend long hours wondering what
she's doing here. Whatever it is, she's spending a lot of money
doing it."

"And Denton's bid, was his the low bid? Was he justified in his
anger?"

"Yes, and no, but Drs. Marcus and Lewis can tell you more
about that."

"I would like to talk with John West, too."

"He's out at the dam. We need to go back out there to check on
the crew. If it would be convenient, you could come with us and
talk to him there."

He would, Lindsay knew. She had him hooked.

"'ZEUS IS As big as a football stadium," said Ramirez as they
descended into the middle of the cofferdam.

"One hundred fifty feet by eighty feet on the inside," remarked
Trey.

Lindsay led Ramirez over to an area near a pump. Trey and
Lewis followed, content to let Lindsay handle the FBI agent.