One Grave Too Many (9 page)

“What about this boyfriend of hers?”

“They’re looking for him. He hasn’t been home in weeks. His parents don’t know where he is. Right now, it’s frustrating, being an Atlanta detective. I have no jurisdiction whatsoever even though I live in Rosewood, and the homicide guys refer to me as just a PC.”

“Politically correct?”

“Paper cop.”

“Oh.” She could see that hurt him. “What about the bone?”

“They don’t think it’s relevant, especially now that they know George just picked it up in some woods. It could have come from anywhere. Star looks much better to them.”

“One human bone’s still a body. It’s rather a large coincidence, them finding a human bone a few days before they get killed. I think it’s important.”

“And . . .” He stopped, looked at her and frowned and looked away.

“And what?”

“And I don’t know. For some reason they don’t believe you.”

“You’re kidding. In that case, find another osteologist to look at the bone.”

“Would you write up a report on it? Please? In the meantime, I’ll send a photograph of it to a couple of other forensic anthropologists. They can ID it from a photo?” Diane nodded. “If Detective Warrick doesn’t want the information, I can give it to Star’s attorney when they find her.”

“Bring me the bone back and I’ll write a report.”

 

The museum looked big and empty after seeing it filled with people the evening before. Diane was glad the party was behind her as she walked through the rooms looking at each exhibit for any damage or forgotten cups of punch. The cleaning crew did a thorough job. Now it was time for the real task: getting the newly remodeled museum ready for the general public. The thought was uplifting. She felt good. New job, new clothes. She unconsciously smoothed the front of her navy blazer, briefly wondering if she looked like she was more accustomed to jeans and tees rather than the pantsuit and silk shirt she had on.

More of the staff started arriving, and Diane girded herself for a long day. Several faculty of Bartrum University were coming to claim offices in the museum. Her watch said it was only 9:15. She could get about thirty minutes of paperwork done while it was still relatively quiet. She met Andie in the hall on the way to her office, notebook and pen in hand.

“Great party, huh?” said Andie.

“Not bad. Most everyone seemed pleased with what they’re paying for. When did you get to bed?” Diane unlocked the door to her office and Andie followed her in and sat down in front of her desk.

“Didn’t. Some of us went out. We were all dressed up and didn’t want to waste it.”

Diane sighed. Gone were the days when she could stay up all night and not feel like she had a hangover the next morning. “Donald put the wrong plants in the exhibit.”

“I know. He said you need to learn how to save money. I didn’t want to tell you until after the party.”

“And he wonders why I don’t appoint him assistant director. Any other stuff you were waiting to tell me?”

“Yes. The rock woman and the bug guy are complaining that their offices are too small.”

“The geologist and the entomologist?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Rocks and bugs.”

“Their offices are off their respective exhibit rooms. I don’t think we can rearrange everything to suit them. Besides, they have offices on campus. They can make do.”

“I think they’re just bugged because the collection managers have larger offices.”

Diane rolled her eyes. “Anyone else?”

“The archaeologist wants to put in an exhibit on ancient Egypt.”

“What? She’s not even an Egyptologist.”

“Not she—he,” said Andie. “
She
got a job at some university out of state. The archaeology department offered the museum appointment to one of their emeritus faculty members.”

“Jonas Briggs?”

“That’s right. Real sweet guy.”

“Look, we aren’t adding many cultural items yet. We only have exhibits of the Paleo-Indian because of his interaction with megafauna. We’ll have to ask them to appoint someone else.”

“He really is a nice guy. He knows a lot about Paleo-Indians too. And he’s been telling me some really cool stuff about ape archaeology.”

“Ape archaeology?”

“Yeah, it’s interesting. These archaeologists are excavating sites where apes have lived for centuries.”

“Finding anything?”

“Tools.”

“Tools? Is this a joke?”

“No, really, he showed me the article in
Scientific American.
It would make a great exhibit.”

Diane shook her head. “I’ll talk with him. In the meantime, I don’t want to see any requisition forms for mummies.”

“Got it.”

“Next.”

“The exobiologist wants to know if he can put a sunroof in the attic for his telescope.”

Diane stared at Andie openmouthed. “You mean that the biologist they sent us is—”

Andie held up her hands. “Just kidding. A little bit of
X-Files
humor.”

“After the Egyptologist, I thought you were serious. Is that everything?”

“So far.”

“Good. If those are all our problems, we’re very lucky. I think we can have this place ready for the general public in a couple of weeks. Let me know when the workmen arrive to move the rest of the paleo exhibits. And if you see Donald, tell him I want to see him—immediately.”

“Oh, this arrived for you a minute ago.” Andie read the label. “It’s from Frank Duncan.”

“This must be the bone.”

“Bone? I thought you weren’t . . .”

“So did I.”

“You know, we have room to set you up a lab.”

“No,” Diane snapped. “This is the last one.”

Diane sat in her office and rolled the bone in her hand, feeling its rough surface with her sensitive fingers. Only four inches of broken bone, yet it
was
a body. If the bone had any distinguishing mark and she had an identical X ray, it could provide an identity. She took the photographs from the envelope and went over the measurements again.

Nothing had changed. The bone appeared to be male, but it certainly didn’t have to be. Some females are quite large and very strong. Whoever it was was also young. The young shouldn’t die.

Diane closed her eyes for a moment. The image of dirt-covered, tangled bones standing out in relief flickered before her. Dirty little ragged dresses, tiny shoes, broken bones and skulls with bullet holes, all shoved together in one mass grave. Wickedness still caught her by surprise, even though she had looked upon its work so many times.

She opened her eyes and reached for the telephone. She had to call information to get the number, and spell the name several times, but she finally reached Ranjan Patel.

“Ran, this is Diane Fallon.”

“Diane Fallon, yes. Good to hear from you. What can I do for you?”

“I have a favor that I hope you can do.”

“I will try.”

“I have a bone I’d like to have a stable-isotope analysis performed on.”

“I see. Tell me about this bone.”

Diane explained to him about the bone Frank had brought to her. “I know this is a long shot. . . .”

“But interesting. I’d like to see if it helps you in your investigation. Perhaps there is a paper in it. Do send it along. I only need two grams for the test.”

“Is there any chance you can do some oxygen and hydrogen ratios?”

“I was about to ask if you would like those too.”

“Do you think they would be useful?”

“I think it would be useful to try. Send another gram.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks, Ran.”

“If you find the rest of him, send along some teeth. Not much work has been done in this area with teeth. Incredible, since they are a protected environment in the skeleton, so to speak. You will do this?”

“I will. I hope we do find the rest of him. Thanks.”

She hung up the phone and focused on the bone again. She sniffed it. It wasn’t ancient, but she knew that; too much of the internal structure was still intact. She grabbed her hand lens and looked into the opening in the shaft, down into the marrow cavity. Something odd about the shape inside caught her eye, something that didn’t look like the lattice structure of cancellous bone—the internal part of bone where the red marrow is housed. Using a set of long tweezers, she pulled gently at the object. A wire-thin curved wisp of bone came out easily. It was almost invisible lying on the white sheet of paper on her desk.

Diane rummaged through her drawers until she found a glass vial for the tiny bone, dropped the bone inside and snapped on the cap. She gathered her bone specimens and her notebook and headed across to the faunal lab, located off the zoological exhibits, where there was a dissecting microscope and a respectable reference collection of numerous species of animal skeletons.

The animal room, as they called it, was a large room that once had rows of iron beds along each side from when it was a hospital. The beds were now replaced by glass enclosed dioramas of animals native to the South-east. A display of two mounted coyotes in their wooded habitat guarded the door leading to the faunal lab.

A slim, athletic woman in her thirties sporting cutoffs and a tee shirt, with her brown hair haphazardly piled and clipped on her head, stood just inside the lab, blocking the entrance. “Excuse me, but do you know who’s in charge here? I need to speak to someone about my office.”

Diane remembered Andie telling her about the various complaints of the new arrivals. “Are you our geologist?”

The woman glanced around the room at the animal skeletons lining the room, waiting to be placed with their stuffed counterparts. “No.”

Not the geologist. Another who was dissatisfied with her office space. Diane paused a moment, eyeing the woman from head to toe. “How do you do? I’m Diane Fallon, the director. You must be Dr. Mercer, the zoologist.”

“Yes. Dr. Sylvia Mercer. What gives? How am I supposed to use an office the size of a shoe box and open to public view?” She pointed to a large window on the left side of the lab that framed one side of her office—ample office space, Diane thought. But then, she was accustomed to having an office in a tent for weeks on end. “Whose office is that?” She pointed to an office across the lab. Also with a picture window, but obviously larger.

“That’s the collection manager’s office. She’s here all day.”

“I really need an office larger than this one.”

“The arrangement I made with your university was to provide office and lab space to supplement what your department provides you. Your office is off this lab and near the zoology exhibits. The lab isn’t open to the public, so you have complete privacy. You’re free to put bookcases or storage here in the lab if you have any spillover from your office. I think you’ll find the convenience outweighs any problem of size. I also understand you will be spending a few hours a week here, and that the bulk of your time will be spent at the university.” Diane kept her voice calm and even. She hoped the smile on her face didn’t look fake.

“That’s just it. Since I was getting an office here, the department head took my office and put me in another broom closet of an office space. Now I have two places to keep my brooms.”

“Oh. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I was hoping to add to what the faculty who come here had, not take away.”

“You’re not familiar with universities, are you?”

“Not since I was a student.” Diane looked around the room, searching for a compromise.

“I’ve got this research I’m working on. I really need more room. I’m sharing space at the university, and they want me to move my research here, but it looks like I’ll be sharing lab space with everyone here too. Taking this position has cut my resources more than in half.”

Diane turned back to her. “No, this is your lab.”

“Mine? This is my lab?”

“And the collection manager’s. He has to use it too. But as curator of animal collection, you’re in charge.”

“What about the geologist?”

“She has her own lab.”

“And the entomologist?”

“All the collections have their own labs.”

Sylvia looked around the room again. “I . . . that’s different. I thought I had to share this space with everyone. They said this was a small museum.”

“It is, in terms of the number and variety of collections, but it’s a big building. It was decided that providing lab space would make a smaller museum desirable.”

“Don’t tell my department. They’ll want to send over some of the tenured faculty to replace me.”

“It’ll be our secret.” Diane handed her the vial. “This looks like a fish rib to me. Is it?”

Dr. Mercer took the vial and peered at the thin bone inside. “Yes, it is. I can’t tell you what kind of fish. Ribs are not really distinguishable among fish. Possibly bass or trout. Where did it come from? Sometimes that’s a clue.”

“Inside the marrow cavity of a broken human clavicle.”

Sylvia Mercer glanced at Diane and back at the fish bone. “How odd. Is it some ritualistic burial practice? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“No. This is a modern suspicious death.”

Sylvia silently looked at Diane, her brow creased in deep furrows. Diane felt some explanation was warranted.

“Before I became director of the museum, I was a forensic anthropologist.” Diane took the bag containing the section of clavicle from her blazer pocket. “A detective asked me to look at this bone that was found by someone. The fish bone was inside it.”

“Yes, I think I heard someone say you’re an osteologist. I must say, you were thorough if you found it inside that bone.”

Not thorough enough
, thought Diane,
or I would have found it the first time around
.

“I appreciate the identification. Choose any type of window treatment for your office that will work best for you. Tell my assistant, Andie Layne, and she’ll order it.” Diane stepped past Dr. Mercer and sat down at a dissecting microscope. She removed the broken clavicle from its bag, placed it on the stage and focused on its surface.