by Lynn Bulock
What did he do now? For a brief, flashing moment the cool, dark sanctuary of a church in Illinois flashed through his mind. The place had been far from welcoming; at least it seemed cold and remote in the memories he’d carried around for nearly a quarter century. Kneeling there in a back pew was the last time Josh remembered praying.
“What do You want me to do?” he asked out loud into the darkness. He got no clear sense of an answer. Still, what he’d said was like a prayer. Maybe it even was a prayer. All Josh knew for sure is that he needed to talk to somebody. Here in the dark in his car talking to God sounded about as reasonable as anything else.
“I need help. For the first time in my life I feel like I can’t make it on my own and I don’t know where to go.” Josh ran out of words at that point, and it was starting to feel strange to talk out loud in the car to someone he wasn’t sure existed. Still, it gave him an odd sense of peace and he went home wondering what would happen next.
Four days after the phone call that took her out to the park, Kyra was back in her lab. Piecing together what the team had found in the flood-damaged park might take weeks. The bones were still being gently cleaned and treated, every possible hint of evidence being gleaned from them and from the scene before she would start the arduous task of trying to figure out what had happened. It could take another two or three weeks from that point just to be able to give a reasonable estimate of who the people they’d found had been. And even then, identification would be sketchy. Nothing that could have identified any particular individual easily had turned up at the site. No purses, wallets or other identification came out of the mud; only a few scraps of mostly rotted clothing. Time and the elements had been on the side of whoever had concealed these deaths.
I could really use some help here, Lord, Kyra prayed silently as she looked at the puzzle in front of her. Already she felt a responsibility to find the answers to who these people had been in life, where they belonged. Part of that was simple: they were children of God who hadn’t deserved to be left dead or nearly dead out in a deserted field someplace. But now she would have to find out if they had enough evidence to discover if the three partial skulls they’d found belonged to the only victims. Please, she prayed, show me the way to give glory to You and dignity to these children. It was going to take an incredible amount of effort and more work than she was capable of doing alone.
As Kyra bent over the stainless-steel lab table to examine the first few pieces of bone released to her, she was aware of someone standing behind her. “Allie?” she asked softly, not wanting to take her eyes off the task at hand.
“Yes, Doctor…I mean, Kyra. I hate to bring you another problem, but you got an e-mail from one of the lieutenants that I think I need to read to you.” Kyra got so much e-mail each day that her assistant did some of the sorting and prioritizing. If she said this one had to be heard right now, it must be fairly urgent.
Allie’s voice sounded small and hesitant, at odds with the young woman’s normally confident demeanor and businesslike gray slacks and pale blue oxford blouse under her white lab coat. Communication from somebody at that rank in the state police did not normally mean good news.
“Just give me the worst of it if you want to,” Kyra said, laying out delicate hand bones and trying to determine whether they all might have come from the same person.
“Okay. Well.” There was a pause as if Allie was scanning the message she held. “What it boils down to is that the state and the federal parks people are arguing over who should be handling this case. The land where everything was found is right on the border of the park where it meets some state property.”
Kyra groaned. “Don’t tell me they’re going to take this away from us now.” The hardest work of recovering the evidence had already been done, and amazingly the media hadn’t caught wind of things yet. Even though she felt a little overwhelmed by the task at hand, she didn’t want to let go of the challenge just yet. Without media attention she could probably get a good week of work in and be much closer to identifying these kids.
There was a little more silence from Allie while papers rustled. “Not exactly. It kind of looks like they want to let you handle the investigation and run it out of the state lab, but give you some help.”
“Oh, great. I’ve had federal government ‘help’ before and it can get mighty tricky. In fact, I can only think of one really helpful federal employee I’ve ever met…” Kyra’s words trailed off as she felt her cheeks flush pink. Thinking about that particular person stirred her up more than working with these bones. She definitely didn’t want to turn around and face Allie right this minute, or even prolong this particular train of thought long enough for her perceptive assistant to ask who she was talking about.
“Well, I hope his name is Joshua Richards, then,” Allie said, causing Kyra to raise her head quickly, banging into the bright light she’d lowered to give herself some aid in seeing distinctions in the bone. “Because that’s who they’re sending to help you.”
What was that old phrase? Kyra asked herself as she rubbed the back of her head where it had struck the stainless-steel lamp. Oh, right. Be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it. “No one can tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Kyra muttered under her breath. Maybe next time she would frame her request for help a little more specifically.
She realized that Allie was still standing behind her, waiting for some kind of answer. She tried to calm herself down. “That’s okay, I guess. I know him, anyway, and he’s a good investigator. Or at least he used to be.” There’d been some talk of a personal crisis a while back, before she’d left the university, but Kyra couldn’t remember exactly what had happened. They’d grown close during an investigation a year ago, and then drawn apart just as quickly. “So how quickly should I expect this help, anyway?”
“Soon. It looks like the lieutenant sent you an e-mail instead of a letter because they expect Agent Richards by the end of the week.”
“But it’s already Wednesday,” Kyra said, trying not to let her voice rise any higher toward panic pitch. She needed more than a day or two to prepare mentally to work with Joshua Richards again. He was attractive and disturbing and she didn’t need to deal with either of those things right now.
“Very astute, Dr. Elliott,” a deep voice drawled from the doorway. Kyra bumped her head on the light overhead for the second time in less than ten minutes, which was definitely going to leave her with a sore spot. So much for that day or two to prepare, Kyra thought. Joshua was here now whether she liked it or not.
TWO
Josh looked around the sterile space that passed for Kyra Elliott’s office. “So, you took this job voluntarily?” he asked, trying not to sound skeptical. The whole building was new, but had no charm or personality. Everything was concrete and steel, probably easy to keep clean and contamination-free, but even starker than he remembered Kyra’s university lab being.
“I most certainly did,” she answered, chin stuck out as if asking for an argument. “They were looking for someone to expand their forensic anthropology department and I was drawn to the prospect of doing criminal work full time.”
He turned that over in his mind, trying to make sense of it. Kyra hardly looked old enough to have her doctorate in forensic science, much less be a sought-after expert in her field. Sure, he’d used her skills when he’d needed some off-beat knowledge for the FBI more than once. And he probably owed her a great deal for helping put his personal quest to an end. Still, she looked more like an undergrad in biology with her willowy frame and huge green eyes. He even remembered one case they’d worked on together in Indiana where they’d almost been denied entrance to a restaurant with a bar attached because the manager had to be convinced that Kyra was really over twenty-one.
“I guess I could ask you the same thing,” Kyra said, drawing his attention back to the present. “Did you actually volunteer for this particular assignment?” Her brow furrowed as she leaned back in h
er high-backed desk chair, and then she smiled slightly. “You didn’t, did you? Joshua, what did you do or say to somebody in the bureau to get you shunted over here?”
Joshua felt his cheeks flush. “You don’t want to know,” he told her, meaning every word of it. He had no desire to tell Kyra all the stupid choices he’d made in the last eight months. He was probably lucky that the worst his actions had earned him was this dead-end investigator’s assignment. If this was the answer to that prayer or whatever it had been in his car a few days ago, it was a pretty goofy answer. “So fill me in on what we’ve got so far. Nobody at the bureau seemed to have a lot of information.”
“That’s because there isn’t much yet. Some bird-watchers in a park were tracking something rare when they came upon bones stirred up by the spring floods. We’ve recovered about all we’re going to. We’re cleaning the bones carefully, and I’m trying to sort out how many individuals are involved. If I had to speculate at this point, I’d say we’re looking at three young women somewhere between twelve and eighteen.”
Josh tried to stifle the groan he felt building, but wasn’t entirely successful. “But that’s just speculation, right? And you don’t even know for sure how long these victims have been dead.”
“There were just enough remnants of clothing that I can tell you they’d probably been there no longer than twelve years, and probably not less than seven. So I can head off any questions about this being an ancient burial site, or Civil War remains. Believe me, you’re not the first person to hope for that. These were kids who were alive in the early nineties for sure.”
“How long before you can get more specific than all this?” He stopped himself before saying more, like “all this guessing” because he knew that would only stir up the scientist in Kyra.
“We’ll have a few more answers by Monday. At least by then I will know for sure how many people we’re talking about, and probably give you a better estimate of age, size and ethnic makeup.”
“So what do you want me to do until then?” Josh dreaded her answer, because it was likely to involve a lot of pointless, boring research.
Kyra huffed. “I know that look, Agent Richards. You’re already bored with this assignment and it hasn’t even started yet. I suggest you get used to the idea that you need to spend the next few days searching for statistics on teens that have gone missing in the time period we’re targeting. If you want to make it easier on yourself, just start with the Baltimore-Washington corridor in the most likely four years.”
How did she do that? Josh had forgotten how quickly Kyra tuned into his ways of thinking, and how different they were in their opinions. He sat up straighter in the office chair and tried to look more attentive. “Is there a spare office for me to use?”
Kyra shrugged. “Afraid not. We’ve got researchers doubling up already in this department. I can let you have a corner in here.” Her quick smile gave Joshua a start of surprise. “That way I can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re really checking out the missing kids’ stats.”
“Great,” he said weakly. Maybe this assignment would teach him to improve his attitude with his supervisors in the bureau. A few weeks of working closely with Kyra Elliott would either reform him or send him over the edge.
Kyra studied Josh Richards as he sat working at the laptop she’d been able to provide for him his second day on the job. He’d been in her office two days now and she was still taking in the difference in him since the last time they’d been on a case together over a year ago. Before, Josh had been sharp and distant with most people, focused on the particulars of his job and little else. But he’d had self-confidence that oozed out his pores to go along with that aloof attitude. Kyra had always wanted to try to get past the aloofness and explore the person with the attitude, but he never let that happen.
Now Joshua sat in his office chair, close to the computer. He was so quiet; no music playing, nothing personal to brighten this corner he worked in. There was almost a defeated slump to his shoulders, a posture that Kyra would never have associated with Josh before. “How’s it going?” she asked softly from where she sat a few feet away doing paperwork.
“Okay, I guess,” he said without looking up. “There are a couple of dozen missing teens listed in the corridor during those four years you pointed out. If you’re sure your victims are female, that takes out a few but leaves plenty more. Any ideas yet how many we’re looking at?”
“I think we have three individuals,” Kyra said, trying to give Josh a reminder that these were people they were talking about. “And they’re definitely female. I can tell from the brow ridges on the skulls and the size and shape of the pelvic bones.”
Joshua winced but didn’t turn away from his computer. “I guess that narrows it down a little bit. How specific are you going to be able to get, anyway?”
“You’ll probably be surprised by how much I’ll probably be able to tell you,” Kyra told him. “Haven’t you ever hung out with any of the forensic experts at the bureau?”
Joshua shook his head, and Kyra noticed that the light caught small glints of silver in the ginger of his temples. That was new and it disturbed her a little. What kind of stress did that to someone who had to be in his mid-thirties? “Not by choice. For the most part I took the information they had to give me and went back to my own investigations.”
Ouch. They were definitely going to have to work on Josh’s attitude toward people. Kyra tried to think of ways to help him start seeing the individual nature of those around him, whether they were crime victims or fellow workers. Maybe a little education was the answer. “Do you want to know more?” Kyra wasn’t sure what his response was going to be, or why she was so interested. In the past two days Joshua had come in on time, done his job quietly and left when the rest of the day shift did. If he’d gotten to know anyone yet it would be news to her.
“I’m not sure. What would that entail?” His normally pale face appeared even paler. Why hadn’t she ever noticed that he had a dusting of light freckles across his cheekbones? As his face blanched a little, they stood out in relief.
“Depends on how much you want to know. I won’t force you into anything you don’t want to be part of.” Kyra gave him a quick smile, expecting him to answer with one in return, but he stayed solemn. “I think most of it is really interesting, but not everybody does.” She thought about bringing up the young state policeman a few days back, but held back. That might just bring out Josh’s competitive nature and she didn’t want him doing anything just to prove that he could best somebody else.
“I’d like to know a little more, but I’ll warn you up front that I don’t handle detailed medical stuff very well. I know there won’t be blood involved here, but there have to be plenty of other things that will bother me in your labs.”
“That’s possible. I’ll sketch things out in broad terms for you and if you want to know more about an area, ask me, okay?”
Josh nodded, a tiny bit of color coming back into his face. His shoulders began to lower from the tense position they’d held almost up to his ears, and he looked like somebody who was really listening.
She took a deep breath and prayed silently for guidance and wisdom. “So, the first thing that we do when all we’ve got to work with is bones is try to find as many teeth as possible. Even if we can’t match dental records to a victim, the condition of their mouth tells us a lot about who they were.”
Josh’s brow wrinkled for a minute, and then his expression cleared. “Okay, that makes sense. I guess people out on the fringes of things don’t really have great dental insurance or anything, do they?”
“They don’t.” Kyra was glad that he had picked up on what she said this quickly. “When you’re down on your luck there are a lot of things more important than dental care, like eating and having a roof over your head. We can also tell a lot about age from looking at somebody’s teeth. If their third molars have erupted they’re probably past eighteen.”
“Thir
d molars. Does that mean wisdom teeth?” He really did catch on fast. Now, if she could just somehow steer that intellect into learning a little compassion…
“Right. And one of the reasons I could figure out that these three girls were younger than eighteen was that none of them show any signs of having wisdom teeth coming through to the surface.”
“What if you don’t have any teeth?”
“Then it’s a lot harder to come up with an individual’s identity. We can figure out whether they’re male or female, and approximate size and age, but without teeth most skeletons are hard to identify. The only other help is if someone has had some kind of bone reconstruction that led to plates or rods being left in their body, or if injuries that show up on X rays leave a mark.”
“Do you have enough teeth to identify these three girls?” Kyra still wasn’t sure if his question came out of concern or merely the hope that the work he was doing wouldn’t be in vain.
“I think so. At least two of the three have had some dental work, so if we can match up X rays of a missing person we’ll be okay.”
“And the third one?”
“That’s going to be a bit more difficult. She should have gotten some dental work, but never did. There are unfilled cavities in a couple of her teeth and she could have used braces. I’m working on one angle that may help identify her, though.”
“Okay, you just admitted that without teeth or dental records it’s hard to identify somebody. Did she have broken bones, or some kind of screws somewhere?”
“No, but hers is probably the most recent of the three sets of bones to be left where they were. And there’s one other identification help if you’re dealing with female bones.” She stopped there, giving Josh a little time to figure out what she was talking about on his own.
