LC 02 - Questionable Remains

by Beverly Connor

  "Surely they are already buried," said Lindsay gently.

  "That's true," said Miles. "But the sheriff took pictures when they were found, and I had them blown up." Miles picked up the manila envelope from the table and opened it. Grace averted her eyes.

  Lindsay looked at the black-and-white photographs he handed her. The first one showed a pile of rocks with blue jeans and boots sticking out from under the rubble. The next photograph showed three individuals who had been crushed under the rubble, looking all the more flattened because they had been skeletonized. The other photographs were close-up shots of bony hands that were still articulated. The skull of one of the skeletons had rolled away and come to rest about two feet from the body. Miles identified that skeleton as Ken Darnell, Grace's brother. The other skulls were apparently still attached by remaining ligaments. The photographs were good, but the skeletons were clothed.

  "Do you have any photographs of the bones by themselves?"

  "No, that's all we have. We know it's not much," said Miles.

  "Who identified the bones?"

  "The authorities in Tennessee," answered Miles.

  "Do you know what person? Was it the medical examiner? Did they show the bones to a forensic anthropologist?" asked Lindsay.

  "We don't know that," said Miles. "We were lucky to get these photographs."

  "Were you asked to identify any of his belongings?"

  Miles nodded. "Yes. We went up to Tennessee, and they showed the effects to us and Jennifer, his wife. They were Ken's, without a doubt."

  "You said they were found last month. When did they disappear?"

  "February 26 two years ago was the last day anybody remembered seeing any of them," Miles said.

  "It's been two very hard years," said Grace.

  "What exactly do you want me to do?" asked Lindsay.

  "Dean Howard, our sheriff, is a friend of Sheriff Duggan over at Merry Claymoore. Sheriff Duggan told him that you are really good with bones."

  Lindsay wanted to tell them that yes, she was pretty good with bones, but she needed some bones to work with. Here she had only pictures of bones, and they didn't show much. Instead, she asked, "Why do you think someone murdered your brother, Grace?"

  "The insurance. He and his wife were partners in the sporting goods store, and she had insurance on him for the business, and she also had personal insurance on his life. Since he died by accident, she got over a million dollars."

  Lindsay raised her eyebrows. "That is a lot of money, but-"

  "Like Miles said, she was seeing somebody else while they were married. I think he might have helped her," said Grace.

  "Do you know who she was seeing?" asked Lindsay.

  Grace shook her head. "A friend saw them together. He had dark hair, that's all I know."

  "She is a businesswoman," said Lindsay. "The person she was seen with may have been a client or a business associate."

  "You don't kiss clients or business associates," Grace Lambert said emphatically.

  "All right," said Lindsay. "However, none of what you have told me is evidence of murder."

  "She got the money to open their sporting goods store from insurance money when her first husband died," Grace said.

  "How did he die?" Lindsay asked.

  "A heart attack," Grace answered.

  "Was the death investigated?" Lindsay asked.

  "Not that I know of," Grace replied.

  "It could have been a heart attack," Lindsay told her gently.

  "Look," said Miles. "I know we haven't got much to go on. We don't even have his bones. But we thought maybe they'd give information to you where they wouldn't to us."

  "You just want me to have a look at the medical examiner's report?" Lindsay was still not sure what they wanted her to do.

  "Yes, and anything else you can find out." Grace looked down at her hands and back up at Lindsay. "Maybe there's something in the pictures. Maybe they took other pictures they didn't show us. Maybe there's something you can find. He was my brother, and I have to do all that I can."

  Lindsay understood that. She had a brother, estranged from their family, but he was her brother, and even if she wasn't his favorite person, she loved him and was glad to know that he was somewhere in the world.

  "Tell me what county he died in, and I'll see what I can discover."

  Both Grace and Miles looked relieved.

  It was almost ten when Lindsay went to the guest room to get ready for bed. She was about to turn down the covers when she heard a gentle tap-tap at the door and opened it. Marilee was standing there in her nightgown.

  "Hello, Marilee. Do you need something?"

  Marilee came into the room. "Why is Mommy crying? Is it for her brother?"

  "Were you listening?" asked Lindsay. Of course she was, Lindsay thought. When you're a kid, you make it a point to listen to adult conversations. And a child as smart as Marilee could understand a lot of what they talked about, but she still had a five-year-old's fears and anxieties, and it worried her when her mother cried.

  Marilee nodded. "Are you going to look for him? Will that make Mommy feel better?"

  "I'll try to find out what happened to him," Lindsay said as she carried Marilee back to her room.

  "I hope you find something," said Marilee.

  Lindsay tucked her in. "I can't promise anything. Sometimes a person just can't find the answer. But I'll try."

  Lindsay awoke early to the confusing sound of a rooster crowing and the aroma of bacon frying. She smiled as she realized where she was and that today she would be starting, for sure, her long-needed vacation. She showered and dressed, stripped the sheets from her bed, and folded them to be put in the hamper before she carried her things to the Rover. On the way back to the house she met Grace at the door.

  "I've made breakfast. We can't send you on your way on an empty stomach."

  The Lamberts' kitchen was a sunny farm kitchen: large, bright, and shiny clean. Lindsay sat down to a meal of bacon, eggs, fried apples, and biscuits. Miles and Marilee were already at the table. Grace called for Joshua. He came carrying something wrapped in a handkerchief and handed it to Lindsay.

  "Joshua, what is that?" asked Grace.

  "That's what I want to find out."

  Lindsay unwrapped the object. It was a rusty piece of metal.

  "Joshua, don't bring that dirty thing to the table," Grace said.

  "Where'd you get it?" Miles asked.

  "I traded Marilee my tooth for it."

  "Joshua!" Grace cried.

  Marilee laughed.

  "Well, you guys would only give me a dollar. Marilee had a better deal."

  Miles shook his head with a bemused smile.

  During the conversation Lindsay had been examining the object. "Joshua, I'm not sure, but I believe you have a fivehundred-year-old Spanish knife."

  "What?" Marilee slapped her hand to her head.

  Grace, who had been passing the food around the table, stopped and looked over at the object again.

  "Wow, really?" said Joshua.

  "You're kidding," said Miles. "A five-hundred-year-old Spanish knife? You can tell that from that chunk of rusty metal?"

  "I'm not sure, but I believe it may be. We know that expeditions of the Spanish conquistadores passed through this general area, and I have seen similar objects recovered from archaeological sites in Georgia. If you like, I'll have it cleaned for you."

  "You can make it like new?" asked Joshua.

  "No, not like new, but it may clean up so that we can tell more about it."

  "Yeah, I'd like that."

  "Find a box for it, and I'll mail it to someone at the university."

  "Well, I like the tooth," said Marilee.

  Lindsay grinned at her. "It's a fine tooth."

  "Do you think the knife belonged to the gentleman in our field?" asked Grace.

  "It might very well have," said Lindsay. "There is no real way to know for sure."

  "Well, we just ha
ve all kinds of interesting things on the property," said Miles.

  "Dr. Terry said it's a rare tooth," said Marilee.

  "It is," said Lindsay, trying not to laugh.

  "Yeah, that's what he said about my back teeth," said Joshua. "What did he mean?"

  Lindsay wrapped the knife back up in the handkerchief. "Your tooth has an extra cusp," she said as she went to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. "Those are the lumps on the tooth that help you chew food."

  "Does that mean I chew better?" asked Joshua.

  "Could be," said Lindsay, taking her seat again and helping herself to fried apples that Miles passed to her. "This is good."

  "Grace is an excellent cook," said Miles, smiling at his wife.

  "My niece is coming over sometime this morning," said Grace. "I hope you're here to meet her. You'll like her. She's the first one in our family to get a college degree. We're real proud of her."

  "She's a lawyer," said Joshua.

  "She's dating the children's pediatrician," said Grace. "A really nice young doctor in that new medical building with Dr. Terry."

  "He's Dr. Tim," said Marilee.

  "Did someone mention my name?"

  Lindsay looked over to see a handsome man in his midthirties, dark blond hair, athletic build, coming into the kitchen carrying a bouquet of daisies and daffodils. "Kelley will be here soon. She called and said she was leaving the same time I did," he said, giving the flowers to Grace.

  "How pretty," she said.

  "Aren't they?" replied Dr. Tim. "I don't think Mrs. Stevens will miss them from her garden, do you?"

  "Oh, you ..." began Grace, cuffing him on the shoulder as she rose and took the flowers to put them in a vase. "This is Dr. Lindsay Chamberlain," said Grace. "Lindsay, this is Dr. Timothy Scott. Lindsay is a bone specialist."

  He reached across the table and shook Lindsay's hand, then sat down between Miles and Joshua. "Bone specialist?" he asked.

  "Lindsay identifies bones," said Miles.

  "Yeah, you won't believe what we found buried in the field," said Joshua.

  "What did you find?" he asked as he reached for a biscuit.

  "An old skeleton of a Christian with spools in his ears," said Marilee.

  Tim stopped in the middle of buttering his biscuit.

  Joshua and Marilee giggled at the look on his face. No one noticed the kitchen door opening until they heard the voice.

  "What are you doing here?" The statement was not loud, but it was severe enough that everyone stopped and looked.

  Lindsay was surprised to see Denny Ferguson's cocounsel standing in the Lamberts' kitchen glaring at her.

  "Kelley," said Grace. "What's wrong, dear? This is Dr. Lindsay Chamberlain. She's our guest."

  "We've met," said Lindsay. "Miss Banks and I were on opposite sides of a recent court case."

  "Oh." Grace smiled. "I guess that would happen in your lines of work. Lindsay came here to identify some bones for us."

  Kelley looked sharply at her aunt. "Excuse me?"

  "Yeah," said Joshua. "Dad was plowing and found some bones in the field. The sheriff called Dr. Chamberlain."

  "What was it?" Kelley asked.

  Dr. Tim nodded to her. "Marilee just explained to me it was a Christian with spools in his ears. I'm waiting to find out what that means. Sit down and pull up a biscuit and let them tell us." Tim looked at Lindsay. "Well, bone doctor?"

  Miles moved his chair and Kelley sat down beside Tim and gave Lindsay her attention. Her eyes sparked with antagonism as Lindsay explained about the skeleton and the Mississippian earspools.

  "I found the other one," said Marilee.

  "And the poor fellow was holding a rosary," added Grace.

  "A rosary?" said Tim.

  "That's how it appears," said Lindsay. "The bones and artifacts have to be examined in the laboratory to be sure."

  "I'm surprised you couldn't tell at a glance," said Kelley.

  "She pretty nearly did," said Miles, oblivious to Kelley's sarcasm.

  Lindsay could see that there was a good chance things were about to go downhill from here. She folded her napkin and rose. "I had better be on my way. I want to thank you for the hospitality you've shown me."

  "We enjoyed it," said Grace.

  "Yes," agreed Miles. "It has been a bit of excitement for us."

  "Let me get a box for the knife," said Joshua, jumping up from the table.

  Lindsay shook hands with Grace and Miles and said good-bye to Marilee, who wanted to shake her hand, too.

  "Come back and see us. Won't you?" said Marilee.

  "I'll tell you what," said Lindsay. "I'll return the knife personally when it is cleaned and analyzed."

  Lindsay went out to the Rover to wait for the package. She was followed shortly by Kelley Banks.

  "What's this Uncle Miles is telling me about your investigating my Uncle Ken's death?" she said.

  "Grace and Miles asked me to look into it for them," Lindsay told her.

  "Aunt Grace is having a difficult time with Uncle Ken's death. I don't want you dragging it out for her."

  "What are you talking about?" asked Lindsay.

  "Aunt Grace just can't accept his death. She has some notion that Aunt Jennifer had something to do with it. It's part of her grief. She needs to get over it, not have you feeding it. Aunt Grace has been through a lot. She doesn't need this."

  "I take it you don't think Ken's wife had anything to do with his death?"

  "No, I don't. Jennifer isn't the nicest of people, but she's not a murderer."

  "Why are you so hostile? Are you like this with every expert witness every time you lose a case?"

  Kelley narrowed her eyes. "I've never had an expert witness refuse to admit that there was room for doubt, when there so clearly was. You went beyond stubborn, to criminal, and I'm taking steps to have you sanctioned by the courts."

  "I couldn't express doubts I didn't have."

  "No doubts? You had-what-a ten-second glimpse of his mouth? Denny's a troubled kid, an easy target when someone is throwing blame around. You didn't know for sure it was him, but because you're labeled a so-called expert, they believed you. You know that you need more corroborating evidence to make a positive ID."

  "I said this at the trial, but I'll say it again. Denny Ferguson's lower incisors overlap in front, his lower left second premolar has a pronounced lingual lean. He was missing his right second mandibular molar and his upper incisors both had a mesial chip that made a V-shape in front. Even if he had a twin with the same occlusal pattern, his twin wouldn't have broken his teeth in the same way. Denny Ferguson has a distinctive tooth pattern that is unique to him that I recognized and could reproduce in a drawing. It was that drawing that both Albert Kim and the policeman recognized. I think you have a deep misunderstanding about identification. Take all the steps you want. You'll only look like a fool."

  They stared at each other silently for a moment. Finally Kelley spoke.

  "I didn't come out here to retry the case. I came for my aunt. She is a very nice, sensitive woman who loved her brother dearly. We all did. He was a bit of a rogue, but a fun guy and a good uncle. Grace is in denial about his death, a natural process of grieving, but she needs to get on with her life. I don't want her hurt."

  "I understand that. Your aunt and uncle asked me to do something for them, and I agreed. There is very little evidence, no bones to examine, only pictures of clothed skeletons. I will do my best for them, but I told them that there is little that I can do."

  "Aunt Grace has pictures? That must be horrible for her." Kelley looked at the house and wrinkled her brow. "I'll talk to Uncle Miles."

  "I don't think she's looked at them," said Lindsay. "She averted her eyes when Miles showed them to me."

  Kelley looked back at Lindsay. This time she had a softer expression and her eyes weren't like glittering daggers. "Can't you see what this is doing to her?"

  "I think she needs a closure she can deal with. Perhaps if I
see what the authorities in Tennessee have and I can tell her it was only an accident, she can go on."

  "Perhaps you're right." Kelley rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. "What's the story on the guy in the field; how did he get there?"

  Lindsay smiled. "I don't know. It's a mystery at the moment. I told your uncle I'd like to send some archaeology students to look around to see if they can find anything else. It won't take long. They'll try not to interrupt his planting."

  Kelley shook her head. "It's so late for planting, I suppose he was just plowing under the field. It's been so dry lately, I think he lost the last planting."

  Kelley seemed almost friendly. Lindsay hoped she had lost some of her hostility.

  Joshua came out of the house holding his package. Grace and Marilee followed with Miles and Dr. Tim. Lindsay gave Joshua a receipt for the object, and she promised to keep them informed about the progress with the remains and with Joshua's knife.

  As Lindsay drove off, she saw Kelley holding Marilee's hand. She felt a pang of envy. She shook her head and reached for her map to the first stop on her trip: Brian Parker's sixteenth-century Indian village.

  Chapter 4

  PIAQUAY ORDERED HIS men to set down the heavy ransom. He stood, grim faced, and waited for the devils. Concealed beneath deerskins on litters were the most treasured objects in his chiefdom. He heard the sounds, like birds: the calls of his scouts warning of the arrival. They were coming; marching the stolen women and children, they were coming.

  Esteban Calderon licked his lips when he saw the litters laden with treasure. He wanted to savor the moment he removed the hides, revealing the silver, gold, and diamonds. He was moments away from being wealthy, a few short weeks away from returning to Spain a prosperous man. He pictured himself riding down the streets of Madrid lined with cheering throngs of people, the iron shoes of his horse announcing his presence with every step, banners flying. Already he was thinking how he was going to keep it to himself. He watched his men, tired, gaunt, and as hungry for gold as they were hungry for food, hot in their armor, bitten unrelentingly by the insects of this sweltering world with its dark shadowy forests. And there was that stupid Pardo to outmaneuver. Calderon would have to exercise care if he was to keep his treasure.