Dead Secret dffi-3

by Beverly Connor

  Korey shifted his safety glasses to the top of his head. “Hello, Dr. F. We were just making some thin sections, but I can tell you right now, the wood hasn’t been in the water long at all.”

  “Months, weeks?” asked Diane.

  “Days,” said Korey. “It’s hardly wet, really-no more than from several days of hard rain.”

  “Thank you, Korey. Jin, photograph the sections, and, if you will, Korey, write up your findings. We need to show that they aren’t waterlogged.”

  “Sure thing. Glad to help.”

  Diane turned to Jin. “Did you find anything else at the quarry?” she asked.

  “Went down the deer trail like you said and followed it for about a quarter of a mile. Just beyond where the trail ends is an old residential section. Neva and I drove by and had a look. Most of the houses are old, but they’re being fixed up by some real estate developer. Some of them look kind of nice now. Anyway, thought the sheriff might want to canvass the area. Sombody may have seen something. You never know. Other than the sample of branches, we didn’t find anything new.”

  Just as well, thought Diane. They had enough to process already.

  Diane left Korey and Jin and went back out to where David was working with the photograph.

  “That tangle of wood that was on top of Scuba Doe has only been in the water a few days at most,” she said.

  “The bodies had been in the water only a few days,” David responded. “So what are you thinking, the brush was used to hold him down?”

  “Or stage the crime scene. Have you looked at the hose on the tanks yet? Do we know if it was really a twig that punctured it?”

  “No. Jin checked the tanks, but I don’t think he’s looked at the hose yet. I’ve checked for trace evidence, but that’s all. Let’s go have a look. I need to take a break from this.”

  The evidence for the quarry victims was laid out neatly on a table. The number of evidence bags had grown as David collected trace from the objects found at the scene. He put the air hose under a dissecting microscope and examined the hole in it.

  “It’s a puncture,” he said, “but not from a stick.” He stepped aside and gave Diane a look.

  She looked through the dual eyepieces at the compromised air hose, turned it over and examined the side opposite the puncture. The edge of the cut was smooth, probably made by a small knife that had gone through and pierced the other side of the hose.

  “The air hose is small. A slice with any size knife at all would have cut the hose completely in two. This had to be done carefully. I think maybe he was already knocked out when they cut the hose.”

  “It looks to me as if the scene was staged to look like an accident,” said Diane.

  “I agree,” said David.

  The elevator doors to the crime lab opened. Diane looked up through the several glass windows between the lab and the entrance. It was Sheriff Canfield. The sheriff of Rose County was a large man in his late fifties with a full head of brown hair and a warm smile. Diane buzzed him in. David went back to the photograph.

  “Howdy,” he said in a friendly manner. “You know, I don’t believe I’ve had the tour. Sheriff Braden tells me you have a fine facility here, though he says you lack a DNA lab.”

  Jin came out with Korey, and for a moment Diane thought he was going to tell the sheriff they were thinking about getting one. He had been pushing Diane for it, and she hadn’t decided.

  “We use the GBI’s DNA lab. They have a good one,” said Diane. “What brings you here? A tour?”

  “No. I wish. It’s about those bodies at the quarry lake. The ME’s not ready to call this an accident or natural causes. Although he said the scuba guy died of a heart attack, he has concerns about some bruises on his back, and something about his teeth being broken.”

  He tapped an envelope he was holding. “I have his report here. The other dead guy also had some bruises that concerned the ME. On the back of his neck, like someone was holding him down. So I came to see what you people found. The scuba diver was Jake Stanley. Rankin was able to confirm his identity from his dental records when he had a name. Frankly, I thought Jake was kind of young for a heart attack-just twenty-two.”

  “We haven’t analyzed all the trace evidence yet, but we don’t believe it was an accident either,” said Diane. She explained to him about the twigs and branches that had been in the water only as long as the two victims, and the air hose that was punctured with a knife.

  “I was afraid of that. You know, Rankin is pretty good. When he says something is suspicious, he means it.”

  “The teeth often get broken when the regulator’s forcibly pulled out,” said Korey. He looked suddenly embarrassed. “I mean, if you’re looking for foul play, that’s a clue.”

  Diane looked at Korey a moment before she spoke. He was obviously enjoying being on the other side of the building-the dark side, as she had heard some of the museum staff call it. Korey knew something about scuba diving and wanted to share.

  “This is Korey Jordan, my head conservator at the museum. Among other things he’s an expert on waterlogged wood, and we’re using that expertise on the quarry case.”

  “Expert on waterlogged wood. They got an expert on everything nowadays, don’t they?” The sheriff held out his hand. “Glad to meet you, son.”

  “Likewise.” Korey looked at Diane. “I’ve worked with divers. That’s how I know about the regulators.”

  “Find much work in waterlogged wood?” the sheriff asked, grinning, showing an even row of tobacco-stained teeth.

  “Between museums, archaeology and recovery of ancient logs, and the fact that there aren’t that many of us, I get a lot of consulting.”

  “Ancient logs?”

  “Like those hundred-year-plus old-growth logs discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior. When they’re dried out they’re some sweet wood.”

  Canfield shook his head. “I’m always amazed at the things I don’t know about.”

  Jin reached for the autopsy report. “Korey’s right. You get your mouthpiece jerked out, it can break your teeth.”

  He flipped through Rankin’s report, reading the findings. Diane looked over his shoulder.

  “The ME said something about that-the teeth being broken from the inside out. That must have been what he was talking about,” said the sheriff. “Now, Jin, didn’t you say there might be a second diver?”

  “There had to be one, unless the guy was a complete idiot.”

  “I’ve been talking to his relatives, and that would be the consensus,” the sheriff said. “He took some scuba-diving lessons, but the instructor kicked him out because he wouldn’t follow safety protocol.” He pronounced safety protocol as if he were quoting the instructor. “Jake Stanley has never been in bad trouble, but always on the fringes of it. Kind of guy who wants the quick buck, knows everything and won’t listen to anyone.”

  “And that’s why he’s dead,” said Jin.

  “You see something in the autopsy report, son?” the sheriff asked Jin.

  Diane directed Canfield and Jin to the table to sit down. Korey took his leave just as Neva came in carrying a box.

  “Have a seat, Neva,” said Diane. “We’re discussing the quarry crime scene.”

  Neva nodded to the sheriff and sat down.

  “The tests on his tissue samples and blood,” said Jin, answering Sheriff Canfield’s question, “had a high nitrogen level. He probably at least had nitrogen narcosis, which would have impaired his judgment considerably, plus caused a lot of other physical problems. That may be why, if he was attacked and his hose was cut, he didn’t put up much of a fight.”

  Diane nodded. “Some of the bruises are consistent with having those branches pushed down on him, which is what may have happened, rather than his getting tangled up in them.”

  The sheriff shook his head. “His family and friends that me and my deputies have talked with so far haven’t a clue as to what he was doing or who he was doing it with. They all sai
d he’d been acting real secretive lately.”

  “God, I’m good,” David shouted from his computer.

  Chapter 31

  As if choreographed, all their heads turned toward David, who sat with his hands folded across his chest, looking at his computer screen with the amount of satisfaction that Newton must have had when he discovered gravity, or college freshmen when they discover beer comes in a keg.

  “You have something to share?” asked Diane.

  “Sure, when I finish enjoying the moment,” said David.

  Neva smiled at Jin, who shook his head.

  “You’ve got to understand how difficult this was. You don’t just plug it into the software and ask it to make the picture clear. You have to work with it, tweak it, baby it-failing that, write your own algorithm.” He hit a key, which initiated the sound of the printer. “You see, the problem is, range between color values is different in, for example, the background and the foreground, so one-”

  “David,” said Neva. “We really appreciate the level of intelligence and skill it takes for you to do what you do, but I for one don’t understand what the heck you are talking about. Bottom-line it for us. Let’s see the picture.”

  “That would be the most impressive.” David scooped up the pages coming out of the printer and walked over to the table. “In case you have forgotten, here is the original.” He tossed it on the table.

  “You mean to tell me you made something of this?” said the sheriff. “There’s nothing here.”

  “It would seem not, but. . ” He made a flourish with his hand and began dealing the pictures like cards in a deck. “I printed one for each of you.”

  “I’ll be damned,” said the sheriff. “This can’t be possible.”

  “Wow,” said Neva. “Now, see, this is impressive.”

  “I’ll say,” agreed Jin.

  Diane examined the photograph. What was once a foggy blur was now something recognizable-not crystal-clear, but it didn’t have to be. It showed enough. It was an old car, the kind in old Eliot Ness gangster movies. What was so remarkable about the work that David had done was not that he brought out the car in the photo, but that, on the shelf of the backseat near the rear window, was unmistakably a human skull.

  None of them said anything as they studied the photograph. Finally, Jin broke the silence. “How long you think that’s been down there?”

  “I have to hand it to you and the lab here,” the sheriff said looking from the original photograph to David’s enhancement. “This is pretty amazing.” He laid the pictures down on the table. “So we know what our dead guys were looking for. What we don’t know is why anybody would care after all this time-if, of course, that’s why they were killed.” He shook his head. “Now I’ve got to figure out how I can get that thing up off the bottom.”

  “I’d like to go down and photograph it first,” said Jin. “Maybe even work the crime scene from down there. I scuba-dive.”

  The sheriff nodded. “How do you think we should go about this?”

  “We can call a company,” said David. “They’ll probably do something like inflate a balloon inside the vehicle-or tie special balloons to it. That’s how they got those enormously heavy antique logs that Korey was talking about off the bottom of Lake Superior. Depending on what condition it’s in, they’ll try to contain it in some way. Jin can tell us how the process works.”

  “Well,” the sheriff, said as he stood up. “thanks for finding me another crime scene-one that looks expensive.” He chuckled. Canfield went to the door and Diane buzzed him out.

  “Good job, David,” said Diane. “You did good. More than good. I’m really impressed.”

  “We all are,” said Jin. “I thought the sheriff’s eyes were going to drop out of his head.”

  “All the praise is appreciated-and deserved.” He made a flourishing bow. “Thank you.” He turned to Neva. “So, Neva, what’s in the box?” said David.

  “I found something at my house.”

  “Something that I missed?” cried Jin.

  “Sort of. In a way.”

  Jin’s look was a mixture of amazement and horror.

  “What is it?” said Diane.

  “You know that the intruder destroyed all my polymer clay figures. He also got into my workplace and messed up my clay, mashing it all together.” She took a twisted and folded piece of red, blue and brown clay and set it on the table with a clunk. She had clearly baked the mass of clay.

  “I went by my place before visiting Mike and sort of got to crying over my clay and looking at it. I think the intruder made a mistake. There was an imprint in the clay.”

  “Fingerprints?” asked David.

  “No, not fingerprints. I think he wore latex gloves.” She tapped the piece she had set on the table. “I found an imprint in here that looks like the folds of a glove. I baked this piece to make a mold. Then I put another piece of clay in the mold and made a cast. This is what I found.” She put another piece of baked clay on the table. This one was the color of terra-cotta pots.

  Diane picked it up and looked at the form in the clay. “It’s an impression of his fingers.”

  “I’m thinking that he took my clay and was mashing it together and made the impression with his four fingers. Look at the folds, kind of like the inside of a gloved hand, and the impression itself is sort of muted, as if it had something covering it. You can see the back side of a ring and fingernails. You can also see that one finger is badly damaged.”

  “Very good, Neva,” said Jin. He grinned at her.

  “I’ll put it in the evidence drawer for my house break-in,” said Neva.

  “Call Garnett,” said Diane. “Tell him what you found.”

  “Me?” said Neva.

  Neva had always been a little intimidated by Garnett. “You found it,” said Diane. “And it’s an identifying characteristic.”

  Neva nodded, then smiled. “Sure.”

  Diane turned to Jin. “What did the two of you find at the Jane Doe crime scene?”

  “A running shoe, a pair of socks, several small plastic buttons,” said Jin. “But I may have missed something.”

  “Get over it, Jin,” said Diane.

  “Yeah, Neva was there,” said David. “She would have found anything you didn’t.”

  Jin shrugged and continued. “We found some of the bones of her hands and feet and a few others we couldn’t identify. We photographed the place, but didn’t find anything but the bones. The deputy did a number on the site. Oh, I did get a bug out of his car. It’s a dermestid, just like we figured.”

  “Did you find a femur?” asked Diane. “Our Jane Doe is missing one.”

  Jin and Neva looked at each other. “No,” they said, shaking their heads.

  “Are there any nursing homes in the area?” Diane asked.

  “The closest one is ten miles. Sheriff Burns said no one is missing that he’s aware of,” said Jin. “The sheriff took us to the site. He’s pretty steamed at Deputy Singer, especially when he saw all the shovel marks in the ground and we told him how the bones arrived. Singer was supposed to have called us to photograph the scene and collect the bones.”

  “I got the impression,” said Neva, “that he won’t be having a job when he gets out of the hospital.”

  “Whenever that is,” said Jin. “Sheriff Burns said that besides his injuries, he developed some kind of rash thing.”

  “Urticaria, probably,” said David. He rubbed his arm unconsciously. “It’s a skin condition brought on by an allergic reaction to insect bites. He probably looks pretty bad about now.”

  “Poor guy. Is that all the crime scenes we have at the moment?” said Diane. She hoped that the murderers in the area would hold off killing anyone until her team got caught up.

  “I believe that’s it, Boss,” answered Jin. “Except Caver Doe.”

  “Caver Doe has waited fifty years. He can wait a little longer. Let’s get the analysis of these cases done as quickly as we can. Neva
, when you have time, I’d like to see some sketches of the faces of the victims. First up, get the autopsy photos of Quarry Doe and draw him a presentable face-preferably with his eyes open. We need to identify him. You okay with that?”

  Neva wrinkled her nose. “Sure. If I can slip on their fingers to get a print, I can draw their decaying faces.”

  “Jane Doe’s skull from the woods will be ready in a couple of days. It’s in with the dermestids now. And it looks like we’ll be getting another skeleton from the deep.”

  Chapter 32

  Diane spent the next day working only on museum business. Jin and Sheriff Canfield were arranging for a salvage company to raise the car from the bottom of the quarry lake. Most of the evidence from the various crime scenes had been processed. She’d checked Jane Doe’s bones. They were nearly ready for her to examine again. Things were going smoothly, and that always made her a little nervous. She went to bed that evening waiting for the other shoe to drop. Frank told her that she was turning into a pessimist.

  Early the next morning Diane stood on the bank of the quarry waiting for Jin to surface. A salvage crew was waiting with her. They had their own divers. Once Jin and his team came up, they would begin the job of raising the car from the bottom. The depth had been measured at 120 feet. The divers had to descend and ascend in increments to adapt to the changes in pressure.

  The plan in operation was for Jin to work the inside of the car and collect the bones and anything else that could get damaged or lost during the recovery. Diane had brought Korey with her. He stood talking to the salvagers and Sheriff Canfield.

  Korey had told Jin that when he put anything in a bag, to make sure he sealed enough water in to protect the evidence inside. Everything wet had to stay wet to prevent decomposition from exposure to the air-at least until they got all the information they needed from it.

  “As soon as the bones and artifacts come out of the quarry,” Korey said, “they’ll go into tubs of distilled water. Then we’ll dry the bones and prevent them from cracking with a series of alcohol baths, increasing the concentration until we reach a hundred percent alcohol. You can go ahead and analyze the bones if you want to. It won’t hurt to take them out of the water for a short amount of time if you keep a spray bottle handy to keep them damp.”