Aaron Elkins - Make No Bones

Getting up was easier than he expected. The queasiness was uncomfortable, but he seemed to have suffered nothing worse than some abrasions on his back and shoulders. They were only now beginning to sting, and he thought he could feel a few small tracks of blood. The back of his head hurt, but the skin didn’t seem to be broken. There was going to be a hell of a lump, though.

Sauer brushed pebbles from him. “Going to be able to walk? We’re only five minutes from the lodge.”

“Sure.”

“Good. When you get back I want you to take a bath, get into a pair of pajamas, and climb into bed. Then I want to have another look.”

“Vern, I appreciate it, but I’m fine now. I don’t need a doctor.”

“Be a sport, Oliver. When do I ever get a chance to work on a live body anymore?”

“I’ll have him ready for you,” Julie said.

“I have to finish that reconstruction,” Gideon said. Sauer shook his head. “Not today.”

“I just-”

“I’ll have him ready for you,” Julie said again, this time more firmly, for Gideon’s benefit.

He was too unsteady to argue. With their help he climbed slowly back up the slope.

Tracy, taut-faced and anxious, ran to them from a knot of people comforting a noisily distraught Callie.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Gideon said. “How’s Callie-the other rider?”

“All right, I think. She never-she never fell off. Oh, God, I knew we shouldn’t have come back this way!” Tracy was close to tears. “I was supposed to have people sign waivers before we started out. I-”

“Don’t worry about it, Tracy,” Gideon said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to get sued.”

Sauer cut in. “Do you suppose we could start back, please? I’d like to get this man off his feet.”

Tracy practically snapped to attention. “Absolutely. Right now. Sir?” she said to Gideon. “Did you want to mount up again, or would you rather walk?”

Gideon managed a smile. “I think,” he said, “I’d just as soon walk.”

“I can’t find anything to be concerned about,” Sauer said, sitting back. “I’d take it easy for a day or so if I were you. And let me know right away if you have any vision problems or anything of the sort. Need anything for the pain?”

“No,” Gideon said, “the scrapes sting a little, that’s all.” He buttoned his shirt and gingerly felt the lump behind his left ear. “My head’s not too bad. I’ll take a couple of aspirin if it bothers me.”

“Good thinking. Well, then, I’ll be on my way.” He zipped up his bag and stood. “Julie, those dressings can come off tonight. They’re just to sop up any bleeding, of which there shouldn’t be much. Just stick on some Band-Aids if you think he needs them.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she said.

“Vern, thanks a lot,” said Gideon.

Sauer grinned at them. “Believe me, the pleasure’s all mine. Autopsies are no end of fun, but one gets bored after a while.”

As he left the cottage he passed John Lau coming in. “He’s perfectly all right; nothing to worry about,” Gideon heard Sauer say in response to John’s murmured question.

John came into the bedroom. “How ya doin’, Tex? Little trouble in the saddle?”

“He was doing beautifully,” Julie said loyally. “It wasn’t his fault.”

“Right,” John said. “How many other people fell off their horses?”

Gideon sighed. “None, just me.”

John dropped into the rattan armchair that Sauer had vacated and looked at Gideon. “So I guess that’s it for the reconstruction.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I do feel okay now, and I hate to just leave it, and I was thinking I might, um, head over there and put in a couple of hours…” He paused to permit a reaction from Julie, who tended toward a forceful and despotic maternalism at times like this.

Surprisingly, she failed to come roaring out of her chair. “I think that’s a good idea,” she said quietly. “If you feel well enough.”

Gideon was speechless.

Even John was surprised. “You do?”

“Gideon-John-I think that-now will you let me get this out before jumping all over me? I’m not so sure this was an accident,” she said, speaking rapidly to keep from being interrupted. “I was only a few feet away from Callie when it happened, and I didn’t see anybody else jostle her, or anything at all. Nobody was even moving. All of a sudden she just took off, yelling. I think she knew darn well what she was doing, and 1 think-well, that’s what I think.” She drew a breath and waited for a response.

John, his arms crossed, leaned back, tipping the chair onto its rear legs. “I suppose I could ask around, see if other people saw it the same way.”

Julie stared at him. “You mean you’re not going to try to argue me out of this? You think I might be right? I’m stunned. Gideon, you too?”

“Sorry, I don’t see it.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Why would Callie want to kill me?”

“Kill you?” The idea obviously distressed her. Gideon hadn’t much liked it either. “Who said anything about killing you? I think she wanted to keep you from finishing the reconstruction, that’s all.”

“By scaring my horse? It’s way too iffy. How could she know she’d get a chance to do it? How could she know for sure it’d throw me off? How could she know I’d be hurt at all? Besides, Callie’s horse was giving her trouble the whole morning. I just don’t think-”

“All right, all right,” Julie grumbled, “I gather you don’t think it’s highly probable.”

“And why would it matter to anyone whether I finished or not? You know a reconstruction isn’t that critical. It’s just not that reliable. The dental records are what’s going to count in this one.”

“Yeah, but who’s got dental records?” John said, taking up the argument. “That reconstruction could turn out to be the closest thing we’ve got to proof that it’s Salish.”

“God help us, then,” Gideon said. “Look, we’re ninety-nine percent sure it’s Salish right now. What difference would a little more evidence make one way or the other? Why would Callie or anybody else care?”

“I can think of a damn good reason,” John said. The front legs of his chair hit the floor with a thump. “Let’s assume for a minute that Callie’s mixed up in Salish’s murder somehow, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Well, then, she’d care plenty, because if we can show this is Salish for sure-for absolute, positive sure the Bureau’s gonna jump into this with both feet. If it’s not, if it just might be Salish, then Applewhite maybe gives me another day or two here to see what I can come up with, and that’s it. It’s all Honeyman’s again.”

Gideon frowned. “So?”

“So if you killed somebody, who’d you rather have on your tail, Farrell Honeyman or the Federal Bureau of Investigation?”

After a pause Gideon said, “I see what you mean.”

“Right. Hey, I’m not knocking Farrell, you understand.”

“But look, John, it still doesn’t figure. In the first place, you could never use a reconstruction as ‘proof that anybody was anybody. It’s the first step toward an ID, not the last one-which all these people know perfectly well. Second, what good does it do anyone to stop me from finishing? You can always get somebody else-somebody really good at it-to do one later if you want it.”

John sighed. “Listen, Doc, I don’t know what the hell is going on any more than anybody else does. I don’t know if Julie’s right or wrong. I just think it’d be a real good idea if you went ahead and finished the thing. Let’s see where that gets us.”

“Well, I’m not going to argue with you about that. John, would you mind dropping by the meeting room and letting the kids in my class know we’ll get started again down at the justice building in half an hour?”