Karen Rose - Die for Me

“Forewarned is forearmed, they say. Which suit is it? I promise I won’t tell.”

Abruptly he grinned, exposing a deep dimple in his right cheek. Oh, my, she thought. Oh my, oh my. A smile turned Vito Ciccotelli from merely magazine-handsome to movie-star-gorgeous. Aunt Freya’s heart would be going pitter-pat. Just like yours is right now. Then he spoke.

“That information is classified,” he said and Sophie stiffened.

“So much for establishing rapport.”

His grin faded. “Dr. Johannsen, it’s not that I don’t trust you. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. Katherine vouches for you and that was enough for me.”

“Then-”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to give you any information that could bias your findings. Go in with a clean slate and tell us what you see. That’s all we want.”

She considered. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Thank God,” he muttered and she chuckled.

“Can you at least tell me how big this area is?”

“One, two acres tops.”

She winced. “Oh. That’ll take a while.”

His black brows went up. “How long is a while?”

“Four, five hours. Maybe more. Whitman’s ground-penetrating radar is a small unit. We use it for teaching purposes. The biggest plot we ever scan with students is maybe ten meters square. Sorry,” she added when he scowled. “If you need an area that big scanned I can recommend some geophysical survey companies that are really good. They’ll have bigger units they can drag with a tractor.”

“With big price tags,” he said. “We can’t afford to hire a contractor. Our department budgets have been cut so much… We simply don’t have the funds.” He threw her a cautious glance. “Can you give us four or five hours?”

She checked her watch. Her stomach had already started to rumble. “Can your department budget spring for pizza? I didn’t have lunch.”

“That we can do.”

Philadelphia, Sunday, January 14, 2:30

P.M.

Vito stopped the truck behind the CSU van. “This is the place.”

“I kind of figured that out for myself,” she murmured. “The yellow police tape and CSU van were my first clues.” Before he could say another word she opened her door and hopped out, flinched, then swallowed hard.

“It’s strong,” he said sympathetically. “ Eau de … what did you call it?”

“ L’odeur de la mort, ” she said quietly. “Is the body still here?”

“No. But removing the body doesn’t always remove all the odor right away. I can get you a mask, but I don’t think it really helps.”

She shook her head and the big hoops at her ears swayed. “I was just surprised. I’ll be fine.” Her jaw set determinedly, she grabbed the two smaller cases. “I’m ready.”

She said it with a hard little nod, more as if to convince herself than anyone else.

Nick climbed from the CSU van and Vito had the satisfaction of seeing his partner’s face go blank. Jen McFain’s reaction was much the same. Of course they weren’t getting the full effect as Johannsen had braided the hair that hung an inch past her butt.

“Jen, Nick, this is Dr. Johannsen.”

Jen hurried forward with a smile, craning her neck to see Johannsen’s face. The difference in the women’s heights was almost comical. “I’m Jennifer McFain, CSU. Thank you so much for coming out to help us on such short notice, Dr. Johannsen.”

“You’re welcome. And please call me Sophie,” she said.

“Then I’m Jen.” Jen eyed the small suitcases. “I’ve always wanted to play with one of these. If you don’t mind, could you take off the earrings?”

Johannsen immediately dropped her earrings into one of the pockets of her jacket. “Sorry. I forgot I had them on.” She glanced over Jen’s shoulder at Nick. “You are?”

“Nick Lawrence,” Nick said. “Vito’s partner. Thanks for coming.”

“My pleasure. If you’d take me to where you’d like me to begin, I’ll get set up.”

They walked across the field, Jen and Johannsen in front, Vito and Nick trailing far enough behind that they wouldn’t be overheard.

“She’s not… what I expected,” Nick murmured.

Vito huffed a chuckle. He was keeping himself calm, cool, and collected. And would continue to do so. “That’s an understatement.”

“You’re sure she’s Katherine’s friend? She seems very young.”

“I did finally get in touch with Katherine. Johannsen’s the real deal all right.”

“And you’re sure she can keep this to herself?”

Vito thought of the memory-zapping gun and had to smile. “Yeah.” Then they came to the grave and he sobered. Now they would know if Jane Doe was a single or one of many.

Johannsen was staring at the grave. Her mouth drooped and he remembered how she’d dropped her eyes, ashamed of the calloused way she’d referred to the body. She hadn’t meant it, he knew. That she was so quick to apologize he could respect. She looked over her shoulder and met his eyes. “You found the woman here?”

“Yes.”

“The field is big. Do you have a preference on where you’d like me to start?”

“Dr. Johannsen thinks it will take four or five hours to scan the whole field,” Vito said. “Let’s survey the area to the right and left of the grave and see what we have.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Jen said. “How long will it take you to get ready?”

“Not long.” Sophie dropped to her knees in the snow and began opening the cases they’d brought, demonstrating the assembly for Jen who looked like a kid on Christmas. “The unit sends data to the laptop wirelessly and the laptop will store it.” She set the laptop on one of the cases, powered it up, then stood, the scanning portion in her hand.

Nick leaned forward, studying it. “It looks like a carpet sweeper,” he said.

“A fifteen-thousand-dollar carpet sweeper,” Johannsen said and Vito whistled.

“Fifteen grand for that? You said it was a little one.”

“It is. The big ones start at fifty. Are you all familiar with ground penetrating radar?”

“Jen is,” Vito said. “We were going to call for the cadaver dogs.”

“That works, but GPR gives you an image of what’s under the ground. It’s not a clear image like an x-ray. GPR tells you where and how deep an object is. The colors on the display represent the amplitude of the object. Brighter colors, bigger amplitude.”

Jen nodded. “Brighter the color, bigger the amplitude, bigger the object.”

“Or the stronger the reflection. Metals will have high amplitude. Air pockets reflect even better. The amount of reflection depends on what you’re looking for.”

“What about bone?” Nick asked.

“Not as bright, but visible. Older the bone, the harder it is to see. As bodies decompose, they become like the soil and the reflections don’t stand out as much.”

“How old before you can’t see the bones anymore?” Jen asked.

“One of my colleagues identified the remains of a twenty-five-hundred-year-old Native American in a burial mound in Kentucky.” She glanced up. “I don’t think you need to worry about age.” She stood up and wiped her palms on her jacket. Her jeans were soaking wet, but she didn’t even seem to notice. She’d said she was “jazzed” and Vito could definitely see the energy in her clear green eyes. “Let’s go.”

She got to work, scanning along the height dimension of the first grave, slowly and precisely. Vito could see why scanning the whole field would take so long. But if they found something, they were in for a lot more man-hours than that.

Jen went still. “Sophie,” she said, her voice urgent.