KATHY REICHS - 206 BONES

Full stop.

Might the letter have come from Sparky? I dismissed the thought. Anonymous intimidation wasn’t really his style.

Poop in a package?

OK. Maybe.

“Why the blowup with lardass?” Ryan had moved on to the third on my list of complaints.

I described my trifecta in Hubert’s office. The reexcavation at Oka. Briel’s being allowed to examine the Lac Saint-Jean bones. Jurmain’s nameless informant.

Ryan looked thoughtful. Or maybe he was trying to ID the brown goop oozing from the layers of his pasta.

“Lac Saint-Jean. Hm.”

“Hm?”

“Maybe nothing. I’ll do some checking, give you a call this afternoon.”

“Any movement on Villejoin or Keiser?” I changed the subject.

“Not really. Claudel checked the airlines, VIA rail, local bus and taxi companies, Montreal travel agencies. If Keiser left town voluntarily, she either drove or went via hyperspace.”

“Thumbed a ride on the Heart of Gold.” I spoke without thinking.

“Blasted off with the Infinite Improbability Drive,” he said.

Ryan and I were both fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . When a couple, we’d often sparred with our favorite quotes. Then it was fun. Now it just hurt.

Old habits die hard.

Ryan was smiling full on, eyes and all. Eyes like Bahamian waters. Eyes you could get lost in. Eyes I had gotten lost in.

But not again.

I looked away. “What else?”

“Claudel floated a nationwide APB on Keiser’s vehicle. He checked local hospitals, and queried amnesia admissions across Canada. Or whatever term the psychobabblers use these days. Came up empty. Now he’s looking at Keiser’s neighbors, finding out how long each has lived in the building, previous addresses, that sort of thing.”

“Keiser had an active social life.”

Ryan chuckled. “Claudel told you?”

“Told me what?”

“The merry widow thought of herself as a child of the sixties. And a player.”

“With men?”

Ryan nodded.

“She had boyfriends?”

“So she led the neighbors to believe.” Ryan’s smile could only be described as a smirk.

“Why is that funny? Because Keiser was elderly?”

Ryan formed a set of Vs with his fingers. Peace.

“Charbonneau’s yet to locate a single old beau. He’s working through the book club and knitting circle ladies. So far he’s scored a lot of tea and cookies and one interesting tidbit. Keiser liked to spend time with nature.”

“Meaning?”

“Sometimes she went off to the woods. To paint.”

“Where?”

“She’d never say. She also frequented a place called Eastman Spa in the Eastern Townships.”

It took me a moment to see the relevance.

“Retreats to the country. Sounds like Rose Jurmain.”

Ryan nodded. “I’m running staff and guests, everyone connected with L’Auberge des Neiges during the period Jurmain stayed there, cross-checking for overlap with Eastman. I’m also looking for any connection between Jurmain, Villejoin, and Keiser. So far, zilch.”

Eastman Spa was upmarket, beyond my budget. “To afford Eastman, Keiser must have had something in her pockets.”

“The estate isn’t that big, maybe fifty thousand. There’s a will. Pinsker gets five grand. The rest goes to the biological daughter and son. Claudel thinks both were genuinely shocked.”

“At the paltry sum, or that they were primary heirs?”

“Both.”

“Keiser and her offspring were estranged?”

“Yeah. Claudel’s looking into why.”

“Anyone profit from the Villejoins’ deaths?”

Ryan shook his head. “The sisters owned the house and furnishings. They left a letter specifying that any proceeds of a sale go to the Humane Society.”

Before heading upstairs, I bought a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Joe was at a microtome, slicing wax for specimen slides. I presented my bribe and did a mea culpa. Monsieur Moody seemed fractionally mollified.

I asked about his holiday. He said it was nice. Cooly. I asked if he had plans for the upcoming weekend. Exploration, he said. Really, I said. Of what? Stuff, he said, then refocused on his wax.

Okeydokey.

Conscience lightened, I turned to the Lac Saint-Jean case.

First, the evidence log that had been transported with the bones from Chicoutimi. No help there. The whole shebang had been bagged without reference to context. I assumed everything had been commingled inside the hermit’s locker.

The gynecologist, Labrousse, was correct on one point. The remains were old. Bleaching, warping, and cortical flaking suggested long-term submersion in water.

The bones were also badly damaged. Many ended in jagged spikes abraded by years of wave action.

Though much was missing, it was clear I had four individuals, two adults and two kids. Briel had nailed that. But she’d misassigned a busload of elements. The adult female got several of the adult male’s ribs and a juvenile radius. He got her right clavicle, left fibula, and sternum. Skull pieces had been jumbled all over the map.

The female looked white. Narrow nose, high nasal bridge.

From the broken facial segments, I could tell the male had remarkably wide cheekbones. Surprised, I checked maxillary fragments. All but one front tooth had been lost postmortem. I studied the lone incisor with a magnifying lense. Though abraded, the tongue surface retained a scooped-out appearance.

Interesting. Though far from definitive, flaring cheekbones and shoveled incisors were suggestive of Mongoloid ancestry.

For the kids I had too little to attempt racial assessment.

Briel came by around three, all lousy with enthusiasm. Expecting what? Praise? Thanks? Collegial discussion?

She got fiery disapproval.

Joe was cleaning beakers at the sink. He turned off the faucet. Over Briel’s shoulder, I noticed his body go still. Listening.

Briel said little during my tirade. When I’d finished, she fled, jaw set, face scarlet as a tanager.

Joe turned and his eyes met mine. Flicked away. In that moment I saw censure. And something else. Disappointment? Disdain?

Again, I knew some gesture on my part was needed. Again, I let the moment pass.

I detest confrontation. Dislike change. Hubert. Joe. Santangelo. It had been an abysmal eight hours.

I was profiling the second Lac Saint-Jean kid when the lab door opened.

I looked up.

Until then, the day had been a love fest.

“KEISER HAD A HIDEY-HOLE.” TYPICAL CLAUDEL. ARRIVING AT THE lab, he got straight to the facts. No Bonjour . No Comment ça va?

Surprised, I laid down the vertebra I was scoping with a hand lens.

“The building manager’s a guy named Luigi Castiglioni, Lu to his close amici . Yesterday, I’m doing follow-up with Lu, and the whole interview something’s bugging me, like he’s looking different than I remember. That, and the fact he’s jumpy as hell. When I squeeze hard, the asshole lets slip he’s just back from a six-month sojourn in the old country.”

Quick calculation. July to January. That put Lu in Italy from the time Keiser disappeared through the time Claudel began to investigate.

I started to ask a question. Claudel held up a manicured hand.

“So I ask him. How’s that work, you being overseas and here fixing toilets at the same time? Lu admits he’s got a twin. Eddie. You believe that? Lu and Eddie. Sounds like some cheesy vaudeville routine.”

I didn’t interrupt.

“Conscientious citizen that he is, Lu doesn’t want to get canned while he’s on sabbatical, so he talks brother Eddie into acting as super in his absence. The scam flies. No one picks up on the swap. But the thing is, Lu’s worked the building for twenty-two years. Probably schmoozing for tips. Whatever. He gets to know the tenants, learns what they’re up to. Brother Eddie doesn’t know jackshit.”