Kathy Reichs - Bones of the Lost - A Temperance Brennan Novel

Noticing my glance at the tattoo, Gross came to attention, saluted, and said, “Semper fi, ma’am.”

With that he stepped back, pivoted, and walked away.

PART THREE

TUESDAY MORNING, I WOKE BEFORE the alarm bells bonged. Early dawn was seeping through the window, turning my room into a study in shades of gray. Outside, the first few mockingbirds were sending out tentative trills.

I ran sleepy eyes over the chair, the dresser, the antique wooden shelf with its collection of memorabilia. A conch shell from Maui. A silver Latvian bride’s headband. Framed photos whose images I couldn’t see. Didn’t matter. I knew each like I knew my own features. Katy at her college graduation. Ryan and me in Guatemala City. Pete and Boyd on the beach at Isle of Palms. Birdie stretched full-length in the sun.

God, it was good to be home.

I rolled over.

The digits on the clock read 6:12.

I tried to fall back to sleep. Impossible. Would have helped to have Birdie there, snuggling and purring.

At 6:45, I gave up. A long hot shower and shampoo scrubbed away the last piggybacking grime from Bagram. Though still tender, my ankle was on the mend. The swelling was down and the bruising looked less flamboyant.

Down in the kitchen, I made coffee and popped bread into the toaster. Oddly, there was milk in the refrigerator. And cottage cheese, OJ, a plastic container of lasagna from Pasta and Provisions, fresh produce, lunch meat and cheese, and a number of other items I hadn’t purchased. Including a Heineken.

More than a dozen Observer s had been dutifully brought inside during my absence. Making a mental note to thank my neighbor, I glanced through a few in a fast-forward manner, working from the oldest to the most recent. I got a general sense of what had happened in my absence. Which was the usual.

A student shot up a school in Montana, claiming he’d been bullied. Four dead. A couple was found with an arsenal of guns and explosives in their Trenton, New Jersey, apartment. Both were under arrest. The NRA was defending the right of every American to pack a semiautomatic and load it with a thirty-round clip. The video-game industry was claiming innocence in the fostering of a culture of violence.

On the local scene, a Gastonia plant closing was about to put hundreds out of work. Guns were found at two middle schools. Fraud was being alleged at a college. A kid reported missing from Mount Holly in 2004 was found living with his grandparents in northern Michigan. He was now fourteen.

I was on my sixth paper when a small headline caught my eye. Local section. Three column inches. I checked the date. The story had appeared the previous Saturday.

SEARCH FOR SUSPECT IN FATAL HIT AND RUN

The article started out by asking for the public’s help in identifying a teenage hit-and-run victim. It provided a brief description of the girl and the date, approximate time, and Rountree–Old Pineville Road location of the accident. It stated that authorities were looking for witnesses or persons with information. My name was mentioned, as was Slidell’s. Anyone with knowledge of the girl or the incident was urged to contact the CMPD.

My morgue-cooler face shot accompanied the text. So did a number for the homicide division at police headquarters.

The byline was Allison Stallings.

Second mental note. Another thank-you due. Though I could have done without personal mention. Seeing my name in the paper never thrills me. Unless I’ve finished the Charlotte 10K in under an hour.

The previous Sunday’s edition had a follow-up piece on the MP case Slidell was working when I left for Afghanistan. Pictures of the missing woman, Cheryl Connelly, and her kids; background on her movements immediately prior to her disappearance; and a hint she might have had mental issues.

So Connelly was still whereabouts unknown as of two days ago. Great. Unless she’d turned up or was found on Monday, Slidell would still be distracted.

I took the papers to the recycling bin. Two empty Heineken bottles lay at the bottom.

Hm.

I went to the study. A PC sat on my desk, plugged into a wall switch. A Dell, minimally a decade out of date.

Pete and I have opposing views on cars and computers. I see the former as a means of transportation, the latter as a slick on-ramp to the knowledge of the world. My Mazda is too old to have resale value. My Mac is fast and new and will be gone as soon as an updated model comes out.

For my ex, automotive trumps cyber speed every time. I knew who’d been in my house. Suspected the reason.

I dialed Mrs. Flowers.

“Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner.”

“It’s Dr. Brennan.”

“My, my, bless your heart. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard you’d gone to that terrible place. How are you?”

“I’m well, thank you.”

“Did you see any of those dreadful Taliban?”

“I was mostly on base.”

“I prayed for you every day. Will you be coming into the office soon?”

“Perhaps later. I just arrived home last night.”

“Unpack right off. If you let it go, who knows what creatures will crawl out and move in with you. Happened to a friend of mine.” Mrs. Flowers’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I won’t mention what took up residence in her house.”

“I’ll do that.”

“You have several phone messages.”

“I’ll get to them first thing.”

“And a new case.”

Mrs. Flowers gave me a thumbnail. It involved hooligans, an outhouse, and a noggin in doo-doo. I have to admit, I do enjoy her prose.

“Thank you. Could you transfer me to Dr. Larabee?”

“Certainly.”

A soulless version of “Sailing” bridged me over until Larabee picked up. What is it with institutions and Muzak?

“Tempe, glad you’re back. How was it?”

“I’ve got boundless respect for our troops.”

“That bad?”

“Just tiring.” And bugs, and body armor, and burial alive.

“Were you able to see Katy?”

“Yes. She’s really something.”

“The kid always was. Listen, I didn’t respond to your messages because I didn’t want to be a distraction.”

“No problem.”

“The DNA trace came up empty on our Jane Doe. She’s not in the system.”

“No big surprise.”

“No. But you never know until you try.”

I asked if he’d seen Allison Stallings’s article. He had.

“Still no one’s come forward.”

“So we’re no farther ahead than when I left.”

“Au contraire. I got results back on the semen analysis. We were right. It came from more than one individual.”

I sat up straighter in my chair. “This is where you tell me the DNA has names attached.”

“The DNA has names attached. Two cold hits right here in the North Carolina database. I’ll leave the reports on your desk. I’ve already forwarded them to Slidell.”

“This could be big.”

“Could be. I found something else which may or may not be big.”

I waited.

“While going back over the X-rays, I spotted a small streak of radio-opacity near the right parieto-occipital junction. Hematoma was pretty extensive in that part of the brain, and the cortical bone is very thick there, so I hadn’t noticed it at first. I double-checked, and sure enough something had gotten caught up when I retracted the scalp. Prob—”

“What did you find?”

“Looks like a sliver of bone. Pierced the scalp but didn’t penetrate the ectocranial surface. I left that on your desk, along with the two DNA reports.”