Bone Box

“No problem. How are you doing?”

“Better than when we first spoke. Are you calling out SID?”

“Mike Radar is assembling a team,” Decker said. “He’ll call in a coroner and depending who’s available and how far away he or she has to come from, we’ll have the whole crew up there in a couple of hours. There’s still a lot of daylight left.”

“I passed a lovely meadow on the way. It was still filled with flowers. I’m sure the trail will be closed for a while. How sad. I mean it’s way sadder for the person buried up there. I’m kind of rambling. I guess I’m still a bit shaken up.”

“I’m shaken up and I’m not even there yet,” McAdams said.

“Said by the man who has been shot twice.”

“That was so last year.”

Rina laughed. “Just stay on the phone with me until you get here.”

It was the second time she said that. She was more shaken than she was letting on. Decker said, “Again, I’m sorry if I was gruff with you. It scared me, thinking of you alone up there, miles from civilization.” When Rina chuckled, Decker said, “What’s the joke?”

“I was just thinking. Despite all those spooky Grimm’s fairy tales, it’s probably still safer in the woods than in so-called civilization.”

The forensic teams were relegated to hand tools and brushes in order to preserve the integrity of the bones. It didn’t take long before the hints of a skeletonized body emerged. Decker spoke to the coroner, a man in his forties from Hamilton Hospital about thirty miles away. His name was Jerome Donner and he mostly dealt with assigning death certificates to natural causes. He wasn’t ideal, but since Greenbury was not near Boston or New York, he was as good as it gets on short notice.

“No soft tissue left so far. There is hair and nails, which can outlast soft tissue by a long stretch.”

“Long dark strands. Female?”

“Can’t tell from the position of the body. I have to wait until I get the bones in the lab.”

The body was curled in a fetal position. An unusual way for a body to be buried, but it did require a smaller grave.

Donner turned to Rina. “You didn’t notice the hand sticking out right away?”

“No. I just stepped back, heard a crunch, looked down, and saw the fingers.” She made a face. “Sorry if I ruined the crime scene.”

Decker put his arm around his wife. “Why are you still here?”

“Because I want to be here.” She stared at the open grave. “Can you age the skeleton?”

“Not easily,” Donner said. “I’ll try once we get it into the morgue. You’ve got the hair. Dead hair, but at least we have a length and a color.”

“Probably a woman,” Decker said.

“Probably.” The coroner looked up. “Aren’t these things usually women?”

Decker’s shrug was noncommittal. He said, “Once all the biological material is removed, we can poke around and see what else we can find.”

“Like a purse with ID?” Donner asked.

“In a perfect world.”

“Paper by itself would disintegrate. Paper in a purse or wallet would take longer. Even if we can’t find ID, maybe we can get bits of clothing.”

“How long do clothes last before disintegrating?” Rina asked.

“If it’s an artificial fiber, it could be a while. If there’s a purse and it’s made from plastic, then we get lucky.”

McAdams came over. “Reception’s really spotty, but I finally did connect to Kevin. He’s going to pull all the missing person cases going back around five years. I told him it could be anyone, although with long hair it’s probably female.”

Decker nodded. “The body could be local or from anywhere. This is prime dumping ground.”

“But she wasn’t dumped, she was buried,” McAdams said. “Someone took the time to dig a deep hole and cover her up.”

Rina said, “If it was a random killing, would a random killer have taken the time to bury the victim?”

“If he wanted to hide his handiwork and he had the time, sure,” Decker said. “Some killers get a big thrill out of the burial. But I know what you’re thinking: that the killer could have been someone close to the victim who thought it was disrespectful to leave her in the open.”

“Any indication of how the victim was killed?” McAdams asked the coroner.

“Nope.”

“How long do you think it’ll take to remove all the bones?”

“We’ll be working through the night.”

Decker turned to Rina. “Let me walk you back to your car.”

“Sure. You want my other tuna sandwich? I think I might even have two of them left. I always come prepared with lots of food when I hike.”

“I’ll take the sandwiches. Cool it with the hiking for a while.”

“Winter’s coming anyway.”

“Let’s go, darling.”

While they walked back, they made small talk. Then there was silence. Rina broke it. “She could be a student from the Five Colleges of Upstate. How far is the campus? A fifteen-minute drive?”

“Not even.” Decker was quiet. Then he said, “Do you know anyone who has been at the colleges for a while? Someone who might remember missing girls from years ago?”

“Tilly Goldstein has been at Hillel for over twenty years as administrative director.”

“How old is she?”

“In her late fifties. Want me to ask her about missing students?”

“Sure. She’ll ask you why. You can tell her about the bones, but tell her to keep it to herself for the moment. And just ask her and no one else. I need to keep track of who we talk to.”

“Of course. I’ll call her when I get home.”

“Thanks.”