And the answer?
He decided that, unlike himself, she was not at all anxious about holding on to her job in the California culture of youth. And that stupid dress was another sign that she must be good. This woman didn't care one whit about her public image. Sally Polk slipped a purse strap over one shoulder and headed for the entrance, indistinguishable from any matronly civilian who had business with the coroner.
The race was on.
Cable was first to the door, but he did not pause to hold it open for her. Hell no. Chivalry was dead, dead, dead. He let the door swing shut behind him to slow her down a pace. He smiled, as if scoring a point that might help him hold on to his double homicide. And he had another game point in his pocket. The county coroner was nothing so grand as a pathologist, and whatever Dr. Martingale imparted to the CBI agent would be useless.
Down the hall they went, the sheriff in his footrace with the state's investigator. The woman, unhurried, lagged farther behind. Cable slowed his steps, aiming to effect a mosey when he entered the refrigerated back room.
A stainless steel table was laid out with two incomplete skeletons, but all the major bones had been accounted for between the mountain grave and Joshua Hobbs's coffin. An overhanging lamp bathed the remains in light so bright that the stains from the earth were washed away. These people might have been flayed of flesh only this morning.
The CBI agent had caught up to him. Sally Polk stood by his side, offering him a hello nod and a smile. And now the unthinkable happened. Dr. Martingale stood back from the table and introduced him to a celebrity anthropologist from San Francisco, a white-haired man, tall and thin-who needed no introduction to the CBI agent. They seemed to know each other quite well.
Cable recognized the anthropologist from his book covers, having devoured every one, bestsellers all. Dr. Brasco's other name was the Bone Man, a preeminent authority on skeletal remains.
Dr. Martingale gave the sheriff a sheepish smile. "Investigator Polk invited him."
All hope was gone. Cable's case was surely lost. He had not even been consulted about bringing in this expert.
The CBI agent was, at least, not smug when she turned to Dr. Brasco- her Dr. Brasco. "I know you've got more bones to recover, tests to run and all that, but what can you tell us up front?"
Us? Her nod included Cable in this company. The sheriff now recalled that a pissing contest was a man's game. The lady was only here to work the case-her case, all face-saving gestures of inclusion aside.
Dr. Brasco bent over the table, calling their attention to one of the skeletons. "This is an adolescent male, approximately five feet, seven inches tall. The skull is delicate. It could be taken for a glacial male or a robust female."
The county coroner raised his hand like a schoolboy to catch the CBI agent's eye. "I used to be a dentist. The teeth match up with the Hobbs boy's old X rays."
The anthropologist nodded in agreement with his colleague. His pointing finger moved on to the second skull. "But you can see the same combination of traits in this woman's skull."
Sally Polk pulled a small notebook from her purse. "That one's definitely female?"
"Yes," said Dr. Brasco, "I sexed the skeletons by the pelvic structure." He moved to the center of the table and looked down at the woman's remains. "This pelvis is wider and rounder-more shallow." He lightly touched the bumpy edges of wing-like bones that defined the skeletal hips. "As you can see, the anterior ilia spines are more widely separated."
"Fine." The sheriff raised one hand in the manner of swearing an oath. "I believe you. How old was she? How tall?"
"Judging by the fusion of bones, I'd say she was at least twenty-five years old, but she could've been forty at the outside. She was tall for a woman, five-ten. The bones of her face are consistent with Caucasians. I won't rule out mixed race, but I see no obvious markers." Dr. Brasco moved to the head of the table and picked up the woman's lower jawbone. "No wear on the teeth from grinding-not a stressful life. Whatever she did for a living, it was light work, no heavy lifting. That would've shown up in the arms, places where muscle separates from bone with manual labor." He tilted his head to one side and smiled. "Her teeth are just too perfect." He fitted the lower jawbone back into position with the skull. "Excellent alignment. You'll find an orthodontist in her childhood, and I'm sure she had regular cleanings as an adult." He stepped back and regarded the skeleton as a whole. "As for the rest-no signs of malnutrition, no visible markers for disease. She wasn't poor-not a homeless person."
"Good to know." The CBI agent scrawled a line in her notebook. "Nobody notices when the homeless drop out of sight, but there's bound to be a missing-person report on this lady. Can you tell us how these people died?"
"I can't be precise with the Hobbs boy," said the thin man. "Not yet. I'd like some time to differentiate the pre-mortem fractures of a fleshed-out body and the postmortem cracks of drying bones. Burial does its own damage. In the boy's case, no single trauma stands out as the fatal injury."
Now that the bones had been properly matched up, Cable could see that it must have been the woman's torso resting in Josh's coffin. The boy's rib cage was now properly matched up with the rest of him. Most of the ribs were broken, and so were two of the arm bones.
"The woman's cause of death is more obvious." Dr. Brasco turned her skull in his hands to show them the back, where cracked bits of bone bent inward, and lines of breakage spread out from this indent. "One massive trauma with a blunt instrument. It could've been a rock. That's my best guess. I'd rule out any manmade object with a smooth surface. The woman died quickly. And the boy-not so fast. Some of his fractures are consistent with defensive wounds."
"Well, here's one way to look at it." Sally Polk's pen hovered over a page in her notebook. "I see it as a classic bop-and-drop rape. The perp comes up behind the woman and drops her with the rock. But he goes too far, hits too hard. She's dead. And then…" Her eyes turned to the skeleton of the boy. "And then, he turns around-oh, damn-a witness. The boy saw him coming and fought back. That would explain the defensive wounds and all the time it took to kill him."
Dr. Brasco nodded in approval. "Yes, excellent, Sally-if not for the boy's broken fingers." He retrieved a box from the countertop near the table and opened it to show them what appeared to be small reddish sticks caked with dirt. "The excavation team hasn't recovered all of them yet, but I have enough for a working theory." As he laid out the skeletal fingers of Joshua Hobbs, he described a different scene with Josh as the primary target, and the killer as someone with reason to hurt the boy-to drag out his death for hours.
William Swahn shrugged off any connection between himself and Mavis Hardy. "I know her on sight. Everyone does. But we've never spoken." He held the magnifying glass over the small image of the librarian on the contact sheet. "I wouldn't have recognized her in that gown. She cleans up nicely."
"You know the kind of people who go to the ball," said Oren.
"Everybody in town."
"And a lot of Ad Winston's clients-criminals."
"Celebrity criminals." Swahn pointed to another small print. "Here's one of you. I'd say you were twelve the year this shot was taken." He handed Oren the magnifying glass and the contact sheet. "It appears that you only had eyes for one little girl that night."
"Isabelle Winston. You knew she was my second alibi. You gave me Evelyn's name, but not hers. Why?"
"I didn't know… My source told me there were two witnesses. Mrs. Straub was the only one I could verify."
"I've only got your word on that."
"Why would I lie?"
"Maybe you thought the Winston family was tied into a homicide."
"Her father was your lawyer, Mr. Hobbs. That's probably how Belle knew you needed an alibi." Swahn held up the contact sheet with tiny images of a boy and a girl at the birthday ball. "Obviously, she had a crush on you."