“Stuff?” Sniff of disapproval. “Really, darling.”
“Did you find any follow-up stories?”
“I did not. And I searched very thoroughly. Keep in mind this was not headline news. The original piece was very brief.”
“Did the journalist provide contact information?”
Keys clicked. “Those having knowledge of the situation are asked to contact the Avery County Sheriff’s Department.” She read off a number. The same number that had appeared on caller ID when Zeb Ramsey phoned.
“Can you forward the link to me?”
“I can.”
That night I dreamed of lights on a distant ridge.
—
Unsurprisingly, I woke late. A quick toilette, then I fed Birdie and headed to the MCME, anticipating Larabee’s sermon with as much relish as I had Mama’s fashion critique.
Driving across uptown, I pictured Larabee sitting at his desk, pumped by an early morning run, ready to leap into action at the sound of my office door. He wasn’t there.
After entering the new Burke County remains into the system, which assigned them case number ME122-15, I opened a file and made notes on the circumstances surrounding their discovery. Then I took the Ziplocs to the stinky room, placed the bones on a tray, and submerged the pine tar node in a jar of acetone and set it in the sink.
When finished, I called Joe Hawkins. He agreed to meet me as soon as I’d freed whatever was congealed in the node.
A quick cup of the sludge that passes for coffee in the staff lounge, and I began photographing the ten hand bones, periodically crossing to check on progress in the sink. All morning the node remained hard as a marble.
The bones were as uninformative as I’d feared. I tried some metric analysis based on measurements of the metacarpals. They came up middle road all the way. And finger and hand bones reveal zip about race. In the end, all I could say was young healthy adult.
Like ME229-13. The hand bones were consistent in every way with the torso bones, but there was no conclusive proof both sets of remains came from the same person. Positive association could only be established with DNA. And I wasn’t optimistic on that front.
Discouraged, but not surprised, I returned to my office and dialed Avery County. Ramsey was in and took my call quickly.
“So that’s it?” he asked when I’d finished relaying my observations.
“You can rule out old codgers wandering off in their sleep.”
“Case practically solved.” Pause. “But you’re saying we could have two people?”
“I think that’s highly unlikely.”
“What about the bits in the pine sap?”
“I’m working on it. Did you make inquiries about Cora Teague?”
“I ran the name, got nothing. No address, no phone, no SSN, no passport, no credit or tax history. There is a birth certificate, registered with the Avery County Register of Deeds in 1993.”
“Don’t parents apply for a social security number at the same time they apply for a birth certificate?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy.”
“According to Strike, after high school Teague did a brief stint as a nanny. Otherwise she never worked.”
“Nannies are often paid under the table.” I could hear Ramsey playing with something, maybe the phone cord. “Listen, Doc. It’s a big country out there. If the kid decided to vanish, changed her name, she’ll be damn near impossible to find.”
I nodded.
“And Strike’s right. There’s no MP file.”
“Did you run the parents?” I asked.
“Yeah. Nothing popped. No arrests, complaints, calls to the home.”
“Where do they live?”
“Larkspur Road, off 194. Nothing out there but buzzards and pines.”
I almost hung up without mentioning it. “I learned something odd last night. Could be meaningless.”
Ramsey waited, still jiggling whatever he was jiggling.
“In 2012, an article appeared in The Avery Journal-Times.” I scrolled through messages on my iPhone, found an email from Mama from 3:12 A.M. I opened it and clicked on the link. “According to the story, body parts were found off a hiking trail near the Lost Cove Cliffs Overlook.”
“Human?”
“That’s unclear.”
Ramsey left a small skeptical pause. “When?”
“April twenty-ninth.”
“Six months before I signed on.”
“Probably coincidence, but that’s also a viewing point for Brown Mountain.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Nothing. I’m wondering about follow-up.”
“Human remains should have gone to the coroner.”
“Did they?”
“I’ll look into it. And I can check whether the reporter is still around.”
After disconnecting, I went back to the hand bones and the node.
Five hours of soaking and poking finally got the job done. By three that afternoon, two shriveled hunks of flesh lay in the sink, slimy remnants of the node scattered around them. I inspected each with a hand lens.
And actually arm-pumped the air. Dopey, but I did.
Each hunk had a sliver of nail tagging one end, a distal phalange partially visible at the other. I took X-rays and examined each for detail.
An arrow-shaped phalange told me the larger hunk was the tip of a thumb. The other, based on size, was the tip of a first, second, or third digit. The proximal articular surfaces of both phalanges were crushed and ragged, the work of an industrious scavenger and pals.
Totally pumped, I dialed Joe Hawkins’s extension. While awaiting his arrival, I got the fingerprint kit from the storage closet and dug out an inkpad and a ten-print card. No fancy scanners at the MCME. We do it the old way, by rolling and pressing.
Hawkins arrived, looking his usual cadaverous self. Tall and gaunt, with hollow cheeks and dyed black hair, the guy sent from central casting to play the mortician.
I showed Hawkins his “subject” and provided the case number. He listened, face blank. Typical Hawkins. No questions, no reactions. No mistakes. Though not exactly jolly, he’s far and away the best autopsy tech in the place. Had achieved that status decades before my arrival.
While Hawkins jotted information onto the print card, I began shooting close-ups of the hand bones. For a while the only sounds in the room were the click of my shutter release and the occasional clink or tap at the sink.
Unless the fingers are desiccated or stiff with rigor, printing a corpse usually takes very little time. I was so engrossed with my photos I lost track of the clock. When I looked up, a full half hour had passed.
Hawkins was still hunched over his task. Tension in his neck and back suggested something was wrong.
“Tough going?” I asked.
No answer.
“I’m happy to help.” Thinking Hawkins’s hands were very large, the fingertips very small.
Still no response.
I noticed several print cards discarded on the counter. Each had two black ovals. I assumed the larger represented the thumb, the smaller the finger.
Hawkins usually gets prints on the first try. Why the problem? I had no idea his age, but knew it had to be well past sixty. Was arthritis compromising his dexterity? Was he embarrassed that I’d see?
I crossed to the counter and, casual as hell, picked up and glanced at one of the print cards.
I picked up another.
And another.
Hawkins turned from the sink, gloved hands held up and away from his body. His eyes met mine, the dark comma below each crimped in confusion.
“What the hell?” His fingers splayed in puzzlement.
I could conjure no explanation.
During the second and third months of gestation, when a fetus is one to three and a half inches long, tiny pads form on the fingertips. During the third and fourth months, the skin goes from thinly transparent to waxy, and the first ridges appear on the pads. By the sixth month, when the average fetus is a whopping twelve inches long, its fingerprints are formed and fixed for life.