Guilt

CHAPTER 3

Liz Wilkinson had just finished a lecture at the U., would be over in twenty. Milo went to make more calls and I sat with Holly Ruche.

All vital signs fine per the EMTs, but she needed to rest and get down some fluids. They gave me custody of the Gatorade squeeze bottle, packed up and left for an emergency call near the 405 freeway.

The first time I offered the bottle to Holly she clamped her mouth and shook her head. The second time, her lips parted. Several sips later, she smiled and lowered her right hand until it rested atop my left. Her skin had warmed. She said, “I feel much better … you’re a psychologist for victim aid?”

“I do what’s needed, there’s no set routine.”

“I guess I am a victim. Of sorts.”

“It had to be rough.”

“It was horrible. Do you think he’s going to dig up my entire yard?”

“He won’t do anything unnecessary.”

“That sounds like you’re covering for him.”

“I’m judging from experience.”

“So you work with him a lot.”

“I do.”

“Must be … ooh.” She winced, touched her belly. The black jersey of her top puffed. “She’s moving like crazy-it’s a girl.”

“Congratulations.”

“Girls rule.” She grinned. “I’m looking forward to having a little BFF.” Another grimace. “Wow, she’s being really hyper … oh, my … that one smarted a bit, she’s kicking me in the ribs.”

I said, “First baby?”

“You can tell?” she said. “I’m coming across like an amateur?”

“Not at all. You’re young.”

“Not that young,” she said. “I’m thirty-one.”

“That’s young.”

“My mother had me when she was eighteen.”

“That’s younger.”

She laughed, grew serious. “I didn’t want that.”

“Starting so young.”

Her eyes shifted upward. “The way she did it … but I always knew I wanted it.”

“Motherhood.”

“Motherhood, house, yard, the whole domestic-goddess thing … it’s going to be great.” Looking past me, she took in the crime scene techs studying the tree segments. They’d arrived fifteen minutes ago, were waiting for Liz Wilkinson, had placed a white cloth over the blue box. The fabric had settled into an oblong; a deflated ghost costume.

Holly Ruche said, “I can’t have them turning my property into a disaster zone or something. I know it’s not much right now but I have plans.”

Not a word about the tiny bones. I wondered why a married woman would avoid the plural form.

“It was all coming together,” she said. “Then that crazy tree had to-”

Movement from the driveway caused us both to turn. A man around Holly’s age, skinny-but-soft, bald and bearded, studied the felled tree before heading over. He wore a long-sleeved blue shirt, gray slacks, brown shoes. Beeper on his belt, iPhone in his hand, aviator sunglasses perched atop his clean head.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he said.

His wedding ring matched hers. Neither of them took the greeting beyond that. He had one of those faces that’s allergic to smiling, kept several feet between himself and Holly, looked put-upon.

She said, “Matt?”

His attention shifted to the hand she’d continued to drape over mine.

I stood, introduced myself.

He said, “A doctor? There’s a problem, health-wise?”

“She’s doing well, considering.”

“Good. Matt Ruche. She’s my wife.”

Holly said, “Doctor as in psychologist. He’s been giving me support.”

Matt Ruche’s eyes narrowed. “Okay.”

His wife flashed him a broad, flat smile. “I’m feeling much better now. It was crazy. Finding it.”

“Had to be … so when can we clean up?”

“Don’t know, they’ll tell us.”

“That sucks.”

“They have to do their job, Matt.”

He touched his beeper. “What a hassle.”

“The stupid tree fell down,” said Holly. “No way could anyone-”

“Whatever.” He glanced at his phone.

I turned to leave.

Holly Ruche said, “Hold on, one sec.”

She got to her feet. “Do you have a card, Dr. Delaware?”

I found one. Matt Ruche reached to take it. She beat him to it. He flushed clear up to his scalp. Shrugging, he began texting.

Holly gripped my hand with both of hers. “Thanks.”

I wished her good luck just as Liz Wilkinson strode into the yard, carrying two hard-shell cases. She had on a pantsuit the color of bittersweet chocolate; same hue as her skin, a couple of tones lighter. A white coat was draped over one arm. Her hair had been straightened recently and she wore it loose and long. She saw me, waved, kept going.

Someone must’ve prepped her because she headed straight for the tarp, put on the coat, tied her hair back, gloved up, stooped, and drew the cloth back deftly.

“Oh, look at this poor little thing.”

The bones seemed even smaller, the color of browned butter in places, nearly black in others. Fragile as lace. I could see tiny nubs running along the chewing surfaces of both jaws. Un-erupted tooth buds.

Liz’s lower lip extended. “Buried under the tree?”

I pointed out the hole. Liz examined the blue box.

“Swedish Hospital? Never heard of it.”

“Closed down in ’52. What do you think the box was originally used for?”

“Maybe exactly this,” she said.

“A morgue receptacle?”

“I was thinking something used to transfer remains.”

“The baby died a natural death in the hospital and someone took the body?”

“Bodies don’t stay in hospitals, they go to mortuaries, Alex. After that, who knows? Regulations were looser back then.”

I said, “The box is solid brass. Maybe it was intended to transfer lab specimens and someone thought iron or steel increased the risk of oxidation.”

She returned to the skeleton, put on magnifying eyeglasses, got an inch from the bones. “No wires or drill holes, probably no bleach or chemical treatment, so it doesn’t appear to be a teaching specimen.” She touched the tooth buds. “Not a newborn, not with those mandibular incisors about to come through, best guess is four to seven months, which fits the overall size of the skeleton. Though if the baby was neglected or abused, it could be older … no fractures or stress marks … I’m not seeing any obvious tool marks-no wounds of any sort … the neck bones appear to be intact, so cross out strangulation … no obvious bone malformations, either, like from rickets or some other deficiency … in terms of sex, it’s too young for sexual dimorphism. But if we can get some DNA, we can determine gender and possibly a degree of racial origin. Unfortunately, the backlog’s pretty bad and something this old and cold isn’t going to be prioritized. In terms of time since death, I can do some carbon dating but my gut tells me this isn’t some ancient artifact.”

I said, “The box was out of active use in ’52, those newspaper clippings are from ’51, and the house was built in ’27. I know that doesn’t determine the time frame-”

“But it’s a good place to start, I agree. So rather than go all supertech from the get-go, Milo should pull up real estate records, find out who’s lived here, and work backward. He identifies a suspect, we can prioritize DNA. Unless the suspect’s deceased, which is quite possible if we’re talking a sixty-, seventy-year-old crime. That’s the case, maybe some relative will cooperate and we can get a partial.”

A deep voice behind and above us grumbled, “Milo has begun pulling up real estate records. Afternoon, Elizabeth.”

Liz looked up. “Hi, didn’t see you when I came in.”

Milo said, “In the house making calls.”

And taking the detective walk through the empty space. His expression said that nothing obvious had come up. “So what do you think, kid?”

Liz repeated her initial impressions. “Not that you need me for any of that.”

He said, “Young Moses needs you, I appreciate your input.”

Detective I Moe Reed was her true love. They’d met at a swamp full of corpses.

She laughed. “Moses appreciates me, too. Say hi when you see him, which is probably before I will.”

She stood. “So what else can I do for you?”

“Take custody of the bones and do your wizard thing. If you need the box, you can have it, otherwise it’s going to the crime lab.”

“Don’t need the box,” she said. “But I’m not really sure I can tell you much more.”

“How about age of victim?”

“I’ll get it as close as I can,” she said. “We can also x-ray to see if some sort of damage comes up within the bones, though that’s unlikely. There’s certainly nothing overt to indicate assault or worse. So we could be talking a natural death.”

“Natural but someone buried it under a tree?” He frowned. “I hate that-it.” His shirt had come loose over his paunch. He tucked it in, hitched his trousers.

Liz said, “Maybe covert burial does imply some sort of guilt. And no visible marks doesn’t eliminate murder, asphyxiating a baby is way too easy. And it’s not rare in infanticides.”

“Soft kill,” he said.

She blinked. “Never heard that before.”

“I’m a master of terrible irony.”