I LOGGED ON to my computer and pulled up the file. Scanned the contents. As I feared, case number ME107-10 fit the pattern.
The skull had been found by hikers off South New Hope Road, near the town of Belmont, just west of Charlotte and just north of the South Carolina border. It lay in a gulley across from the entrance to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.
The facial bones and mandible had been missing, and the calvarium gnawed and weathered. Remnants of brain matter had adhered to the endocranial surface, suggesting a PMI of less than a year.
I’d led a recovery team. For a full day we’d worked a grid shoulder to shoulder, poking under rocks and fallen trees, sifting through vines, leaves, and brushy undergrowth. Though we found a fair number of bones, much of the skeleton had been lost to scavenging animals.
I was able to determine that the remains were those of a twelve-to fourteen-year-old child. What was left of the cranium suggested European ancestry.
Gender determination based on skeletal indicators is unreliable prior to puberty. But articles of clothing found in association with several bone clusters suggested the victim was female.
A search of MP files turned up no match in North or South Carolina. Ditto when we ran the profile through NamUS and the Doe Network, national and international data banks for missing and unidentified persons.
So the child remained nameless, ME107-10. The bones were archived on a shelf down the hall.
I pushed from my desk and walked to the storage room, boot heels echoing in the quiet of the empty building.
After locating the correct label, I pulled the box and carried it to autopsy room one. Larabee’s closed office door told me he’d already left. The autopsy table was empty. Its small occupant had been stitched, zipped into her body bag, and rolled to the cooler.
I thought of the heartrending conversation Slidell was having with Shelly Leal’s grieving parents. Receiving autopsy results is never easy. Nor is delivering them. I felt empathy for all three.
Deep breath. Only a faint trace of odor lingered in the air.
After gloving, I lifted the lid.
The skeleton was as I remembered, stained tea brown by contact with the vegetation in which it had lain. And woefully incomplete.
Still psyched about finding the lip print, I spread paper sheeting on the table and placed all the bones and bone fragments on it.
The skull’s outer surface was scored by tooth marks, and the orbital ridges and mastoids were chewed. Most of the vertebrae and ribs were crushed. The one pelvic half had several canine punctures. Each of the five long bones was truncated and cracked at both ends.
I examined everything first with a magnifying lens, then with the ALS. Spotted no hairs or fibers snagged on or embedded in the bones. Detected not the faintest suggestion of a glimmer.
I was repacking the skeleton when my eyes fell on a bag tucked into one corner of the box. Odd. Had the clothing never left the MCME? Had it gone to the CMPD lab and come back? I’d noted no report in the electronic file.
I opened the bag, withdrew the contents, and placed everything on the sheet.
One lavender sandal, size marking abraded by wear.
One pair of purple polyester shorts, girls’ size twelve.
One T-shirt saying 100% Princess, size medium.
One pink polyester bra, size 32AA.
One elastic band from a pair of girls’ panties, label faded and unreadable.
I repeated the process with the lens and the ALS.
Except for a few short black hairs, obviously animal, I got the same disappointing result.
Discouraged, I reshelved the box, then returned to my office. Thinking perhaps an error had occurred and a report hadn’t been entered, I pulled my own file on ME107-10. I still keep hard copy. Old habits die hard.
Data entry omission. The clothing had been submitted, examined, and, for some strange reason, returned to us. The lab had gotten zilch.
I was dialing Slidell when my iPhone rang. He and Ryan were going to the Penguin. The junkie inside me rolled over and opened an eye.
What the hell. I was done here.