The First Death (Columbia River, #4)

Dammit.

She had a feeling it concerned her. And Malcolm. Annoyance stirred in her belly. If the doctor had an idea about the sex and age of the skull, Rowan wanted to hear it. At that moment both Evan and Dr. Peres looked back at her, as if they had heard her thought.

“I’ll get her,” Rowan heard Noelle say before she headed out of the crime scene.

“Would you watch Thor?” she asked Nate, who immediately nodded. Heart pounding, Rowan rapidly walked to the entrance to meet the detective.

“What is it?” Rowan asked. “Is the skull a young boy?”

“She hasn’t removed the skulls yet,” Noelle told her. “Evan told her you should be in there.”

Disappointment flared, but she was also pleased. Evan was on her side. “Thank you,” she told Noelle, who indicated for her to follow.

Feeling as if she were walking on hallowed ground, she joined the two detectives and Dr. Peres.

“I prefer to work without an audience,” the doctor said, holding Rowan’s gaze. “But I’ll give you a few minutes.”

“I appreciate that.” She truly did. Rowan studied the scene. One tech was carefully turning over dirt with a hand trowel near the larger skull while another sifted dirt with a large screen. The third tech, the one with the camera, hovered at the shoulder of the first. She also had a notepad with a rough sketch of the scene, and she constantly added more detail to it. When the skull was fully exposed, many photos were taken, and then Dr. Peres carefully lifted it.

“Hair,” said the first tech. She grabbed a large, clear baggie from a kit and gingerly added long strands of dark hair that had been under the skull. The mandible still lay in the dirt. The remains were skeletal, and no soft tissue remained at all, so the mandible had detached from the skull.

How long did it take to become fully skeletal?

Rowan tried to remember what she’d read but only recalled that many factors influenced the time.

“Can you tell how long they’ve been here?” Evan asked.

The doctor grimaced. “No. I believe they were fully buried at one point, but the grave was quite shallow—which could speed up decomposition. Either animals have uncovered it or possibly the ridiculous amount of rain we had last winter did it.” Dr. Peres studied the skull in her hands. “Definitely female. Caucasian.” She wrote something on the skull in pencil and set it in a tub. Then she grabbed a trowel and helped the tech unearth what Rowan quickly identified as ribs and vertebrae.

“Anything?” Dr. Peres murmured to the tech.

“Nothing obvious,” the woman said. “Maybe something will turn up in the filter.”

“What will?” asked Noelle. She rested her hands on her knees, bending over as she intently studied the two women’s actions.

“Buttons, zippers, belt buckles, jewelry,” said the doctor. “Sometimes they’re caked with dirt and hard to distinguish at first.” Dr. Peres’s tone was uncertain.

“You’re not expecting to find any,” Rowan said flatly. “You think she was naked.”

Like the woman yesterday.

“It’s too early to say that,” said the doctor. “Way too early.” She shot Rowan a sharp look.

Rowan wanted to ask her to start on the small skull but said nothing. She was on thin ice already. The doctor continued to dig and remove bones, writing on each one before she added it to a tub. “You good here?” she asked the tech, who nodded without looking up.

Dr. Peres moved to the smaller skull several feet away, and Rowan held her breath, suspecting the doctor had worked on the other skeleton for a while simply to teach Rowan some patience. Two-thirds of the second skull had been visible the day before, and the doctor removed more earth around it, adding the dirt to a bucket to be screened.

“Hello,” the doctor said softly as she lifted the skull. It was clearly smaller than the first. Dr. Peres examined the face and the cranial sutures and turned it over to look at the teeth and other sutures. “Caucasian,” she said, frowning. “That’s the easy part. Young. The first molars are well established. No second molars yet, so most likely under twelve. I’ll narrow it later when I can take some films, measurements, and examine it in better light.”

Rowan couldn’t breathe.

Dr. Peres ran fingers over the forehead and touched the upper parts of the orbital sockets and frowned again. “I think it’s female . . . but it’s hard at this age.” She looked at Rowan, sincerity in her eyes. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you for certain at the moment.”

“Hair?” Rowan croaked.

Evan touched her arm. She’d forgotten he was even present. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” As okay as one could be standing at the possible grave of a missing loved one.

Dr. Peres examined the dirt under the skull. “There’s no hair immediately visible. We’ll sift for it. But it’s possible the skull was moved a bit from its original place. I’m glad we’re on a flat piece of ground. Gravity and weather and animals can really spread out a scene when it’s on a slope.”

She moved some more dirt and nodded to herself. “This skull isn’t where I’d expect it based on the position of the rest of the bones for these particular remains. The bones have been moved in some way. Animals maybe.”

“Could a person have moved them?” asked Evan.

“Sure,” the doctor said with a one-shoulder shrug. “I don’t know why someone would, though.”

“Dr. Peres.” There was tension in the first tech’s voice. “There’s another skull under this one’s ribs.”

The doctor set the small skull back in the dirt and immediately joined the tech. “Photos,” she ordered, taking the sketch pad from the photographer. Dr. Peres scowled at the new skull and added details to the sketch as the photographer’s camera rapidly clicked. “It’s another adult female.”

Rowan and the two detectives exchanged glances.

There are more bodies?

“Is this a dumping ground?” Evan asked under his breath.

Rowan looked back at the small skull.

Malcolm?





17


Malcolm, twenty-five years ago

Rowan and Malcolm were in the shed when he shouted for them to put on the blindfolds. Unprepared, they scrambled to do as he said. “Why?” Rowan whispered.

Malcolm didn’t reply because he was also confused, dread filling every muscle. The man had already run them around that day, and it wasn’t time for dinner yet. The sun was high in the sky, and the shed was roasting. He usually left them alone at that time of day.

“I’m so tired.”

“Shhhh,” Malcolm told her, kneeling in his corner.

The locks rattled and clicked, and the hinges squeaked as he opened the door. “You. Boy. With me.” He stepped inside, and Malcolm felt the floor dip.

Malcolm leaped to his feet, and the man grabbed his arm, leading him out of the shed. The door slammed, and he fastened the locks.

Malcolm was relieved Rowan was inside, because now he knew it wouldn’t be a competition, and the man wouldn’t make him hurt her.

But what will he do to me?

They walked for several minutes, the man’s hand still on Malcolm’s arm, and when Malcolm’s blindfold shifted the tiniest bit, he didn’t adjust it. Now he could see some of the ground and was less likely to trip.

Many minutes later, Malcolm stood silently inside another building. The temperature was comfortable, and he could see gold-and-orange linoleum. Anger flooded him. Their shed was too hot, and the floors gave them splinters, while this place was minutes away with normal floors and air-conditioning.

Why are we kept like animals?

Malcolm’s legs ached, and he shifted his balance from foot to foot, wondering how long he’d been standing in the cool room. Too long. But the man had told him not to move, so he obeyed. He could hear the man walking around the room, occasionally muttering something.

Something scraped the floor—maybe a chair—and Malcolm had the impression the man had sat down directly in front of him. It was silent for a long moment, so Malcolm waited.