Page 20 of The Bone Code

And that invasion had kicked the recycling circus into high gear.

I yielded first access to Klopp, waited while he surveyed each set of remains. Watching him bend to the task, I couldn’t help but think of a praying mantis. Finally, he straightened and turned to me.

“Seems this will be your show, Dr. Brennan.” Shaking his head. “No brain, no organs, nothing but bones. Not sure if that pleases me or not.”

“Perhaps you could sift through the contents of the bin? Continue shooting video?”

“I’m happy to do that. Actually, I wouldn’t mind observing while you work. Maybe I can pick up a few tricks.”

“Of course.” I hate having anyone look over my shoulder.

I started with AF21-986. Though completely skeletonized, due to the tightness of the plastic shroud, the major segments of the body had remained in rough anatomical position. The small bones of the hands and feet, not so much.

“Why so splotchy?” As I was disentangling and rearranging skeletal elements, Klopp was filming the red, green, and blue mottling on the skull.

“Algae.”

“What’s that?” Zooming in on a series of coiled carbonate tubes on the frontal and parietal bones.

“Probably some sort of sea worm.”

“And the little craters?” Klopp was asking about a cluster of small, round pits on the left parietal and temporal bones.

“Snail rasping.”

“Snails?” Skeptical.

“Except for the bivalves—”

“Clams, mussels, oysters, the good-eating critters?”

“Yes. Except for them, all mollusks—think whelks, periwinkles, slipper snails—have chitinous teeth that are very efficient at grating on bone. But I’m not a marine biologist.”

“?’Course you’re not.” Klopp resumed filming. “Got one bullet entrance at the back of the skull. Looks like she was shot from behind.”

I didn’t agree or disagree.

“Teeth are history. Suppose they fell out postmortem?”

“I doubt it.” I knew I’d find microfracturing on the mandible and maxilla. Didn’t say so.

“Either way, they’re gone. Ditto the fingers. Maybe snipped off with pruning shears? We’ve had some luck nailing tool type from patterning on the cut surfaces. You done any of that, maybe with dismemberment cases?”

Focused on my task, I nodded absently.

Klopp shot a bit more footage, then moved to the other table.

I continued my reconstruction, paying particular attention to cranial and pelvic features and to the state of the long bones and clavicles. By the time I’d finished, I had a sense of the victim.

And the mantra was again battering my brain.

It can’t be.

It can’t be.

“Got some tissue on the foot and ankle on this one. Might yield DNA.”

I crossed to AF21-987.