Page 73 of The Bone Code

“He’s hurting but out of danger. And already antsy. He thinks they’ll discharge him tomorrow.”

“Is he planning a Halloween costume?”

“Trust me, he doesn’t need one.”

“He looks that bad?”

“Worse.”

“Will they?”

“Will they what?”

“Discharge him.”

“No.”

“Is he on painkillers?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“What doyouthink happened? Accident or attack?”

“A deliberate hit, but I have no idea why.”

Another long pause, then, “Need a distraction?”

“Sure. But I’m about to enter the garage and may lose signal.”

“I might have a lead on Beecroft’s mask.”

“I’m listening.”

Anne launched into a dialogue on ancestry and descent and family resemblances, cut off when I dove underground.

Upstairs, I coaxed Birdie from beneath the bed with his favorite Greenies treats. Too many for his own good. Or for that of the white carpet. A guilty conscience is a powerful force.

Next, I made myself peanut butter toast and washed it down with a Diet Coke, all the while thinking about one of Anne’s comments.

Kicking back in a living-room chair, I hit redial, idly observing the bundled figures below on rue Sherbrooke. Shoppers, tourists, mothers or nannies pushing strollers. Everyone more tolerant of cold thanmoi.

“Sorry.” When Anne answered. “Lost signal in the garage.”

“I figured.”

“Listen, can I roll something by you?” Not sure why I was bouncing the idea off Anne. To see how plausible it sounded when spoken aloud?

“Rock and roll.”

“You said your research on Beecroft’s mask led you to some genealogy web pages.”

“Not on purpose. It’s like falling down rabbit holes. One leads to another, then another. I stumbled onto a boatload of sites offering to profile my genes.”

Anne was right. In the past decade, a vast array of companies had sprung up offering users the opportunity to test their own DNA. Purchase the kit, mail us your spit. We’ll tell you where Great-great-grandma and -grandpa were born. Easy-peasy. Some of them, such as AncestryDNA, were geared mostly toward family-tree building. Others, such as 23andMe, were more medically focused.

Not long after the appearance of these direct-to-consumer DNA services, amateur cyber-sleuths began to explore whether they might be of value as investigative tools for law enforcement. Specifically, could their databases be used to identify unknown crime victims and suspects? To put names to unknown dead?

It turned out the answer was yes. But indirectly. The forensic application relied on the use of another type of open-source database. And on users’ willingness to upload the DNA results they’d obtained in hopes of locating relatives.