Page 66 of The Lost Bones

She nodded.

Austin released a breath. “You just have to figure out which night to go in. How will you do that?”

“I have an idea. I’ll ask Senator Blackwood.”

“No,” Nick hissed in a low voice.

“He can make a few calls. Show interest in hanging out,” Mackenzie repeated coolly. “Hamilton will never refuse a senator.”

“I’ve never taken my father’s help in my career, and I want to keep it that way.” He picked up his coffee and crossed his legs.

“If I can learn to be more adaptable for the situation, then you can let go of your pride to save a life,” she insisted. “We just need a solid lead. We’ve hit a wall with that club and the car company. Of course, your father won’t attend. He’ll cancel last minute.”

Sully ambled into the conference room with a puzzle box tucked under one arm and a box of donuts under the other. “Is Becky on call?”

“I’m here.” Becky’s voice came on the line.

Sully pushed the box of donuts toward them. “Keep your sugar levels up. God knows how we’ll survive this. I always liked Sterling. Stand-up guy.”

“That he is,” Nick agreed sardonically. Mackenzie elbowed him.

“All right, Dr. Weiss is a genius,” Becky said. “She arrived with her team this morning and we already have a lot of information. Like I mentioned before, all nine sets of remains indicate female victims from the ages of approximately seventeen to early thirties. Bone analysis show that four victims were Caucasian, three were African American, and the remaining two were of South Asian origin.”

Mackenzie took copious notes, even though the information would be available to her, just so that she remembered everything.

“Now what’s interesting is the cause of death…” Becky’s voice became unsure. “None of the victims were murdered.”

“What?” Sully asked, crumbs of donut spraying out of his mouth.

“Out of the nine victims, six died from syphilis.”

“You can tell that from just bones?” Nick raised his eyebrows.

“Yep. Dr. Weiss discovered lesions on the bones, star-like radial scars on the skulls and thickening of both bones and skulls. Also, there’s evidence of surface pitting and localized enlargements, along with deposition of new bone on exterior surfaces. She and her team found no signs of assault or anything else that could be the cause of death.”

“And the other three?” Mackenzie inquired.

“There were fractures of the spine in five of the victims, but Dr. Weiss estimated based on the patterns that the force wasn’t consistent with assault or accident. She suggested that the fractures were caused by muscle spasms.”

“Muscle spasms can do that?” Sully was floored.

“For two out of those three remaining victims, she was able to retrieve enough skeletal tissue to run tests and detect tetanus toxin. Extrapolating, we have concluded that the other victim probably died the same way.”

“Tetanus?” Mackenzie asked, frowning. “But syphilis and tetanus are both treatable.”

“That’s what’s so strange,” Becky agreed. “But there is no evidence of anything else. No kerf marks. No bullet wounds. No broken hyoid bones. The tissue samples we were able to salvage contained no known poisons. Our conclusion is that it wasn’t murder.”

But they had been buried there. All nine women in one clearing. And it had something to do with whoever had been torturing and killing the people who had hurt Mackenzie.

She looked at her ring finger. The indentation from her wedding band had faded a long time ago. Now she had even forgotten what it felt like. That part of her life was long over. But why had someone decided to dig into her past?

“What about time of death?” Nick asked, bringing her back to the present. “You okay?” he whispered.

She nodded and focused on what Becky had to say.

“Times of death range from one year to forty years ago.”

“Forty years?” Sully coughed.