Page 92 of The Summer Guests

“Oh, I know who I’m dealing with, Mrs. Conover. I know you worked for the Agency. Or are you going to deny that too?”

“No, I’m not going to deny it. Yes, I served my country. Yes, in retrospect, what we did may have caused some harm, but remember, we were atwar. You’re too young to know the global threats we faced back then—nuclear war hanging over us, the enemy infiltrating our government, our military. It’s easy for you to feel morally superior now, but unless you were there, fighting to protect our country, you have no right to judge us.”

There was a sharp rap on the door. Jo turned as Detective Alfond stuck his head in the room.

“Chief Thibodeau, we need to talk.”

“I’m still in the middle of—”

“Now.”

That one word, and the look he gave her, told Jo her evening was about to get much worse. Reluctantly, she stood up and followed him into the hallway, leaving Elizabeth sitting at the table. She shut the door behind her, so they could speak without being overheard.

“This is atotalfuckup,” said Alfond.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“You’ve wasted my time and theirs. These are not insignificant people. They have friends in high places, and probably high-priced lawyers too. I’ve already sent Mr. Fox home, and you should let Mrs. Conover go as well, along with a big apology. These people had nothing to do with the bones in the pond.”

“Is that what Arthur Fox told you? Of course he’d say that. They’re not going to come right out and confess.”

“Mr. Fox didn’t have to say a word. The updated crime lab report says it all.” He shoved a sheet of paper at her. “This just came back, along with the facial reconstruction of the skull.”

Jo frowned at the page. “This is about her dental filling?”

“Look at the final analysis.”

Jo skimmed down to the bottom of the page and focused on a paragraph with words so obscure they might have been written in hieroglyphs. She frowned at the wordsamalgam restorationsandpolycarboxylate-adhesive linersandcomposite resins. “What does this mean?”

“Read the conclusion. The other side.”

She flipped over the paper, where the conclusion was printed.

The presence of composite resins used to bind the amalgam on the deceased’s etched tooth structure indicates this dental work was performed sometime after such resins were first introduced for amalgam restorations. Therefore, the estimate of the postmortem interval must be revised. This places the time of death to the mid-1980s or later.

“That blows your whole theory out of the water,” said Alfond. “Jane Doe, whoever she was, died at least a decade after you thought she did.Years after Project MKUltra ended. Who the hell gave you the crazy idea these two old people had anything to do with killing her?”

Jo’s attention was still fixed on the report.How could I have been so wrong?

“Chief Thibodeau? What was your source?”

“Someone with, um, inside information.”

“Their information’s obviously wrong.”

“But they didn’t know about this lab report. They didn’t know the time-of-death estimate was off by at least a decade. This changes everything.”

“Have you been sharing information with this source? Then I need to know who it is.”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Excuse me?”

She looked up at him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. It’s a confidential source who needs to stay out of the limelight.”And out of trouble,she thought.Leaving me to take the heat.

“Are they with a state agency?”

“No.”