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A chilly October breeze swirled around Tom and Sid as they waited outside the coroner’s office. None of the other offices or stores in the small strip mall were opened. Artie’s preview of the report was succinct and somewhat interesting, but the detectives needed more than that to solve their case. Tom hoped the forensic anthropologist would earn his fee.
Sid pulled his jacket collar closer around his neck. “What time did Artie say?”
“I told you ... first thing,” Tom grunted.
“Hey, my watch says half past first thing.”
Ten minutes later, Artie arrived. “Sorry guys, got a call as I was about to leave home.”
“No problem. Where’s Fredericks?” Tom asked.
“That was the call. He’s been delayed by a personal emergency. But I can start the briefing. Let’s go in the lab. Fortunately, we set everything up before we left last night.”
Several tables filled the largest room of the office suite. Displays of photographs and physical evidence taken from the site covered each work surface. Artie handed each man a written report. Tom was impressed with its weight but would be more impressed with substance.
“Hot off the press, gentlemen. It includes a summary. Each topic is detailed in the subsequent pages. The corresponding material is shown on these evidence tables. Before we sit down, let me go over each exhibit and recap the findings. Keep in mind we started on this a week ago. Some additional analysis is ongoing and should be completed in about a month.”
The detectives studied the first page, which contained the bulleted list. Not surprisingly, the first two—condition of skeleton and analysis of covering—intrigued them the most. The skeleton itself was stored in the morgue at the hospital, but numerous photos illustrated each point Artie made about the condition of the remains and what Fredericks had determined about the victim. Tom and Sid listened intently and made notes on the detailed portion of the report. When Artie moved to the next table, Tom raised his hand.
“Can I summarize what I’ve heard to make sure we’re clear?”
“Sounds good,” Artie said. “Start with the victim.”
“Caucasian male, between thirty and fifty years old, about five-foot-seven-inches tall. He had good teeth, although a couple were missing. He had broken both arms during his life, including breaking his left arm when he was younger. His bones healed poorly and may have caused issues later. Some pieces of clothing remained, but other than suggesting work clothes, they offered no clues. Nothing else was found in the blanket or inside the grave. No wallet or wedding ring. You did determine, however, that he died from a severe blunt force trauma to the head.”
“Causing a compound depressed skull fracture,” Artie added.
“Whoever wielded the weapon had to be pretty strong,” Sid said.
“That’s one explanation, but there are other things to consider. Let me move to the next table before we talk about the weapon. This wool blanket was manufactured in Minnesota during World War II. As it turns out, after the war the company began blending synthetic fibers in the wool blankets. In any case, a product logo and lot number run along this edge.”
“Amazing,” Sid said, squinting to see the small lettering.
“The good news is that lot was manufactured and sold in the Midwestern United States beginning in 1941.”
Tom said, “Let me guess that the bad news is there’s no way to determine where or when it was purchased.”
“The company has records, which are provided in the report, but the list is rather overwhelming. Still, you never know what might help. As you’ll see in Chuck’s summary, the condition of the skeleton, the clothing, the grave itself, and the invasion of the tree root suggest interment was somewhere in the 1940s.”
“More good news ... our possible open cases have been cut significantly,” Sid said.
Artie turned to the next table, covered with photos of the skull, including close-ups of the wound and the grave itself. Several photos had been placed face down.
Before Artie could begin, Charles Fredericks joined the group and offered to take over the presentation. “Sorry, I’m late. I see Artie has covered the victim and the blanket. Both held a great deal of information for your case. Although we can determine the general nature of the weapon, it was not ... exactly ... found at the scene.”
“That sounds intriguing. Do we get to guess the murder weapon?” Sid asked.
Chuck smiled and moved to the opposite side of the table. He centered one of the larger photos of the skull wound directly in front of the detectives. Red circles highlighted areas of trauma—two deep indentations, about two inches long, and a third sharper slit, about an inch wide. The grouping reminded Tom of an equilateral triangle.
“The fracture indicates the victim was struck from behind, most probably while turning around to face his attacker. The position of the wound, close to and behind the left temple, resulted in death, but not necessarily immediate.”
“You determined all that from this indentation?” Sid asked.
“It would be unusual for someone to come at another person face-to-face and get in such a solid strike. More likely, the victim heard the approach, turned to see the blow coming with his peripheral vision, maybe even took evasive action, but was too late.”
“And the weapon?” Tom asked.
“These not-quite-parallel indentations created the compound fracture. As you can see the bone was pushed inward. The third notch was incidental. The weapon was metal, at least the portion striking the victim.”
Tom and Sid studied the primary photo and others taken from different angles.
“Something with that weird pattern. Can’t be a rod or a bar,” Sid said.
“Kind of looks like the back of a shovel, where the handle fits in above the blade,” Tom commented.
“Very good, Detective Collingwood,” Chuck said. “What else?”
“The handle must have been fairly long if the attacker surprised him.”
Artie turned over the remaining photos—several different views of a long-handled shovel and three enlargements of the grave wall. Chuck circled the triangular pattern shown on the rear view of the shovel, then several markings in the grave.
“Remember, Tom, I suggested there were two diggers because of the depth range?” Chuck asked.
“And you said there may have been different shovels.”
“In fact, there were markings from a pickaxe and two types of shovels. The murder weapon, with a rounded wider blade, was used to dig the deeper end. That type of shovel, as shown in our sample photo, is consistent with the indentations made on our victim’s skull.”
“You say he didn’t necessarily die immediately. Was he buried alive?”
“Doubtful, but possible. I’m sure the gravediggers assumed he was dead. The type of trauma he suffered would no doubt render him unconscious. A wound so deep would result in massive blood loss. We found traces of blood on the blanket.”
“That’s great,” Sid said.
“I’m pretty sure they won’t be able to type it or extract DNA. However, we sent samples to the lab at the University of North Texas, including clothing and blanket swatches plus the femur bones. They’ll do the best they can to extract the mitochondrial DNA.”
“This DNA thing is pretty new to us, Chuck. But I’m guessing we’ll need matching samples,” Tom said. “How do we do that if we don’t know who he is?”
“It will be your job to narrow the possibilities. With the age of the remains, the mitochondrial DNA may be all the lab can extract. We’ll need a DNA sample from the victim’s mother or sister, or even his mother’s sister, or the sister’s daughter.”
“If those people even exist,” Sid said.
“I’m afraid that will be critical to confirming the identification,” Artie said.
Tom paced the room from table to table, studying the evidence displays. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. The information provided one picture of how the murder took place—essentially Chuck’s guess. Figuring out the method and the weapon and the motive was difficult enough with an actual crime scene and the identity of the victim. Without those, it was purely speculation.
“Any advice?” Sid asked.
“I suggest you both read the entire report, review the photos, and go to the scene. I wouldn’t release the lot until you’ve been at least one more time. The reports from the lab will take several weeks. Until then, work your cases and develop your assumptions about what might have happened. I’ll be available for any follow-up questions. Artie has my contact information. I can come back, if necessary.”
Tom and Sid helped Artie pack the report and photos and other physical evidence into three large boxes. The detectives signed the chain of custody forms for Artie and proceeded back to their office.
“First thing we need to do is speak to Dan about the archives,” Sid said.
“Way ahead of you. I asked ... actually I begged him to speak to the City Clerk or Mayor or whoever it took to have those files loaned to us for use in our office.”
Sid cleared a table on one side of the room normally used as a catchall for stacking case evidence. He placed the photos and evidence from Artie’s lab on the table and gave himself and Tom a copy of the full report.
“You want to give this other copy to Lieutenant Palmer?”
“Make sure he signs for it.,” Tom said.
“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”
Sid was on his way to the door when the lieutenant came in. “On my way to bring you a copy of the consultant’s report, sir. Lots of information, but we’re still trying to digest it.”
“Sid is being too subtle. We have no idea what it all means. We know the victim is a male and maybe how and when he died. We have a lot of work to do.”
“We didn’t expect the forensic anthropologist to fill in all the blanks,” Dan Palmer said.
“True enough. But a wallet with a picture ID would have been nice.”
“Maybe it will help that you have permission to bring whatever files you need from the archives into the office. Cindy will brief you on the procedure. Can we release the crime scene?”
“Fredericks says not yet.”
“It better be soon. Allen has called two more times. Even the mayor asked me about it.”
Palmer signed for the coroner’s report and handed the form to Sid as he started to leave. “One more thing. I read your report on the Porter suit. Do you have anything to add?”
“I don’t know if we could call his suit frivolous, but we found nothing illegal or even particularly questionable going on around town. Since Porter provided no witness names or specific details, we’ve investigated the general process for each job. Leatherman has made a lot of procedural changes and is stricter on the permit process than in the past. I’m sure if the state finds any issues during its investigation they will already have been remedied. We spoke to the City Attorney who is preparing his response point-by-point. He’s satisfied the responses will quash the suit. Both Leatherman and the City Attorney’s office have tried without success to get additional information from Porter.”
“We still have our hot line open and will continue to follow any leads,” Sid added.
“Consider the case tabled, at least until the audit is complete or you get a new lead.”
Tom and Sid walked Palmer back to his office on the way to speak to Cindy and get the files they needed from the storeroom. They checked out the cases from the 1940s and 1950s. After they helped Cindy return files to boxes and boxes to shelves, they went to lunch, then stopped by the crime scene.
“Nothing out here we haven’t seen,” Sid said.
“I wanted to walk around before I read the detailed report. I’m sure Artie and Chuck were thorough, but I want to refresh my memory.”
“Something keeps nagging at me.”
“You’ve narrowed it to one thing?” Tom asked.
“One in particular. Why in the world would someone murder a person then bury them in the city?”
“I’m not sure if this was in the city in the 1940s.”
“Still, why not take the body to some remote part of the county or, even better, to Arkansas?”
“Good question. I guess we’ll need to start a list of those little nagging mysteries,” Tom said.
“Except this one will have a longer list,” Sid said.
“Here’s another one. Why would they bury the body not fifty yards from the creek? Why not weigh it down and dump it downstream?”
“Like I said, a long list.”