Carved in Bone

slant forward like this. There’s an easy test you can do with a pencil. Or a cigar. Stu, can you demonstrate for us? Take your cigar and hold it straight up and down, and lay it across your mouth and chin.” He did. “See how it touches the teeth, the chin, and the base of the nose?” Heads nodded. “If Stu were black, it wouldn’t lay flat like that. It would angle out from the nose, or from the chin, because of the way the teeth and jaws slope. Another thing”–I felt myself warming to my mini-lecture–“is the nasal opening. See how wide it is? And see these grooves in the bone underneath it? They’re called nasal gutters. They help funnel air into the nostrils. Caucasians don’t have nasal guttering; we’ve got a nasal sill that limits how fast air can flow. That’s because Caucasians evolved in colder climates, breathing colder air. In Africa, on the other hand–”
    Suddenly Stu smacked his forehead with his left hand, causing all of us to jump. “Son of a bitch ,” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”
    “Think of what?” asked Angie.
    “We’ve got two dead boys, right?”
    “We know this one’s a boy,” I said. “Hard to be sure about the first one.”
    “There used to be a boys’ school–a reform school–somewhere in this neck of the woods. A long time ago. Maybe not in Apalachee County, though. Over in Miccosukee County? Or maybe Bremerton.” He looked at the deputy. “Any idea how far we are from the county lines?”
    “Probably not more’n a couple miles from either one,” said Sutton. “We’re kind of in a corner here.” He pointed to the northwest. “Moccasin Creek’s the boundary with Miccosukee. Bremerton’s close, too; due west, maybe. But I never heard of a reform school anywhere around here.”
    “Hell, it probably closed ten years before you were born,” Vickery told him. “Burned down sometime in the sixties or seventies, I forget when. Terrible fire. A bunch of the boys died. They never rebuilt the school. Just sent the survivors to other places.” He looked at the skull again. “Doc, any chance these two kids died in the fire?”
    I studied it again. “Maybe. Smoke inhalation, possibly, but there’s no way to tell that without soft tissue, and the soft tissue’s long gone. But these skulls both had fractures.”
    Vickery frowned. “But don’t skulls fracture in a fire?”
    “Yes and no,” I said. “When a body burns, the skull breaks into small pieces, about the size of a quarter.”
    “How about if a wall or a roof collapsed,” he persisted, “and hit the kids on the head?”
    “It’s possible,” I conceded. “But if the bodies weren’t burned beyond recognition, seems like they’d have been sent home to be buried.”
    “If they had homes,” Angie observed.
    “Good point,” I conceded. “Probably be worth finding out more about the fire–pictures, news accounts, official reports. Be interesting to take a look at the site, too.”
    “I’d be up for that,” seconded Angie. “Any idea who owns the property now?”
    “No,” Vickery said, “but it shouldn’t be hard to find out. If it’s still owned by the state or the county, we might not even need a search warrant.”
    Pettis cleared his throat. “Not to cause trouble, but does that mean you-all needed a warrant to search my property?”
    Vickery laughed. “We’d be in trouble at this point if we did, huh? But nah, we’re like vampires–if you invite us in, you’re stuck with us. If you don’t invite us in, we have to stay out.”
    “Well,” interjected the deputy, “unless there’s an active crime scene. For instance, if a human skull turns up, we can do at least an initial search even if you don’t want to cooperate.”
    Pettis frowned. “But I called you. If I didn’t want to cooperate, why would I call you?” I smiled; the man had a point.
    “And we sure do appreciate your cooperation,” Angie threw in quickly.
    Pettis’s frown turned into a smile. “Well hell, I’m glad to help. Seems like the right thing to do. Couple kids dead; be good to figure out who they were and how they died. Besides, truth is, me and Jasper kinda like the excitement. It’s pretty quiet out here most of the time. Ain’t it, Jasper? Huh, Jasper? Jasper, what do you say?” The dog, hearing his name three times in quick succession–the pitch rising each time–capered and spun, and gave a yodeling version of a bark.
    “Speaking of