Dead Guilty

get them out, but other than that, don’t pay any attention to them. They have the reputation of being bullies. You say you think they are dead?’’
    ‘‘I don’t know. I’m trying to identify the remains of three individuals. Two of them fit their description. The bodies were badly decomposed and we did an artist’s reconstruction of their faces. One had plastic surgery. That’s how we got a lead.’’
    ‘‘Nose job on Ashlyn, right?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Damn, this doesn’t look good.’’
Diane went on to describe the other characteristics
    they had discovered—tattoos, heart condition. She also described Red Doe, her tattoos, ballet, back prob lems and the fact she was probably half Asian. ‘‘I realize I’m grabbing at straws here,’’ she said. ‘‘No, I don’t think you are. They have a friend.
    Cathy Chu. She wore a back brace for a while. And you say the parents don’t know they’re missing. That’s not surprising.’’
    ‘‘I need some X-rays to make a positive identifica tion. The plastic surgeon was very forthcoming, but as you can understand, he was reluctant to send X-rays without permission.’’
    ‘‘I’ll see that you get what you need. Jeez, what goes around comes around.’’
‘‘What do you mean?’’
‘‘The father probably thought you were calling about an incident that happened a couple of years ago. I don’t know exactly what happened—it was hushed up—but I can give you some good bits and pieces.’’
‘‘Please do. We’ve had other murders that may be connected. Do you know if they were involved with uncut diamonds?’’
‘‘Oh, Jesus, they did get in over their heads. I knew it would happen. The three of them went to the Uni versity of Pennsylvania. Thought they were really slick customers. Got involved in smuggling contraband out of Canada. Small stuff at first—cigarettes, clothes. They thought they were really into a sophisticated racket. Had a few close calls with customs, but nothing their parents couldn’t take care of.
‘‘They started getting a little more daring and got involved with some dangerous people. This is where it gets a little murky. They got involved with something. Maybe it’s diamonds. You have diamonds, then?’’
‘‘Yes.’’
‘‘Well, damn. I thought it was tobacco. You know about Canadian diamonds?’’
‘‘Not really.’’
‘‘There’s a big diamond mine in Canada, the Ekati mine. Produces nice white diamonds, and the Cana dian authorities work hard to keep organized crime out of the rough-diamond trade. But you never can completely. Rough diamonds are harder to identify and they are easy to smuggle. On top of that, they have a high profit-to-size ratio. A dream for orga nized crime.’’
‘‘This is what they got into?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘I’m not sure. It wouldn’t surprise me. Like I said, I thought the big trouble two years ago was tobacco. What I do know is that something happened and they got in way over their heads. They may have tried to strike out on their own and crossed the wrong people. That’s where Alice Littleton comes into the picture. She was a freshman at Penn—from Georgia. That’s probably the connection their father made when you called him. From what I can tell, Alice was a little southern girl who was really impressed with the bigcity sophisticates from New York, although Buffalo isn’t exactly Manhattan. No offense.’’
‘‘None taken.’’
‘‘Like I said, I’ve had to piece together what hap pened. Alice wanted to fit in. Followed Ashlyn and her crowd around like a puppy. When Ashlyn, Justin and Cathy got into trouble, they sent little Alice in their place for some kind of delivery, and she got killed. Ashlyn and her friends got religion after that. They went to classes and played good. I thought maybe they had learned their lesson. It looks like they got themselves into deeper trouble. Diamonds. Jeez.’’
A thought struck Diane. ‘‘Did Alice Littleton have a brother?’’
‘‘Is he in this too? You bet she did. Everett Littleton. That’s why I know so much about it. The poor guy traveled back and forth from Pennsylvania to here, to Ontario and back, trying to find out what happened. Hounded us to death about the Hootens. But there was nothing we could do. Nothing that happened was in our jurisdiction. There’s times I’d like to arrest people on general principles, but—how do you folks say it?—we didn’t have a