Dead Guilty

about mapping it?’’
‘‘If it’s an interesting cave and hasn’t been mapped, yes. That’d be fun.’’
‘‘I’ll let you know something in a couple of days.’’ Mike stood up and started for the door, hesitated, smiled, turned again and went out the door.
Diane looked through the papers Andie had left on her desk. Nothing that couldn’t wait. She needed to get back to the autopsies.

Chapter 8
    The diener was placing another of Diane’s bodies on the table when she reentered the autopsy containment room, suited, masked and gloved, her hair under a plastic cap. The rooms were cool now, the odors man ageable, the way they should be.
    This victim was called Green, after the color of cord Diane had used to secure the ends of the cut hanging rope. Green had hung fifteen feet from Blue.
    Lynn and Raymond were chatting away about the Braves as they cut away the clothing. The only part of the conversation Diane understood was Raymond saying, ‘‘Unh unh, ain’t no way.’’
    Lynn looked up and nodded as Diane approached. ‘‘This one is about the same age as Blue,’’ she said. ‘‘I’d say in his early twenties, maybe late teens.’’
    ‘‘Too young to die,’’ said Raymond.
‘‘We have some insect specimens for you from Blue.’’ Lynn motioned toward the counter where several jars sat. ‘‘We collected live larvae as well as dead husks. Raymond enjoys that sort of thing, don’t you, Raymond?’’
‘‘You going to hatch those bugs?’’ asked Raymond.
‘‘That’s the only way the entomologist can be cer tain about the species of the larva and how long the life cycle is. It’ll help fix the time of death.’’
‘‘They haven’t been there long. I’d say just a couple of weeks, from the rate of decay,’’ said Lynn.
‘‘They were hanging off the ground,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Shouldn’t make that much of a difference,’’ said Lynn.
This was the first time Diane had cause to question Lynn’s competence. But she didn’t say anything, re membering
had shown
outshown.
that earlier on at the crime scene Lynn a sensitivity to being contradicted or
    However, to be fair, it takes experience with hang ing victims to realize that it can indeed make much of a difference. Rate of decay is highly dependent on the environment. Bodies decay differently in Alaska than in Hawaii, or the Sahara, or Portobelo. And they decay differently out in the open, or hanging, or sealed in an enclosed space, or buried shallow, or buried deep, or buried in a limestone environment. It also makes a difference if they have open wounds, such as the cutoff fingertips.
    It’s a matter of the body tissues being accessible to the insects and microbes that cause decay. And the presence of chemicals or elements that interfere with microbial and insect action by causing the body to dehydrate or to become preserved.
    There are so many permutations and combinations that unless you’ve had experience with them all, there is no way to just know. Had these bodies been discov ered at a later date and had Red, the corpse Diane witnessed fall, lain on the ground where the insects could get to him, he would appear to have died earlier than the others, even though their time of death might be the same.
    Diane thought of explaining, but it would just sound like a lecture, it would offend Lynn’s sensitivity and it would make Lynn look bad in front of Raymond. She’d simply use what information David collected from his reared insects and make her estimates of the time of death.
    Diane removed the rope from Green the same way she had from the first victim. Raymond took the pho tographs. Green was tied in exactly the same way as Blue—hands behind the back in a handcuff knot with the standing end of the rope in a loop around the neck and the extra rope from the working end wrapped four times around the wrists with the end tucked between the loops.
    The noose was tied the same way as on the first— a bowline to make a loop to pull the rope through to create a noose that tightens under tension. She hadn’t expected the knots to be any different, and they weren’t. She carefully packed and labeled the rope.
    ‘‘I was wondering if you would take me caving sometime,’’ said Lynn. ‘‘A simple cave for a rank beginner.’’
    ‘‘Neva wants to go caving too. She’s also a beginner. We should be able to find a good starter cave we can go to.’’
    Lynn grinned. ‘‘I have always loved caves, under