Dead Guilty

their Christ mas card list.’’
Diane explained the complicated scenario.
‘‘So you got blackmailed into it, and Rosewood got free space for a crime lab.’’
‘‘That’s about the size of it. I have to admit, I rather like it. But I can’t tell the mayor or the chief of detec tives that.’’
Whit laughed. ‘‘I understand. It’s like, ‘Please, Brer Fox, don’t throw me in that briar patch.’ ’’
‘‘Thanks for making the call on Lynn Webber.’’
‘‘It makes sense,’’ said Whit. ‘‘Rankin won’t mind. He’s not as political as the people around him.’’
    Lynn Webber arrived with the medical technicians to transport Chris Edwards’ body to the morgue. Diane asked the technicians to wait on the porch while Lynn examined the body and Diane and Jin finished processing a path to the door.
One of the technicians, a white man about twentyfive with brown receding hair and dark blue eyes, asked if it was all right to sit down on one of the porch chairs.
    ‘‘It’s been dusted,’’ Jin yelled from the living room. ‘‘Might get powder on you.’’
The other, a black man of about thirty, told him he’d best remain standing. ‘‘No telling what you might sit on at a crime scene.’’ The two of them talked to each other about football while they waited.
Lynn twisted the neck and jaw of the corpse, and then moved his arms as far as the rope would allow. ‘‘Whit tells me I have you to thank for this.’’
‘‘I hope you don’t mind. They may be related.’’
‘‘This looks different from those in the woods,’’ said Lynn.
‘‘But this is one of the men who found the victims in the woods.’’
Lynn looked up at Diane sharply. ‘‘What’s going on?’’
‘‘I don’t know.’’
Lynn shook her head, pushed her thermometer into Chris Edwards’ liver and looked at her watch. ‘‘Ninety-four point five. Rigor’s . . .’’ Lynn looked around the room. ‘‘Who’s the detective on the case?’’
‘‘Chief Garnett’s taking the lead,’’ said Diane. ‘‘This guy’s partner, Steven Mayberry, is missing—the one who was with him in the woods when they found the bodies.’’
Lynn’s frown deepened. ‘‘This just gets worse. Any idea what this is all about?’’
‘‘Maybe we’ll find out when Mr. Mayberry is found.’’
Dr. Webber stood up. ‘‘At a one-and-a-half-degree drop an hour, it’s possible he died two and a half hours ago. He’s already into rigor. That’s a little early, but it looks like he put up a fight and that would hasten it.’’
‘‘His girlfriend put the call in about two and a half hours ago,’’ said Whit. He was standing back from the body, watching Dr. Webber examine it.
‘‘I suppose Chief Garnett needs to talk with her,’’ said Dr. Webber. ‘‘I’m done here.’’
She turned to Diane. ‘‘Raymond has one skeleton for you. Blue Doe. He’s delivering it today. He’ll have Red and Green done shortly.’’
‘‘Good. Perhaps we can find out who they were.’’ Diane pulled out a coil of orange string to tie off the rope for cutting.
‘‘If this keeps up,’’ said Lynn, ‘‘you’re going to run out of colors.’’

Chapter 10
    ‘‘Looks like autoerotic asphyxia,’’ said the black tech nician when he saw the body. ‘‘I had one about six months ago. Just a kid.’’
    Jin stopped an examination of the chest of drawers and walked over. ‘‘Most instances of autoerotic as phyxia are adolescents,’’ he said. ‘‘This doesn’t look like it. Wouldn’t you say, Boss?’’
    ‘‘I think we don’t need to speculate,’’ said Diane.
    ‘‘His hands are tied awful tight,’’ said the other assistant.
‘‘Maybe he had help,’’ his partner suggested. ‘‘The rope is tight around the front where he’s leaning into it, but there’s a lot of give in the back.’’ They held the body while Diane tied off the yellow polypropyl ene rope with orange string and cut it.
‘‘He sure looks trussed up around the neck like that kid. The kid’s mother moved all the porn he had in the room,’’ the technician continued. He looked around the bedroom. ‘‘Friends and family will do that, you know.’’ The technician didn’t want to give up his diagnosis.
‘‘Let’s get this poor boy out of here,’’ said Lynn Webber. She stripped off her gloves as the technicians placed the remains of Chris Edwards in the body bag. ‘‘Be careful of the ropes,’’ said