Dead Guilty

cleaning of the bones. When a body decomposes, the cartilage decomposes— though more slowly than flesh. The bump on the nose in the mummy resulted when the supporting cartilage decomposed and collapsed following death, and the nose drooped, revealing the end of the nasal bone— making it look like a bump. The mummy wrappings have pressed the nose down so that the nasal bone has a prominence that it wouldn’t have had while he was alive. Looking at all the pictures of Egyptian mummies in our reference books, it’s easy to think that Egyptian pharaohs all had nose bumps—making them all look alike.’’
‘‘That’s funny. I did think that all those pharaohs had bumps on their noses.’’
‘‘Bet you thought they were old and lean, too.’’ Neva grinned. ‘‘Yes, I did.’’
‘‘In more modern skeletal remains, you can tell from the upward angle of the lower part of the nasal bone that some noses probably had a bump. A person can appear to have a bump on their nose if they have damaged the cartilage supporting the tip of the nose, like from an accident or just getting hit hard in the nose.’’
‘‘And that would show up in the skull?
‘‘Not necessarily. You might see a break in the nasal bone, but you wouldn’t know how the break mani fested itself. Is that more than you wanted to know about how to determine the shape of the nose from the skull?’’
‘‘No. This is good. I’ve seen all those nose types in people. It never occurred to me that it had anything to do with their bones. How about the eyes and lips?’’
‘‘Those are more of a problem. You know how far apart the eyes were because you have the sockets. But you don’t get much help beyond that. Information about gender and race helps, along with knowledge of the geometry of the face—like where the corners of the lips are in relation to the other features. And age plays a big part. As you get older the eyelids sag, the lip line isn’t as distinct. As I said, much of this is intuitive. You do the best you can with the informa tion you have. But you go as far as you can with the bones.’’
The phone on Diane’s desk rang, lighting up the in house line. Diane reached and pressed the speaker button.
‘‘Fallon, here.’’
‘‘Dr. Fallon, it’s Andie. I’ve been going through your E-mail, and there’s one that’s kind of strange.’’ ‘‘Strange? How?’’
‘‘I’ll read it to you. It says: ‘Sometimes the dead are guilty.’ ’’ Neva and Diane exchanged glances.
‘‘The dead are guilty? What does that mean?’’ asked Neva.
‘‘I don’t know. I’m going downstairs. You stay here and work with the software.’’
Diane left her lab and headed for the elevators. Andie was sitting at her desk when she entered the private door to her office.
‘‘What do you think they’re talking about?’’ said Andie, giving up her seat at Diane’s computer.
Diane looked at the message. Sometimes the dead are guilty. That was all, no signature, no explanation. Diane looked at the sender. JMLndrmn23. It wasn’t anyone she recognized. But then, who did she know that would send her a message like this?
Sometimes the dead are guilty. A prank? An uneas iness began creeping up Diane’s spine to the back of her neck.
‘‘Are you going to respond?’’
Andie’s voice startled her. She’d forgotten she was still standing there by the desk.
‘‘I don’t know.’’ But she found herself clicking the REPLY button, and she wrote a simple note, What do you mean? and hit the SEND button.
‘‘What do you think it does mean?’’ asked Andie.
Diane shook her head. ‘‘Probably some selfrighteous person who doesn’t like the museum being connected to the crime lab.’’
She also was beginning to think that it wasn’t such a good idea. But Rosewood had her between a rock and a hard place on that one.
Odd, in any case. Something else she had recently described as odd. Oh, yes, the flowers. That was odd too.
David appeared at the door, interrupting her thought. ‘‘Garnett just called. We have another case.’’

Chapter 18
    Diane drove her car to the address David had given her. Briarwood Lane was a cul-de-sac of old frame houses and large mature trees in a mixed neighbor hood of Hispanics, whites, and blacks, many of whom were standing in their yards, looking in the direction of the asphalt-roofed house with gray shaker siding where several emergency vehicles were parked.
    David, Jin and Neva had arrived