Dead Guilty

just hung in midair, effectively ending this part of the conversation. Diane returned to her measurements.
As she examined the postcranial skeleton, all the bones except the skull, Frank watched everything she did with a keen interest.
‘‘Red Doe may have been a ballet dancer,’’ Diane said, breaking the silence.
‘‘How’s that?’’ asked Frank.
‘‘She has very well-developed attachments from her calf muscles, greater than any other part of her body. That’s a major muscle used in ballet dancing.’’
‘‘Calf muscles, that’d be the gastrocnemius,’’ said Frank.
‘‘Very good. You know your muscles?’’
‘‘You have them on the chart over there.’’
‘‘You memorized the chart while I was laying out the bones?’’
‘‘I just saw a couple of names I recognize. Besides, anyone who ever lifted weights knows the names of the major muscle groups—you know, deltoids, pecto ral, biceps, six-pack.’’
Diane laughed and shook her head.
‘‘There must be more evidence than that—I mean, maybe she just did a lot of calf exercises.’’
‘‘Red Doe’s had some serious inflammation in her right flexor hallucis longus, probably due to the plan tar flexing involved in being en pointe. ’’
Frank stared at her a moment, amusement dancing in his eyes. ‘‘Okay, she had sore muscles from dancing on her toes.’’
‘‘Frank, you surprise me. That wasn’t half bad.’’
‘‘Well, I know what flexing means, and jumping around on your toes can’t be good for you—besides, I’m a detective.’’
‘‘The hallucis longus tendon starts on the fibula, one of the lower leg bones, goes under the foot and con nects to the big toe. That constant hyperflexed posi tion can do damage to the tendons severe enough to leave lesions on the bones. You’re right—it’s not good for the toes or any of the joints. During a dance, the dancer can increase the forces on her joints as much as ten times her body weight.
‘‘Red Doe’s toes show signs of stress from that kind of pounding. That goes along with other lesions I found on the left femur, where she had chronic tendi nitis of her psoas tendon from the repetitive turn-out position of the leg. I suspect, but don’t know, that Red went en pointe too young.’’
‘‘Why in the world would anyone put their body through that?’’
‘‘Would you like to discuss football?’’
‘‘Yeah, well, that’s different.’’
‘‘Right.’’
    Frank finally took her up on the offer to nap on her couch and Diane worked in silence, examining, measuring and recording each bone—along with any identifying characteristics that manifest themselves in the bones. She looked for nicks or perimortem breaks that might be associated with an injury inflicted by the murderer. She found none.
    As she examined the vertebrae, she found a stress fracture on the pars interarticularis of the fifth lumbar vertebrae. More evidence that Red Doe had been a ballet dancer. The arabesque position places an inordi nate amount of stress on the lower spine, and fractures on one of the lumbar vertebrae are not uncommon.
    Finally, Diane examined the cut end of the phalan ges under the microscope. Four bore the mark of the same tool that was used to cut off the fingers of the other two victims.
    She was taking photographs when Frank came back, sleepy eyed. ‘‘Don’t you ever go to bed?’’
‘‘Is that an offer?’’
‘‘Yes, definitely.’’
‘‘Okay. Let me take a look at the rope and I’ll let you take me home.’’
‘‘Rope?’’
‘‘The rope they were hung with.’’
‘‘Oh.’’
Diane took Red’s rope to the table and laid it out. The red string that tied the cut ends together looked as if it had been dipped in fresh blood. She examined each of the knots again. They were identical to Blue’s and Green’s, down to the stevedore’s stopper knot. Definitely tied by the same hand.
She decided to leave the bones and the rope out on the table and get David to help her finish the photo graphs tomorrow. She looked at her watch. Today. Damn, she’d hardly get any sleep. As she started to leave, she saw the other box with the single piece of rope that they had found on the ground at the scene. She took out the rope and lay it on the table. It was full of kinks and covered with worn places. No knots for her to analyze. She laid it on one of the empty tables.
* * *
Diane fell asleep with her arm around Frank’s waist, his body nestled against