Dead Secret

Star on vacation sometime.”
    “You can take me too,” said David. “I don’t suppose it came with food?”
    “I’m sure Frank brought enough for a week,” said Diane.
    “We can start with Chinese and go from there,” said Frank.
    Diane didn’t realize she was so hungry until she smelled the hot food. After they ate, she claimed the bedroom, spread butcher paper on the bed and laid the bones out. Neva sat at the table and worked on the drawings. David sat in the cab, watching the museum and listening to music. Frank watched Diane work with the bones. She showed him the sword wound.
    “Poor girl,” said Frank.
    “Girl is right. She was young. No wisdom teeth; her epiphyses have just started to unite. Some have been glued on by the people who’ve had the bones. The pattern pubis symphysis is very rough, sternal end of the ribs barely scalloped—everything points to between fourteen and eighteen.”
    “How old are the bones?” Frank asked.
    “I don’t know. I’ll have to sample a piece of bone and have it dated.”
    “Her teeth look pretty good,” he said.
    “They are. I see only one cavity and it’s very small. Not like our poor mummy, who probably died of bad teeth. Our girl was healthy too. I don’t see any sign in her bones that she was undernourished or suffered from any disease, at least none that affects the bones.”
    Diane began the measurements of the skull. She liked this part, particularly feeding the data into the computer. She set her laptop up on a tiny table in the corner of the bedroom.
    When the measuring started, Frank lost interest and went in to watch Neva draw.
    Diane finished all her measurements, and repacked the skeleton before putting the data into the computer. “Okay, let’s see what the database says about where she’s from,” she said aloud to no one in particular.
    Frank and Neva came to watch. Neva perched on the bed; Frank stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders.
    “What you doing now?” he asked.
    “I’ve got a couple of databases that I can plug information into, and it will give me a probability of her ancestry, among other things.”
    “Really, it’ll tell you where she’s from in the world?”
    “To a point. It’s only as good as the sample contained in the database, but yes, it’s pretty good. I back it up with other kinds of tests—oxygen and strontium isotope analysis, for example. Different regions of the world have various oxygen isotope ratios in the water. That same ratio will be in the teeth and bones of a person who grew up there.”
    Frank looked at Neva and grinned.
    “I know,” said Neva. “Mike talks like that too—only about rocks. You know you can use the same damn test to find out where rocks come from? Who knew?”
    Diane gave them a look that was halfway between a grimace and a smile. “Let’s see what it says.” She looked at the data that showed up on the screen. “Female. That’s good. Five feet tall, that’s what I estimated. Caucasoid, that’s good. Okay, now this is interesting—good thing I’m backing this up with other tests.”
    “What does it say?” asked Neva.
    “Mediterranean. I was expecting England.” Diane thought a moment, picturing a map of the Mediterranean countries in her head. “I bet she’s Roman.”
    “Roman?” said Neva.
    “I’ll have to look at the other tests, including dating the bones, but she could be. Romans were in England for a time. I don’t think Mr. Rose was expecting this.” Diane liked the unexpected—at least in bones. Unexpectedness in the museum was another matter.
    “Interesting,” said Frank. “A young Roman girl stabbed through with a sword. I wonder what her story is.”
    “Do you have a drawing?” Diane asked Neva.
    “I just finished building the computer face when we left the building. I’ve been working on the drawing.” She went back to the dinette table and grabbed the picture and handed it to Diane. “I didn’t know what to do with her hair, so I made it dark and long. If it turns out she was Roman, I could look up how they wore their hair back then.”
    Diane looked into the heart-shaped face of a young girl with wide-spaced eyes and a small, straight nose. She looked so young.
    “Did I hear you say she was killed with a sword?” asked Neva.
    “A rather large sword.”
    Neva grimaced. “Well, didn’t the story say that her husband killed her with a sword after luring her to the cave? I guess that part of the story is