Dead Secret

Sheriff Canfield’s jurisdiction, and he thinks the diver got tangled up underwater in some brush and old fishing line. The other guy tried to help him, fell in and drowned too. Some fishermen found both of them. We don’t have the medical examiner’s report. We’re calling the scuba diver Scuba Doe and the other guy Quarry Doe.”
    Jin jumped up, went to his desk and came back with a folder. “I have photographs and drawings. Like David said, Sheriff Canfield thinks it was an accident.”
    Diane pulled the papers over to her. “What do you think?” She stopped, wrinkled her nose and looked up.
    “What is that smell?” Her gaze shifted to the garbage bag that Jin had put in the corner..
    “You’re not going to like this, Boss,” said Jin, looking like he clearly didn’t want to say anything more. Unusual for Jin.
    “Give it to me,” she said.
    “It’s one of the bodies.”
    She raised her eyebrows and looked over at the bag. “One of the drowning victims?”
    “No. One of the bodies that David said is piling up. Do you remember Deputy Singer, that guy who was so mad because he had to wait for us to come out of the cave?”
    Diane cocked an eyebrow. “Yes. That’s not him, is it?” Jin laughed. “You’re going to wish it was. Some Boy Scouts out in the woods in Lumpkin County came across some bones—well, not completely bones. They still had some flesh on them—looks like a couple of months’ decomposition, maybe. Anyway, they called Sheriff Burns, who sent Deputy Singer. He gathered up the bones and stuffed them in that garbage bag and brought them to the daytime reception desk an hour ago.”
    Jin laced his fingers together, apparently waiting for her to react. Diane stared at him for a long moment, hoping that this was some joke of Jin’s.
    “He stuffed them in the garbage bag?” she said slowly.
    “I told you that you weren’t going to like it, Boss.” He and David exchanged glances. David looked as if he were stifling a chuckle.
    “I don’t suppose Deputy Singer has had a single course in crime scene protocol?” said Diane.
    “Probably thinks they’re a waste of his valuable time. It only took him a few minutes to gather them up. Think of how much time he saved,” Jin said sarcastically.
    Diane put her head in her hands, then looked up. “I’ll call Sheriff Burns and tell him to get the deputy to take you and . . . ” Diane looked around the lab area. “Where is Neva?”
    “Mike’s getting out of the hospital today,” said David. “She’s gone to get him settled in at home.”
    “Is she doing okay?”
    Jin nodded. “Since her house was trashed? Yes,” he said. “But she’s been running on anger. The detectives think it was some teenagers in the neighborhood that she had a run-in with, but they can’t prove it. We’ve accounted for all the prints. Whoever it was wore gloves.”
    Diane shook her head. “The MO doesn’t sound like teenagers,” she said. “It was too deliberate.”
    “I agree,” said David. He stroked the fringe of dark hair he still had around the sides and back of his head. Diane wondered if he read somewhere that massaging the head made hair grow. “Unfortunately,” he continued, “we don’t have much to give the detectives. We know the route he took through the house breaking things. We know he came in and left through the back door. He left the front door open, probably so his vandalism would be found, if not by Neva, then by someone noticing the open door. We know the paint was bought at Kmart, but we couldn’t trace who bought it. The perp wore rubber gloves that left a powder residue. And we know it’s someone who is really pissed off at Neva.”
    “Powder residue?” asked Diane.
    “Not the same kind as in your lab break-in. Gloves are from a different company,” said Jin. “But that’s not to say it couldn’t be the same guy.”
    Diane chewed her lower lip. “Too bad, though. I’d like to connect some of these things.” She sighed. “No one in the neighborhood saw anything, I suppose?”
    “No,” said David.
    Diane sat in silence for a moment, organizing her thoughts on how to proceed. “Okay. Jin,” she said, “when Neva returns, I want you and her to go work the crime scene in the woods. I’ll call Sheriff Burns and ask him to tell Deputy Singer to take you to where the body was found.”
    “Deputy Singer’s going to like that,” said Jin.
    “I’m sure he will,” said Diane, hoping that Jin and Neva