Dust to Dust

setup in my house. I can be, what do they call it, one of your beta testers,” she said. “Too bad we didn’t think of this when we were putting the dinosaurs together. What fun the schools would have had with that.”
    “I’ll set you up first thing,” said Diane. She flipped her cell closed. “Vanessa’s going to speak with her mother this evening,” Diane said to Hanks, then relayed to him the rest of the conversation.
    “That might be the break we need. I didn’t think about it being a rental,” he said.
    “Neither did I. I think it’s because stuff belonging to the occupant is still here—the desk, the paintings,” said Diane.
    “I suppose,” he said. “What have you found in the well, speaking of stuff they left behind?”
    “I’ve found the bones of at least two individuals, so far. One is a teenage female who was killed with a sharp blow to the head. She had been butchered and some of her bones crushed, perhaps for pottery temper. I found a large piece of leather and iron hammers that may have been used for crushing the bone, but I won’t know for sure until we examine it.”
    Hanks let out a long breath. “Man, that’s cold-blooded and gruesome.”
    “It is,” said Diane.
    “If you will, keep me informed. Garnett gave me the old case too, even if it’s not related to the attack on Dr. Payden,” he said.
    “I will,” she said.
    Diane stood up. Rest over. It was time to go back in the well.

Chapter 40
    Diane worked in the well past dark. The temperature dropped and her hands got stiff and cold. Her support crew up top were no doubt getting uncomfortable too, so she quit for the night. She had revealed most of a second skeleton. It was in a similar condition to the first—sharp trauma to the head, butchered. The bones belonged to a male in his teens. He was a little larger than the female but not much older. Diane covered over the remaining bones with black plastic and climbed out of the well.
    Neva and Scott had taken the excavated bones and other evidence to the lab earlier. Diane asked Neva to use the skull to start a facial reconstruction with the 3-D laser scanner and software. Neva was an artist and Diane taught her how to read a skull to visualize what the face would have looked like. This enabled her to enhance the computer drawing to give her pictures a more realistic quality. She also taught Neva how to make a cast of the skull and do a sculpted representation of the victim. Neva turned out to be very skilled at artistic reconstruction.
    David decided to camp out at the well. Marcella again volunteered her living room and the policemen were again on guard, happy for the overtime. Diane fervently hoped there were no more surprises awaiting on Marcella’s property.
    “Why don’t you let me finish the excavation?” said David as Diane was climbing into her SUV. “I’m perfectly capable.”
    “Of course you are, but I want to finish it,” she said. “It’s almost done. Tomorrow morning ought to finish it.”
    “If you change your mind, call,” he said, patting her shoulder and closing the driver’s-side door for her.
    He motioned to her and Diane rolled down the window. “Is Frank home yet?” he asked.
    “Sometime tonight,” she said. “Call if anything happens.”
    David laughed. “What’s left to happen?”
    “Who knows?” she said. “Alien abduction?”
    “I’ll be sure to call if it happens. You’d like that.”
    Diane smiled, waved good-bye, and drove home. Frank’s fraud case in Nashville had taken longer than he expected, but he assured her when she spoke with him earlier that he would be home late this evening and if he could leave early, he would. He also told her he was working on Ellie Rose’s diary and that he was sorry he wasn’t there to see her down in the well.
    Diane parked in the drive and went into the house. It was quiet. Frank had a quiet house. She liked that. Quiet was soothing. She locked the door and walked up the stairs to the bedroom, undressed, and ran a hot bubble bath. She reluctantly took her cell phone with her and laid it on the floor next to the tub. She showered first, scrubbing the dirt off her body, and washed her hair. Then she got into the warm, scented bubble bath, leaned her head against the back of the tub, and closed her eyes. Quiet and peaceful, that’s what she liked. She could just sleep here for the night and let all the strain and soreness soak out of her tired muscles.
    The sound of the doorbell