One Grave Too Many

some fossil dinosaur eggs. I wonder where those ended up. I guess in someone’s private collection. There was a cool 1849 map of the United States. I sent that and an interesting collection of drawings off to be processed at another lab. The drawings looked like they were the original plans for the dinosaur murals in the big rooms.” Korey grinned.
    “That is interesting. Go ahead and let the exhibit planner—” Diane had gotten into the bad habit of referring to her staff by their titles rather than their names. She needed to break herself of that. “Let Audra know the kind of things you’re finding so she can start on some ideas.”
    “I talked with her this morning.”
    “Good. Korey, I hope you don’t mind if I use the lab here to look at these bones. I was going to set up a separate one on the third floor, but the storage vault in this room is one of the safest places. The last intruders couldn’t open the vault.”
    “You think maybe the break-in was about your bones?”
    “Yes, I do. I think they were looking for the clavicle that started all this.”
    “There’s a table in the vault. I can clear it off and you can use it. That way you won’t have to keep packing it up and taking it out. It’s kind of cool in there, though.”
    “I’ll wear a sweater.”
    Diane helped Korey rearrange the storage room so she could work. They collected all the measuring equipment Andie had put in the third-floor room and brought it back to the vault.
    “Need any help?” asked Korey.
    Diane shook her head. “I’ve already pulled Jonas and Sylvia in. I can’t tie up the entire museum staff.”
    “It’s kind of interesting, though.”
    Korey watched Diane lay the bones in anatomical position on the metal table.
    “It’s hard to imagine the poor guy was ever alive. You think you can get him to talk to you?” he asked.
    “Oh, yes. He’ll tell me all about himself. Murderers don’t know how eloquent bones can be.”

Chapter 35
    Most of the bones of the human skeleton were accounted for, with the notable exception of the skull. Even the atlas, the bone that the skull rests on, was there. Diane examined it with her hand lens. She closely inspected each of the other bones of the neck.
    “No marks,” she said.
    “So that means that the murderer didn’t cut off the head and take it with him?” asked Korey.
    “Probably not. It’d be hard to do it without making cutting marks on the vertebrae.”
    Her excavators even found the small hyoid bone; the bone that anchors the tongue and the only bone not attached to any other bone. However, most of the terminal phalanxes of the toes were missing, and all of the terminal phalanxes of the right hand were missing. She suspected that many of the smaller bones would show up in the sifted material.
    With the bones laid out and the right scapula, humerus and clavicle juxtaposed, there was a clear pattern of damage that she had seen in the collarbone when Frank first showed it to her. The damage included the second, third, fourth and fifth ribs, which were broken where the scapula body would have covered them. At the place where those bones cluster together some force had crushed them.
    She examined the scapula with the hand lens. Part of the damage to it had left a straight indentation in the crushed bone.
    “That looks like it hurt,” said Korey.
    “I imagine he passed out, if he was conscious at all.”
    “Can you tell what happened?”
    “Whatever force hit him came from his rear and was focused over the scapula and not distributed.” Diane gestured with her hand, pretending to hit the scapula. “It’s more damage than a person swinging a weapon could inflict.”
    “What then?”
    “I don’t know.” She placed the bones back in their place. “He also has a healed break in his left tibia. Maybe he’s got an X ray somewhere. It will positively identify him, if we ever get a clue to who he is.”
    “What else do you know about him?”
    “He was muscular.” She pointed out the well-developed muscle attachments on his arms and legs. “Bones are plastic and continue to remodel throughout life. Something like hard work or hard exercise shows up on them. Stronger muscles need larger attachments to hold on to.”
    She told him the results of the stable isotope analyses she’d had done on the clavicle.
    “Now, that is totally cool. You know, you should add a forensic unit to the museum. We have plenty of room on the third floor.”
    “One of the board