One Grave Too Many

life. She was beginning to get used to him, and that frightened her.
    “I wonder how the digging is going?” asked Frank.
    “I called Jonas this morning. It was going well.”
    “Nice to know that Luther and his wife didn’t kill the crew during the night.”
    Diane made a face at him. “Yes, I was relieved to hear his voice.”
    After eating, Diane felt much better. “I’m going to put in an appearance out at the pit. You can go with me if you like.”
    “Can I talk you out of it?”
    “No.”
    “Then I’ll drive you.”

    By the time they got to Abercrombie’s farm and hiked to the pit, Diane was having serious misgivings about the decision to come. Her whole body ached and her lower back throbbed. It was hotter than she expected, and the sweat trickled down her back.
    “Should you be here?” Jonas said.
    “Yes,” Diane answered. “I won’t stay long. I just want to take a look.”
    After several solicitations from the crew, Whit and the sheriff, and another brief description of the evening’s misadventure, Diane set about examining the work in progress.
    The crew had actually gotten a lot done. All of the grid units in the pit as well as the outlying areas had some work done on them. The pit looked like a mosaic of bones in relief. The skeletons were brown, like the earth, except for the ones that had been exposed; they were off-white. A few were bleached white.
    The human bone she’d seen yesterday was now completely exposed. It was a right humerus. Like the clavicle, it had similar parallel markings on the shaft where rats had gnawed.
    “I did a quick measurement,” said the woman who’d uncovered it. “It’s about thirty-seven centimeters—but that was rough, with a tape measure. I guess you’ll use a bone board.”
    Diane nodded. “I’ll have to know the race and have a more accurate measurement, but it looks like we’re in the six-foot range. See these muscle attachments? He was a muscular guy.”
    “You still think it’s male, then?”
    “I need to see the pelvis, but so far, yeah, it looks male.”
    “You feeling okay? You look a little pale.”
    “I’m going to go home, I think. I probably shouldn’t have come out here, certainly not hiking in here.”
    “Dr. Fallon, I think we may have his leg and foot.”
    Diane looked in the direction of the voice. It was a male crew member standing with the sheriff at an excavation unit several feet away from the pit.
    “Looks like the guy’s going to be all over the place,” said the woman, rising to go over with Diane.
    Frank and Whit came over too, and all of them peered down at the excavated leg and foot bones.
    “Nice excavation,” said Diane.
    “Thanks,” said the digger.
    “Whew,” said the sheriff. “Sure looks like you found another part of him.”
    Diane stooped down, looking at the bones, and raised her eyes to Whit.
    “What?” asked Frank, looking back and forth from Diane to Whit.
    “Oh, God,” Whit said. “Do we have to mention this?”
    “You do now,” said the sheriff. He was beginning to look at Whit with a measure of suspicion.
    “It’s a bear,” said Diane. “With the claws removed. Poached, I imagine.”
    “Look, I don’t know. The guy brought it in and we mounted it for him. It was a couple, maybe three, years ago, and I told Dad the next time one came in, we needed more information on where it came from.”
    “It sure looks human,” said the sheriff.
    “That’s because bears, like us, walk on their feet,” said Diane.
    “Well, what else?” asked the sheriff.
    “Deer walk on the tips of their toes, so do horses. Dogs and cats, for instance, walk mostly on their digits, but not on the soles of their feet.”
    “Well, I sure didn’t know that,” said the sheriff. “They walk on their toes?”
    “Deer have longer and larger metapodials than we do so they can do that. Because the bear walks on the soles of his feet, the bones—without the claws—can look very human.”
    “You learn something every day,” said the sheriff. “Ain’t that right, Whit?”
    Whit rolled his eyes.
    “You look like you’re getting tired,” said Frank, taking Diane’s arm and helping her up.
    “I am. I think I’ll skip going to the museum and go home,” she said. “All of you are doing a great job.” She thanked Jonas and the crew and let Frank lead her to the car.
    “I’m getting to be such a wimp,” said Diane.
    “You’re not a wimp. Getting beaten up isn’t like it is in the