Scattered Graves

ever do anything like this again, I’ll put your ass in a sling.’’
Their attention was diverted at the sudden sound of the elevator. After a moment the doors opened and Jennifer Jeffcote-Smith stepped out, carrying a tray with three cups of coffee.
‘‘Jennifer,’’ said Bryce, ‘‘give the sheriff back his bones.’’
She gave one of the coffees to Rikki and brought another to Bryce. The third she held in her hand.
‘‘I haven’t finished with them,’’ she said. ‘‘I just got them an hour ago.’’
‘‘I don’t care,’’ said Sheriff Canfield. ‘‘You shouldn’t have had them in the first place.’’
Jennifer looked at Bryce, then the sheriff, and finally Diane. Her eyes narrowed when her gaze got to Diane. It lingered a moment; then she suddenly switched her attention to the sheriff and laid a dazzling smile on him.
‘‘I’m perfectly capable of analyzing those bones,’’ she said.
‘‘I’m sure you are, ma’am, and I’m not questioning your credentials or your abilities. We’ve got a jurisdic tion issue here. Please pack up the bones and give them to Diane,’’ said Canfield.
Jennifer looked at Bryce and he nodded. She audi bly sighed and walked over to the room that was Da vid’s photography studio.
Diane stood with the sheriff, wishing she hadn’t come into the crime lab, thinking that maybe it wasn’t a good thing for landlords to check out suspicious noises after all. As she waited, she studied Bryce, who stood looking at nothing in particular, the corners of his mouth turned slightly down. Trying to usurp Canfield’s jurisdiction was a stupid thing to do, even if he thought it was a way to poke Diane in the eye. Why had he done it?
Jennifer wasn’t gone long—and she came back empty-handed. They all looked at her. Diane thought she looked alarmed, but she quickly regained her com posure. She walked to Rikki’s cubicle.
‘‘Did you move the bones?’’ she asked Rikki.
‘‘Why would I?’’ said Rikki. ‘‘I don’t do bones.’’ She put the end of a pencil in her mouth, and Diane wanted to tell her not to pick up things in a crime lab and put them in her mouth.
‘‘Okay.’’ Jennifer cleared her throat. ‘‘The, ah, bones aren’t where I left them. Has someone been in my lab?’’ Her voice had a slightly higher pitch and a strained calm quality to it.
‘‘What?’’ said the sheriff, looking at Bryce. ‘‘You’ve lost them?’’
‘‘ I haven’t lost them,’’ said Bryce. He turned to Jen nifer. ‘‘What do you mean they’re not where you left them? Where did you leave them?’’
‘‘In my lab,’’ she said. ‘‘They were in tubs on the table, and now they are gone.’’
‘‘Could you have put them somewhere else?’’ asked Bryce.
‘‘No. They aren’t where I left them. Someone must have come in and moved them while I was getting the coffee,’’ she said.
‘‘Well, don’t this just take the cake,’’ said the sheriff. He glared at Bryce. ‘‘I suggest you find my evidence. It didn’t just walk off by itself. I’m sure you keep a log of everything that comes in and goes out of this lab, don’t you? I know that Diane did.’’
‘‘I assure you, Sheriff, we will make every effort to find it,’’ said Bryce.
‘‘I don’t want to hear about your efforts. I want my evidence,’’ said the sheriff.
‘‘Maybe we’d better ask Diane,’’ said Bryce. ‘‘You will notice that she can waltz in here anytime she wants.’’
‘‘Now, why would she steal the bones?’’ said Canfield. ‘‘She’s the one who is supposed to have them. Quit pointing fingers and get me my evidence. I can’t believe this. You’re the one who hijacked it. Don’t go blaming other people for your foul-up.’’
Diane decided that this would be a good time to leave Bryce to his hunt.
‘‘Let me know when they’ve been found, Sheriff,’’ she said as she turned to go back to her lab.
She felt oddly ill at ease turning her back on Bryce and his crew, as if when she got back to her lab there would be a knife sticking between her shoulder blades.
    Diane wrote a preliminary report for Sheriff Canfield on the results of the analysis of the few bones she had. She had learned very little from them, and it didn’t look like she would learn much more. She would take a sample down to Jin to see if he could extract some DNA.
    She read over her summary again. She hadn’t found any fragments to suggest there was more than