Scattered Graves

exhibit.
‘‘Arlen and his wife, Mary, are good people,’’ he said. ‘‘They raised Henry and his brother, Caleb Miller, since they were just little fellas.’’ He looked back at Diane. ‘‘Arlen’s daughter and son-in-law were kind of wild. Not in a real bad way. They didn’t do drugs or any thing. Just liked having fun. Got in a boating accident on the lake—going too fast, as usual. Killed the daugh ter, Arlene, and left Caleb Senior in a coma for a couple of years before he died too. Real sad. Arlen and his wife did a good job raising the boys, though. Caleb will be finishing up at Bartram this year. And you see how Henry is. Bright kid. Both of them are.’’
He shook his head. ‘‘Henry was excited about find ing the bones. He doesn’t quite see the tragedy behind it. It’s adventure to him. But I’m afraid folks are going to be pretty upset finding out somebody’s been put through a wood chipper.’’
Diane remembered when she had thought of foren sics as an adventure. One mass grave ended the ro mance for her. She paused and waved at one of the visitors who was waving at her, trying to remember his name. She turned back to the sheriff.
‘‘As the archaeology students are sifting for the bone, they need to look for bug parts too—carapaces and the like. David...,’’ began Diane.
The sheriff was shaking his head before she could finish. ‘‘I’ve got nothing against David, and I know he’s good with bugs. But the crime lab is different than when you were running it.’’
‘‘Get an entomologist at the university then,’’ said Diane.
The sheriff nodded and leaned his shoulder against the wall, rolling the brim of his hat as he spoke.
‘‘I wasn’t real fond of the last police chief in Rose wood; you know that; but we worked things out. But this new mayor and the people he put in, they’re arro gant and pushy. Why did you guys vote them in?’’
I didn’t , thought Diane, but she didn’t say it. She shrugged. ‘‘There was a lot of petty crime, and Jeffer ies promised that as mayor he would do something about it. I think a lot of voters responded to that. The last administration concentrated on drugs and violent crimes and less on burglaries, but more people are actually affected by break-ins. Plus, Jefferies is fairly young. Rosewood tends to see itself as Atlanta and wants young blood.’’
‘‘Don’t I know it. Rosewood’s always been too big for its britches. We didn’t need a crime lab in the first place. No offense intended, but the GBI lab was just fine.’’ He sighed. ‘‘You know, it’s awfully hard some times to get burglars. Even if you know who it is— proving it’s another matter. Have these new guys done any better than the old bunch?’’
‘‘I don’t know,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I don’t keep up with local politics or the police blotter.’’ Diane shifted the box to rest on a hip.
The sheriff shook his head and rolled the brim of his hat again. Diane wondered why it didn’t have a permanent roll in it.
‘‘The new head of the crime lab, now, Bryce . . . he’s a piece of work,’’ said the sheriff. ‘‘You know what he did?’’
Diane shook her head.
‘‘Early on, when we had that killing at the tavern near the county line, Bryce showed up to work the crime scene. I hadn’t called him and didn’t intend to. We had the GBI coming. I told him I wasn’t using the Rosewood crime scene unit. He got all huffy. I thought me and my deputies were going to have to escort him back to the city limits. Felt sorry for Neva. I like her, and I know she must have been embarrassed.’’
He shook his head. ‘‘And now Mayor Jefferies is talk ing about incorporating Rosewood and Rose County. Hell, if we wanted to have Rosewood politics, we’d move into the city. He’s not going to get anyone in the county to vote for that, I can tell you.’’
The sheriff stopped, finally, it seemed, running out of wind. He stood up straight.
‘‘Well, I guess I need to let us both get back to work,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ll go directly to the Bartram Ar chaeology Department and ask about some students to do the sifting. We’ll bring any more bones we find straight to you, if that’s all right.’’
Diane nodded. ‘‘That’s fine. Take care, Sheriff. Good to see you again.’’
‘‘You too,’’ he said and took his leave, weaving his way through a crowd of schoolkids getting on the ele vators to the second-floor exhibits.
Diane’s