The Bone Bed

enforcement, Luke.”
    “Of course not.”
    “It’s our duty to objectively answer questions raised by the evidence.” I direct the light at her knees. “And we must vigorously adhere to chain of custody, meaning we don’t open up our evidence room for the FBI or allow them to whip us into a frenzy of activity, no matter their reason or sense of urgency.”
    “He’s your husband, so I assumed—”
    “Assumed that our being married changes how he does his job or how I do mine?”
    “I apologize,” Luke says again. “But after his annoyance when we were in Vienna . . .”
    He doesn’t finish. He doesn’t need to spell out that the last thing he’d want to do after Benton’s blatant display of jealousy last week is to anger him further. Luke knows he can. He knows why he can, and I’m not going to discuss my marriage with him or the truth about why he might be a threat to Benton.
    I’m not about to openly admit to Luke Zenner that my husband and I have had our share of friction of late, episodes of uncertainty and distrust that aren’t as baseless and irrational as I’ve let on. If what we’ve fought about was truly groundless, Luke and I wouldn’t be dancing this dance of touching, of leaning, of lingering, of speaking the subtle language of heated attraction, and it’s only when it happens that I’m honest with myself.
    “What I can’t help but wonder is if she might have been stripped of her clothing at some point,” Luke says, as I reposition the plastic ruler, the scale, for each photograph I take. “I offer that only because the contusions look quite distinct. Here and here.”
    He moves closer, his forearm touching mine, his shoulder brushing against me as he bends into what he’s examining, and I don’t want to feel what I’m feeling.
    “You can see where it appears someone’s fingertips pressed with considerable force, and I’m wondering if there were layers of fabric in the way.”
    He leans forward, leans into me and stays there.
    “Would the contusions look exactly like this, were that the case?” he asks.
    “We can’t know for a fact whether she was bruised through clothing or not,” I reply.
    “Would it be worthwhile to try the ALS?” He indicates the alternate light source still on the countertop, where Marino plugged it in hours earlier.
    “It’s not going to help.”
    “So that’s a no.” He meets my eyes.
    “If you want to scan her in the very off chance you might visualize any faint or nonvisible bruises we’re missing, assuming we’re missing any brown patterns that are contusions?” I offer in a way that discourages him, because I must.
    “It’s probably ridiculous.”
    “It’s not ridiculous, just illogical,” I reply.
    “I agree. I mean, what are the chances?” he says.
    “The chances of finding the usual evidence the ALS can be most helpful with are next to none.” But that’s really not what I’m discouraging him from, and it’s not really what we’re talking about.
    I won’t have an affair with him unless I decide I don’t care if I completely destroy my life. It’s not about whether he has a chance with me but about how crazy it is that I’m even thinking these thoughts.
    “Body fluids, fibers, gunshot residue, latent prints, deep tissue bruises?” I’m still talking about the ALS and what it might find under different circumstances, and I’m letting him know I understand what it’s like to want what you can’t have.
    “Right. Forget it,” he agrees.
    “That’s what I recommend. Not that I don’t understand being tempted to try.”
    “She’s been in the water,” he says. “A waste of time.”
    “And then it has to be explained,” I add. “Everything we do has to be explained.”
    “Should I unplug it?” He reaches for the ALS power cord.
    “Please,” I reply. “I’m really not interested in putting on goggles and spending an hour scanning the body from head to toe with the Crime-lite just so I can say we did. It might be worth going over her clothing, but that can wait.”
    “We don’t know if she had on the clothing when she got these bruises.” Luke returns to that thought as he returns to the table. “Knowing whether she was dressed or not when someone grabbed her upper arms would be an important fact, wouldn’t it? Stripping a prisoner is more about submission than anything else, isn’t it?”
    “Depends on who is doing it to whom and why.”
    “The logic of torture, a terrible thing to