“There are lots of ‘ifs’ here, Detective — if the remains are human, if this is a homicide and if this is not Julia Sayre — if all those conditions are met, you will obviously have a new set of charges you can bring against Parrish.”
Seeing he had Thompson’s interest, he went on. “Obviously, you can bring new charges only if we can prove that he’s the one who put this body here. We’re going slowly, because trace evidence that will link Parrish — or anyone else — to this crime may have been left in the surrounding soil, and if so, we want to find it.”
Ben paused and smiled, not very pleasantly, then added, “Just think, Detective Thompson, if this is a different victim, you’ll go back to Las Piernas a hero.”
“The D.A.’s deal with Parrish wasn’t exactly popular, was it?” Thompson said. “We weren’t too happy with it.”
“The police weren’t the only ones who were outraged that Parrish was protected from the death penalty. I think the D.A. has regretted it. That’s partly why Ms. Kelly was allowed to join us, right?”
Thompson looked over at me and nodded. “Everybody knows he’s hoping she’ll make his decision look good. She’s been writing about the Sayre case for a long time.”
I knew he resented my stories about Julia Sayre. As far as Thompson was concerned, they were an ongoing, embarrassing announcement that he had failed to solve the case.
“With a new case to pursue,” Ben said, “the D.A. could redeem himself with both groups — he’ll claim he tried to find Julia Sayre, but won’t fail to seek the death penalty for a third murder. And with what may be the resolution of another missing persons case, I’m sure the Las Piernas Police Department would be pleased with you.”
Thompson glanced back toward the camp, where Parrish, surrounded by his guards, stood staring toward us. Parrish was too far away to see us very clearly, or to be clearly seen by us, but he seemed intensely interested in our activities. And even at this distance, the defiance in his stance was unmistakable.
When I looked back at Thompson, though, I saw that Ben’s words had produced the opposite effect of the one he had intended. If Thompson was anxious to proceed before — when he’d thought only of being able to get back home with his mission accomplished — Ben’s vision of his heroic return now only intensified his impatience to achieve it.
“Who else could have left the body here?” he said. “Parrish led us right to it!”
Ben sighed. “Believe me, Detective Thompson, I want to know what’s underneath that plastic as badly as you do. But remember what I told you about the possible condition of the remains? Lifting the plastic out of the grave might cause the remains to shift, and perhaps to be damaged. We need to proceed with caution.”
“Christ, Sheridan, you’ve been creeping along like a three-legged turtle! If what you’ve been doing up to now hasn’t been ‘proceeding with caution,’ we’ll all be skeletons by the time you’re ready to get that body out of here!”
“If you’d like to continue without my help—”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Thompson said, but cooled off a little. “Look, I don’t mean to push you—”
David laughed.
“I don’t mean to push you into doing anything that will destroy evidence,” Thompson went on, “but I also don’t have the time or resources to allow you to make this into a museum-quality archeological dig.” He glanced back toward the camp, and missed the derisive looks the others exchanged. He turned again to Ben. “Among other problems, I need to get Parrish back into a cell as soon as possible.”
“If we’re allowed to get back to work,” Ben said meaningfully, “you’ll get your answers sooner.”
It was, in fact, not much later that Ben said, “We’re not going to be able to unwrap the body without risking damage. We’re ready to cut the plastic.”
David, seeing me come to my feet, said, “I can get Bingle to stay there if you want to come closer — at least long enough for you to take a look.”
“If this is not Julia Sayre,” Ben objected, “there may be details here that we don’t want released to the public.”
Thompson said in exasperation, “Agree to keep it off the record, will you, Kelly? If it isn’t Sayre, you can report that another victim has been found. The rest you keep out of the paper — write about it only after we release the information.”
“The rest goes to the
“All right, fine. Sheridan, get on with it.”
Ben didn’t try to hide his contempt for me, but being in this line of work, I had my disapproval vaccinations a long time ago and don’t expect I’ll ever be killed by a snub. The sooner he realized that all his wishing I would go to hell wasn’t going to keep me from doing my job, the better for both of us.
“
David offered the jar of smell compound again, and a mask. I reluctantly took the mask after he told me that everyone who stood near the grave would have to wear one. I put mine over my head, but knowing how confining it would feel, didn’t pull it up over my mouth and nose just yet.
Watching me, David said quietly, “This isn’t going to be pretty. You’ve seen decayed remains before?”
“Yes,” I said.
“This will probably be worse. Much worse. My guess is that it’s going to be tough on these cops, because even though they see some horrible things, usually the bodies they find are — well, fresher. Seldom this far gone.” He paused, then said, “If you’re going to get sick, for God’s sake, run as far away from the site as you can to do it.”
Seeing my look of apprehension, he added, “Ben really hates the smell of barf.”
I laughed, felt better for it, and told him I’d probably try to pick some other way to get back at Dr.
