Scattered Graves

For a fraction of a moment Diane thought she could stop there with her explanation, but no. The three of them were looking at her again, demanding an expla nation of how one goes about copying DNA. Jin wanted to do a computer teaching program for the museum. It was a good idea. Diane wished she had one now. She smiled at the three of them, actually glad they were curious. Curiosity was good for mu seum business.

‘‘It’s an enzyme—polymerase—that makes the cop ies of DNA when a cell divides. We can use polymer ase from certain organisms, such as the bacteria Thermus aquaticus, in a test tube to mimic the natural procedure. Polymerase and some other chemicals unzip the DNA helix, use both sides of the helix as tem plates, copy them, and zip them back up, re-forming the helix.’’ Diane whorled her finger around for em phasis. ‘‘Millions of copies can be made.’’

She knew they were going to ask how, and she re gretted that she wasn’t a better teacher. Occasionally she taught classes in physical anthropology at the mu seum for Bartram University, but they were mainly hands-on courses about the very basics of bones and the human skeleton.

But Henry didn’t ask for details. He wanted to know about mistakes.

‘‘I remember somebody saying you get errors when you make a lot of copies from a little bit of DNA. Is that true?’’ he asked.

‘‘That was a problem with some of the earlier pro cesses,’’ said Diane. ‘‘But the Thermus aquaticus poly merase compares each duplicate with the original and corrects errors as it copies.’’

Henry grinned. ‘‘Now, see, that’s just plain amazing. That’s just like science fiction.’’

‘‘It is that,’’ said the sheriff. ‘‘Kind of hard to wrap your brain around.’’ He paused a moment as if study ing what she had told them. ‘‘Is there any possibility you can get some DNA from these bones?’’ he asked again.

‘‘Yes,’’ Diane reluctantly agreed, ‘‘there is a small possibility that there may be something we can use, particularly if we are lucky enough to find some intact teeth or bone marrow.’’

The sheriff grinned broadly. That was what he wanted to hear. Diane sighed inwardly; she might have been able to avoid the whole explanation if she had just said yes in the first place. She put the smaller box containing the petrosal in with the other bones and put the lid back on the box.

‘‘If you and your grandfather like, you can tour the museum before you leave. I’ll call for a docent if you want a guided tour,’’ said Diane.

‘‘Thank you. We might just look around some,’’ said Arlen Wilson. ‘‘But Henry here knows this place pretty good.’’

Diane picked up the box and escorted the three of them out of the lab, through the unfinished humanevolution exhibit, and out into the main hallway. Diane and the sheriff stood off to the side, away from the flow of people visiting the museum. The sheriff watched Arlen and his grandson as they disappeared past the museum store toward the dinosaur 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