Riley was glad that she was apparently going to hear all about itnow from someone who had actually been involved. She’d never have guessed thather young partner would know anything about that semi-notorious case.
“Please fill me in,” she added.
Ann Marie shrugged. “Well, one day at Dad’s mortuary, this guynamed Glenn Bristow brought his identical twin brother’s body in for cremation.They’d been rock climbing, and his brother, Ethan, had fallen to his death. Dadasked me to conduct the bereavement interview while he was preparing the bodyfor cremation.”
She sighed happily. “I really like that part—talking to peopleabout their grief, I mean. I’m good at it, I really know what I’m doing. Iguess it’s because I’m such a people person.”
Riley wasn’t surprised to hear her say that. She rememberedvividly the rookie’s skillful professionalism when she’d interviewed AllisonHillis’s mother. She also remembered finding Allison’s performance to beshallow and insincere. But Lauren Hillis hadn’t seemed to feel that way at all.Ann Marie had managed to put that bereaved woman fully at ease in a way thatRiley couldn’t have pulled off.
She really is good at it, Riley had to admit to herself. Areal people person.
But Riley still wasn’t sure if she herself was one of those “people”that Ann Marie did so well with.
The rookie went on, “Glenn had come to the mortuary with hiswife, Barbara. They were really leaning on each other for support. In fact,Glenn seemed to be taking his brother’s death hard. They’d been pretty muchinseparable their whole lives, he said.”
Riley said, “And they really were identical, right?”
“Well, to look at, yes,” Ann Marie said. “But in some ways theyapparently weren’t so similar. Glenn said the whole thing was horribly ironic.Although they sometimes climbed together, it wasn’t one of Glenn’s maininterests in life like it was his brother’s. Ethan was the better climber andwas actually in much better shape. That day he was leading the way like healways did. But he fell. Glenn said he just barely managed to keep from fallingtoo.”
Riley said, “That can happen. Even the best of climbers sometimesmake mistakes. It can be because of overconfidence.”
Ann Marie agreed and added, “This time it was an equipmentfailure, but that could be put down to carelessness because of overconfidence.Glenn said he felt awfully guilty about it, even though the accident obviouslyhadn’t been his fault. No one ever blamed him at all. To me it looked like aclassic case of survivor’s guilt.”
“I suppose morticians see that sort of guilt all the time,” Rileysaid.
“Oh, they sure do,” Ann Marie said. “But there was also somethingabout the whole situation didn’t feel right to me. In fact, when I thoughtabout it, I got to tingling all over. It was a really weird feeling, likenothing I’d ever experienced before.”
Riley was startled. A tingling sensation usually signaled herthat she was getting an important hit on a killer’s way of thinking.
When Riley didn’t reply, Ann Marie added, “But I guess you knowthat feeling well.”
Riley nodded and said, “It’s the way you feel when a hunch iscoming on. Paying attention to it can be important.”
“Right, well, I didn’t understand that at the time,” Ann Mariesaid. “But I definitely noticed how Barbara didn’t seem to share Glenn’s griefover his brother’s death. Even though she was going through the appropriatemotions, she just seemed kind of—I don’t know, cold about it.”
With a tilt of her head, Ann Marie added, “Pretty soon Glenn gotreally overcome and he couldn’t talk anymore. He said he had to get out of theroom for a few minutes to collect himself, and I found myself alone withBarbara.”
“What happened then?” Riley asked.
“Well, Barbara confided to me in a whisper that she didn’t feelsorry for what happened to Ethan at all. He might have been Glenn’s identicalbrother, but except for their physical resemblance, she said they couldn’t havebeen more unlike each other. Glenn was a responsible man and a wonderfulhusband. Ethan was a bum and a ne’er-do-well, she said, and he sponged off ofGlenn a lot.”
“What else did she say?” Riley asked.
“She said she’d also been worried about them going rock climbingtogether. Glenn just wasn’t as good at it as his brother. She was annoyed withher husband for even going up again. Ethan had never had a bad fall, never evenbroken a bone. But just a couple of years ago, Glenn had suffered a short fallwhen they were out together. He’d broken an ankle and had promised her hewouldn’t climb again. But his brother really wanted them to go up together, andGlenn could never say no to him.”
“And the better climber fell,” Riley commented.
Ann Marie shrugged. “Anyway, the wife agreed with Glenn about onething. It was ironic that Ethan wound up getting killed. But it wasclear that as far as Barbara was concerned, it was no great loss.”
“That does sound cold,” Riley said.
“Oh, she was positively icy, at least about Ethan,” Ann Mariesaid. “But she really did seem to love Glenn and be truly concerned about him.Anyway, I was around when Dad put the body in the cremation chamber. As usual,it took a couple of hours to cremate the body. During that time, Dad and Iheard some small popping sounds. Dad wasn’t bothered by it. Sometimes that sortof thing happens during a cremation. But I just had this feeling …”
Ann Marie shuddered a little.
“After the cremation process,” she said, “Dad and I took theremains out of the oven, and they cooled off for a while. I insisted on helpingDad with the next step, which was picking out any metals that might still bemixed up in the remains—stray jewelry, pins and screws from surgery, that kindof thing. Sure enough, I found something odd.”
Riley waited for her to continue.
“I found three bone screws in the remains,” Ann Marie said.
Riley was starting to understand
