Stalemate

you like me to take the skull to the library for you? The Colonel had me set up your equipment this afternoon. You should be ready to start tomorrow.'

She ignored his outstretched hand. For some reason she didn't want to release the skull to anyone else. 'I'll start tonight.'

His brows rose. 'Tonight?'

'Tonight.' She started up the steps. 'I can do a lot tonight. She's got to be cleaned up and I can start the measuring. Bring me a pot of black coffee.'

'You must be very tired. You're not well.'

She didn't feel tired. She felt alive and tingling with the excitement and drive of the project ahead. She had a purpose again.

Nalia, we have you safe. We're going to bring you home.

She repeated, 'Black coffee.'

It was three in the morning when Montalvo came into the library. 'Go to bed. This isn't necessary.'

She didn't look up. 'This is what you brought me here for. Now let me do my job.'

'I have every intention of doing that. I just don't want to have to pick you up off the floor if you pass out.'

'I won't pass out.' She arched her back to ease it. 'It doesn't happen when I'm working. No matter how bad I feel, it goes away when I'm working.'

His lips twisted. 'Divine intervention?'

Divine? Bonnie?

'I never rule any help out.' She looked back at the reconstruction. 'But purpose and determination can also work miracles.'

'I don't want miracles from you. Just a good job. Go to bed and get some rest.'

'I will. I was almost ready to stop. I just wanted to get her cleaned up and see what I have to work with.'

'And what do you have to work with?'

'All the bones are intact. That's a big help. She's Caucasian, a mature woman.' She reached down and handed him an object in a small Ziploc bag. 'A tooth. There should be a chance for a DNA match if you have any of her intimate belongings. I suppose you couldn't get her father to give you a DNA blood sample?'

'No way on this earth.'

'Well, the tooth may be enough for definite proof.'

'He'll think I bribed the lab. I'm relying on your reconstruction to break through to him.'

'Don't count on it. I'll do the best I can but I'm not perfect.' She glanced at him. 'And this may not be your wife. What if it's some other woman that Diaz murdered? What if the man who dredged her from that swamp was just trying to score big money?'

'He would have been too scared to betray me.'

'He wasn't too scared to bury the skeleton instead of turning it over to you.'

His lips set. 'It's Nalia.'

'Because you want it to be?'

'God, no. I want her to be the crook her father thinks her and basking on a beach somewhere in Australia. I want her alive.' He started to turn away. 'But it was Nalia in that grave.'

'We'll find out.'

'When? How long?'

'A few days.' She paused. 'You don't have to come in here while I'm working. I don't need you.'

'But I need to know what's happening.' He stopped, gazing at her. 'Why shouldn't I come? Will I bother you?'

'No, once I end the preliminary measuring I won't even know you're in the room. But it will bother you. Her skull is going to look like a voodoo doll while I'm working on it.'

'Christ, you're talking to a man who tore her skull from her skeleton tonight,' he said harshly.

'I'm talking to a man who hasn't looked once at his wife's reconstruction since he walked into the room,' she said quietly. 'And I'm telling you that you don't have to see it again until I've finished. You don't have to go through that pain.'

He stood looking at her for a moment. 'Is that why you were in such a hurry to clean her up?'

'Maybe.' She glanced back at the skull. 'And maybe I thought she wouldn't like to be such a mess. I gather she was a very special woman.'

'Yes, she was. Beautiful.' He cleared his throat. 'And very fastidious. What are you calling her? I know you never assume your reconstruction's identity.'

'I'll call her Nalia.'

'Because you believe me?'

'No, because it seems right to me. If I don't have any photos or descriptions, a name isn't going to throw me off.' She wiped her hands on the towel on the workbench. 'She'll be what she will be.'

'But you do believe me or you wouldn't have started the reconstruction.'

'I believe what my eyes saw tonight. You could have embroidered the background story.'

'You don't think that.'

She wearily shook her head. 'No, I don't believe that you told me fairy tales. I hope I'm not wrong.'

'I know you won't trust any pat assurances on my part. I guess time will tell.' He left the library.

She stood there for a moment, gazing at the skull. 'We're beginning, Nalia,' she whispered. 'He wants to bring you home. I want to bring you home. What happened to you was terrible but I hope there's peace for you now. There's no peace for him…'

No peace. No end to the anger. No end to the hurt. She knew that chaos of feeling.

But he might have reached the end of his search in this skull before her. She hoped it was true.

'I'll see you in a few hours, Nalia. I have to get some sleep.' She started toward the door and then impulsively turned and went back to the dais, grabbed a drop cloth, and tossed it over the reconstruction. 'This is his library, Nalia. He'll probably have to be in here for some reason or other. You wouldn't want him to see you until you're at your best.'

She moved across the room and turned out the light before closing the door.

Exhaustion hit her like a club. It was always like that once the day's work was completed. The weariness that had been held at bay was released.

Divine intervention.

Strange how Montalvo had used those words that had struck that note and had reminded her of Bonnie, she thought as she started to climb the stairs. Perhaps not so strange. Montalvo and she, who were so different, were on the same plane in some ways. She had felt very close to him in the library.