A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery by Beverly Connor Page A

me," said Derrick.
    "Well, your reputation is still intact." Frank was
smiling at her.

    "Was it ever in question?" Lindsay feigned surprise. "I had no idea. Amazing how you can build it
up over the years and almost lose it in a moment." She
rose, wiped off her hands on Frank's shirt front, and
left with the sheriff and Derrick for another grim task
in town.
    "As a kid I had an interest in medieval weapons,
bows and such," said the sheriff as he drove them to
his office. "I thought I knew almost all the different
kinds of weapons, but I never heard of an atlatl."
    "It was quite an ingenious device," said Derrick,
leaning forward from his seat in the back. "The
throwing stick, in effect, lengthens the thrower's arm.
The leverage increases the power of the spear by several times. If you tie a banner stone onto it, the stone
increases the mass and you can get even more power
in the throw."
    "Interesting," said the sheriff. "I guess these Indians were more inventive than I thought." He turned
his head to Lindsay. "Pretty touch-and-go for a
moment back there for you"
    "Not really," Derrick answered for her. "Lindsay
knows her bones. At a party in graduate school, some
of us took Sebastian-he was one of our skeletons in
the osteology lab-took him apart and added a few
animal bones to the mix. We blindfolded Lindsay,
and she identified every bone, even which side it belonged, by only the feel. But the most fantastic thing
was the skull. We substituted Fred, a kind of twin to
Sebastian. The department had ordered a male and a
female, but got two males. We had to scrounge
around for a female. I won't tell you where. But
anyway, Fred looked just like Sebastian to all of us, but Lindsay knew the difference as soon as she got
her fingers on the skull. We called her the Great
Lindsay after that."

    The sheriff, grinning, turned to Lindsay. "Is that
true?"
    "Yes. But it wasn't that big of a deal. All the diagnostic characteristics of bones can be felt. Still, I
wouldn't have been able to live it down if Thomas, of
all people, had been right."
    "Why him?" asked the sheriff.
    "This is Thomas's first course in archaeology," she
said. "Since I have a Ph.D. I'm expected to know
more." She grinned. "The other day he thought he had
a long house. That's kind of like an Indian government building-but it was only a couple of rows of
trees"
    "A few weeks ago he thought he had found a
canoe," said Derrick.
    "A canoe?" said Lindsay. "I didn't hear about that"
    "That was before you arrived. You should have
heard him. He was almost delirious."
    "What was it?" asked the sheriff.
    "A cache of fallen trees not quite decomposed. It
was fairly shallow in the overburden. I expect it was
where the paper company who used to own the land
piled them up and covered them over a few years ago"
    "Thomas is an excitable fellow, I take it."
    "Yes," affirmed Lindsay. "But the truth is, we all
enjoy the fantastic finds"
    "What's the most interesting thing you've found?"
the sheriff asked.
    "I enjoy the point caches in some of the burials,"
said Derrick. "You can get some remarkably intricate designs, beautiful ceremonial blades, elegantly flaked
points."

    "Derrick is a great flint knapper," said Lindsay.
"He's made some beautiful blades himself. I found a
Spanish sword once. That was thrilling. This burial
with the copper should have loads of interesting things
in it."
    "Come out to the site sometime," said Derrick,
and I'll show you how an atlatl works"
    "You have one?"
    "Yeah, I made one"
    "I'll do that. I enjoy odd weapons"
    At the sheriff's department, Derrick transferred to
his jeep and drove back to the crime scene. Inside, the
sheriff and Lindsay found Sarah and Mike Pruitt waiting in his office. Sheriff Duggan was visibly annoyed.
    "We heard you found another skeleton," Sarah said.
    "Where did you hear that?" the sheriff asked.
    "I ... I'd rather not say," she said softly.
    "I think it would be better if you went